GHOST TOUR GUIDE ETIQUETTE 101
We're in the summer season. Busy, busy, busy. All the bubbas are in town taking tours with their kids, wife, grandma, and ex-wife and cousin (who may have been their first wife). We have enough to deal with as it is, so we, as tour guides, don't need to be working against each other. I don't care which company you work for . . . being a professional tour guide should mean there are some basic standards and dos-and-don'ts. There's more to being a tour guide than just storytelling.
1. DON'T BLOCK THE SIDEWALK!
Common courtesy. If you must stand on a sidewalk, and you know there will be pedestrians and other tour groups passing, don't block the entire sidewalk, i.e.. in front of Powder Magazine/Trott's Cottage! If you have been giving ghost tours for more than one night, then you know that almost every group walks down Cumberland Street at some point, so why do you insist on standing in front of Powder Magazine/Trott's Cottage, blocking the sidewalk and forcing the rest of us to put our group in a dangerous situation by walking out into the street to get around you?
I, for one, have decided to not put my group in a dangerous situation anymore. If you block the sidewalk, I'm walking through your group and disrupting your tour. Sorry. And by the way . . . what ghost story are you telling in front of the cottage? Oh, that's right, you're not telling a ghost story, you telling pirate stories. Why? Contrary to what the city marker says on the building, that building has no relationship with Judge Trott. He didn't live there, work there, zero , nada, zip, nothing. Edward McCrady wrote in his first volume of History of South Carolina that nothing on this location appeared on any map before 1739, and since Trott died in 1740 . . . you do the math. Talk to the folks at the Powder Magazine. They sent out a fact sheet earlier this year that adamantly stated Trott did not design the Powder Magazine, nor was he ever associated with the structures next door. Poston's The Buildings of Charleston does not even mention Trott's Cottage. If there was evidence proving Trott lived/worked there, don't you think that would have been in the book?
If you want to perpetuate the myth of Trott's Cottage, so be it, but why not stand across the street by the parking garage? The view of the building is better, and you won't be impeding pedestrian traffic.
Also, this makes sense for Philadelphia Alley. That iron gate that leads from the alley to the parking lot . . . why stand there? Three times in the last week, there has been a tour guide with a group standing IN the gateway, and I have had to work my way through the group.
2. BLOCKING THE GATE AT THE CIRCULAR GRAVEYARD
First of all, if you work for a company that does not have access to the graveyard, why would you stand by the gate, blocking the entrance for those who do? I would get tired of having to answer this question: “Can we go in the graveyard too?” Why put yourself in that situation?
I happen to work for that company who does go in the graveyard, but I have given tours in the past (and will in the future) that I don't /can't go in the graveyard so I NEVER GO BY IT! If you have to go by the graveyard to fill up a 90 minute tour, work on some new material. And if you have to stand by the gate because your company requests that you do so, we'll just keep putting you in the position to answer the question: ”Can we go in graveyard too?” And the answer of course, is ”no.”
Oh, and by the way, for those of you who do have a key for the Circular Graveyard - enter through Cumberland Street side and exit through the Meeting Street side.
Definitions of “enter” and “exit”.
en-ter, to come or go into in any manner whatever; to pass into the inside or interior of; to advance into a structure or door or gate.
ex-it, a going out; a departure of any player from the stage; any departure; a way of departure.
3. INSIDE VOICE vs. OUTSIDE VOICE
I understand we have to deal with traffic noise. I drive carriages . . . believe me, I know what it's like talking over obnoxious Harleys, bubbas and their 'homemade' mufflers, diesel trucks, thumpty-thumpty bass lines and blue-haired SOBs blaring Vivaldi. But when you are giving a walking tour, you can find quiet places. So when you do find a quiet place, use your ”inside voice”. I don't need to hear your tour across the graveyard, or across the parking lot of Poogan's Porch, or across Waterfront Park. I surely don't need to hear your tour while you standing OUTSIDE the dungeon, and I'm standing INSIDE the dungeon. Glaring flashlights in people's faces (people NOT on your tour) seems to me to be a bit rude.
Definition of rude:
rude, coarse or rough in form or workmanship; barbarous or ignorant; lacking refinement, culture or elegance.
4. DON'T BE IN SUCH A BAD MOOD
We have a great job. I've worked a corporate job. Have a good time! We get paid to tell ghost stories!
