Myrtle Beach Life

Myrtle Beach Pavillion Spring 1949

The Myrtle Beach area – then known as Long Bay – was inhabited by the Waccamaw Indians before the Europeans arrived in the late 18th century.

In 1899, Burroughs and Collins received a charter to build the Conway and Seashore Railroad, which began service in 1900. Railroad workers spent their downtime at the beach, becoming the area’s first tourists. The beach area was then called “New Town” in contrast to the “Old Town” of Conway. 

In 1900, a contest was held to rename the town. In homage to the wax myrtle bushes that are so prominent here, Addie Burroughs, widow of Franklin G. Burroughs, offered the name Myrtle Beach. The name stuck, and Myrtle Beach became an official town in 1938. It became a city in 1957. 

The town grew gradually from a farming community into a beach destination. John T. Woodside’s construction of a golf course and the grand Ocean Forest Hotel were instrumental in developing the area’s tourism culture. The Ocean Forest Hotel was built in 1930 and covered 13 acres of oceanfront land, offering the first upscale accommodations in the Myrtle Beach area. 

From one hotel to hundreds of accommodations choices today, the Myrtle Beach area remains a tourist destination, attracting more than 14 million visitors each year.

www.familykingdomfun.com

Hurricane RollerCoaster Ride  

The Myrtle Beach Pavilion was an historic pay-per-ride park, no parking fee 11-acre amusement park that was located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at the corner of 9th Avenue and Ocean Boulevard, which is just a few blocks down from another Myrtle Beach amusement park the Family Kingdom Amusement Park both in the "heart" of Myrtle Beach. "The Pavilion” had well over 40 different attractions from kids to thrill-seekers alike, and included the wooden rollercoaster Hurricane: Category 5. Despite all the best efforts made by citizens to save the park it was lost to redevelopment in 2007.

The actual history of the Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park goes back long before the park ever came in existence. There have been several Pavilions were built in the decades prior to the Pavilion being built and all which were a product of Burroughs and Chapin who were one of the main companies responsible for the development of the Myrtle Beach area. Each of the Pavilions were built with a different architectural style and were even built of different materials, but all served a place where the community could gather for interaction and entertainment.

The first Pavilion that was built in 1908 was a one-story building that was part of Myrtle Beach's first hotel, the now long gone Seaside Inn. It was destroyed in 1920 by a fire, though the bricks from that site were later used in nearby Conway. The Pavilion was later rebuilt in 1925 as a two-story complex which was hit with another fire in 1943 which burned the building to the ground. It was rebuilt for a third time in 1948 and this Pavilion was built out of concrete and steel and had a large wooden dance floor which was located on the second floor along with a stage and grandstands.

The amusement park itself began development on the west side of Ocean Boulevard, across the street from the new Pavilion building in 1948. A traveling carnival that had stopped in Conway, SC for the annual Tobacco Festival, but soon found a permanent home across the street from the Pavilion and after the carnival signed an agreement with Burroughs and Chapin the Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park was born. Numerous acts such as ice skaters, bear acts, and talent shows were immediately brought in to supplement the carnival and also to help boost interest in the new “park.”

In 1950, just two years after its opening, Burroughs and Chapin bought out the Central Amusement Company the owners of the park at the time and added 14 new rides to the park and also added new concessions to the park. Over the years, the park will add as well as and exchange numerous carnival-style flat rides, as well as suffering and fighting through several hurricanes.

Among its significant historical attractions were the Herschell-Sillman Carousel as well as the Baden Band Organ. The Carousel itself dates back to 1912, and include numerous types of animals such as: frogs, lions, ostriches, zebras, giraffes, and even dragons instead of using the classical horses. The only horse found on the carousel is the “lead horse." which was decorated in great detail and was located on the outside row of the ride. Even though the area has unfriendly weather and climatic condition near the beach, the carousel has been maintained well over the year and it still continues to operate to this day at Pavilion Nostalgia at Broadway At The Beach and is one of only 15 working Herschell-Spillman carousels in the country.

