Pawleys Island: An Old Man's Love Story

This personal memoir of the author's 70 summers on one of America's oldest resort islands is a charming time capsule of life as it was. There have been many books written and published about Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Few, however, are written from one person's personal experiences. "Mac" McAlister began visiting Pawleys Island with his family in the 1940's. He spent part of his high school summers and three college summers on the "arrogantly shabby" island, living in the back of the Pawleys Island Drugstore and observing what went on at the Lafayette Pavilion. Returning from active duty in the Navy in 1960, he lived on Pawleys Island, serving as the planner and overseer of the new Pawley Pavilion. He met and married his artist wife there and honeymooned on the island. Later, while living in Chapel Hill, NC, the couple bought property on the creek side of Pawleys Island and built a prefabricated beach house ("Marshmellow"), trucking the parts from Chapel Hill and constructing the house themselves. By 1972, Mac was the Project Manager for the construction of Pawleys Pier Village and his growing family lived in Marshmellow. In 1974, as one of the developers of Belle Isle Villas, the consortium bought property and built a clubhouse on the Island. Mac and wife Mary and their three sons visited the Belle Isle Beach House regularly and began planning long distance sailing adventures on their sailboat, starting in 1976 and ending in 2007. A celebration of life for Mary and one son, both of whom died in 2018, was held on Pawleys Island. An Old Man's Love Story, written during Mac's 85th year, covers his observations of the changes that occurred on the island and the near-legendary people who lived there between 1954 and 2018.