and so it begins

The tsunami I alluded to at Easter has struck the Outer Banks. The wave of people and the things associated with them have flooded our roads. The beach is packed with folks wanting to escape to a place of sun, fun and beaches. They pack their families in an assortment of vehicles and come on down to spend a whirl wind week together. Every week for the next 3 months this wave of people will come. Every Saturday and Sunday will have bumper to bumper traffic. The stores will be over flowing. This is Christmas for the merchants on the Outer Banks. This will make them or break them.

To the every day people this is a season of mixed blessings. Just like the visitor, those who live here year round and the students who come for the summer want to enjoy the beaches and water ways but they must work. Many must work 2 jobs because just like the squirrel gathers nuts for the winter they must put as much as they can away for the winter.

My older boys love summer on the beach. For them its surfing, sailing and hanging out at the beach with the gang. It’s the girls that visit and the local ones that blossom with new tans and bathing suits. It’s boating all day on the sound that ends with marsh island bond fires at night. Ah to be young in Babylon.

When I first moved to the beach 25 years ago I too enjoyed the summer but now I much prefer winter and it was not until yesterday that I realized why. I was at a party, not the first of the season mind you, when I resized this is what the summer here is about. There will be parties at friend’s houses and beach bonfires. There will be grass to cut, a garden to tend. There will be vacations to go on. Family will be visiting. Summer is a whirl wind. I truly enjoy my family and friends, my yard has always been a pleasure for me, vacations are great, but to compress all of that and the “normal” every day living stuff into 3 months just seems like too much. No matter summer will proceed as it always does, fall will come and things will quiet down then blissful winter will return.

Enjoy the summer. Peace

addendum; This is memorial day weekend the beginning of summer for many but more important its a time to celebrate those who gave all they had. Raise a glass and salute the people who gave it all for us and our country!