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Love Stories From the Dance Floor

Posted on: Sunday, 18 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Dawn Bryant, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Jun. 18--MORE PAVILION COVERAGE [/mld/myrtlebeachonline/business/special_packages/theme_parks/]

Ask Buddy and Penny Styers how they met, and be prepared to hear two stories.

They agree that they first caught each other's eyes at The Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park in 1961, like many couples have done since it opened in 1948.

They agree that they danced there. They even have a picture in front The Pavilion clock taken the day after they boogied the night away.

But who made the first move is the stickler.

This could be one of the longest-running, yet friendliest feuds in Horry County. It started as soon as the pair walked down the aisle nearly 42 years ago.

"You are going to hear me contradict him a lot," Penny said, giving Buddy a look before the two started sharing their love story. "Because I have the facts."

The sticking point is who asked who to dance at The Pavilion.

Each is adamant about their version, lovingly swatting at each other as they rehash the argument that they've had many times before.

"We have laughed about this for 42 years," Buddy said, sitting beside Penny on the sage couch in their Arcadia Ridge home. "I was telling the story one time and I said that she asked me to dance. She looked at me and said, 'I did not! Why would I need to ask you to dance?'"

Penny's version goes like this: She was a teenager visiting from Winston-Salem, N.C., with friends. She admits that Buddy caught her eye as soon as she walked into The Pavilion dance hall, "He was clean-cut, handsome, pretty teeth. He just had the whole package." But he was the one who approached her as she made her way to the center of the dance floor.

"He turned around and saw me and he asked me to dance," Penny said.

Regardless of who is right, the Styers' story of locking eyes across The Pavilion dance floor is one of many. The amusement park -- a Myrtle Beach landmark since 1948 -- likely has spawned as many marriages and rendezvous as snow cones.

The dance floor is the most popular meeting spot, but others share tales of meeting under the rides' blinking lights, in the arcade, on the Boulevard or on the beach near The Pavilion.

Eloise Moshoures of Myrtle Beach won over her future husband, John, after she won a singing contest at The Pavilion. John was in the audience, and the two were married six weeks later. The union lasted 55 years until John's death in 2001.

Larry Collins of Bennettsville snagged his sweetheart, Marilyn, in 1974. He was girl watching from a bench near The Attic when she strolled by. They've been married for nearly 30 years.

One couple even got married at The Pavilion in the early 1990s, according to Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc., which owns the park.

For those who want to say their "I-dos" at the peculiar wedding spot, time is running out. The Pavilion is calling it quits after this summer.

"I sure understand what causes things like that to happen," Buddy said. "But The Pavilion is just one of those things you just assumed would be there forever."

The Styers' story doesn't end on the dance floor.

Buddy, who grew up in Myrtle Beach and admittedly danced just to meet girls, convinced Penny to take a ride that first night in his souped-up 1955 Chevy station wagon -- even wiping down the seats with his handkerchief after the rain soaked them (Buddy left the windows down while he danced).

They took a ride and passed the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, which Buddy has been in charge of redeveloping after it closed in 1993.

He tried to play a joke on Penny that night and lied by saying the base was a penitentiary housing 2,000 of the worst criminals. Buddy admits today that he doesn't know what he was trying to accomplish with that fib. Penny says this proves she's right, because if he'd lied about that, he'd also lie about who asked who to dance.

But then it was on to the Second Avenue Pier, where a full moon reflecting on the ocean created the perfect backdrop for their first kiss.

"There we were, just the two of us," Penny recalled.

That smooch started a three-year, long-distance courtship, though it took a while for the two to realize they had found "the one" in each other.

Penny returned to Winston-Salem where she graduated from Mineral Springs High School. Buddy continued hitting on girls every weekend at The Pavilion, but wrote letters to Penny (and a few other girls) and even visited her in Winston.

But it was Penny, the dark-haired Elizabeth Taylor lookalike, who won his heart as his date to a Valentine's Day dance in 1963 at his school, Erskine College in Due West.

"From that point on it was a given," Buddy said. "She was something to see -- really pretty. She was a good-looking thing."

Penny knew she had met her match after running into Buddy once again on the dance floor, this time during her senior week trip to the beach. She ditched a man she had talked about marrying. Buddy danced, the other guy didn't.

"That's when I fell in love ... I started making excuses with the other guy," she said.

Dancing brought the Styers together, and it's helped keep them that way for four decades and through raising two children and spoiling a 3-year-old granddaughter, Lily.

They still shag, frequently showing off at Fat Harold's Beach Club in North Myrtle Beach, and they have even placed in a few dance competitions they entered spur-of-the-moment, including one for the twist.

Their love of the shag, which in their day was called "fast-dancing," won't change.

And neither will their different stories about who asked who to dance that first night.

"I refuse to give in," Buddy said. "I'm going to stand my ground until I die."

New page | We've launched a page called "One Last Summer" to chronicle the future of The Myrtle Beach Pavilion.

More photos | View recent and historical Pavilion images.

Send us your photos | Share your Pavilion vacation photos with us. Get details online.

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Love letters from the beach. 8A

Buddy Styers

Age: 64

Job: Executive director of the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority

He grew up in Myrtle Beach.

Penny Styers

Age: 61

Job: Former legal secretary and operations director for a speakers bureau.

She grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., and took vacations in Myrtle Beach.

How they met: Dancing at The Myrtle Beach Pavilion Amusement Park

Date they got married: August 1964 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Their song: "Hello, Stranger" by Barbara Lewis

Family: Two children, Lesley Gray and Lindsay Styers; one 3-year-old grandchild, Lily Gray Britten

Contact DAWN BRYANT at 626-0296 or dbryant@thesunnews.com [mailto:dbryant@thesunnews.com].

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

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