If Elliot Hicks had been a bit more adept at making and marketing hurricane lamps, the iconic Sternwheel Regatta T-shirt would have displayed a decidedly different design from the one that adorned the shirt for the first and 26 ensuing Regattas. (Hicks may have grown different branches on his family tree, too, but more on that later.)
A lifelong Charleston resident and practicing attorney, Hicks and Deborah Abt were members of the Junior Achievement business mentorship program on the West Side in 1973. He was a senior at Stonewall Jackson High School and Abt attended George Washington High.
"How Junior Achievement worked was students from various high schools in the area could apply for the program," Hicks recounted. "We were divided into mock companies and we all did various tasks within our company."
With their professional advisors, Bob Thorn and Mike Pleska of the Charleston Jaycees, Hicks and Abt were assigned to be makers of hurricane lamps to sell. Construction involved blocks of wood, a flared glass cover, and a candle.
"That didn't sell very well," Hicks disclosed, "so we decided to do something else."
Abt had moved from the Pittsburgh area with her family to attend GW her senior year, intent on attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh after graduation.
"Debbie was very artistic. I've always loved art, but I never thought I could make anything of it. I had just learned how to silk screen in the art class at Stonewall," Hicks said.
They honed their creative chops by making designs for the Arlan's Department Store in Charleston, which stood near the Patrick Street Bridge. "Arlan's had an advertising campaign with a lot of pop culture cartoons of the times, like the Keep on Truckin' Man symbol," Hicks said. "We did some plays off that. I did the drawings, and Debbie and I worked together to do the silk screening."
Their advisors suggested the teenagers try their hands at designing the logo for the new Sternwheel Regatta coming to Charleston.
"Debbie and I got together and made a decent logo," Hicks said. "She did the lettering -- kind of the style of the times, the '70s, a psychedelic thing. I was the one who put the 'C' on the logo with the smokestack and sternwheeler on the back of it.
"The first Regatta wasn't anything like what it became; it was all river centered at the time. There may have been a couple of booths selling popcorn for the river races or the Rubber Ducky Race, but that was about it. It was primitive compared to the crowds they'd have for Alabama and the other big acts that came to Regatta."
Hicks and Abt created each T-shirt individually in their basements -- with some occasional assistance from Abt's 13-year-old sister, Nancy, he recalled.
"Once we started producing those shirts, the demand was huge. We made a lot of money for Junior Achievement with them. We pumped out all these shirts, and we're awfully proud they used that logo for 27 years. People have asked me, 'Why didn't you get the copyright on that logo and make some money off of it for yourself?' I'd say, 'Look, a couple of high school kids did that logo and they could just as easily go out and have some other ones do another one.' We never thought that way," Hicks said.
He said he has no idea how many of the T-shirts they designed were made, sold, and worn over the following 27 years. (He kept only one of the originals.)
Rather than attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Abt moved to Florida after high school and now lives in the Atlanta area. "I lost touch with her," Hicks said, "but I kept seeing her sister around different places. The next time I saw her was when I got out of law school. Nancy was working at the Marriott. I introduced myself, not remembering that she was Debbie's sister. We continued to weave in and out of each other's life, and we began dating eventually. In 1997, we married, and now we have two daughters, ages 24 and 22.
"It's a pretty amusing sidelight -- something that really left a mark and has lasted as long as the Regatta T-shirt lasted."
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