Longtime resident bids a heartfelt farewell to Folly Beach after more than 35 years
By Mike Ferguson
I came out to Folly Beach in the winter of 1981. I found an ad for a place and the rent was reasonable. I didn’t know anything about Folly. I rode out here one day with everything I owned in an old white Ford van.
I was hungry, so before I crossed the bridge onto the island I stopped at this little restaurant called the Dumbwaiter. It was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. I walked in and there was no one there except for a lady behind the bar drinking an Old Milwaukee. She offered to cook some shrimp for me. I felt at home. I moved into a little duplex on the west side.
I met some folks in Mr. Bill’s Bar who suggested right off the bat that I get a Sand Dollar Social Club membership card. Thirty-six years later I still have that card.
There were good people out here and I made a lot of friends. Mr. Bill’s became my hang out. Folly was a fun place to live and I have always felt safe out here. It was an esoteric combination of old and young hippies, artists, musicians, carpenters, military, a lot of genuine characters, and a couple of curmudgeons.
There was a tradition at the time that on your birthday you got a pie in the face. The Murphys at the Turtle Corner Grocery had frozen cream pies and they’d let us heat them up in the microwave so they’d splatter real good. People took all sorts of measures to avoid getting pied, but eventually they got it. In the bar, walking down Center St, and one “drive-by-pieing” at the old filling station that used to be here.
Life was good and still is. I went through a lot of changes over the years and moved all over the beach, never getting more than a couple of blocks from Center Street, so I could walk home from the bars.
I met a young woman named Susan out here who became my best friend and my drinking buddy and my wife. I have been in a lot of relationships in my life but I have come to realize that I’ve only been in love once. We had a lot of fun and most importantly we had a daughter, Kelly, who grew up out here. Did I mention I have grandchildren now?
A lot of stuff happened over the years — some good, some not-so-good. But everything that happened brought me to where I am right now and its a good place. I wouldn’t change a thing and I have no regrets.
Folly Beach is not the same place I moved to 36 years ago, but I’m not the same person who moved out here. I came here from a little place in the country. Now in a couple of days I’m going to another little place in the country where I’ll be closer to those grandsons. I plan to leave here the same way I came here, smiling and waving … Peace.
— Mike Ferguson
