North Myrtle Beach - Part Three

Living at the beach was a great time in our lives. We were making new friends and keeping the old ones that were left behind in Charlotte. We enjoyed when they would come down to the beach and spend some time with us. As time passed, I could tell the living there was helping my back and I was able to do much more work that previously I thought I could. I was able to finish building our house and as I made friends around us, I was able to help them do some the things around their houses. It was not long before the word got around that I could make home repairs which kept me busy and I could get my mind off of my back pain.We joined First Baptist Church the first Sunday after we moved; it was different from Mulberry because we had more visitors than members almost every Sunday morning since so many folks vacationed in the area. We had a good Sunday school class, Thurman McLamb was a great teacher. It did not take long to get adjusted to this church and to get involved in it. We quickly learned all the best places to eat fish and other foods by becoming friends with folks that lived in the area.

After moving to the beach we got involved with a group of senior citizens, the Nifty Fiftys, that met at the First Baptist Church each Tuesday morning from nine until noon. Each week we would have a range of attendance from 100 to 150. We had refreshments and a good program every meeting. There was a group of people that liked to travel, their motto was, " Pay the Travel Agency - Not the Doctor." Everett Beaver was our travel leader and he had us going on trips that we never thought we could do. He had us traveling all over the world! We went on trips to Asia, Europe, Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Mexico, and Canada in addition to goingall over the eastern USA. We bought our own bus; I was the bus driver and I got to go freeand with what I was paid for driving, Hazel got to go for a very little which gave us the opportunity to go when and where we wanted. We went on over thirty cruises and many long and short trips. Sometimes we would have as many as 150 going on a cruise at a time and all the trips we had to limit it to the 47 seats that we had on the bus. On a lot of our cruises we had to charter as many as three buses. Some of our best trips were to New York, Maine, Nova Socia, Prince Edwards Island, Canada, Niagara Falls, New Orleans, Mississippi River boat, Texas, Copper Canyon Mexico, Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Lisbon, and many others. On those long trips we were able to find some of our best friends that have stuck with us for all these later years. Richard King was the leader of the Nifty Fifty's for most of the time we were there. After he died James Griffith did it for a while and when he gave it up I became the leader but not for long because we moved back to Charlotte in January of 2000. Listen to me tell this story.