Greek Boy, Growing Up Southern: A Myrtle Beach Memoir by Dino Thompson (Snug Press, $24.95)
" 'So where you from?' some pasty-face tourist would ask while they were fingerin their plastic coin purse, tryin to tip you a quarter for bussin their table, rentin em some swim trunks, deliverin their footlong, putting away their luggage, or rockin their red rental umbrella in the hot sand.
'I'm from here mam,' I'd say.
'I mean where do you live during the wintertime?'
'I live here all year long mam.'…Their eyes would glaze over, their head would RCA dog to one side. They'd just had a close encounter.
Next question would dive even deeper. 'Are there schools and things like that here?'
'Yes mam. We go to school in the wintertime.'
'Do they teach, uh, you know, normal type school stuff?'
Tip or no tip, that's when you had to cut em off at the mental knees.
'Yes mam. We learn reading, writin, how to shortchange customers, shaggin, sashayin, thumbin, moochin, beachbummin, burger flippin, bingo callin, bikini removal, float expansion, umbrella placement, coconut carvin, curb hoppin, skeeball repair, luggage totin, innertube instruction, taffy pullin, whistle blowin, windshield wiping, and how to give real bad directions…they's even a few of us who know the secret recipe for cotton candy, corn dogs and wine spo-dee-o-dee.' " --excerpted from the book
