The Exotic Mississippi Pigtoe Tahitian Black Pearls

A black pearl on the shell of it's "mother", the Black-lipped oyster which is found only in Tahiti and other South Pacific Islands.


Sometimes eating great food will spark great conversation, so it was no surprize to hear a fellow unknown oyster eater gathered around an all-you-can eat oyster table on Thanksgiving Eve exclaim "Damn! I just nearly broke my tooth on a black pearl." His friend quickly informed him that the ugly piece of black grit he was holding in his hand was just a piece of shell because "all black pearls are just white pearls that have been dyed." Well that overheard conversation started me thinking about black pearls and wondering if by some chance friend of Broken Tooth might be correct. What I learned is that what I suspected was true, that black pearls are in fact "made that way" and are just as exotic as they sound. What I didn't know was the humble beginning of their exotic beauty was closer to home than I thought.
The majority of black pearls come from French Polynesia and are all from pearl farms. They are produced from only one species of oyster: the Black Lipped Oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) pictured above. Black Lipped Margariti is one of the world's largest oysters-about the size of a dinner plate. So where are the humble orgins? In order to form a cultured pearl, farmers must introduce a piece of mantle epithelium from another oyster and for Tahitian black pearls they

The humble Mississippi Pigtoe Mussel...the beauty starts here.

use the humble Pigtoe Mussel from the Mississippi River. It seems that the old idea of a grain of sand becoming a pearl is not very accurate as even natural pearls are formed around organic material such as parasites or a damaged piece of mantel. Tahitian black pearls are rarer because most sea oysters can only be nucleated with one pearl at a time, while freshwater mussels that produce white pearls are capable of handling multiple pearl implants. The South Sea oysters also live at deep depths and are not easily harvested from shallow lagoons like other oysters. It takes the harvested oysters two years to be mature enough to produce a pearl. It is extremely rare for a black oyster to produce any natural pearls at all, though it does happen.

A Tahitian pearl farm.

Black pearls are rarely black but range in color from silver, blue, lavender, and the most prized, "peacock" which is an irridescent green. Black pearls came on the European market around 1845, but were not very popular until worn by Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. They became popular in the US in the 1970's. (And Broken Tooth's friend was partly correct as a white pearl can be dyed most any color.)

So if you happen upon the rare and exotic black pearl from Tahiti, remind him that, like lots of good things, he has roots in the South.

Of all the black pearl jewelry I saw, this is my favorite. Notice the peacock coloring that is so prized.

Here is Empress Eugenie, 1845, wife of Napoleon III, and lover of black pearls. She is looking rather sad here, possibly because she has on her white pearls. There is a story that she was warned to not wear pearls on her wedding day because they are supposed to bring bad luck. Her love for her pearls won out over the warning and her life was reported to be one long tragedy. We owe her for black pearl's popularity.

Smokin' 'n Talkin' Men Are Back Again...

"Well...whatever you are, you're a good one."

"I hate happy endings--they make me feel cheated."

" If you have tears, prepare to shed them now"

"You and Tequila drive me crazy"

"I am not bound to please thee with my answer."

" If you recognize the world is but an illusion, you escape the suffering"

" I'm gonna put a curse on you and all your kids will be born completely naked."

"There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."

"Chitty......Just Chitty"

"I suspect people are plotting to make me happy"

"we will either find a way, or we'll make one"

"No way, girl, it's Black Friday and I'm headed to the Gap to buy some underpants"

Tolstoy-101 Years Ago Today

Tolstoy, age 82, with his wife, Sophia, about 6 weeks before his attempt to fulfill his last dream was cut short by his death. I can't help but hear Sophia talking in this picture "you're not going anywhere, old man" ... but he didn't listen.

On this date 101 years ago, November 20th, 1910, Leo Tolstoy, one of the world's greatest novelist died.

Tolstoy with his grandchildren, about a year before his death. He and his wife had 13 children, 5 of whom died during childhood.

It seems that at age 82 Tolstoy attempted to take up the path as a wandering ascetic, something he had been wanting to do for years. So he abandoned his wife and his wealth and traveled to the Astaporo train station in the cold Russian weather where he fell ill with pneumonia and died a short while later. He had been writing and talking about his death in the few days before he left home. I can't help but ask myself, "did the adventure cause the death, or did the death cause the adventure?"

There is a 2009 film, The Last Station, which is about Tolstoy's last year and is based on the novel by Jay Parini.

Leo Tolstoy at age 20. The intensity was already there.

Three South Carolina Songsters

Mr. Pinkney "Pink" Anderson



I had the pleasure of spending an evening being entertained and educated by a young Hunter Holmes at the Laurens County Library last week. It was an hour of celebration of the music of two local songsters, Pink Anderson and Rev Gary Davis, both born in Laurens County over 100 years ago. Hunter did a fantastic job of bringing these fellows back to life with help from his guitar, kazoo, harmonica, quills, and a pocket knife as a slide.

