Live Oak Avenue, Brookgreen Gardens, near Mrytle Beach (Ohio)

This postcard comes from a sender in Ohio, but depicts a place not far from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I wonder if Live Oak Avenue at Brookgreen Gardens still exists? We used to vacation frequently in Myrtle Beach as kids; I remember all six of us piling into the van to drive down from Michigan. In fact, it was in Myrtle Beach that I had one of my earliest awakenings to the mysteries of language.

My little brother and I were playing on a playground at the campground where my family was staying, and we were playing with some other kids who were local to South Carolina. At some point, one of the kids remarked to us, “Yall talk funny.” I indignantly responded, “No, you guys talk funny!” Later, I realized that to them, we did indeed sound funny… just like they sounded funny to us. Maybe that was one of my first realizations about how much identity is wrapped up in the way we talk to one another? Now, of course, I know that everyone talks funny, depending on who’s listening.