Princeton Class of 1966 Hilton Head Holiday Reunion

October 26-29, 2023

Handbook

Welcome

We hope this handbook, compiled by an anonymous group of classmates, will help you enjoy the '66 Hilton Head Holiday Reunion,

Your ’66 HHH Reunion Planning Group . . .

Dave Ames, Bob Bedell, Rick Bowers, John Hart, Gib Hentschke, Jon Holman, Keith Jennings, Sandy Kirkpatrick, David Marshak, David Stitzer, and Rich Thomas

Useful Information

• Location: Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC.
• Lodging and Hospitality Suite: Marriott Oceanfront Resort and Spa
• In Case of Emergency:
  • Walk in Clinic(s): HHI has an unparalleled EMT/First Responder capability with units at the seven fire stations on Island, with one literally at the entrance to the resort.
  • Hospital & ER: Hilton Head Regional Hospital, about 3 miles from the resort. There are 4-5 urgent care centers as well.
• Weather: According to Google, "Over the month of October, the temperature gradually cools, but the average daily temperature still falls anywhere between a low of 59 degrees to a high of 77 degrees, with most days achieving a temperature in the low 70s."

Getting Oriented – Hilton Head Island and Environs

Reminder: If you are planning on visiting any Sea Pines Resort locations (Harbour Town, Salty Dog/South Beach, or Forest Preserve) be prepared to pay $9 per vehicle for entrance pass at gate (Uber drivers do not need to pay this fee).

Another Reminder: If you are in Sea Pines for any activity, while you are there you may want to visit (A) Harbour Town, (B) South Beach/Salty Dog, (C) Sea PInes Forest Preserve, (D) Sea Pines Beach Club, (E) Stoney-Baynard Ruins.

For a free high-resolution printed map of the image below, contact hiltonhead360.com.

The Palmetto Dunes Area

The hotel is located where you see the Blue Restaurant near the beach.

Dress

Dress will be extremely casual most of the time – it is a beach resort environment. Most restaurants in town will accept customers in shorts and T-shirts, but collared shirts are typically better for dinners and shoes or flip-flops are required.

For the class dinners, 50th reunion jackets and reunion spousal regalia are strongly suggested and new HHHR shirts will be provided at registration – shorts or slacks will be suitable for both class dinners, and blue jeans are not acceptable at these venues.

Here are some well-attired classmates. The gentlemen on the bottom right are ready for the class dinners.

Reminder: Bring or wear a reunion button or name tag from past reunions. If you've got 'em, flaunt 'em. High praise will be awarded for obscure and ancient buttons.

Meals

Breakfasts and lunches will be on your own each day, except lunch is included in the Gullah experience on Saturday for those participating. Recommendations for breakfast and luncheon establishments, if you choose to leave the hotel environs, will be provided at registration. For those staying Sunday, a private group lunch, Dutch treat, is planned for 11:30 at Hudson’s, one of HHI’s first eateries and, by popular acclaim, its best seafood restaurant. Dinner Thursday will be on your own,

Friday’s dinner will be a class dinner at the Long Cove Club (buffet with credit cards accepted — menu and schedule here), and Saturday’s dinner will be at the South Carolina Yacht Club. Wine, choice of red or white, is included with both meals. Both venues are private residents’ clubs. As mentioned above, 50th or Reunion class jackets strongly encouraged.

Recommended Restaurant List

Additional Activities

• Bluffton-May River Ecology Cruise — Spartina Marine Education Charters cruise by leading sea turtle naturalists ($45)
• Estuarine Marsh Kayak Tour — Outside Hilton Head Guided Kayak Tours ($45)
  
• Sea Pines Forest Preserve Wagon Journey ($20) — One-hour hay wagon eco and wildlife tour on forested trails. See the map below. David Marshak has scheduled a group trips for 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM Friday Oct 27 for interested classmates. Please contact David (marshak.david@att.net) ASAP to reserve a spot. It’s suggested you carpool to the location.

• The 9:30 trip is full, and the 11:00 trip has 1 open space (as of 10/25).

If you are signed up for either, please click here find directions. There will be a single ticket, in David Marshak's name, for each ride. Just show up. Click here to sign a required waiver. If you have trouble with the online form, print out the form and mail it in. There's also a number to call.

