Prince of Tides

So, I've lived in South Carolina now for more than ten years.  They have been busy years, kids, school, job, starting a second career.  So, that busy-ness is sort of my excuse for missing Pat Conroy.

Pat was a writer.  He died just recently.   It was big news here in South Cakalaky.  It was even bigger news for me, because I missed the whole thing entirely.

So, I dug into him a bit.  Turns out, he wrote a book called "Prince of Tides".

"Hey", I said to myself.  "That's a Jimmy Buffet tune.  That's a damn good Jimmy Buffet tune.  And I know it has to do with South Carolina coast and that's what Pat Conroy wrote about."  I wondered if there was a connection.

There was.  As a matter of fact, the connection was reciprocal.  Jimmy Buffet's song, which was influenced by the Pat Conroy book, ends with the line "Beach music, beach music, beach music just plays on".  And Beach Music was the name of Conroy's next novel, influenced by the song which had been influenced by his last book.

I have a lot of reading to catch up on.  Thank you, Mr. Conroy.  I'm sorry I didn't like you before you died.

This whole thing reminds me of T-Bone Wok.  I learned about T-Bone from watching the internet program "Live From Daryl's House", which is a music performance program.  I started watching the program probably in 2012, only to learn while watching a tribute episode for T-Bone that he had died in 2010.  It was weird to not know he was already dead.

I'm hoping I get the same experience with Pat Conroy, only backwards.