When I was a kid, March Break meant Myrtle Beach. Every year during the annual school break, we piled into my dad’s Chrysler – a vehicle bigger than a mini-van today – and my sister and I buried ourselves in comic books until we emerged in sunny South Carolina two days later.
A disclaimer: I’m the Myrtle Beach Can-Am Days greased pig catching champion for 1976 (and third in greased pole climbing), a story many in the trade are sick of hearing by now, I’m sure. Point is, I’ve got important history there, and the destination still has a place in my heart.
In those days, Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand was the spring destination for Canadians. It was the closest southerly point where one could drive to and reasonably expect to be assured of warm weather in March or April, and damned if the Canucks didn’t swim and cavort in shorts and generally act like it was hot even if it wasn’t.
All through my school years we travelled there independently but met a group of friends who chartered a coach from Toronto, settling in at the same surfside hotel in North Myrtle Beach (the Anchor Inn).
It was always an amazing week, with days spent on a spectacular, wide vehicle-free beach (unlike some other southern locales); endless mini-golf in the mini-golf capital of the world; all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants specializing in seafood and low-country delicacies like hush puppies and pecan pie; and the annual Can-Am Days festival, scene of my many pig-related triumphs.
Even after I outgrew those school holiday trips, my parents continued to visit at least once a year, re-locating to Myrtle Beach proper, where they returned to the same hotel for over three decades.
I, in turn, managed a road trip with a buddy where we discovered the legendary Bowery bar and its great country-rock bands, and convinced a friendly cop to record a message to a pal who couldn’t make the trip with us: “Andy, greetings from the Myrtle Beach police department!”
When the time came, my wife and I joined my folks there with our young kids, who revelled in the sand and surf, lavish pools and lazy rivers, and more elaborate mini golf courses, attractions (gator farm!), and activities in a destination that had begun to morph from a minor resort town into a fully-rounded destination.
Today, “the new Myrtle Beach” has evolved even further – tripling in size in the past decade alone and ranking as one of the fastest-growing family and vacation destinations in the US
The city is flush with numerous new accommodations, events and sign -of-the-times attractions like the Myrtle Beach SkyWheel, a 60-metre-high observation wheel with 42 temperature-controlled glass gondolas that provide incredible views of the coastline.
Golf of the adult variety, while always popular, can now be played on over 80 area courses, while other cultural disciplines, such as art, history and cuisine have similarly blossomed in recent years. The area even has its own wineries.
It’s also become a year-round destination for Canadians, who can fly there in a couple of hours instead of driving for a couple of days.
So, whether it’s by car or plane, the next time I stand on the Strand – perhaps with my own grandkids should I be so blessed – nostalgia will undoubtedly remind me that the destination has changed and one can never go back. But it can also be better.
Besides, the more things change, the more they stay the same: Myrtle Beach will always have its 100 km. of scenic shoreline and white sand beaches, it’s pools and mini golf courses, and 2021 will presumably see a post-COVID resumption of the Can-Am Days next March, the 60th such occasion for the annual extravaganza.
For me, it will simply be a continuation of the Myrtle Beach a circle of life, and I will still be like a pig in heaven.