Book Description

Endorsed by Author Pat Conroy, Two Nostalgic Books about Tybee Island, Georgia: A Cultural History and a Photo Journal, Top Savannah's December 23, 2009 Bestseller List. Old Tybee has returned. Two cultural histories of Tybee Island recapture island life and voices over the course of a century. Complete with stories and pictures, the first of the companion books, Tybee Days: One Hundred Years on Georgia's Playground Island pays tribute to the families who visited, settled, and worked on the island from the 1860s to the 1960s, before the famous Tybrisa Pavilion burned. The book documents early attempts to develop an alternate ocean resort on nearby Arkwright Island and its resulting failure. Tybee landowners and the State of Georgia then paved the way for the first cottages to be built on the pristine island with its three-mile long beach. From steamboats to Prohibition to the Big Band era to the playful innocence of the '50s and '60s, authors Ellen Lyle Taber and Polly Wylly Cooper capture the celebration of everyday life through the eyes of Tybee's diverse population. As the island grew, it beckoned churches and schools, hotels, and shops. A young Chinese immigrant brought opportunities with his business acumen and quiet modesty. Black rivermen plied the creeks for oysters and sold their shells to build the roads. Even Tybee's children worked, delivering buckets of shrimp to neighbors, catching crabs for the evening dinner, or stocking shelves at Chu's Department Store. Tybee Days chronicles the lives of Army, lighthouse, and island children and their adventures while fishing, crabbing, swimming, camping, and exploring the creeks and hammocks in leaky wooden bateaus. The book heralds the famous bandleaders who chose to begin or end their east coast tours on the Tybrisa Pavilion. The authors, who spent their childhood summers on the magical island, interviewed more than 400 families to recreate stories of life on Tybee that are meant to both entertain and educate. Sand Between Our Toes: The Tybee Island Family Photo Album spills over with hundred of photos from private collections. Captions and anecdotes, true-life wit and witticisms introduce the locals and the famous, including Ted Turner, Johnny Mercer, and General Dwight Eisenhower. Chronicled in decades from the early 1900s to the present day. Sand Between Our Toes reminds all islanders and visitors that times may change, but the magic of Tybee remains the same, a thrilling adventure for its children.