Pawleys Island Pavilion Reunion

Shaggin' Under the Stars

All you have to do is come.......

HISTORY OF THE PAWLEYS PAVILION REUNION

The July 4^th Parade is held on the tiny Island of Pawleys each year since the 1970s with vacationers and local families participating in all sorts of fun-filled and imaginative “floats”.  After many years of being a participant and bystander, I always wondered why no one ever remembered “The Pavilion”.  After all, it was THE place to go when I was a teenager and many years prior dating back into the 1920s.  I would always tell myself that I would love to do a float about the Pavilion one day, but for one reason or another I never had gotten around to it.

In 1995, I was asked to be on the Pawleys Island-Litchfield Business Association Board of Directors (PILBA), and one of our purposes was to create a happening of sorts to bring tourists into our area especially in seasons not filled with tourists.  We thought and thought, and I thought and thought, and then came up with the idea of having a festival….and better yet…a “party”!  I then mentioned how much I wished we could have the Pavilion to go to once again as in our youth.  Well, if you put those two ideas together …party & Pavilion…you come up with the grand idea of having a Pavilion Party or “reunion” of some sort.  After working out the details (for two years, mind you) with the Pawleys Island Town Council, we were finally given the green light, and the Pawleys Pavilion Reunion became a reality. 

Since we, the PILBA Board, had no idea of how this would work, we decided to put a float (remember?) into the Fourth of July Parade (my wish) in 1997 to see what the response would be.  We had two huge paintings of the final (my) Pavilion (that unfortunately was destroyed by arson in 1970) recreated by local artists.  The response we had by parade goers was phenomenal!  Everyone was pointing at the paintings and remembering.  On the side of this “float” was written that there would be a Pavilion Party in May 1998…one year later.  So many of these people were from elsewhere, but they remembered.  We knew we had to put the show on the road so to speak! 

Actually, the show on the road had to be where the last Pavilion actually was.  In my letter to the Town Council, I asked that the Pavilion Reunion be held where it had been on the Island “where the ghosts are”.  It just wouldn’t be the same elsewhere.  I knew that it we could go back just one more time for just one night and have a chance to Relive the Memories of the Pawleys Pavilion …You see, none of us ever had the chance to tell that wonderful place where we met and made friendships and fell in love, then danced the night away with the best bands of our youth goodbye.

When May 8, 1998 finally arrived, I believed that if we had 500 people show up, I’d consider it a job well done.  Truly, I was scared to death that no one would come…Man, was I mistaken!  Try several thousand for size.  There were people from all over South and North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, etc., just to name a few, plus people who had moved away and returned for just one night….  What I realized was that no one had forgotten the Pavilion, and for those unfortunate ones who had never been there, well, this wonderful night gave them the opportunity to build their memories from ours.

It has been going strong ever since, and this year, May 10, 2008 will be our 11^th.  Our band of choice is the Catalinas.   Please join us.  You will have the time of your life at THE party on the South Carolina Coast…one to remember… on Pawleys Island at the Pawleys Pavilion Reunion…where it was…and Relive Your Memories and make some.

                                                            Molly Hamilton Mercer

                                                            Founder & Chairperson