To say Folly Beach is peculiar is to say the sun is hot, night is dark, and that Marty Feldman never graced the cover of People magazine as the “Sexiest Man Alive.”  After all, Folly Beach is – in the now famous phrase coined by my friend and former boss Bill Perry – the Edge of America.[1]

I’ve always liked the sound of the word peculiar. According to my very own OED  (whose print Superman with telescopic vision would have difficulty decoding), peculiar comes to English from the Latin peculium, originally meaning “property in cattle.” That cow over there – let’s call her Elsa –  belongs to US Representative Devin Nunes. She’s peculiar to Representative Nunes in that she’s his alone. She’s peculiar to him.  But it’s also peculiar that Devin Nunes is suing the cow known as “Devin Nunes’ Cow.” I’m not making this up. [2]

Over time, as words are wont to do, the definition of “peculiar” branched out from the pasture of private ownership and took on the meaning of being different from others. Not surprisingly, being different acquired somewhat of a negative connotation, because to many, especially those intent on keeping up with the Joneses, being different (or unusual) is often not a good thing.

No PR person would ever come up with the phrase “Edge of America” to promote Kiawah Island. Kiawah doesn’t mind being different in an exclusive or unique way, but it certainly doesn’t want to come off as edgy, and it’s succeeded. Kiawah is about as edgy as Jack Nicklaus.

Not to be confused with Jack Nicholson.  I remember seeing an interview with Jack Nicholson not long after the actor Hugh Grant’s arrest for solicitation. The interviewer (maybe Barbra Walters) asked Jack why someone rich and good-looking and married to a beautiful woman (i.e., someone like Hugh Grant) would require the services of a prostitute.

“Peculiarities,” Jack said with his trademark leer, “peculiarities.”

So another denotation of peculiar  – actually the number one denotation – is “strange or odd,” like walking in “polka dots and checkered slacks,” to borrow a phrase from Elvis Costello (and to avoid examples of possible outré sexual inclinations that might have prompted Mr. Grant to seek peculiar connubial pleasures outside the bounds of his marriage).

Good God, I’ve wandered far afield from paragraph one. Actually, what I want to know is what makes so Folly different from its barrier island neighbors, the Isle of Palms and Sullivans Island?  What is it about Folly that makes it so peculiar?

To attempt to find the answer to this ultimately useless question, I did some googling on Yahoo (mixed metaphors is where it’s at) and compared the demographics of the three island communities.[3]

2021 Population:

Folly Beach  1,035 (61.15% 1-year decline!)

Isle of Palms 4,318 (1.21% 1-year decline)

Sullivan’s Island 2,220 (.09% 1-year increase)

2021 Median Ages

Folly Beach 62 (18.3% 1 year increase)

Isle of Palms 51.7 (3.54% 1-year decline)

Sullivans Island 51.7 (strange that Sullivan’s and IOP’s median age is exactly the same)

Once again, Folly is the median.

2021 Poverty Rate

Folly Beach 16.2% (61.3% 1-year increase)

Isle of Palms 2.51% (2.43% 1-year decrease)

Sullivan’s Island 10.1%

2021 Median Household Income

Folly Beach

$76,250 (14.3% 1-year decline)

Isle of Palms

$134,917 (4.97% 1-year growth)

Sullivan’s Island

$229,118

Median 2021 Property Value

Folly Beach $632,700 (1.36% 1-year growth)

Isle of Palms $883,200 (8.33% 1-year growth)

Sullivan’s Island $2,000,001

Ethnicity

Folly Beach 100% (non-Hispanic) white

Isle of Palms  96.2% (non-Hispanic) white, Asian (non-Hispanic) 1.97% Other (Hispanic 0.556%), and White (Hispanic) 0.44%

Sullivan’s Island 100% (non-Hispanic) white

Average commute time

Folly Beach  24.6 minutes

Isle of Palms 27.9 minutes 

Sullivan’s Island 16.7 minutes

Conclusion

So let’s face it. That was a waste of time. If you’re going to come up with an answer, demographics aren’t going to help. You need to go maybe to history or —

Wait, Caroline just popped into the drafty garret to ask what I was up to, so I told her I was trying to determine via demographics why Folly was more peculiar, funkier, than the IOP and Sullivans.

“More barstools per capita,” she immediately said.

Damn!  Being so much smarter, why in the hell do women make so much less than men?

Yes, Caroline: Planet Follywood, Sunset Cay, the Washout, Jack of Cups, Drop-In, Loggerheads, the Crab Shack, Taco Boy, Coconut Joe’s, Lowlife, The Bounty Bar, Rita’s, the Tides, Chico Feo.

I’m sure I’m leaving somebody out – and except for one, none of them smack of commerciality.

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[1] Wisely, Bill copyrighted the phrase.

[2] https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-20/abcarian-sunday-column

[3] Data for Folly and IOP from Data USA, Sullivans Island from various sources.