Boll Weevil

The boll weevil is a six millimetre beetle that feeds on cotton buds and flowers. In 1892 the boll weevil entered Texas from Mexico and began to spread through the South causing the mass destruction of cotton crops. Watch out Ms. Nastee, giant boll weevil behind you !!!

The Cotton Gin

In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a machine that separates cotton fibers from their seeds. The fibers are used to make cloth and the seeds can be used to plant more cotton, for oil, and to feed livestock. This invention made it easier to produce cotton and enabled the expansion of plantations and slavery. Slaves were needed to plant and pick the cotton. By 1860 approximately one in three Southerners (the states of South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and Texas) was a slave. Mrs. Nastee visits a cotton gin.

Cotton is King

At the time of the Civil War the South was producing 75 per cent of the world's cotton. The sisters went out to see what a cotton plant looked like (actually The Cotton Museum of South Carolina in Bishopville). Is that tractor comfortable?

Chained Together

The sisters decided to link up at a couple of buildings in Columbia. Neverbust is the name of this artwork by the artist Blue Sky. Talk about chained together! Can you find the sisters?

Getting serious on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

The sisters visited The Stone of Hope in a local park in Columbia, South Carolina on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The words on the stone have so much meaning for all of us. It is also the Inauguration Day for President Barack H. Obama. It is a sunny day and there is hope in the air!

Busted Plug Plaza

Boy do they have large dogs in Columbia, South Carolina! The artist, Blue Sky, created this four-story tall battered metal fire hydrant and it includes a sign warning that no dogs should use it. Look closely and see the sisters.

Tunnelvision

Ms. Nastee decided to play out in the road just before a tunnel through mountain rock. You can see a sunset in the distance. Is it real? Actually it's a mural on the side of a building painted in 1974-75 by an artist called Blue Sky. He called the mural Tunnelvision because it was a "vision in a dream". Ms. Nastee likes his dream!