From their website, "Sit back, relax and experience the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. Learn about the history of the preserve while searching for alligators and various birds native to the island. Enjoy the beauty of the plant life and animals that live within."

• Pinckney Island Wildlife Refuge Walking Tour ($15) — 2-Hour Guided Nature Tour through a National Wildlife Refuge
• Sea Pines Forest Preserve Horseback Tour ($80) — 1-Hour ride through a 605-acre maritime forest\

Cultural-Heritage Activities

• Hilton Head History Tour by Bus with Light Walking ($49) — 3-hour tour of historic sites. Call 843-949-0144
• Hilton Head History Tour by Boat ($75+) — 2-Hour cruise (4:30-6:30) of HHI shores — If enough people arrive early and signup for the Thursday, 10/26 4:30-6:30 History Tour by Boat, aboard the Ohana, which leaves from the Shelter Cove Marina directly across Rte 278 from the resort where our hotel is, we will take a sunset cruise and be able to understand HHI from the water perspective, which is the only way HHI could be reached until 1956. Those wanting to reserve a spot need to book directly with the Ohana online under the Princeton 66 block. The orange link takes you right to it. 

• As of 10/25 we have more than the minimum number of people signed up but there’s room for more. The ride will get you back in time for dinner around 7:00 at any nearby restaurant. Please be aware, there are restrooms at the marina where the boat departs and returns, and the Ohana does have bathrooms and it is a 2-hour cruise.

Additional Recreational Activities Inside and Around the Resort Property

• Walling, Hiking: There is a great collection of trails that start from a parking area in Sea Pines Plantation (See Sea Islands Forest Preserve map above and the SeaPines Resort website). The AllTrails app shows the HH trails.
• Beach Relaxing, Beach Walking
• Biking and Canoe-Kayaking — Hilton Head Outfitters
• Boating
• Pickleball and Tennis — To book a court call (888) 926-8784
  • From Hallie and Dave Lee (10/19, 6:00 PM): Is another couple who might like to play mixed doubles tennis? Hallie and I would enjoy playing. We found out there is a daily two hour round robin at the Palmetto Dunes Tennis Center—which has all clay courts. Would be more fun to play with a classmate or classmates. Contact Dave at 617-620-0043 or davidblee51@gmail.com.
• Golf — There are also great golf courses in Palmetto Dunes which is where we will be staying. To book a course and tee time call (800) 514-0085
  • Outside the resort: There is a world class golf course in Sea Pines Plantation. Foursomes should schedule tee times for that two weeks in advance.
• Shopping aplenty in the Shelter Cove area and mall — across Hwy 278 from Palmetto Dunes Resort – shuttles available

Lectures

Lectures will be provided Friday from 11-12 and 4-5, and for those NOT participating in the Gullah experience, on Saturday from 11-12. On Saturday afternoon from 4-5, the talk, Gullah Leaders Reminisce, will be the final segment of the Gullah experience. It will be offered at the hotel and open to all, even if you do not do the Gullah tours earlier. You will register for lectures at registration.

Lecture topics:

• Fri AM, 11:00-12:00 — Sea Island Maritime Ecology — Amber Kuehn
• Fri AM, 11:00-12:00 — Overview of HHI History — Rich Thomas
• Fri PM, 3:00-4:00 — Shellfish and the Port Royal Sound — Andrew Carmines
• Fri PM, 4:00-5:00 — Back in the Day — Gullah Video — Video Moderator
• Sat AM, 11:00-12:00 — HHI Plantations and Slavery — Rich Thomas
• Sat PM, 4:00- 5:00 — Gullah Leaders Reminisce — Emory Campbell

Gullah Experience

Note 10/19/23 — This event is at capacity. A very special experience is being custom-created for members of the Class of 1966 by the local Hilton Head Gullah community. The Gullah people are descendants of formerly enslaved people brought from West Africa to the Southern Colonies from the late 1600’s through the Civil War, and a group that has clustered on the sea islands from Wilmington, NC to Jacksonville, FL following the Civil War.

On Saturday, October 28, participants in the limited space experience will be welcomed and introduced to the Gullah culture at 9:00 AM by Dr. Emory Campbell, respected community leader and former Head of the Penn Center (the first school for blacks in South Carolina dating to 1862) and the recent Chairman of the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which encompasses Gullah communities from North Carolina to Florida.

