Voices of the Santee Delta: Oral history interview with Stephanie Waldron
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- Title:
- Voices of the Santee Delta: Oral history interview with Stephanie Waldron
- Date:
- 2016
- Interviewer:
- Raynor, Robert, 1951-
- Interviewee:
- Waldron, Stephanie
- Description:
- Stephanie Waldron grew up in Kenya on a farm in a house built by her father with no electricity. Later, her mother married Dr. Richard Dominick, who periodically visited Kenya. He was an avid hunter, hunting ducks on Long Island and big game in Kenya. During his visits to Africa they went on safaris, to photograph rather than to hunt. During his youth, Dominick traveled with his family to Coosawhatchie, SC, and developed a love for South Carolina. When he retired from his career as an ophthalmologist, he purchased the Wedge Plantation on the Santee Delta to pursue his lifelong passion of collecting moths. Waldron moved with her mother and siblings during her adolescence to the Wedge. Dominick supervised the renovation of the main house, and built a laboratory for his moth studies called the Bug House. This building also contained a darkroom for color photography development. A steady stream of visitors, scientists and collectors, came to the Wedge. The family had horses, and her stepbrother and stepsister rode often. The family bred thoroughbred racehorses, and Waldron worked with the horses. She reflected on times of the year when deerflies and mosquitoes were rampant. Dr. Dominick died in 1976, and her mother stayed at Wedge another ten years. She described the Wedge property, and recalled trips out to Cedar and Islands. The University of South Carolina purchased Wedge, and it became an institute for the study of mosquito-borne diseases. Waldron stayed on for a while before pursuing her career in film and landscaping. Students came to Wedge, and Waldron ran the kitchen and cooked on her assigned days. Waldron recalled childhood activities from Wedge with her step-siblings. Dr. Dominick had decided at age 40 to no longer hunt, and just observe wildlife. Waldron laughed about locals having trouble understanding her dialect (British). Waldron imagined the amount of labor, and the engineering required, to build all the rice fields in the Santee Delta. She recalled her first time catching shrimp with a seine net at Santee Coastal Reserve with Bill Mace. She expressed her good fortune to have lived for many years in the Santee Delta.
- Collection Title:
- Voices of the Santee Delta Oral History Project
- Contributing Institution:
- South Carolina Historical Society
- Media Type:
- Oral Histories
- Geographic Subject:
- Santee River Delta (S.C.), Santee River Region (S.C.)--History, and Santee River Region (S.C.)--Social life and customs
- S.C. County:
- Charleston County (S.C.) and Georgetown County (S.C.)
- Language:
- English
- Date Digital:
- 2016-06-27
- Digitization Specifications:
- Mp3 derivative audio created with Audacity software. Archival masters are wav files.
- Internet Media Type:
- audio/mpeg
- Copyright Status Statement:
- Copyright © South Carolina Historical Society.
- Access Statement:
- All rights reserved.
- Access Information:
- For more information contact the South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, SC.
- Admin ID:
- 220715
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