Celebrating FIVE Years of The Tybee Beachcomber! By Margie McLellan
Wow! Can y’all believe The Tybee Beachcomber has reached the five
year mark? Some days it feels like it was just yesterday that we started,
other days it feels like it’s been a lifetime. But I wouldn’t trade one
moment of it (well, that’s a lie, there are many moments I would trade).
Just to give you a little background history, I’ll take you back to the
time before the magazine was a reality. I had met Alaina, our fearless
leader, several years back when she wrote for another Tybee magazine.
My son, Rob aka Turtle, was the layout and design guy and I helped him
with the editing. Anyway, I mentioned to him how much I loved reading
this one girl’s articles (happened to be Alaina). Next time we went
out together, we ran into her and Rob introduced us and we became
friends. Most of our conversations revolved around her writing, then one
night she mentioned to me that she was interested in starting her own
magazine. I was excited and urged her to do it.
Several months later, I got a call from her. She was serious about the
magazine, and wanted my help. Of course I said yes. So we set up a
meeting at my house with Alaina and Rick. Apparently the two of them
had discussed this whole magazine thing, and Rick had all the skills (as
we all know) to do layout and design (they had run into each other at the
liquor store, of course, and decided to do go for it).
Our meeting went great – we decided on a name that Alaina had come
up with, The Tybee Beachcomber, and Rick was going to make a cover
page to take around to advertisers on Tybee. It was an almost naked
Santa, sitting on the beach, drinking.
Alaina took that Santa and ran with it. I have to insert here that we
have the most amazing group of advertisers, many of which were sold
on that first naked Santa, and have been with us from the beginning. A
few offered words of advice and a few were a little dubious about our
magazine making it. But we took their advice and forged ahead. Alaina
26 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | FEB 2020
worked her butt off and made enough money for one issue. We were so
excited!
Next came picking out stories to write about and finding writers to
write them. I have to say that was so much fun. Most had never written
before but were willing to try. We have the most amazing group of
writers and we are so impressed with them (even though every month
I have to delete certain words that are not printable, even from Alaina’s
articles). Most of our writers are still with us, some are gone, and we’ve
picked up new ones, and are always willing to give anyone a chance.
But this month we are celebrating Alaina! She is the genius that
constantly comes up with ideas and epiphanies during the night and
calls me the next day. I’ve learned to let her roll with it. She writes
the most amazing articles every month. She is also the one that has
to harass our writers when they are late. And she gives the most
awesome Christmas party on Tybee for all our writers. She truly knows
how to thank everyone for their hard work. Also, have to give big kudos
to Rick. I have no idea how he makes our magazine look so great every
month. He has a true gift. Next time you run into either of them, thank
them for their hard work.
Another great group of people are you, our dear readers. We
appreciate all the feedback we get from you. After all, you are the
reason we are here.
It takes a lot of people working together to put out each issue, and
all are committed to doing the best they can, from the writers, to the
photographers, to our delivery people, to our advertisers. I would say
we work like a well-oiled machine but that would be a lie. But we do
always manage to pull it off.
So, here’s to another five years of making The Tybee Beachcomber
the premiere magazine on our island!