Dr. Campbell’s introduction will be followed by Dr. Louise Cohen, a 7th generation Hilton Head Gullah family member, who will relate the essence of Gullah culture through her storytelling about Hilton Head’s and her family’s Gullah past.

After a short Q and A period, participants will board an executive coach for a narrated tour of Gullah neighborhoods and sites.
A lunch break will take place in one of Hilton Head’s historic neighborhoods with Gullah food served and Gullah vendors present with their wares. A special performance of the El Shaddai Gospel Group will offer a cappella spirituals as lunchtime inspiration and entertainment.

The narrated Gullah tour will resume after lunch and return back to the Marriott by 3:00 PM. Dr. Campbell and Dr. Louise Cohen will conclude the day with an informal discussion of their personal childhood on the island.

Traditions

The Locomotive Cheer — Done Right

We'll have a lot to celebrate, and there will certainly be opportunities for, what else, the Princeton Locomotive Cheer. Here's a YouTube video in which a bunch of classmates, many of whom are at the HHHR, show how to do it right. A refresher in the basics never hurts.

Old Nassau

And, no occasion with two or more Princetonians can end without a rousing Old Nassau.

Overall Block Schedule

So that you can get an overview of how things will fit into the time we are together, a block time schedule follows. The listed activities are intended to give participants an impression of the variety of alternatives possible. Most of the things listed that are not class functions (excluding the Gullah experience, which is sold out) can be arranged directly by you at the links or phone numbers in this letter.

More Information

Travel Guides

• More on Hilton Head: Official Site for Information — See, Do, Explore
• 101 Things to do in Hilton Head
• Hilton Head Island Magazine — articles on style, local events, food and beverages.
• Hilton Head Monthly Magazine — Local color.
• Event Calendar.
• Local Life: “Upscale lifestyle magazine” — Clothing, real estate and dining ads, monthly historical essay by Richard Thomas ’66.
• MENU GUIDE — Magazine of the SERG restaurant group with their full menus and other local ads.
• Taste of Hilton Head Magazine which features the recipes and menus of the sixty Coastal Restaurants and Bars (CRAB) group of eateries.

Books

• Classmate Richard Thomas’s Backwater Frontier: Beaufort County South Carolina at the Forefront of American History.
• On the development of the modern resort there is Michael N. Danielson’s Profits and Politics in Paradise, the Development of Hulton Head Island

One Good Tern Deserves Another

Walking the beach or visiting our parks may introduce the birders among us to new species, here are local information sources:

• Hilton Head Audubon Society
• South Carolina Shore Birds. For higher resolution and shorebird information, click here.

Saltwater Fish

Click here for a full-size image and here or here for complete guides (large files, long download times)

Who's Here

Before or After, Coming and Going — There's More to See

The Low Country and beyond offer numerous opportunities for short stops or longer visits to a number of unique places. Here are a few recommendations.

Entering and Leaving HHI

BLUFFTON, "Heart of the Low Country" — 30 minutes. You'll go right through it.

Going South — Savannah, Tybee Island, Fort Pulaski National Monument, Jekyll Island, & Brunswick

SAVANNAH, GA — 1 hour

Georgia's oldest city, Savannah, is known for its gorgeous coastal landscapes and well-preserved history. Established in 1733, Savannah is considered America's first planned city. Also, the city is a perfect place to relax on the amazing beaches or to drink beer in colonial-style pubs. Popular destinations include Savannah Historic District, Mercer-Williams House Museum, and the lush green Forsyth Park. Visitors may also want to see Bonaventure Cemetery, Wormsloe State Historic Site, Old Fort Jackson, and one of Savannah’s many museums. Savannah boasts wonderful restaurants featuring many forms of southern cuisine. October is Savannah’s high season so it puts on its best face for all comers.

TYBEE ISLAND, GA - 1.5 hours

Tybee Island is 18 miles east of Savannah. Tybee is home to more than 40 privately-owned restaurants serving up seafood, American, island cuisine, southern favorites, and even exotic, eclectic fare. It has great beaches and beach hotels. Tybee is home to the oft photographed Tybee Island Lighthouse, the Fort Screven Historic District, and the lost Tybee Atomic Bomb --- a Mark 15 nuclear bomb knocked off a B 47 bomber by a midair collision with an F 86 Saber Jet fighter. The Tybee Bomb has never been retrieved or located.

