Storing up memories: The Beach

Flashes of old images, melodies, yearnings, group laughter. Memories of falling asleep to pounding waves, windows propped open to catch the wild breezes, white curtains dancing. Staying up late to play endless games of Hearts or Spades, or dozing off to the voices of old friends having new conversations. Endless summer days of sun and sand and beer, with all the drama saved for dinner time ("So, what's the plan for tonight?"). Long evenings spent rocking steadily on porches, vision captured by the waves, with the moonlight seeming to beat a path straight to us, our own personal beacon.



My memories of the NC coast are bursting with sweetness, yet tinged with the sadness of loss. They run one right into the other, year after year. Seventeen years worth of treks to Nag's Head, Ocracoke Island, Oak Island. Hours spent in the car listening to Ella wail that "Ms. Otis regrets", watching marshes, fields of tobacco and pine barrens stream by, crossing bridges over impossible lengths of Sound and waterways. Narrow beds, hard beds, wood paneling in every room, outside showers and screened in porches. Orderly lines of seagulls pass straight overhead, silhouetted against Carolina blue skies.



The mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway evoke awe and wonder, but the Outer Banks .... that's where my memories lie. Good friends are a true gift from God. Good friends with beach houses? .... Priceless!