Beach
Carolina Beach or Pleasure Island as it is known, is a wonderful place to go on vacation.
We arrived there after a four-hour trip from Virginia and immediately were drawn into the magical world of sheer pleasure (lazing around on our butts doing nothing but eating and lolling in the sand and surf).
Our cottage was a short walk from the fishing pier and we went there everyday. Not only did they have a restaurant that was open 24 hours a day, but the food was really good and reasonably priced. For the price of a hotdog, you could sit and watch all kinds of shenanigans. For instance, the old guys who never fished, but would sit nursing a cool drink and talk about all the big fish they had pulled in. You could see them in the morning and go back in the evening and there they were, still at the same table, same clothes, same fish tales. Same leering looks when a young lady walked by in her swim suit.
Old fishermen never die, they just lie away.
We walked out on the pier and there was a guy cleaning a good sized fish he had caught. A humongous pelican flew up and perched on the rail to watch him. After a while the guy tossed some fish entrails at the pelican. He caught them, shook his head and tossed them right back at the fisherman.
Fisherman tossed them back, pelican caught them, gave them a good shake and threw them back and this time they hit the guy in his face. Seems the pelican didn’t want the fish guts, he wanted a fillet.
One evening I was alone at the cottage on our deck, just looking at the constantly shifting scenery on the beach. I saw a figure come walking down the beach. It had turban like head gear, what looked like a flowing robe and some kind of beach shoes. When it got closer I could see a long cigarette holder in one hand and when it stopped a guy on the beach for a light I could see that it was actually a woman. I never figured out the head gear, but the flowing robe was actually two beach towels artfully tied to resemble a robe. When she drew near to where I was, she stopped, did a slow turn then leaned over and picked up one leg and placed it in front of her; did a few lunges on that leg; then did the same thing with the other leg. She walked a few steps down the beach and repeated the process again. Then as if dancing to music she could only hear, she started dancing in slow circles with her arms moving in time to music only she could hear. After a few minutes, she sorta shook herself and as if emerging from a dream, strode off down the beach. I never saw her again.
Then there was the little boy with the skim board. At least that’s what I call them. You sort of skim it along the edge of the surf and then chase after it and jump on it as it skims along the edge of the water. This little guy would skim his along, run as fast as his short little legs could carry him, jump and miss the board and fall while his board kept on going down the beach. That didn’t stop him, he would retrieve his board and go through the process all over again.
Then his dad decided he would show him how to do it the right way. That was really a big splash when dad missed the board. I give him credit for trying, even tho he only tried it once. I guess he thought it might be dangerous to the health of an overweight, out of condition guy. The next day I saw the little guy and he was doing a credible job of surf skimming. I guess practice does make perfect.
One day a party of nine set up chairs, blankets, etc. right in front of our cottage. After a few hours of swimming and sunning, they opened their beach bags and cooler boxes and pulled out sandwich makings: bologna, mayo, bread, cheese and chips. This was going well until one loan sea gull saw them. Of course, he did his sea gull call that says to his mates and family, “food at four o’clock high”. Immediately the poor family of humans was beseiged by dozens of sea gulls who swooped and screamed and scared the poor folks back into the water.
Oh, the monkey part. My beach towel had the cutest little monkeys on it and I did see a restored 70 Camaro and once when I went to the pier I even heard some country music. All in all, a most enjoyable trip to a beautiful beach.
I didn’t want to come home, but duty calls.