There's something about Wilmington, North Carolina that brings out nostalgia and puts you in the most reflective of moods. It's not the Spanish moss hanging off the trees, the heady aroma of the magnolias, or even the sound of the waves pounding the shore along the Carolina coast. When you're sauntering along cobbled streets in the downtown core, you can almost convince yourself that you'll be running into some long ago Civil War soldiers just as soon as you turn the next corner.
Brooding romantic atmosphere must have been discovered here.
Tourists noting how the name "Cape Fear" keeps cropping up, think of the 1962 movie starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, or the 1992 Robert DeNiro-Nick Nolte remake. Neither movie was filmed in Wilmington, but the real reason for the name Cape Fear is even more intriguing.
According to Wilmington Today A Guide to Cape Fear Leisure, "North Carolina's southeastern corner is called the `Cape Fear Coast', or `Lower Cape Fear' for the Cape Fear River and its main tributary, the Northern Cape Fear River. These join at downtown Wilmington, the reason the city is here."
Why the mighty river got the name "Fear" is because North Carolina's capes pose serious threats to the hardiest of sailors. Treacherous currents and shoals, and sometimes-fierce weather (including hurricanes) have wrecked hundreds of sea-faring ships down through the centuries.
These are the same waters that were traversed by pirates with parrots on their shoulders and treasure on their mind.
A walk along Water Street is a virtual stroll along memory lane. Stately mansions, whose famous residents are verified by historical plaques, exude a definite antebellum flair. The mansions are strewn among more humble dwellings with porch swings. Long and lazy afternoons are marked by pitchers of lemonade and mint julep, served on wind-around verandahs, scented by honeysuckle.
Wilmington is the kind of city where school children call out to the pair of gray horses leading the downtown tourist trolley through tree-shaded streets.
Hospitality and down south genteel are a Wilmington trademark. "Y'all have a good day," is the send-off spoken of postman and merchant alike.
Footsore on a sultry Thursday afternoon, Canadafreepress staffers stopped by the fabulous Dock Street Oyster Bar. We asked management if it would be all right if our heat-tired dog, Kiko could join us on the patio. Not only was the little Yorkie welcome, but a waitress came out to greet him with a galvanized pail of ice water!
When we told university student Dawn, who doubles as a waitress, that we'd be heading out for Charleston before returning to Toronto, she advised us to take time to make a trip to Southport in nearby Brunswick County. There is a hauntingly beautiful plantation with gardens there, Dawn told us. And along the country road drive just getting there, alligators can be spotted in the swamps.
Wilmington, N.C. outshines its pictures on travel brochures and its people are among the warmest and friendliest ever met.
In another era, Gus Kahn wrote the words to the catchy song, Carolina in the Morning. "Nothing," Kahn wrote, "could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning."
He could just as easily have written, "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina anytime. "