Myrtle Beach
-
Plumage and Perfume
Somewhere in the genetic code for human male behavior, there is a whole spiral staircase of double helix information related to uniforms. The desire of human males, of a given […]
-
Boulevard of Greedy Dreams
Child labor laws did not apply in my hometown. The young, and very young, turned out to hustle the summer crowd—just as in the country, all the kids labored on […]
-
Sartorial Satire at Gene Todd’s Pool Room
Dino didn’t compromise fashion for the pool room. Grown men played the game in work clothes, those who worked at anything. Others were unabashed to dress in rags, if rags […]
-
Barrel of Grunts
We started playing poker in the eighth grade. All things to do with vice and the cravings of adulthood were scattered in the school yard verbally, in a carnival town, […]
-
Stealing With Both Eyes
We started playing poker in the private chambers of a legendary woman, Fatima Franklin. Fatima was a former belly dancer from Baghdad, Iraq, imported and naturalized by marriage to an […]
-
The Forever Beach
Myrtle Beach was always magical, a carnival town, now billboard cluttered, strip-mall-crowded, neon-glowing, the so called “Redneck Riviera”. My hometown. People say, “Boy, you must have seen some changes in […]
-
First Things First
First thing to do was take a deep breath. It was always colder and windier, the air cleaner to breathe over the ocean. Cold at that hour. Before dawn, the […]
-
The Door’s Unlocked
On the way to play poker, I made promises to myself. Not to do this or that stupidly in the game, let myself be bluffed out. I always vowed: if […]
-
Fever To Be Cool
The size of the world changed in high school, grew smaller, though a larger world might have been suggested by logic; if logic had influenced beach boys. All of my […]