5. A WORD TO THE LOCALS
Look, you're not the first person to drive by a evening tour and holler out of the window, “Oooooooo!” Be more creative. Tour guides like creativity. Or better yet, just shut up. We appreciate that even more! You're making the city look like its full of Yahoos and Bubbas. If you don't appreciate the Tourism Industry, I suggest that you stop coming downtown on Friday and Saturday nights. I've heard Big Deck Daddy's on River's Avenue is a fun place .
And by the way . . I hope you know that not EVERY evening tour is a ghost tour. Ever heard of The Dark Side of Charleston tour?
I have a new policy about locals who are rude (see definition above) enough to walk by, interrupt my tour and make a snide comment like: ”He's making it up. Tour guides don't know anything.” My new policy: I'm going to follow you down the street and give as good (or better) than I get. Like I did the other night on a Dark Side tour.
One of my points I make in my intro of the Dark Side is: South Carolina ranks 49th in education and 1st in alcohol consumption. Tourists can't do anything to help our education system, but they can help keep us #1 in something!
Two locals (men, well dressed, mid-forties) walked through my group on King Street. There was plenty of room to walk around us but they barged right through and one of them stopped and said to my group: “Don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he's talking about. There are no ghosts around here.”
I said to my group: “Remember when we talked about South Carolina being first in drinking and 49th in education? You're looking at a walking illustration of both.” He just gave a weak laugh, and walked off. I followed him down the street. “I think it's only fair that you tell me where you work, sir,” I said. “So I can come bad mouth you in front your customers and co-workers. And by the way, did you know this is not a ghost tour?” He walked faster and I let him go.
That's my new policy. I'm tired of being harrassed and bad-mouthed by locals who have no idea what we do for a living. You interupt my tour (I AM working by the way, the street is my office) and I'm going to do my best to make sure you're sorry you thought it was fun and clever to bother a working tour guide.
You want to run the tourists away, go ahead. But when your property values drop, and your favorite boutiques that sell overpriced lotion and shoes and various accouterments go out of business, and when your favorite restaurants close down because of lack of business . . . think back to all the times you were rude to a tourist, rude to a tour guide giving a tour, that time you flipped off a carriage driver or hollered at a carriage driver from your piazza “That's not true! Why do you guys make up this stuff?” . . . and then next time you want to be bitchy or release your interior SOB, think twice.
I find it amazing how little the locals (and the city authorities themselves) realize what impact tour guides have on this city. I have contact with an average of 400 tourists a week for at least 1 hour. It is a responsibility I do not take lightly. And none of us should.
1. DON'T BLOCK THE SIDEWALK!
Common courtesy. If you must stand on a sidewalk, and you know there will be pedestrians and other tour groups passing, don't block the entire sidewalk, i.e.. in front of Powder Magazine/Trott's Cottage! If you have been giving ghost tours for more than one night, then you know that almost every group walks down Cumberland Street at some point, so why do you insist on standing in front of Powder Magazine/Trott's Cottage, blocking the sidewalk and forcing the rest of us to put our group in a dangerous situation by walking out into the street to get around you?
I, for one, have decided to not put my group in a dangerous situation anymore. If you block the sidewalk, I'm walking through your group and disrupting your tour. Sorry. And by the way . . . what ghost story are you telling in front of the cottage? Oh, that's right, you're not telling a ghost story, you telling pirate stories. Why? Contrary to what the city marker says on the building, that building has no relationship with Judge Trott. He didn't live there, work there, zero , nada, zip, nothing. Edward McCrady wrote in his first volume of History of South Carolina that nothing on this location appeared on any map before 1739, and since Trott died in 1740 . . . you do the math. Talk to the folks at the Powder Magazine. They sent out a fact sheet earlier this year that adamantly stated Trott did not design the Powder Magazine, nor was he ever associated with the structures next door. Poston's The Buildings of Charleston does not even mention Trott's Cottage. If there was evidence proving Trott lived/worked there, don't you think that would have been in the book?
If you want to perpetuate the myth of Trott's Cottage, so be it, but why not stand across the street by the parking garage? The view of the building is better, and you won't be impeding pedestrian traffic.
Also, this makes sense for Philadelphia Alley. That iron gate that leads from the alley to the parking lot . . . why stand there? Three times in the last week, there has been a tour guide with a group standing IN the gateway, and I have had to work my way through the group.
2. BLOCKING THE GATE AT THE CIRCULAR GRAVEYARD
First of all, if you work for a company that does not have access to the graveyard, why would you stand by the gate, blocking the entrance for those who do? I would get tired of having to answer this question: “Can we go in the graveyard too?” Why put yourself in that situation?