Baden Band Organ

The Baden Band Organ one of the parks other historical features was originally hand-built, decorated and crafted by Ruth and Sohn in Waldkirch Baden, Germany for display at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris. After the World Exposition the organ traveled all around Europe on a wagon and eventually landed at "The Pavilion." It had over 400 pipes, 98 keys, and was 20 feet wide, 11 feet high and 7 feet deep, making it a giant organ that also weighed two tons.

Beside the numerous carnival-style Flat rides and a variety of Kiddie rides normally found at Carnivals, fairs or amusement parks, there was a a log flume ride called Hydro: SURGE, which was a famous Haunted Hotel dark ride, and, more importantly, it was the home to six roller coasters during the Pavilions nearly 60 year life. The first rollercoaster was received in 1951 and was called Comet Jr, which was a pint sized wooden coaster that was built by National Amusement Devices Company that remained at the park until the late 1960s. The park also had a S.D.C. Galaxi model roller coaster at one point, which was simply called Galaxi that was removed from the park in 1997. One the smaller coaster front the park had a train-themed Mack family coaster called the Little Eagle that opened in in 1986. The Arrow Dynamics’ Mad Mouse wild mouse coaster opened in 1998 which replaced the Galaxi that was removed from the park a year earlier. After the closure of the park, both of these small coasters where moved to the NASCAR Speedpark in Myrtle Beach, SC.

In 1978, the park added its first major coaster, which was the steel looping Corkscrew, also built by Arrow Development, that had been relocated to The Pavilion from the Magic Harbor. The coaster featured a 70 foot drop, as well as double corkscrews along the rides 1,250 foot long course. 

Mad Mouse and Hurricane

After it was in operation for 31 years at the park it was closed and relocated to the Salitre Magico park in Columbia in order to make way for the parks new signature coaster, Hurricane: Category 5 (known as “Hurricane” for short) that was built by Custom Coasters International (CCI) at a total cost of $6 million. The “Hurricane” was a 3,800-foot long, hybrid-structure coaster that featured an out-and-back style layout that included 14 turns and double helices at each, a 100 foot drop, and a top speed of 55 mph. At the time of the parks closing in 2006, the "Hurricane" was scrapped, but the Gerstlauer trains ride was purchased by Kings Island to use on their modified Son of Beast coaster.

Just shortly before the start of the 2006 operation season, Burroughs and Chapin the owner of the Pavilion announced that the 2006 would be the park's final operating season. The park officially held its last public operating day on September 24, 2006, but held a special special “Last Ride” event for select participants on September 30. The announcement of the closure of the park lead to the park to see record profits as well as attendance, but there was no hope to try to save the park due to what the parks owners called to “financial instability.”

While both the Haunted Hotel and Hurricane roller coaster were demolished following closure of the parks, not all of The Pavilion was lost. The parks carousel along with the Baden Band Organ, and several other small parks were relocated to “mini-park,” called the Pavilion Nostalgia Park that is located at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, SC that opened in 2007. Even though the area where the Pavilion used to be still sits vacant, and several nearby business have been devastated by the loss, both the Pavilion Nostalgia Park and a commemorative historical marker will not allow The Pavilion’s memory and history to be lost.

The slogan for the Farewell Season was "One More Ride, One More Thrill, One More Memory, One Last Time.

  Myrtle Beach SkyWheel

Happy or Joyful Christmas?

I love Christmas! I love everything about it. I love the decorations, the gifts, the food, the fun, the time with family, the laughter, the cooking. I love it all! For me, Christmas is a precious time of the year. Yet it occurs to me that Christmas is not a happy time for everyone. Many are alone, having to do without necessities (let alone luxuries), missing a loved one for the first time, or not in a place within themselves to celebrate anything. For some, Christmas is a struggle.

I know that my enjoyment is temporal. It doesn’t last forever. A time will come when the festivities will come to an end, the decorations will be put away, the food will eventually diminish and we will return home from spending precious time with our families. My happiness will dwindle with the ending of the festivities.

Yet, the joy of Christmas is free for us all and is eternal. It’s the joy of the knowledge that God Himself entered our world to meet with us and to save us. He came to us as a baby – vulnerable, shamed by the gossip surrounding His very existence, His life under threat by those who feared for their position in life. Our God came down to this and was born into the dirt and squalour of a stable. He wasn’t born into a clean, safe environment. His first hours were hours of dirt, mess and fear. He entered our dirty, messy, fearful world to save us from the grip of the enemy. He came because He loves us and wants to draw us back to Himself.

