The night always ended with a walk along the beach, the moonlight your only source of illumination, with only a few small motels and houses dotting the shoreline. As I grew older, I watched Myrtle's summertime population explode and learned to leave the beach to the kids. But when Labor Day rolled past and the kids returned to school, Myrtle Beach became mine again. September days and nights were languid and Myrtle Beach was nothing but sun, sand, and seafood. Myrtle Beach has busted its buttons, grown beyond recognition to those who have inhabited and visited the place over the past 25 years.
Tourists flock from Ohio and Indiana and New Jersey and Canada.
The locals pile in from North and South Carolina. The place is now packed year-round, quiet perhaps for a few weeks in January or February. It's true that Myrtle Beach is rife with strip malls and strip clubs, outlet stores and fireworks stores. It's also true that the tacki-meter blips off the charts. But you have to realize that Myrtle Beach is, and always has been, a blue-collar resort.