For over 40 years “SC” was synonymous with State College in my life. If you sent a text or an email or posted “SC” on social media, everyone knew we meant State College, Pennsylvania. The one located in the fair land of Happy Valley in Centre County, home to Penn State University and signature landmarks Mount Nittany and Beaver Stadium, the second largest stadium in North America. Living in SC, for most of my 40 years there, was like living in Camelot, and we were blessed to be able to raise our family there.
As of this past Sunday, Sept. 22, we celebrated our second anniversary of living in a completely different “SC.” In fact, it’s a double “SC” known as Sun City, South Carolina where my wife Heidi and I decided to retire. Little did we know the added burden it would cause when describing life to our friends and loved ones.
Now we have to differentiate between State College and South Carolina. I found myself substituting PSU (Penn State University) for the State College “SC.” But that created its own set of conflicts, and we find ourselves having to simply write out State College and South Carolina. When I wore my Sun City Softball Club hat on a visit to Happy Valley, people thought it meant State College High or State College Little League. The logos are almost identical.
Alas, I have a lot of SC in my life these days. Oh, let me count the ways! Aside from the obvious (SC = State College; SC = South Carolina; and SC = Sun City), there are a few additional “SC” representations in our lives down south.
SC = Senior Citizen
This one is self-explanatory. We have simply reached that milestone where we get discounts on everything from movie tickets to greens fees for golf, to early bird dinner specials and discount rates on vacations.
SCSC = Sun City Softball Club
I had no idea softball would play such a big role in my retired life. Yet here I am playing in our top slow pitch league, on the Sun City 60s travel team and coaching a co-ed team in the developmental league.
SC = Slow City. I cannot debate this, as both Sun City and The Lowcountry have certainly earned their reputations as Slow City and the Slow Country, which isn’t always a bad thing. People do tend to take their time here and the laid-back lifestyle has its advantages. However, it drives some people crazy, especially the transplanted New Yorkers and New Jersey folks who go absolutely bonkers at how slow people drive and how long it takes things to get done.
SC = Sin City. Not to be confused with Las Vegas or The Villages, another active adult community located north of Orlando, Florida, some of the locals have decided to give us the unwanted moniker of being a swinger’s paradise. By the way, both Sun City, SC and The Villages, FL, suffer from the reputations of having the largest number of STDs per capita of any small cities in the country with The Villages being called “The STD Capital of America.” The data proves this to be urban legend and greatly exaggerated.
SC – South Coastal. As in the South Coastal Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). I started volunteering with the local FCA shortly after we moved here and since Sept. 1, I have joined the staff as a part-time employee. It is one of the great joys of my life in my personal journey of going from “success to significance” as author Bob Buford describes in his best-selling book “Half-Time.”
Overall, our move to the Del Webb Sun City Hilton Head has exceeded our expectations. Let me give you a little history lesson on Del Webb retirement communities and the genesis of the Sun City brand. There are 32 Del Webb 55+ active adult communities throughout the country. There are different amenities offered at each and there is a Del Webb community out there to meet just about anyone’s needs. It is not unusual for Del Webb residents to relocate to other Del Webb properties during their retirements.
Note: If you want total privacy in retirement, then this style of living isn’t for you. These are incredibly active communities, with our own Del Webb paradise the home of 150+ clubs just within the gates of Sun City Hilton Head. There are even Sun City 55+ communities in several states:
Sun City, AZ (The original Del Webb Sun City)
Sun City Festival – Buckeye, AZ
Sun City Shadow Hills – Indio, CA
Sun City Lincoln Hills – Lincoln, CA
Sun City Texas – Georgetown, TX
Sun City Huntley, IL
Sun City Peachtree – Griffin, GA
Sun City Summerlin – Las Vegas, NV
Sun City Mesquite, NV
Sun City Carolina Lakes – Fort Mill, NC
And last but not least, our own Sun City Hilton Head in Bluffton, SC.
Even within our own Sun City Hilton Head Development we have four sections: the original Sun City South (located south of S.C. Highway 278); Sun City Riverbend (located east of S.C. Route 170, adjacent to the Colleton River); Sun City North (located north of S.C. Highway 278); and the brand-new Sun City West (located west of Argent Boulevard). Sun City West will include a huge new amenities center to go along with the 1,500 houses projected to be built in the next four to five years.
Wow! That’s a lot of SCs.
I guess you could say it was divine intervention that we would end up living in another SC.
The Bluffton-Hardeeville-Okatie area is essentially the same size as State College with just over 40,000 permanent residents. However, with Hilton Head Island (40,000) just 30 minutes to our east, and Savannah, Georgia (400,000 MSA) only 30 minutes to the southwest, this is one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S.
But just as vast areas of farmlands in Central Pennsylvania are just 20-30 minutes outside of State College, the same holds true for Sun City. On Sunday, Sept. 22, we celebrated the first day of fall and our two-year anniversary of moving to the southern “SC” with a Sunday drive in the country on Route 321 (not to be confused with Route 322 in State College). The town of Tillman, SC is about 35 minutes northwest, and we visited a unique family operated business, The Whippoorwill Farms. It could have been any small farm in Bellevue or Millheim in Pennsylvania.
If the confusion over SC isn’t hard enough, we’re also surrounded by USC fans, the SEC kind, aka the Gamecocks. Not to be confused with new Big Ten member the USC Trojans. But with a number of transplanted Southern Californians in our neighborhood, it was no surprise to hear this conversation at the dog park:
Gamecock Fan: “Did you see the finish of the USC game?”
Trojan Fan: “Yes, I did, and I can’t believe the way they blew that game.”
Gamecock Fan: “Wait what game are you talking about?”
Trojan Fan: “Well, the USC loss to Michigan in the final minute of course!”
Gamecock Fan: “Well, I was talking about the USC loss to LSU in the final minute!”
It has always been our plan to spend our summers back in the original SC because quite frankly it gets hot as Hades in the southern SC in July and August. That plan may be coming to fruition soon as rumors of a townhouse in SC (the PA one) may be in the works!
Call it fate, divine intervention or a coincidence, but it looks like one way or another we will be living in an “SC” forever.
