Daniel Island’s Jennifer Roberts has been giving historic walking tours in downtown Charleston for nearly 10 years.

Last month I wrote about a carriage tour that felt more like a kidnapping than a heavenly afternoon in downtown Charleston.

The problem was our guide – "Jeb" – a cocksure young driver who tormented us with a boring, one-dimensional portrait of this celebrated coastal city. During our rolling tour past Charleston’s amazing historic landmarks, this doofus instead drove us to distraction. The problem was his compulsive focus on all things Civil War and unceasing sarcastic jibes toward his "Yankee" passengers.

Well, this column is about redemption … redemption for Charleston’s able tour guides, thanks to Daniel Island’s own Jennifer Roberts.

Jennifer, who has been a licensed tour guide nearly 10 years, escorted me on a fascinating two-hour walking tour last week through the peninsula’s most historic districts. She brought history alive with tidbits ranging from the late 1600s to the 21^st century. This wasn’t a monochromatic Confederate-gray kind of tour; it was broad, colorful, and highly entertaining.

Jennifer and her husband Jimmy, who is a M.U.S.C. pediatrician, moved to Daniel Island from Mount Pleasant in December 2003. They have two children: Donny, a fourth-grader, and Jason, who is a kindergartner.

So, how did a busy mother-of-two who also sells Longaberger baskets end up as a tour guide?

"I wanted to keep doing something and keep stretching my brain," said Jennifer, who formerly was membership director of the Augusta, Ga. Chamber of Commerce. "I didn’t just want to be home changing diapers and all that stuff, so this is the best of both worlds. I can be at home and pick up my kids, but I can do my own thing in the daytime and earn a little money."

Jennifer said she got the idea of becoming a tour guide in 1997 when she was driving by The Battery with her infant son. Saddled with two mortgages at the time, the longtime history buff was trying to find a way to make extra cash.

"I thought to myself, ‘I could do that,’" Jennifer said. "So, I called a tour owner, who I’ve since learned is a very busy woman, and she gave me a half-hour on the phone. She then referred me to another tour operator who helped me study for the tour guide test."

Charleston, which passed the nation’s first historic preservation law in the 1920s, has stringent rules governing its tour guides. They must pass a test and are issued business licenses to conduct tours either as freelancers or for established companies.

"I started studying in about September and took the test on the first of December in 1997," Jennifer recalled. "It may have changed some since I took the test but, when I took it, we had 200 multiple-choice, matching and fill-in-the-blank questions. If we passed that, then we all went on a tour of the city. All our names were in a hat and when our name was drawn, we led the tour for that segment of the city, wherever we happened to be when our name was called."

Prospective guides purchase a "really thick book" from the city to study and the test comes straight from that book. But learning is a never-ending process.

"Over the course of my nearly 10 years as a guide, I try to continually read and learn more so I will be as knowledgeable as possible," Jennifer said. "Inevitably, a guest will ask a question I can’t answer and I will tell them I don’t know and even offer to research it for them. No one has ever taken me up on that yet, but their questions do prompt me to try to find the answer in case it ever comes up again."

Jennifer frequently conducts tours for Charleston Strolls and Bulldog Tours. She is also available for private, customized walks.

Philip Simmons, who lived on Daniel Island as a boy, is world-renowned for his beautiful wrought-iron gates in downtown Charleston.

"During our busy season, which is March through May, I’ll give three to five tours a week," she said. "It’s great exercise and I’m partial to walking because we can go places where the carriages can’t go. I typically give two-hour tours, which is enough time to give a good overview of the historic district."

Each tour is like a stage experience, according to Jennifer. You can’t predict what your audience will be like.

"You have different personalities in each tour group," she said. "Occasionally, I get a few hecklers … People from other cities may argue about historic details. Every city has its ‘firsts’ and it might be just one word that makes it correct in both cities. In our case, we have what is now called Carolina Day, but it was the first decisive victory in the Revolutionary War. My fourth-grader is a history buff and he says, "But, Mom, Lexington and Concord happened first.’ Yes, dear, you’re right, but if you look at the numbers, the British sent a fleet of ships with somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 men to Charleston and we had 1,000 men at Fort Sullivan, now Fort Moultrie, and we whooped ‘em. That’s decisive, so Donny and I may never come to terms with that."

Charleston’s steamy weather can be challenging, too.

"If it’s raining and someone came here and has only one day in town and wants to tour, then you smile and you tour," Jennifer said. "We also encourage people to drink lots of water on hot days and I do my best to find plenty of shade."

Unruly children can also tax a tour guide’s patience.

"I love teachers and parents who take their chaperoning responsibilities seriously," she said. "I can’t do both. I can’t impart the information they’re paying me for and watch the kids, too."

Then there is noise, which Jennifer said seems to follow her wherever she goes. During our tour, she had to speak over a cacophony of power saws, leaf blowers, church bells and ambulances.

"When a jet passes overhead, I usually say, ‘Did I mention that Charleston also has an Air Force base?" she said. "If I could talk from my diaphragm it’d be a whole lot easier."

Nevertheless, Jennifer loves being a tour guide and connecting with people from all over the world.

"I meet so many sweet people doing this job," she said. "You know, if you ask enough questions, you’ll find some commonality with people, no matter where they’re from. My in-laws are from Pennsylvania and what are the odds I’ll have a couple from Ephrata, Pennsylvania on my tour who are from the same town and are the same age as my mother-in-law, who happens to have a twin brother? So, it turns out that this gentleman on tour with me played in the same band in high school with my uncle? It’s a small world and we’re a lot more similar than different."