Myrtle Beach 1974

A true story from the daze of my youth.

Return to the daze of my youth.

My best friend, Leonard, and I went to Myrtle Beach to celebrate my 18th birthday. When we arrived at Myrtle Beach State Park the campground was closed for the night so we parked on the side of US 17, and made camp for the night. A few Horry County Deputies and a South Carolina State Trooper all slowed as they passed at various times of the night, but none stopped and no one bothered us.

They let us in the campground early the next morning, and directed us to the singles area were all the parties wouldn’t disturb the families with young children, and we quickly found a place to pitch camp. It only took us a few minutes to set up camp so we fired up a doobie, and set out to see the ocean and the rest of the park.

There was a long line of cars and trucks pulling various types and lengths of trailers and campers, and all the spaces were back-in rather than pull through spaces, so we sat down on a picnic table to watch all the middle-aged men attempting to back their trailers after having never backed a trailer before.

We were laughing our asses off when this very frustrated man finally had all he could take, got out of his car, looked straight at us, and angrily shouted, “If you think you can do any better then why don’t you do it?”

Leonard and I looked at each other and Leonard said, “Go for it, Bro.”

“No problem,” I said as I walked to his car, got in, pulled forward, then backed his camper in the first try.

The man calmed down, smiled, handed me $5.oo and thanked me for backing his trailer in for him. Then another man walked to were we were standing, and asked, “Can you back mine in too?”

I looked over at Leonard, and laughed, “This one’s yours.” Leonard backed it in first try. Over the course of the next 2 hours we made enough money to pay for our entire weekend with money left over. Later that day we went over to Myrtle Beach Air Force Base where Leonard was able to buy case after case of Miller Beer in the little pony bottles at prices that were about half of what was sold in stores. Then we went back the the singles area of the park and sold beer to the other folks camping there.

Did I mention that Leonard and I both learned to drive growing up in our daddys’ rigs. Campers were easy compared to what we had already learned to do.

After a long night of partying with everyone in the singles area, smoking doobies, drinking beer, eating spiked watermelon, and falling out of a tree, I awoke the next morning, got out of my tent, and saw a lovely blond headed girl in cutoff jeans and a bikini top who had just finished pitching her tent. “Good morning,” I waved.

“Good morning,” she waved back. “How are you today?”

“I’m great,” I replied. “It’s my birthday.”

“Really,” she questioned, “How old are you?”

“I’m eighteen,” I smiled as I slowly walked towards her.

“It’s really you eighteenth birthday?” she asked.

“Sure is,” I smiled.

“Then I’ve got a present for you,” she grinned, taking my hand to lead me back to her tent.

“You do?” I asked.

“Yes,” she laughed as she pulled me into her tent,”it’s what every man should get on his eighteenth birthday.”

It was indeed a glorious day, and after that weekend I never saw Sunshine again. But I thought about her, oh how I thought about her.

Stories like this are made possible by generous people like you who send me tips via Kofi. Thank you.

Continue reading, Points and Rotor Buttons