Pink Anderson was born in Laurens in 1900 and spent his life as a blues/folk singer and guitarist. He joined the Indian Remedy Company in 1914, traveling the South and holding the crowd's attention in hopes they would buy the "Remedy". He retired from the road around 1957 after over 40 years of entertaining people with the blues, folk music, ragtime, and traditional ballads. Pink might even be called a throwback to a long gone era even at the time of his recordings, but his influence has reached numerous modern day artists. You may be familiar with his song recorded by Ry Cooder, I Got Mine. He is probably best known as the "Pink" in Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd founding member, Syd Barrett, combined Pink's name with North Carolina blues artist, Floyd Council, to create the name for Pink Floyd. Mr. Anderson died in 1974, but his music lives on in the recordings he left us. Reverend Gary Davis and friend.


Reverend Gary Davis was born in Laurens in 1896. He became blind as an infant and was the only one of his mother's eight children to survive to adulthood. He was a blues and gospel singer with a fascinating style of finger picking which influenced many famous musicians, including Townes van Zandt, Ry Cooder, Keb Mo, Jackson Browne, and Jack White. Ry Cooder tried to learn Rev Davis' style, sitting with him for "lessons". But he says "I couldn't make anything sound like that, and I never could play his way. I found that it was beyond my ability to do the thing that he was doing." I was surprised to see that Rev Gary wrote the song Cocaine which was later recorded by Jackson Browne with additional lyrics added. He died in 1972 and is buried in Long Island, New York. The recordings he has left for us are mostly gospels. His voice and guitar work are amazing. We often look at these wonderful musicians as a "lost breed" of entertainers that were known as "songsters"- singing guitarists who could do a large variety of music-blues, folk, pop, and religious. A big thank-you goes to another Laurens native, Hunter Holmes, for keeping this legacy alive and doing it so well. Hunter is more than a good musician, he, like Pink and Rev Davis, is a storyteller. He has captured that spirit in this mysterious music that comes from somewhere much further back in time and pulls on emotions that you didn't even know were there. If you can figure out who these people were and watch someone play their music, some of the mystery of it all is made clear. It has been said that the music of these songsters is defined by its audience as much as its musicians and this was evident in the faces watching this young man as he brought some old local spirits back to life.

Robert Frost's Woods: The Simple Truths

Above is the actual publication of the poem in The New Republic archives, 1923



In the 6th grade I had an English teacher who loved to have her students memorize and recite poems to the class. She would hand out four or five poems and you had to chose one. I still remember the most popular poem chosen was Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. At that age of 11, we thought we knew exactly what the poem was saying to us in its simplicity... and we were correct. When Frost was quizzed as to what the hidden meaning in this poem might be he replied "If I had wanted you to know, I'd told you in the poem." There are two stories as to what the inspiration was for Frost to write this poem. The most common is that he spent a summer night of sleeplessness and this poem came to him in the morning like a hallucination. Another less known story was that the inspiration came from an earlier difficult winter in New Hampshire when Frost was returning home after an unsuccessful trip at the market. Realizing he did not have enough money to buy Christmas presents for his children, he was overwhelmed with depression and stopped his horse at a bend in the road to cry. After a few moments, his horse shook his harness bells, cheering Frost and reminding him to continue home to his family, away from the darkness. It is known that Frost did in fact suffer from depression, sometimes severe. My suspicion from personal experience in writing poetry is that both stories are true. The moment in the woods resurfaced when it was safe to do so...early one summer morning under the influence of no sleep.

A photograph of Frost in 1923 around the time the poem was written.


Frost often wrote about the simple activities of everyday life; a simplicity that makes non-poetry lovers enjoy his work. He was criticized by some for his choice of subjects which were not seen as appropriate for the "high art of poetry". But what Frost probably knew was that the most basic parts of an ordinary day can be misleading. Focusing on the real actions of real people and the simplicity of nature, the elements of fantasy are brushed aside to often reveal Truth; whether it be in the grand poetic mind or the mind of a 6th grader. One fact that is not questionable about Frost's feelings on this poem is written in a letter to Louis Untermeyer where Frost suggests the poem may be "my best bid for remembrance." In a reading by Frost in the 1950's, he asks who out of the crowd of 2000 does not know this poem and only one hand is raised. Today, unfortunately, it would be many more....we still have miles to go to keep poetry (as well as the Truth) alive.
Next week, with the start of the Christmas shopping frenzy, may be a good time to re-read this poem keeping in mind Frost's story of dispair as the influence. When it all gets to be a little too much, listen for the shake of the horse's harness bells to keep you on the journey and tuned in to the Truth.