The roads less traveled
October 31, 2024
A nostalgia-filled journey to the Carolina coast by way of the back roads.
by Whitley Adkins | photographs by Richard Israel
A couple of years ago, photographer Richard Israel and I set out toward the Carolina coast on a different kind of trip — one where the journey itself was the destination. With so many roads to travel and so many stories waiting to be told, this summer we set out on the back roads once again, this time accompanied by my adventure-loving friend, Natalie Jetton Zoog, and her precocious 7-year-old daughter, Eva. Our ultimate destination: Carolina Beach and its iconic boardwalk. Here’s what we saw along the way.
Our chosen route takes us to the southeastern outskirts of Charlotte, where we exit Interstate 485 at Matthews and follow US 74 East down through Pageland and Jefferson, South Carolina. When we reach McBee, we make our first stop at a picturesque old railroad station that’s now the McBee Depot Library and Train Museum. Built in 1915 as a depot for both passengers and freight, the station closed in 1971 and, after being purchased by the town, was restored in the 1980s. It’s here where we learn of Eva’s affinity for books and reading as she and Natalie sit on the floor for storytime.
We leave the library in anticipation of Tony’s Ice Cream at McLeod Farms, a fifth-generation family-owned roadside market that’s been around since its first peach crop in 1916. Natalie and Eva enjoy cookies ’n cream ice cream as we stroll through the store, admiring the fresh peaches and other produce, and out back to the fields as the midday summer sun bears down upon us.
Leaving McBee, as we make our way down S.C. Highway 151 toward Bennettsville, I’m captivated by a rusty gas-station sign advertising vintage prices, a smaller “One-Hour Photo” sign and, off in the distance surrounded by an overgrown field, what appears to be an outhouse labeled “The Thinking House.” All of us equally mesmerized, we make our way through the tall grass for a closer look.
Another 20 minutes down the road, we reach a quiet town named Society Hill. The first settlement in Darlington County, Society Hill was once known as the intellectual center of this Pee Dee River region. Across the street, three men gather around a tractor-trailer as a service attendant named Jason changes a tire.
We say goodbye to our new “friends,” and continue on to Bennettsville, where we are sidetracked again by the sight of a beautiful, abandoned brick home on West Main Street. If walls could talk, what stories would they tell?
Our curiosities only partially satisfied, we continue downtown to The Oyster, a vintage and antique shop owned by Melissa Mallette, where I nab a 1970s gold smoked mirror with brass flamed corners for my bathroom and Eva finds a stuffed walrus.
We follow Melissa around the corner to Liberty Street, where her friend, Marco Watson, welcomes us into the barber shop where he is cutting hair for a young boy. Eva joins another boy who is waiting for a game of checkers.
Images from Society Hill in Darlington County, and a scenes from a barbershop in Bennettsville, S.C.
Crossing the Bennettsville border into Blenheim, a brief rainshower begins and ends. Eva giddily calls out to her mom as she spots a double rainbow. We make a U-turn to get a closer look, and, by chance, our first opportunity to safely pull off of the road is in a church parking lot. We look up to the skies as Eva twirls under the rainbow.
As night falls, we arrive at my cousin’s family beach home in Windy Hill Beach, just north of Myrtle Beach. Thirsty and longing to celebrate our arrival, we leave our belongings at the house and walk down the street for a nightcap and a bite to eat. At local dive bar The Knot, Clay, a patron from Alabama who lives part-time in Windy Hill, joins Natalie for a game of pool.
The next day, we continue our journey to historic Southport, North Carolina, for Eva’s first ferry ride to Carolina Beach and its iconic boardwalk. But first, we make a stop in Atlantic Beach, South Carolina. Nicknamed “The Black Pearl,” from the 1930s to the 1970s Atlantic Beach was one of the most popular destinations on the East Coast for Black families. Its hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, shops and pavilion were a bustling attraction. Today, we try to envision what the old beach motels, clubs and an empty skating rink were like during livelier times.
Arriving in Southport, we stroll along the boardwalk and through town. While the area was inhabited by Native Americans for hundreds of years, Spanish and English explorers arrived in the 16th century and the town was populated in the 1700s. Aboard the ferry, we watch seagulls soar through the viewfinder and meet Bruce Pennington, who has worked for the North Carolina ferry division for 20 years. A retiree from Virginia, he shares with us his favorite part of the job is people-watching. His favorite passenger, perhaps, was a lady who “would do the hula hoop on the front deck” as she traveled to work every morning from Carolina Beach to Southport.
Carolina Beach Boardwalk dates to 1887 and has survived a fire in 1940 and damage from Hurricane Hazel in 1954. With bumper cars, a merry-go-round, ferris wheel and more, the amusement park is a popular draw for families.
On our way back home, we stop to take a closer look at an antique shop in a crumbling pink building adorned with patriotic banners and an American flag in the unincorporated community of Supply.
Here on the back roads, we awakened our senses and our souls. SP