In the early 1950s, three lumber mills contributed to the logging of 19,000 acres of the island. The island population was only 300 residents. Before 1956, access to Hilton Head was limited to private boats and a state-operated ferry. The island’s economy centered on shipbuilding, cotton, lumbering, and fishing.

As we prepare to leave Hilton Head Island and to reignite our domestic interests in Mississippi Mills I have today coincidentally been moved to look back on the past and look forward upon the future.

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As I stare out our third floor balcony window, munching slices of organic Honey Crisp apple, I see between sea pines and the tops of palm trees a tee on the golf course.  It is early morning – not long after eight o’clock. The manicured green grass shimmers with dew. The shadows are long across the fairway. Already there are golfers – appearing in the distance like muted brushes of a painting – making the rounds. The sky is clear, more crystal white than blue. I have just returned from the car wash, removing yesterday’s pollen. And filled the gas tank on Lighthouse Road at the outdated Exxon outlet which is there primarily I am sure to accommodate the army of grounds keepers employed by Sea Pines Association and the residential owners. I have routinely seen workers there at noon collecting from the convenience store what seems to be take-out sandwiches wrapped in heavy white paper.

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It’s one thing to talk about it; it’s another to do it. Such was my posture this morning as I arose from beneath the covers. Yesterday’s talk about the beach was today’s reality. The two objectives – the beach and a swim in the sea – were at hand.

In humans, posture can provide a significant amount of important information through nonverbal communication. Psychological studies have also demonstrated the effects of body posture on emotions. This research can be traced back to Charles Darwin’s studies of emotion and movement in humans and animals. Currently, many studies have shown that certain patterns of body movements are indicative of specific emotions. Researchers studied sign language and found that even non-sign language users can determine emotions from only hand movements. Another example is the fact that anger is characterized by forward whole body movement. The theories that guide research in this field are the self-validation or perception theory and the embodied emotion theory.

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The 10-Day Forecast suits me well.  Wind and rain today, then four days of sun and high temps followed by three days of rain and one of sunshine.  The day we leave is predicted to be sunny and warm. This all matters because it enables me to strategize my beach attendances mixed with swimming in the Ocean. Throughout the process, in addition to a beach towel in the bicycle basket, I shall sport my black Speedo swimming trunks, a linen shirt by either Tommy Bahama RELAX (white) or HiHo Beach fit (turquoise), worn-out SAS Decksider lace up Boat Shoes, Apple Watch, Sonny’s Original Surf Paste (Texturizing/Medium Hold/Matte Finish/UV Protecting enriched with Hawaiian Black Lava Sea Salt and Sea Kemp) and customary accompanying glitter on the fourth right, left pinky and around the neck. In the pockets of my trunks will be my iPhone and Carmex Classic Lip Balm (medicated) which I use as a nourishing face cream as well. For the uninterrupted project there are two objectives: sun and swim.

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After taking my usual handful of pills around four o’clock this morning – don’t ask me what they are, I have no idea – I consciously decided to succumb to the reputed soporific effect of one of them. By which I mean, I intended to linger in the virginal lair as long as the analgesic kept me there.  Specifically – and, admittedly, knowing that the weather was forecast to be cloudy – there would be none of the customary urgency to prepare myself for a cycle on the beach; or, as has lately been the inclination, a swim in the pool. Instead today would be a day of quiet repose and inactivity devoted to sipping coffee and continuing to read the History of England as seen through the learned and cultivated eyes of Thomas Babington Macaulay.

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There’s a most unusual sky
Not a sign of a cloud passing by
And if I want to sing, throw my heart in the ring
It’s a most unusual day

There are people meeting people
There is sunshine everywhere
There are people greeting people
And a feeling of Spring in the air

It’s a most unusual time
I keep feeling my temperature climb
If my heart won’t behave in the usual way
Well, there’s only one thing to say
It’s a most unusual, most unusual, most unusual day

Songwriters: Harold Adamson / Jimmy McHugh
It’s a Most Unusual Day lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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The Sea Pines Resort Harbour Town Pool is located just steps across Lighthouse Lane (on which our residence at Cutter Court is located) and adjacent the Club House of the golf course where the RBC Heritage Classic PGA tournament is held in early April.

Use of the Harbour Town Pool is complimentary for registered guests of The Sea Pines Resort with the Guest Amenity Card and Sea Pines property owners with a CSA ID card

The RBC Heritage, known for much of its history as the Heritage Classic or simply the Heritage, is a PGA Tour event in South Carolina, first played 53 years ago in 1969. It is currently played in mid-April, the week after The Masters in Augusta, Georgia.

The venue for its entire existence has been the Harbour Town Golf Links at the Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island. The Harbour Town course, which frequently appears on several “Best Courses” lists, was designed by famed golf course architect Pete Dye, with assistance from Jack Nicklaus. In 1972, the first two rounds were played on both the Harbour Town Golf Links and the Ocean course at Sea Pines, with the final two rounds at Harbour Town.

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Few sentences have been quoted more often than the aphorism: “Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done”. This dictum was laid down by Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England in the case of Rex v. Sussex Justices, [1924] 1 KB 256. This landmark ruling has been the basis of several decisions in administrative and other branches of law where even the appearance of something improper has been a ground to set aside an order of a court, tribunal or quasi-judicial authority

Lord Hewart was a remarkable English judge. He was born in not very affluent circumstances and had to initially work as a journalist before he joined the Bar in 1902, at the age of 32. But his rise in the profession was meteoric and he became King’s Counsel in just ten years (1912). Within the next four years became Solicitor General (1916) and Attorney General three years later. He was appointed as the Lord Chief Justice in 1922 and continued in office for 18 years. He resigned in October, 1940.

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Listening to the news is not what I would normally recommend as a good choice. Certainly it is informative; and, it is an important additive to other social communications.  But to dignify the shadowing as a handpicked decision with the imperative and paramountcy implied by the word choice I would not call a life-changing pursuit. Yet the recent insight on CNN into the senate examination of a presidential nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States has by coincidence critically drawn my attention to this fundamental hallmark of life – choice.

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In 1857, the SS Central America, also known as the “ship of gold”, sank off the coast of the US state of South Carolina, along with some new-found riches from the California Gold Rush.

It was a hurricane that sealed the fate for 425 people returning to the US east coast.

They went down with an estimated 21 tonnes of gold coins and nuggets from prospectors who had struck it rich on the west coast, but some passengers were also carrying something of more personal value – photographs.

Salvaged from the ship’s wreckage in 2014 were daguerreotypes, the first successful commercial form of photography – a one-off picture held on a metal plate – and ambrotypes, a type of glass plate photography.

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