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MEMORIES PAST, FRIENDSHIPS LAST
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Pictured, from left: John and Barbara Lawless, Gerry and Beth Mayo, John Lemacks and Dale Dawson, and Rita and Dudley King. Find more photos and videos from this porch party online at LocalLifeSC.com.
©PHOTOS BY LISA STAFF
MORE ONLINE Find a recipe for the smoked trout dip with corn blinis served at this porch party online at LocalLifeSC.com.
“Even more importantly, it’s wine, food and art. Incorporating those three enhances the quality of life.”
Friends forever 160
LocalLifeSC.com + JANUARY 2019
- ROBERT MONDAVI
Perhaps it was some unspoken, shared belief in Robert Mondavi’s philosophy that initially brought a group of eight strangers together and then nurtured and cemented a 23-year friendship. This unique troop includes couples Rita and Dudley King, Barbara and John Lawless, Beth and Gerry Mayo and Dale Dawson and John Lemacks. The four-couple friendship began back in the mid-‘90s when they all helped launch the Arts Center, when it was called the Self Family Arts
Center. Only Dudley and Rita are still full-time Island residents. Barbara and John now live near their children in Franklin, Tenn.; Dale and John moved to St. Martin; and Beth and Gerry divide their time between Hilton Head and Hendersonville, N.C. Those moves have not gotten in the way of their friendship, though. They continue to gather a couple of times each year to catch up and remember good times with good wines. The most recent gathering was a four-day celebration at the Kings’ Sea Pines home. Following tradition, the group shared and compared wines from each of their cellars and prepared a special meal, with each couple contributing a course. Their itinerary included day trips to Savannah, Honey Horn and other Lowcountry landmarks. Invariably, part of each day of their get-together found them chatting and relaxing by the fire on the back porch — usually with a glass of wine or Champagne in hand. “In building our home 18 years ago I was focused more on the interior spaces and not really paying that much attention to architect Neil Gordon’s plan for the wrap-around back porch,” Rita said. “It wasn’t until the stone fireplace was almost finished that I began to realize what a special feature the porch with its inviting fireplace might be. It has exceeded all expectations as it has been used and enjoyed constantly, year round – including watching the Harbour Town fireworks on the 4th of July and making s’mores over the fire when our grandchildren get together. Our out-of-town, adult children routinely use the porch as a late-night place to reconnect with each other by the fire. Sometimes the porch is just a nice, quiet place to sit with a book, listening to the birds in the marsh." LL