This is the Christmas joy we can all celebrate. This isn’t temporal, it’s eternal. It will last forever. My prayer this Christmas time is that we all find that joy – a joy that deepens as we look to our Saviour and celebrate all that He has done for us. If you’re struggling with Christmas this year, I pray this unfathomable joy will be your strength. For those of us who have much to enjoy, I pray that you won’t lost sight of the deep joy that surpasses our understanding.

Prayer: What can we say to our Saviour who came to this earth to save us? Thank You does not seem enough but it’s all we have. Help us, Lord, to know the joy that is ours for free and is eternal, and help us not to lose sight of this truth as we celebrate your birth. We especially pray for those who are struggling this Christmas time. May You give each one of us the only gift that matters this year: may Your love penetrate our hearts in a deep and precious way. Amen.

Obama's Stunning Snub

GETTYSBURG – He almost was not asked to speak.

In October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln received the same plain envelope that was sent to hundreds of people, requesting attendance at a dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery here.

 

Col. Clark E. Carr, a confidante of several U.S. presidents and a member of the commission that organized the event, later admitted that commissioners scrambled to send a more personal invitation after Lincoln indicated he would attend.

Asking Lincoln to deliver a “few appropriate thoughts,” Carr said, was “an afterthought.”

You see, the dedication’s real headliner was Edward Everett. A former secretary of state, U.S. senator, Massachusetts governor and Harvard president whose nationwide tour helped to save Mount Vernon as a national shrine, Everett was considered the great orator of his time.

When Lincoln arrived, Gettysburg remained raw from the horrific battle that raged here for three days just five months earlier. More than 70,000 Confederate troops engaged 83,000 Federal troops around this crossroads town; the battle claimed more than 50,000 souls and 3,000 horses, and it changed the course of the war in the Union’s favor.

The bones of dead horses still were strewn over surrounding farmlands; vultures hovered over the landscape, and unburied coffins stood stacked in town.

Lincoln had plenty of justifiable, honorable reasons to beg off from the ceremony: His ten-year-old son, Tad, lay sick with a fever in the White House; the war was going poorly out West; he was locked in a budget showdown with Congress, and his re-election bid looked grim against a general he fired for incompetence a year earlier.

Yet he came to a place underscored with death, tasked with making sense of it all with “a few appropriate thoughts” that gave meaning to the losses and the unbearable sacrifices.

On a brisk, cloudless November day, he stood on the temporary wooden stage after a two-hour speech by Everett who, by all accounts, enthralled the crowd with his pontificating skills.

“Four score and seven years ago,” he began in a squeaky, hard-to-hear voice before a crowd that had gathered from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

Three minutes and 270 words later, he sat down, convinced that he missed his mark.

He was wrong.

In nine days, this town will commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s speech with a ceremony at the same Soldiers' National Cemetery featuring the U.S. Marine Band, Governor Tom Corbett, and a reading of the Gettysburg Address.

One person who will not be among those honoring Lincoln is President Barack Obama.

The White House gave no reason why the president would not attend.

According to the National Park Service, Obama has never visited the battlefield as president.

In 2008, Barack Obama rolled out his presidential campaign in Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln announced his own presidential candidacy. Throughout that year’s campaign, Obama’s staff embraced similarities between the two men as part of his persona; he allowed them to encourage lofty comparisons – and, after he won the election, he recreated Lincoln’s 1861 train trip to Washington as part of his own inaugural spectacle.

He even took the oath of office on Lincoln’s Bible – twice.

Lincoln brought the country to a revival at an unlikely time with his address. He gave new meaning to the definition of sacrifice in service to the country, for the purpose of the preserving the country.

Lincoln was asked to speak here only as an afterthought. The request for Obama to speak has been sought for more than a year.

It would be an occasion for him to honor a crucial time in our past, to create a historical bridge to today.

His dismissal of the request shows a man so detached from the duty of history, from the men who served in the White House before him, that it is unspeakable in its audacity.

Ask almost any person in this historic town; even his most ardent supporters here are stunned.

