Parents show how good it can someday be

Sunday, November 27, 2005

This is my parents' favorite time of the year. Friday they headed to Myrtle Beach, S.C., their second home, where they will live for the next four months.

My parents, who live in a big city on a lake, both look forward to their annual trip to South Carolina; greeting friends they have made in previous years, staying at their place on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. My dad, however, even at 73, is like a kid at Christmas as the trip approaches.

My father is an amazing person. He has the wet version of macular degeneration - he is basically blind. No longer can he help with the drive to Myrtle Beach, which is why my parents now leave a month earlier; no way Mom wants to drive over the mountains in a snowstorm.

With just peripheral vision remaining, my dad enjoys life to an extent I can only dream of doing. He uses a cane, but because of some other physical problems, he might need that even with perfect eyesight. If he is in a familiar area, people who do not know he is blind would never know. When I visited my parents last February in South Carolina, my dad enjoyed the sights as much as my mother and I.

I joked with him last Sunday that I was going to stow away with them Friday. He said that would be fine, as long as I was willing to be tied on the hood like a trophy deer. Hmm, tempting, I said, but I guess the ride might be a little too rough.

I fell in love with the Carolinas last year and early 2005 - my wife and I passed through on our way back from Florida and had a great time at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. - but I'm not sure how much it was love for the area as much as enjoying having my parents show off their home away from home.

Typical of many of us, growing up I was frustrated by my parents. My dad and I both once had fiery tempers and used to have some interesting "discussions."

I now appreciate Mom and Dad. Neither is much older than I am; I hope to spend a lot of time with them in the years to come. I hope one of these days my wife can come with me to South Carolina, because a person is guaranteed a good time - and an interesting one - with the elder Pulliams. They skip the tourist traps - plenty of those in Myrtle Beach - and travel to places like Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., as well as Civil War battlefields and interesting little museums.

Sunday I told my dad what I have long felt - he is my hero. My parents are not without faults, who is? But I love them and am happy it is once again the best time of the year for them. If my wife and I enjoy our retirement even half as much, the so-called "Golden Years" will live up to the name.

John R. Pulliam is senior reporter at The Register-Mail. Respond to this column or send column ideas to him at 343-7181, Ext. 215, or jpulliam@register-mail.com.