I happen to work for that company who does go in the graveyard, but I have given tours in the past (and will in the future) that I don't /can't go in the graveyard so I NEVER GO BY IT! If you have to go by the graveyard to fill up a 90 minute tour, work on some new material. And if you have to stand by the gate because your company requests that you do so, we'll just keep putting you in the position to answer the question: ”Can we go in graveyard too?” And the answer of course, is ”no.”
Oh, and by the way, for those of you who do have a key for the Circular Graveyard - enter through Cumberland Street side and exit through the Meeting Street side.
Definitions of “enter” and “exit”.
en-ter, to come or go into in any manner whatever; to pass into the inside or interior of; to advance into a structure or door or gate.
ex-it, a going out; a departure of any player from the stage; any departure; a way of departure.
3. INSIDE VOICE vs. OUTSIDE VOICE
I understand we have to deal with traffic noise. I drive carriages . . . believe me, I know what it's like talking over obnoxious Harleys, bubbas and their 'homemade' mufflers, diesel trucks, thumpty-thumpty bass lines and blue-haired SOBs blaring Vivaldi. But when you are giving a walking tour, you can find quiet places. So when you do find a quiet place, use your ”inside voice”. I don't need to hear your tour across the graveyard, or across the parking lot of Poogan's Porch, or across Waterfront Park. I surely don't need to hear your tour while you standing OUTSIDE the dungeon, and I'm standing INSIDE the dungeon. Glaring flashlights in people's faces (people NOT on your tour) seems to me to be a bit rude.
Definition of rude:
rude, coarse or rough in form or workmanship; barbarous or ignorant; lacking refinement, culture or elegance.
4. DON'T BE IN SUCH A BAD MOOD
We have a great job. I've worked a corporate job. Have a good time! We get paid to tell ghost stories!
5. A WORD TO THE LOCALS
Look, you're not the first person to drive by a evening tour and holler out of the window, “Oooooooo!” Be more creative. Tour guides like creativity. Or better yet, just shut up. We appreciate that even more! You're making the city look like its full of Yahoos and Bubbas. If you don't appreciate the Tourism Industry, I suggest that you stop coming downtown on Friday and Saturday nights. I've heard Big Deck Daddy's on River's Avenue is a fun place .
And by the way . . I hope you know that not EVERY evening tour is a ghost tour. Ever heard of The Dark Side of Charleston tour?
I have a new policy about locals who are rude (see definition above) enough to walk by, interrupt my tour and make a snide comment like: ”He's making it up. Tour guides don't know anything.” My new policy: I'm going to follow you down the street and give as good (or better) than I get. Like I did the other night on a Dark Side tour.
One of my points I make in my intro of the Dark Side is: South Carolina ranks 49th in education and 1st in alcohol consumption. Tourists can't do anything to help our education system, but they can help keep us #1 in something!
Two locals (men, well dressed, mid-forties) walked through my group on King Street. There was plenty of room to walk around us but they barged right through and one of them stopped and said to my group: “Don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he's talking about. There are no ghosts around here.”
I said to my group: “Remember when we talked about South Carolina being first in drinking and 49th in education? You're looking at a walking illustration of both.” He just gave a weak laugh, and walked off. I followed him down the street. “I think it's only fair that you tell me where you work, sir,” I said. “So I can come bad mouth you in front your customers and co-workers. And by the way, did you know this is not a ghost tour?” He walked faster and I let him go.
That's my new policy. I'm tired of being harrassed and bad-mouthed by locals who have no idea what we do for a living. You interupt my tour (I AM working by the way, the street is my office) and I'm going to do my best to make sure you're sorry you thought it was fun and clever to bother a working tour guide.
You want to run the tourists away, go ahead. But when your property values drop, and your favorite boutiques that sell overpriced lotion and shoes and various accouterments go out of business, and when your favorite restaurants close down because of lack of business . . . think back to all the times you were rude to a tourist, rude to a tour guide giving a tour, that time you flipped off a carriage driver or hollered at a carriage driver from your piazza “That's not true! Why do you guys make up this stuff?” . . . and then next time you want to be bitchy or release your interior SOB, think twice.
I find it amazing how little the locals (and the city authorities themselves) realize what impact tour guides have on this city. I have contact with an average of 400 tourists a week for at least 1 hour. It is a responsibility I do not take lightly. And none of us should.
posted by Mark R. Jones at Thursday, June 29, 2006
4 comments
