While the northeast region of the country gets slammed by yet another storm this winter, it's was a little different picture on the Grand Strand Friday.
But still, some around Myrtle Beach felt there was enough to complain about, chiefly the wind. How tolerable that wind was along the Grand Strand depended on whom you asked.
"The wind is the worst," said Cheryl Westbrook, visiting Myrtle Beach from North Carolina.
"The wind is really strong, we know what wind shield is all about," agreed Amanda Lane from Vermont, no stranger to the cold.
"Its when it gets all windy and you can't see because your hair is all in your face," illustrated Elizabeth Strong from North Carolina.
There's also the "knotty hair.. chapped lips," and, oh yea, "burning face," described Heather Hunter and Whitney Poole, both visiting from Blacksburg, South Carolina.
One stroll down Ocean Boulevard Friday afternoon and you'd see sights that would make any beachbum cringe: hoodies, jackets, gloves, scarves and cold-weather headbands; people walking with their hands buried deep in their pockets, some with their arms crossed over their chest as if to trap whatever heat they could.
One could even spot people breaking out in full sprints, just to find some cover. Was it really that bad? Again, it depends on whom you asked.
Some saw the bright side.
"It's still a lot better than Vermont," said Paul Lane from Vermont.
Paul and his wife Amanda are headed back to the northeast this Monday, "right back into the winter... into the snow storm," as they described.
Don't expect our visiting friends from up north to complain about a little wind and they don't expect their friends down south to know what a "real winter" is.
"I think they don't understand unless they're up there with the snow and the cold and the freezing rain," said Steve O'Brien, visiting Myrtle Beach from Ohio.
Paul Lane joked, "aw, they're wimps, they have no idea."
Wimps? Ouch. That's almost as harsh as the wind.
Ask Thomas Tillery, he works in the harsh wind, all day long, moving from job site to job site.
Tillery owns his own mobile detailing business. He may not be a wimp, but he admits, he's gotten a bit, what's the right word... soft.
"I'm a northerner and I had thick, thick blood back then. That was 15 years ago and now my blood has thinned a whole lot, so now it's actually cold," laughed Tillery, who now lives in Myrtle Beach.
"Cold", "not so bad", "too windy", "just right", "could be worse", it all depends on whom you ask.
As one four-year-old little girl who's visiting from Ohio, where it's in the 20s and snowing, innocently said, "it's warm here because we want it to be warm."
If only it was that easy.
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