Yesterday, April 2, 2023, I learned of the passing of a good friend of mine whom I had known for over 34 years.

I first met Wesley “Wes” May as a young shag dancer at Fat Harold’s and The Pad in North Myrtle Beach in the mid 1980s. Phillip Tilghman and I used to call him “crazy legs.” When he was on the dancefloor, there were few that matched his moves.

He often showed up during my DJ days on the deck at Fat Harold’s for the “World Famous Dirty Dancing” contest and would ALWAYS offer to be a judge. When he wasn’t a judge, he would often be right next to my DJ booth for the “best view.”

In Wes’s own words, he was born a little over a year after Pearl Harbor. He came from a family with 8 sons and two daughters and lived on a farm where he helped with the daily chores.

At the age of 13, one of his brothers took him to North Myrtle Beach and that is where he found shag dancing. His brothers and sisters told him, “If you want a girlfriend, then you better learn to dance!”

He spent a lot of time at The Pad at Ocean Drive and picked up steps by watching others. It didn’t take long before he was one of the better dancers. He competed in contests and won many of them.

What he was really good at was teaching. I spent many nights at Loafers watching him teach his wife Sandra to dance. He would occasionally ask me for some help. I even danced with Sandra in her first contest at Loafers.

Wes could break down the details of a step like most others could not. What other people would not notice in a step, he would pick apart every element. He was a great help to me when practicing for big contests. I would have him watch the steps and he always seemed to have something to add or a detail in the execution of the step that made it better. He was so precise in explaining what he wanted to see in a movement.

There is no possible way to count all of the people that Wes taught to shag dance over the years. He taught lessons at Loafers Beach Club back in the 80s and 90s and probably into the 2000s when I didn’t go out there too often.

Over the last few years when I started spending more time dancing again, we reconnected. It was like we saw each other the day before. We picked up right where we left off.

I would always give him a hard time about drinking “that cheap beer” (Budweiser was always his choice) and he would give me a hard time about my Jägermeister, although he did have a shot with me once in a while.

I am very thankful that Kirke was able to dance with him a couple of times. He kept telling me, “She is going to be good, just don’t be your normal self and get impatient!” Yep, he knew me that well.

From contests to “Gathering of the Trash,” to Charles Gurley Memorial contests, we judged, drank and laughed.

My fondest memory of Wes is after I was diagnosed with my Lupus. I had gone out to Loafers after the diagnosis back in 1993. He pulled me aside and said, “This is not the Brian I know.”

As I looked back at him, he looked in my eyes and said, “Life is for living! There will always be obstacles that we have to overcome. Stop waiting to die from it and start doing what you have to do to live!”

He exemplified that mantra every day.

My final big memory of him is when he found out he would be inducted into the Beach Shaggers Hall of Fame in 2019. We were celebrating his accomplishments at Loafers. I gave him a big hug and said, “It’s about damn time!” to which he responded, “I’ve been waiting on you to nominate me for years!”

His smile at that event was the biggest I had ever seen. He was happy.

I am most thankful that he lived out his final days in North Myrtle Beach after moving there. He did what he did best. He was living life to the fullest.

Rest in peace my friend. We will miss you here but I know I will see you again. Now go dance with the angels!