-
Continued -
Introduction
This visit to Myrtle Beach was from
February 16 through February 19, 2008 and the primary purpose was to
attend a charitable fund raising event at Fat Harold's Beach Club in
Ocean Drive. It also afforded us the opportunity to continue our
explorations of what are reputed to be some of the area's more upscale
restaurants. We definitely were disappointed with a couple of
those dining experiences and, interestingly, one of those situations was
probably more the fault of the patrons than anything else.
As anticipated from the forecasts before
we embarked on the trip the weather was all over the place. At
times there were heavy rains and there was one especially strong storm
with loud thunder and bright lightening about 5 am one morning that
seemed to be centered directly over our hotel (sleeping beauty slept
through it all - typical). The last day was especially bright and
clear, but bitterly cold with the wind chill factor significantly lower
than the actual ambient temperature.
Something to which we're becoming more
accustomed is the fairly significant number of visitors at Myrtle Beach
this time of year. Ed can remember skipping high school classes
and doing quick daytrips with his buddies in the winter months and would
find the entire area virtually deserted. Of course, there were
always a few like minded, high spirited girls from other schools doing
the same thing, and there was always at least one place open with the
requisite style of music on the jukebox for a little shaggin'.
Though it is fun to remember and relate such things, this write-up is
about the present and that's where we'll focus our attention.
We would like to make note particularly
for our always increasing number of new readers of a couple of points
very relevant to our presentations. First, we're not going to
worry about your sensibilities as we share our experiences that are
reflective of the manner in which we live and the things which we enjoy
- material and otherwise. If that's likely to bother you, then we
suggest you read no further and spare yourself and us from whatever
anxiety or indignation you might otherwise experience. Secondly, a
few of you who follow certain online travel forums may notice a little
repetition between selected comments we post on those boards and the
content of this write-up. The reason is we have many, many readers
who do not follow those particular forums and who would like to have the
whole picture presented here. Thirdly, and this is related to the
preceding point, our presentations are organized such that it's easy to
skip subjects which are of no interest and move along to other
topics. All of the principal subjects are denoted with blue
headings preceding the related narrative. Also, at the bottom of
each page is a link to the table of contents which shows all the
subjects and contains "hot links" to the respective pages on
which they appear. And lastly, all of the smaller size pictures
you encounter can be clicked to see larger versions.
With those housekeeping matters now out
of the way, we'll move along to the event which prompted this trip.
Fat Harold's Beach Music
Extravaganza
Harold Bessent, aka Fat Harold, and Ray
Scott of 94.9 FM,
the Surf, are the originators of the idea to hold an
annual Carolina Beach Music event to raise money for those in need and
for the proceeds to be administered by the Hall of Fame
Foundation, a
non-profit organization. This year's "extravaganza" was
promoted and promised to be the biggest and best yet. We believe
that promise was well met. Apart from the fabulous all day
entertainment the patrons enjoyed, it was a wonderful boon to the
Foundation with practically all the ticket sales proceeds being
contributed to it.
The featured groups were
Sea Cruz and the
Craig Woolard Band (CWB). Additionally, more than 15 individual artists were in
attendance and performed either to "tracks" of their music or
with the accompaniment of CWB. The entire event was more like a
stage presentation or a spectator event than the traditional beach music
club dance scene. Ray Scott, winner of the 2007 Carolina Beach
Music Awards FM DJ category, was the master of ceremonies and did a
masterful job not only of introducing the various performers, but also
encouraging more support in the form of contributions for the
charity. One of the traditions of this fund raiser, in which we
were participating for the first time, is that people would walk up to
where an artist was performing that particularly pleased them and throw handfuls
of dollar bills and perhaps larger denominations at
them. Periodically, the bills would be gathered from the floor and
placed in a 5 gallon bucket which became quite full as the event
progressed. There also was a raffle for a nicely framed beach
themed print that had been donated that brought in more money.
