Written by Michele Roldán-Shaw
Photography by Donna Huffman

Eccentric: a person whose behavior is habitually unusual or whimsical
Eccentricity: the quality or habit of deviating from what is usual or customary
Bluffton Eccentric: any Blufftonian known about town for their endearingly quirky behavior.

PART ll

ast month I began my investigation of Bluffton Eccentricity by speaking with several people who helped draw me towards my first conclusion: that every eccentric has his or her own very unique definition of what eccentricity is, and this definition usually runs parallel with a description of the eccentric’s own self. Where artist Amos Hummell identifies with stray rocks in Saturn’s ring, slipping in and out of orbit as he pursues his own decidedly un-concentric course through space and time, Nancy Golson feels her snakeskin collection might qualify her as eccentric. If Matt Taylor thought the defining characteristic of an eccentric was his or her ability to wonder and question everything, Patsy Hodge said an eccentric simply couldn’t accept change.

Yet my journey into the fascinating world of Bluffton eccentricity had only just begun, and there remained plenty of other characters to help me sort out any lingering questions. I decided to turn next to Tamela Maxim, a person whose singsong voice and unusual shade of lipstick are two instant indicators of her willingness to go out on a limb. In fact, Tamela seems to be a hereditary eccentric, if such a thing exists, because her mother Annelore Harrell belongs to an older and decidedly legendary generation of Bluffton eccentrics. When asked to comment for this story, Annelore sent the following statement via email:

“If, by eccentric, you mean someone who thinks outside the box, who is as comfortable having tea at Claridge’s in London as drinking beer on the May River sandbar, who visits galleries in New York and paints plein air in Provence, who goes to dove shoots and debutante balls with equal élan, who lives on a million dollar property in a ‘tear-down’ cottage with Tahir Shah on the coffee table and brie in the ‘fridge, then the Bluffton of today has as many eccentrics as it ever did and remains that special place in the Lowcountry where its citizens can happily and honestly say: “Call us Eccentrics but Divided We Stand.”

Again, one has to wonder how closely this definition of eccentricity coincides with a description of Annelore herself. But back to Tamela. She has a heart of gold and possibly as a consequence, her thinking about what it means to be eccentric somehow includes the altruism reflected in Jesus’ teachings.

“It’s a Golden Rule thing,” said Tamela. “When you know what it’s like to be a little different, judging people is not something you are very inclined to do. The nice thing about Bluffton is that we give our eccentrics a lot of space and a lot of love.”

Tamela also philosophized about the relationship between an eccentric, the place in which they live and the people who surround them. For example, if you are an eccentric living in a town full of eccentrics, are you really that eccentric? Or would the eccentric in this case actually be the “normal” person? How about if you take a “normal” Blufftonian, with their penchant for riding golf carts to the grocery store in their pajama pants, and plop them down in, say, Manhattan, would they suddenly become eccentric?

Ultimately, Tamela summed up eccentricity with these words: “Same thing but different, and if you can understand what that means, you’re an eccentric.” She also added that anyone overly critical of her view was certainly not an eccentric (remember the Golden Rule).

In contrast to Tamela’s view of eccentricity, so full of love and tolerance, was the definition provided to me by the notorious Baron Jeffrey, character extraordinaire in Bluffton. Anyone who ever attended a Third Friday block party last year will remember the Baron’s antics as he played a character by the same name (and persuasion) in Amos Hummell’s live art variety show Living Colors. With his dapper, flashy outfits and over-the-top stage voice (I’m describing the everyday Baron as well as his character in the play) Jeffrey’s presence evokes scenes of decadent New York parties where royalty, socialites and urbane artistes come together to socialize and scandalize until the wee hours of the morning. Only now the Baron lives in Bluffton.

Perhaps the oddest thing about Jeffrey is the complete lack of factual information about his life. Despite years of living here, there remains such an air of mystery about him that nobody seems to be sure of exactly who he is, where he came from, or even his last name. He frequently alludes to a checkered past, yet doesn’t seem capable of hurting a fly. And how did he acquire the title of baron, anyway? One thing is certain, however: he is as eccentric as any Bluffton eccentric is or ever was.

“Eccentricity is nothing more than justifying one’s own means,” he said with a characteristic flourish. “It’s dilemma- solving according to your own capabilities. I didn’t have any capabilities so I became a Bohemian extravagant.”

Indeed, it seems as though Jeffrey has made his way through life on wit and charm alone. He’s not a doctor or a lawyer or an author or a carpenter; he’s a personality, a man defined by intrigue, oddity and flair.

“Eccentrics are not concerned with people’s judgments,” he assured me. “We do what we need to do to achieve results, even if it’s unconventional. We simply do what we please.” He then quoted the strange and celebrated artist Salvador Dali (of surrealist, melting clock fame) as saying, “The only difference between a madman and me is that I’m not mad.” It seemed as though what Baron Jeffrey was trying to say is that his behavior may be unconventional, but never at the expense of integrity, sanity or class.

