By Bobby Couch | Special to The Current
In 1965 I was a young airman stationed at the nearby Charleston Air Force Base. In spring of 1966 I saw Folly Beach for the first time. It was also the first time for me to ever see an ocean. I fell in love with Folly right then and there. I would spend almost all of my off duty weekends there. In 1967 a big year for me, I turned 20 years old and bought my first car — a Green 1957 Chevy. It was only half as old as I was.
One day while on Folly in the off-season at my favorite spot — the south end of the seawall rail — I was just taking everything in, watching a gentleman walk down the beach with a bucket of shrimp feeding the sea gulls, others were digging for crabs or clams, and others were just walking up and down the beach. That’s when I noticed the most beautiful girl near me at the rail. I watched her threw something in to the sand. It was a ring that soon disappeared as the waves would extend out to where it was.
Just as it was, it was like an angel had told me to talk to her. I do not remember what I said to her. She smiled at me and came close to me. Then she told me how her true love had placed that ring on her finger. She said he had died in the Vietnam War and that it was hard, but this was the only way she could move on with her life.
Her name was April and we had lunch together at one the outdoor places on Folly. Everyone knew April and spoke to her as they passed. She was so easy to talk to. After lunch, we went down a little ways and visited some of her friends. They were a retired couple that were very kind to me and they talked to me as if they had known me all of their life. It was then that I decided I wanted to live at Folly Beach forever.
It rained very hard that night and we got the car stuck in some wet sand. Of course, April knew someone close by who got us on our way. I realized April knew everyone on Folly then.
As our night was coming to an end, April took my hand and gave me the sweetest kiss. She told me she just couldn’t be with a military man again. I understood the hurt and pain that she felt. And I knew there was no way that I could be part of something that may cause her great pain again.
I did not know it at the time, but that would be my last day at Folly Beach. Soon orders came that I was to report for duty with an Air Rescue unit halfway around the world.
It will soon be 50 years since that night, but I never forgot April and often wonder what might have happened if I had not been a military man. Thank-you April for such a magical day
— Bobby Couch,
The young Airman who fell for April
