Dear
WWKers,
I
dedicate this message to E.B. Davis.
This
year, my cousins and I spent the week after Labor Day at Litchfield Beach,
located between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown in South Carolina.
Nestled next to
Pawley’s Island, a community best known as “arrogantly shabby” where the ghost
of the Gray Man warns folks to flee from approaching hurricanes (and those who
heed find their property untouched by the storm), Litchfield is a quiet,
family-oriented destination, with sandy shores bounded by stately sea oats,
huge magnolias heavy in dark leaves, and tall oaks draped with Spanish moss.
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| Brookgreen Gardens Entrance Image by Kelley Nelson |
Nearby
is Brookgreen Gardens, a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve built on four
former rice plantations and founded by scholar and philanthropist Archer Milton
Huntington and his wife artist Anna Hyatt Huntington. Their former winter home
Atalaya Castle is located in Huntington State Park and has an arts festival
each September. Also in the vicinity is Hobcaw Barony, originally part of a 1718
royal land grant that was subdivided into fourteen plantations. Later it became
the winter residence of millionaire Bernard Baruch, whose daughter Belle created
a foundation for state colleges and universities to use as a place for teaching
and researching forestry, marine biology, and care of wildlife.
Visiting
after Labor Day is a different experience. Gone are the crowds of summer guests.
We
met one visiting family with home-schooled children, but for the most part we
encountered either adult tourists or residents who had reclaimed their
territory. Together, we relished, relaxed, and thrived in the sun, sand, and
waves.
One
afternoon, we shopped at Litchfield Books, featuring a variety of fiction,
nonfiction, books and items of local interest, and gifts, and the Hammock Shops
Village, where the family of Riverboat
Captain Joshua John Ward began selling sturdy cotton-rope hammocks in 1938. In
the Village’s Mercantile, I had to indulge in several varieties of fudge,
including dark
chocolate with pecans, milk chocolate with caramel and pecans, and two flavors best
sampled in unison. A sliver of salted caramel vanilla coupled with a thin slice
of key lime gave the sensation of cheesecake with a tart aftertaste. Then, at
the Coastal Wine Boutique, we discovered wine smoothies and acquired a Moscato
tasting of peaches and honey.
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| Gini Abee, PGB, Jim Okes, Chester Abee, Brian Okes |
Needless
to say, the local cuisine is superb. We enjoyed eating at a number of
establishments. Two family-run restaurants, Lee’s Inlet Kitchen, which has been
operated for sixty-seven years in Murell’s Inlet, and Hanser House, located in
Pawley’s Island, feature exceptional seafood, and delicious vegetables and
sides. The breakfasts at Webster’s, a buffet located at Litchfield by the Sea
Resort, and Applewood House of Pancakes, now offering pumpkin pancakes, provided
bountiful servings.
 |
| Senator Luke Rankin, PGB, Jim Okes, Brian Okes |
We returned to two favorites, the Rivertown Bistro in
Conway, with awesome meatloaf, watermelon salad, and sweet potato chips, and Captain
George’s, a monstrous seafood buffet in Myrtle Beach, that offered tons of crab
legs as well as shrimp, oysters, scallops, and an impressive dessert bar. As we
left, we stopped at Scott’s Barbeque in Hemingway. Written up in the New York
Times and featured on the Food Channel, Scotts has been in business over thirty
years preparing whole hogs (as well as turkeys and chickens) over wood burning
pits.
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| Photo by Brian Okes |
The
morning after returning home, I stepped outside to mid-seventy degree
temperatures. Fall was in the air. Even though I live in the sandhills, I felt
as if I were in the cool of the highlands.
After
an E.B. Davis dose of beach, I probably needed a Sam Morton mountain balance.
Home
with head still in clouds,
Paula
P.S.
If you haven’t already noticed, there are some really great books debuting this
week: Susan F. Craft’s third novel in the post-Revolutionary War Xanthakos
family series, Cassia, has the family
captured by the murderous Captain Galeo (the Shark) and forced to witness his
pirate crew recreate a mock trial complete with actual hanging. Art Taylor’s
wonderful novel in short stories, On the
Road with Del and Louise, (previously described in E.B. Davis’ interview with Art on WWK) takes you cross country with two disparate, sometimes
desperate, and constantly delightful characters who work their ways into your
heart. And, Robert Dugoni’s second book in his Tracy Crosswhite series, Her Final Breath,
has the homicide detective beginning an investigation of a serial killer known
as the Cowboy after having dealt with the sensational retrial of her sister’s
killer in My
Sister’s Grave. All marvelous reads, whether you’re on the beach, in the
mountains, or anywhere in between!
What’s
your favorite after Labor Day activity?
