Pawleys Island, Litchfield Beach, Murrells Inlet,
Dibourdieu (pronounced Di-bah-du)... all
are like a resonant song directly from my childhood, but the last time I was by
Pawleys I was depressed by how cheap commercial outlets had been put up
that ruined the old Carolina rawness of the place. The residents used to call it their ghetto on the sea. So many elegantly unpainted, or whitewashed houses with their patina of salt. You've got to get through a ton of prefab crap before you get to the old front. The estuary, which used to be one of the most charming, run down like the old south, has been swept aside by new places that look like they came out of adobe photoshop.

Folly Beach isn't so bad because it was always white trashy. When I lived in Charleston in the 70's I used to go down there to get away from everything. That was when the tides were still pulling some of the houses out in the undertow. From some of the houses you could step directly into the ocean from the porch.
Folly was the only place on the coast that had no respect for natural fauna, & flora. It was the only place I ever saw down there where people would nail planks & signs advertising concerts to the noble Palmetto tree.

In Folly you could always find a few drifters who'd landed there & given up,
and that's why I loved it. It gave the beach a piquant entropic feel, and made you
feel that any time of day was the right time for a beer.

Hazelmotes


Basel, Switzerland

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