Mount Pleasant Magazine Nov/Dec 2020

26 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.VOICEofMPpodcast.com TARA MAGWOOD My Dad was one of the greatest dads around. He made sure we had the best life, and growing up was always fun, especially living on Shem Creek. On one occasion, he bought us a little boat called “The Dink” that my sisters and I could ride in by ourselves up and down Shem Creek. We loved watching the dolphins so much that my sister and I asked him to catch a dolphin to keep in the creek behind our house. He would say, “if I could, I would.” Every day, when I would get home from school, I would go to the living room and call Dad on the CB radio to see how his day was going and how much shrimp he had caught. I was the one daughter who always wanted to go shrimping whenever I could. As a kid, I thought I would follow in his footsteps and become a shrimper. Dad would say, “you could be the first female in the family to run a shrimp boat.” Dad would let me invite friends, and we would wake up to depart at 3:30 a.m. Of course, my friends and I would go back to sleep immediately when we boarded the boat. Dad always made it fun for us while we were on the boat, whether the activity involved feeding the dolphins, watching the dolphins chase the front of the boat or letting us slip and slide across the back deck with a water hose. For meals, he would feed us fresh seafood or veggies from Uncle Andrew’s garden — yum. Holidays were especially memorable with Dad. When he would take us trick-or-treating, he would dress up with us. The costume that I remember the most was when he dressed up like a “Ghostbusters” character with the big tank strapped on his back and a sprayer. All the kids loved it. He would make a tall pole into a Christmas tree in our front yard every year that we all cherished seeing. I recall how much he enjoyed taking us to the fair — he would ride the rides with us and play the games to try to win us stuffed animals. He would also take us to Herbie’s Famous Fireworks on July Fourth and New Year’s and give us each $50 to spend on what we wanted. We didn’t go on many vacations because he was always working hard for us. Even in the off season, he was Captain Wayne Magwood From the Family of Magwood’s daughters – Tara, Tressy, Jennifer and Melissa. Rocky Magwood and Wayne Magwood.