“Eccentrics are survivors,” concluded the Baron. “There’s always an originality to them, a je ne sais quoi that is perhaps to be envied.”

Next I decided to consult an eminent authority on the subject, the very man who claims to have coined the term Bluffton Eccentric when he started a publication by that name back in 1987. Graham Bullock came to Bluffton 34 years ago and, upon finding that the tiny town was home to a number of people who were “talented in their own way,” he resolved to “ferret them out” and tell their stories in Bluffton’s first ever newspaper.

“The community defined it, but I came up with the name,” said Graham, who has since discontinued the paper. “Prior to that, eccentric was not a part of the vocabularies of many people around here.”

Graham acknowledges that there are countless ways to define the word eccentricity, but he considers eccentrics to be “people who act spontaneously and aren’t concerned with the consequences.” When asked if he personally is an eccentric, he replied that yes, he is, to the extent that he is going to do what he is going to do. He then added, “I like to think I carry eccentricity one step further to the curmudgeon level.”

Hmmm. There’s a word I don’t know. The American Heritage Dictionary defines curmudgeon, as “an ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions,” while another even livelier description I came across was “a crusty, irascible, cantankerous old person.” However, when I asked Graham what that word meant, he had a different answer altogether. While he did at some point utter the words “cantankerous old man,” his primary explanation of curmudgeon was a person who hid behind humor to the point that they never really gave you a straight answer about anything. Was he revealing secret insights into the true nature of crotchety old people—that it’s all just an act, a joke that provides them with endless private amusement—or was he trying to prove his point about eccentricity by showing that he, Graham, was willing to spontaneously modify word usage with total disregard for the consequences?

Towards the end of our phone interview, conversation became rather difficult because Graham was chasing his dog around the yard and his frequent shouts of “Wilhelmina!” tended to disrupt the flow of ideas. But I did manage to get one last opinion from him: that it was going to be very difficult for the next generation of eccentrics to thrive in Bluffton. Whereas it used to be there was nothing to do here so locals made their own fun by going to the Sandbar and in general doing wacky stuff, now the town is so big that boring anonymity has started to spread like cancer. Gone are the days when you knew everybody at the Sandbar, or at a local restaurant for that matter. Now Graham says he doesn’t even go to the Sandbar because you practically have to make reservations to get a spot. But were these just the stubborn notions of a curmudgeon?

Of all the people I had talked to so far, none was under the age of...well; we’ll just say 40. It was high time I spoke with a member of my own generation, an up-and-coming eccentric who might be a good candidate to carry on the tradition of habitual whimsicality. Will Huffman is a good friend of mine, and if you’ve ever seen a chop-top baby blue Bronco roaring around town, driven by a shirtless man with tussled blond hair, you’ve gotten a glimpse of him. I could go on and on about the things that make Will eccentric— his funky clothes and obsession with thrift shopping, his habit of painting his truck a new color practically every month, his audacious get-rich-quick schemes that are generally discarded as quickly as they’re hatched, and the fact that when I called him for this interview he started telling me about how he used fishnet and pink spray paint to achieve a leopard print pattern on his record player—but I prefer to give a totally different description of Will.

A Navy veteran who served in Operation Enduring Freedom, Will is a bit of a throwback to the days when sailors had tattoos of pin-up mermaids on their chiseled forearms and were fond of drinking straight whiskey while telling bawdy tales of adventure in faraway lands. (By the way, Will has a tattoo of a mermaid on his forearm and is fond of drinking whiskey while telling bawdy tales of adventure in faraway lands.) A study of opposites, he is a person who will surprise you with his contradictions and astonish you with his depth. There is no pretense to Will’s eccentricity; he’s really just like that.

“I just do what comes natural,” explained Will, who says he’s never heard the term eccentricity used anywhere outside of Bluffton, and probably wouldn’t have thought to apply it to himself were it not for the insistence of others. “I can’t see myself working in a cubicle, wearing earth tones and driving a Honda Civic. I do what I feel good doing.” Bluffton is Will’s hometown and, though he’s certainly traveled the world (Hawaii, India, the jungles of Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, the West Coast, and the Middle East) it looks as though he’s here to stay.

“I’ve been to other places and I think Bluffton is kind of a homestead of eccentricity,” said Will, who seems to have faith in a new wave of Bluffton Eccentrics. “If you go to San Francisco or even Savannah and SCAD, you are just one of a thousand people doing weird stuff. But here everyone puts his or her personal touch on eccentricity. You can be yourself and it’s okay.”

By the end of our conversation, Will had narrowed his rather uncertain definition of eccentricity down to one essential aspect: just being yourself. And you can always count on Will to do that, whether he’s at a bar eating a live cicada to impress the ladies, or at home alone, enjoying a cocktail and redecorating his living room for the five hundredth time. So as long as you see that chop-top bronco ripping through the quiet streets of the town, rest assured the last flame of eccentricity has yet to be extinguished.

Be sure and pick up next month’s copy of the Bluffton Breeze for more entertaining anecdotes and humorous calling-out of our town’s most idiosyncratic inhabitants.