As mentioned, the whole affair was more
like a stage show and in that respect 6 tables with each seating 8
people were positioned on what is normally the dance floor in the front
room at Harold's. These VIP tables were "sold" before
the event to raise more money and we were pleased to have purchased one
of them and to be able to invite some very special people to be seated
at it as our guests. Sometime after we had reserved the table we
were listening at home to Ray Scott on 94.9 via the internet and heard
him asking for people to be sponsors of individual performers that would
be at the event. These sponsorships were promoted as being a way
of helping to defray expenses and bring in more funds for the Hall of
Fame Foundation. Consequently, Ed contacted Joy Thompson in Fat
Harold's business office who had 
helped accomplish the table purchase
and again with her very capable assistance signed us up to sponsor both
Greg Moseley (Carolina Tan) and Jim
Quick (Sneakin' Out Back). We must admit we were
slightly confused at the time about the performers for whom they were
seeking sponsors. We had the initial, erroneous impression it was
just for those who had to travel to be able to perform at the event, but
later learned they were being sought for all the artists. When we
realized that we told JD
Cash (Summer Place), one of our invited guests who lives in
the OD area, that we also would like to sponsor him, but he declined
saying he felt we had already done way too much for the benefit.
Retrospectively, we shouldn't have listened to him. Oh well,
there's always next year.
In addition to JD and his friend Janet,
the other guests at our table were Greg and Gina Moseley, and newly met
friends Ray and Wanda from Elizabethtown, NC. The lovely and most
considerate Tracy Quick, wife of Jim, found us and introduced
herself. We did enjoy talking with her and later Jim. We
must say Jim is extremely talented and he did a great job with his
performance, but the entire time he was not on stage he was animatedly
talking absolutely nonstop for hours with friends and fans. Quite
remarkable his energy and enthusiasm.
All of the performances that day were
very good, but we were especially appreciative of JD's delivery of Summer
Winds which he dedicated to us on behalf of himself and Johnny
Barker, who was unable to accept our invitation to attend. 
Later
in the afternoon JD was back on stage with the Craig Woolard Band and
did a flawless, killer rendition of Never Found a Girl that received a
terrifically appreciative response from the audience. Too bad
there wasn't a recording made of that delivery - it would sell.
Not to be in the least bit outdone, Greg Moseley's absolutely fabulous
rendition of Johnny Barker's Summertime's Callin' Me "for Ed
and Sandra" performed with the CWB brought everyone to their
feet and was definitely one of the highlights of the day. That was
really, really well done, Greg, and we hope you will find a way to
include it on a future CD. Speaking of future CDs, JD Cash has
written a funny song called Honey Do that he wants Jim Quick and
Coastline to record. It's perfect for them.
While mentioning people that were at the
extravaganza, we want to thank JD for introducing us to Bill
"Willie C." Swanke who has an extensive beach music website, www.BeachMusicCafe.com
and is well known, among other things, for capturing photos and video of
performances which he makes available via the internet. We,
especially Ed, want to thank Joy Thompson for making a point to find us
so we finally could meet in person and for giving Ed such a big hug and
kiss. We were also found by the charming and vibrant (aren't all
successful marketing people "vibrant"?) Trish Brown, Director
of Sales for 94.9, who introduced herself and asked that we give her time
to discuss some business matters with us. Later we did.
Shannon the bar master at Harold's gets a special "thank
you". We kept an open tab for all our table guests and
friends the whole day, and she and the other bar tenders made sure it
was properly managed and that only those designated as beneficiaries
were accommodated.
We can't emphasize enough how much we were
made to feel our participation and contributions for the Extravaganza
were sincerely appreciated. Ray Scott's almost embarrassingly
enthusiastic but genuine acknowledgment and recognition from the stage
were appreciated as indeed were the personal sincere thank you's
from the officers of the Foundation. It was our pleasure and we
look forward to doing at least as much again, if not more, next
year.
It is a wonderful Carolina Beach Music
experience for a wonderful cause and we do encourage our readers to
attend. We think you'll be glad you did.
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