Daufuskie writer turns book signings into Lowcountry throwdowns

Call it a book-signing with a Lowcountry twist.

To Roger Pinckney of Daufuskie Island, the events where he rolls out his new novel -- "Reefer Moon" -- are "throw-downs."

That means live music on a Lowcountry dock, adult beverages and souvenir T-shirts and baseball caps are a bigger part of the gig than readings.

Pinckney's novel is make-believe, but it dips fairly accurately into the heady era when bales of pot washed up on our beaches, and sailboats and trawlers caught more than breezes and shrimp.

It recalls the days of "Operation Jackpot," an undercover operation in which more than 100 people were convicted of importing about $1 billion worth of drugs to the barrier islands of South Carolina in the 1970s and '80s.

The writer grew up the son of Roger Pinckney X, the longtime coroner of Beaufort County, so he can't resist traipsing his readers through a cemetery. He works in his share of voodoo and love affairs, and it all wraps around the timeless Lowcountry conflict of the people vs. developers.

The first "throw-down" was at the Freeport Marina on Daufuskie in July. Anon Dixon Day sang the blues. Books were sold. And another throw-down was planned by the publisher, The Evening Post Publishing Co. in Charleston.

The next throw-down will be Sunday afternoon at Bowen's Island Restaurant in Charleston.

Bowen's Island has been a three-dimensional throw-down since 1946 -- known for its walls full of graffiti, no matching chairs, a juke box playing 78s, dead TVs stacked on top of other dead TVs, and oysters brought to the table in a shovel.

It's such an quirky place, a stubborn piece of real Lowcountry holding out on a creek near Folly Beach, that it's the subject of a Southern Foodways Alliance oral history project.

Jack Daniel London, who worked and lived there, told about the time former owner John Bowen was sitting in his old recliner watching the stack of TVs. "He had one TV that the picture worked on and the other TV the sound worked on so he'd tune -- he'd try to tune them both into the same channel. And he was watching 'Gunsmoke,' and had 'Dragnet' on the other TV. So Hoss Cartwright was talking on the TV, and Joe Friday's voice was coming out. ... That was -- that was pretty precious, I thought, because he was scratching his head trying to figure out why Hoss was talking about 'This is the city' or whatever it was."

Bowen's is not quite the same since it burned in 2006, but it's back and it's a perfect place for a "Reefer Moon" throw-down.