Obama long ago veered away from any affinity he may have believed he had with Lincoln, which gives credibility to the criticism that his connection to Lincoln was always a political calculation rather than a true bond.

What do I believe in?

"What do I believe in?"

I Believe

I believe that most people are inherently good.
I believe, when given a chance, most people will do the right thing.
I believe that most Americans will do anything for their families.
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I believe in God the Father Almighty, the maker of the Heavens and Earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
I believe that he died and on the third day of his death he became alive again so he could wash away the sins with his blood for all who trust and believe in him.
I believe you can have eternal life in Heaven.

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I believe that opportunity is usually disguised as hard work. 
I believe that the free enterprise system is a gift from God. 
I believe that the ability to forgive and forget will set you free. 
I believe that the harder you work, the luckier you get.
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I believe in Liberty.

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I believe in choosing to be happy. 
I believe in accepting responsibility for everything that happens to me. 
I believe that every challenge or obstacle is an opportunity to become a better person. 
I believe that life can be tough, but at the end of the day, life is what you make of it.
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I believe in my Family.

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I believe that evil exists.
I believe in demons and the devil. That they are the reason that evil and sin exist. 
I believe it is my responsibility to protect all that is good from all that is bad. 
I believe in preparing for the worst while expecting the best. 
I believe in the natural-born and inalienable right to self protection. 

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I believe in myself.
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I believe that a gun cannot be good or bad. It is simply a thing. A tool.
I believe that some people cannot be trusted with any type of instrument that can cause harm to anyone or themselves. 
I believe that the founders of our Country used these tools we call guns to liberate themselves from tyranny.

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I believe in being peaceful and avoiding conflicts at all costs.
I believe in fighting as if the lives of my family depend on it...because they do!
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I believe in the power of prayer.
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This is what I believe.

E.S. Ray

Bible Promises

God always keeps his promises. It's in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 1:19-20, NKJV. "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us"

God never takes back or changes His promises. It's in the Bible, Psalm 89:34, TLB. "No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back one word of what I said."

None of God's promises ever fail. It's in the Bible, Joshua 23:14, NIV. "You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed."

We have been promised eternal life. It's in the Bible, 1 John 2:25, NKJV. "And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.

God can do the impossible. It's in the Bible, Luke 18:27, NKJV. "But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

We have been promised new hearts and desires. It's in the Bible, Ezekiel 36:26, NKJV. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

He has promised forgiveness. It's in the Bible, 1 John 1:9, NKJV. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

God promises our sins will be far removed from us. It's in the Bible, Psalm 103:12, NKJV. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

We are promised that our sins will be buried. It's in the Bible, Micah 7:19, NKJV. " He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

He has promised the fruit of the Spirit. It's in the Bible, Galatians 5:22-23, NKJV. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."

He has promised deliverance from fear. It's in the Bible, Psalm 34:4, NKJV. "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."

God has promised salvation for our children. It's in the Bible, Isaiah 49:25, NKJV. "For I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children."

We are promised the Holy Spirit. It's in the Bible, Luke 11:13, NKJV. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

All of our needs will be supplied. It's in the Bible, Philippians 4:19, NKJV. "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

God gave the best He had by giving us His only Son. It's in the Bible, Romans 8:32, NKJV. "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

God does not hold back anything that is for your benefit or good. It's in the Bible, Psalm 84:11, TLB. "For Jehovah God is our Light and our Protector. He gives us grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from those who walk along his paths."

He has promised wisdom. It's in the Bible, James 1:5, NKJV. "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him."

God has promised peace. It's in the Bible, Isaiah 26:3, NKJV. "You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."

God has promised victory over temptations. It's in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:13, NKJV. "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

We have the promise of health and healing. It's in the Bible, Jeremiah 30:17, NKJV. "For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord"

God has promised protection from harm and danger. It's in the Bible, Psalm 91:4-6, NKJV. "He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday."

The Bible promises that the dead will live again. It's in the Bible, John 5:28-29, NKJV. "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

Jesus has promised that He will come again. It's in the Bible, John 14:2-3, NKJV. "In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

He has promised an end to death, sorrow, and pain. It's in the Bible, Revelation 21:4, NKJV. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

~E. S. Ray