FORT PULASKI, GA — 1.5 hours — (912) 786-5787

Fort Pulaski National Monument is located on Cockspur Island between Savannah and Tybee Island, Georgia. Its designers built it as a then modern coastal fortifications intended to protect Savannah Harbor from foreign invaders. Begun in 1829 and completed in 1847 its 11-foot brick walls contained an estimated 25 million bricks. One of its builders was a young West Point graduate, Lt. Robert E. Lee. Its builders considered Fort Pulaski impregnable. Northern forces sought to take back Ft. Pulaski during the Civil war. They did not however launch the expected infantry attack; instead, they launched a 30-hour artillery bombardment to breach the exterior walls in order to bombard the fort’s large interior powder magazine. The success of this initial bombardment forced the Confederates to surrender before being blown up by an inevitable magazine explosion. Only two soldiers were killed in the battle – one Union and one Confederate. The fort has been restored inside and out except for portions of the exterior walls intended to display the destructive power of the Union’s artillery assault. Fort Pulaski lies in a beautiful setting. Visitors can walk nearby, beautiful nature trails leading to beaches and picnic areas. They may also visit the historic Contraband Camp.

JEKYLL ISLAND, GA — 2.5 hours

Jekyll Island has been voted the number one Golden Isles of the Georgia barrier islands. It is owned by the State of Georgia and run by a self-sustaining, self-governing body. It is famous for its iconic Driftwood Beach, its Historic District, the Wanderer Memory Trail, the Jekyll Island Club, and the island’s Sea Turtle Center. Jekyll Island is 20 minutes from Brunswick GA and offers casual, fine, and seafood dining of high quality. Its beaches are excellent.

BRUNSWICK, GA — 2.25 hours

Brunswick is a city on the southeast coast of Georgia. It’s known for its Victorian-era Old Town Historic District and the huge, centuries-old Lover’s Oak tree. Brunswick is known for its shrimping industry and is able to provide wild Georgia shrimp that are plentiful in local costal marshes and estuaries. These shrimps are known for their large size and delicious taste making them a staple in local cuisine. If the weather is cool, you can find a hearty Brunswick Stew that will stick to your ribs. Causeways link Brunswick with the 4 barrier islands of the Golden Isles. Sea Island has resorts and golf clubs. St. Simons Island is home to Fort Frederica National Monument, the preserved remains of an 18th-century stronghold, and St. Simons Lighthouse Museum.

Going North — Beaufort, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Asheville

BEAUFORT, SC — 1 hour

Beaufort is a city on Port Royal Island, one of South Carolina’s coastal Sea Islands. It’s known for its antebellum mansions, especially in the downtown historic district. A notable example is the John Mark Verdier House Museum, an early-1800s Federal-style mansion, with period furniture and exhibits on area history. Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park overlooks the Beaufort River and the Woods Memorial Bridge. Check out the Cypress Wetland Park, Fripp Island, Old Point Neighborhood, Port Royal Sound Boardwalk and Observation Tower, or take a Horse and Buggy Tour of The Point (Sea Island Carriage Co.)  Many famous movies have been shot in Beaufort including Forrest Gump, The Prince of Tides, and the Big Chill. Dine at Plums where the vibe and menu are casual coastal, with classic fried shrimp or oyster po’ boys, burgers, and other standards. But locals know to dig more deeply into the offerings, including shrimp and grits, the signature Lowcountry gumbo, and delectable crab cakes.

MYRTLE BEACH, SC — 4 hours

CHARLESTON, SC — 2 hours

ASHEVILLE, NC & THE BILTMORE — 5 hours

Asheville is a city in western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s known for a vibrant arts scene and historic architecture, including the dome-topped Basilica of Saint Lawrence. The vast 19th-century Biltmore Estate displays artwork by masters like Renoir. The Biltmore, a magnificent and posh home is a breathtaking lifetime must see. The Downtown Art District is filled with galleries and museums, and in the nearby River Arts District, former factory buildings house artists' studios. The area abounds with good food, and The Inn at Biltmore Estate has a four-star restaurant; it is expensive, but phenomenal. If you tour the castle like house and grounds, you might want to complete the outing with dinner at the Biltmore Inn on Biltmore Estate. 800.411.3812. Reservations are advised.