Fun in the Sun

Hardly a Labor Day weekend goes by without me thinking about a glorious time from my college years.

After a long hot summer, a small group of us decided what we needed was a weekend of fun in the sun at Myrtle Beach, SC.

My friend Bill Cooke had moved to SC after graduating from FHS. He and I stayed in touch and that summer, he frequently came back to Farragut to visit. Meanwhile, my classmate (and future best man) Steve Martin was back home from Tennessee Tech, doing a year-long engineering co-op in Oak Ridge and enjoying a long-distance relationship with his girlfriend, Robin.

The three of us had hung out some that summer. Steve and Bill weren’t close but they were compatible. So, our plans were made. Steve and I would drive from here and stop to pick up Bill in Columbia. We’d spend the night, doing some grocery shopping and head to the beach the next day.

(That’s Steve, on the left, with Bill in the middle. Half of me is on the right. Not sure why the photographer cut off the left half of me. Anyway, you get the idea. Also, for the record, I don’t know/never met the young lady in the sand behind us in the shot).

We left from Columbia with grand plans for our time on The Grand Strand in S.C. For one thing, we were going to have a lot of fun on a tight budget. Secondly, we were going to meet lots of young ladies who were dying to meet us. And finally, we’d return home with lots of stories to tell.

I am happy to report that we achieved one out of our three goals!

Regarding the tight budget, Steve strongly lobbied that we NOT eat out for the weekend because that would tax our resources. Instead, he suggested, we should  go to Kroger and load up on sandwich materials to help stretch our budget. This sounds good, in theory. But, armed with a Coleman® cooler, we didn’t realize that a key component on a hot, humid weekend was going to be ice.

We bought one bag.

Call it a great example of “Lessons Learned.” But, suffice to say, one bag of ice lasts less than one day and cold cuts don’t stay very cold very long without that key component! To this day, I can visualize the sight of malodorous meat, wrapped in its packaging, floating in lukewarm water!

Needless to say, we frequented the area fast food establishments from that moment forward. I think we got entirely one meal out of our ‘provisions!’

Not to be deterred, we headed out in our pursuit of Goal #2 - the throngs of adoring females awaiting the Tennessee Trio. Alas, we never found them. Or maybe they never found us!

Actually, the closest we got to success was a funny encounter as we walked along the 'strip’ near the beach at Myrtle. Steve noticed three girls looking our way as they were stopped in the gridlock traffic. He decided he’d begin his flirting efforts. He started off by telling them his name, Steve Martin.

Of course, that was the heydey for the actor of the same name. His name was more associated with the actor known as 'The Wild and Crazy Guy’ from his famous guest appearances on “Saturday Night Live” than it was with the young man known as 'The engineering student from Farragut.’

Needless to say, the girls immediately began to snicker when Steve introduced himself.

Bill and I COULD’VE helped him out. Instead, we confirmed his identity by saying that we were, in fact, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray.

One of the funniest sites of the whole weekend was Steve running out into traffic to show these girls his driver’s license to prove that he was, in fact, Steve Martin. TOO funny.

Needless to say, the girls drove on.

Well, if we didn’t succeed in managing our provisions (or our budget) or in meeting the three Georgia girls, at least we did succeed in our third goal. We came home with lots of stories.

We splashed in the surf and enjoyed our view of the Atlantic Ocean. We soaked up the sun and the sites and we had a great time.

Frequently, these days, I’ll send Bill a note to commemorate the anniversary of our weekend at the beach. Maybe he gets tired of me reminding him of our fun in the sun. Or maybe, like me, he likes to pause and reflect on those glorious times.

All three of us were at a pivotal time in our lives. We were far along in our college programs and closer to graduating than we were to enrolling; Life after college was closer than our lives before it. Everything was about to change.

Steve went back to Tech that fall and soon came word that he and Robin were engaged. Bill continued his life in Columbia as a student at the University of South Carolina. He settled into that community nicely, where he still lives today.

As for me, I was just a few months away from meeting this young lady named Lisa.

JG

(Source: cityofmyrtlebeach.com)

Originally posted 9/3/2012