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Thanks to your people I'm eating like royalty

by MJ Malleck//

You may have noticed that I often find the “Canadian” connection when I am researching these postcards. Today I found a few.

This is a card of the Ocean Dunes Motor Inn on 74th and 75th Ave North Myrtle Beach South Carolina.

“Hi, Enjoyed our trip thanks to your people. The food here is just great. We are eating like kings. The golf courses are just great. Ted has played every day and I go out twice. Club houses and homes something to see. Weather cool but sunny. Getting a good rest and feeling great See you Thanksgiving. L. Ted & Bonnie.”

There is no date, but the American Flag stamp (8 cents) is from 1971. And the mention of Thanksgiving makes me think this trip is taking place in September.

I found an Ocean Dunes Resort and Villas, and a current photograph that looks almost exactly like this postcard. Now it is called the North Shore Oceanfront Hotel. Daily room rates are from US $69 to $500 for the Penthouse.  

I wonder if by CLUB the writer means the Dunes Golf and Beach Club, which began in 1947 at a small fishing cabin overlooking the ocean. It’s a member-owned club, exclusive, and I wonder if the reference to “your people” means that Ted and Bonnie are riding the coattails of the postcard receiver – who perhaps let them use their membership as guests to go golfing there?

The Dunes is one of the top 100 golf courses in many rankings and has hosted the PGA tours and other events. It was designed in 1948 by a little-known golf architect Robert Trent Jones, who died as a very famous golf architect in 2000 just before his 94th birthday. During his lifetime he designed or redesigned more than 500 courses in 45 States and 35 countries.  Canadian connection – he worked with a Canadian golf architect on a course in Alberta, one in Kamloops BC and the Marshes in Ottawa. The public course in Ottawa is distinctive because it qualifies as a wildlife sanctuary and was the final collaboration between Robert Trent Jones Sr and Jr. (Both his sons became golf architects).  

I’m not a golfer, or even a fan of the game, but even I know the “Carolinas” are world renowned as a golf destination. What I didn’t know is that there is evidence that the golf was first played in America in downtown Charleston. There is a record of golf balls (432 of them) and golf clubs (96 of them) arriving from Leith, Scotland in 1743. In the 1960s the golf industry expanded with farmland being turned into golf courses. Apparently, this was the beginning of golf tourism stretching from summer to include the “shoulder” seasons of spring and fall. 

Perhaps, eating like kings, meant that our tourists had Eggs Benedict for breakfast. In June, 1971 the Chicago Tribune ran an article called “Adventuring with Eggs” and made the Waldorf Astoria-served dish more popular. Eggs Benedict is usually made with Canadian (what we call peameal) bacon.  Here’s a recipe:

https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/eggs-benedict-with-homemade-hollandaise-sauce/

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