of
OAK ISLAND, NC
But even after returning in debt, there was never a twinge of regret or guilt, but only a sense of fulfillment that enabled me to continue my routine of work and dreams until I would be able to move there, to my beloved ocean, the source of every pleasant memory of my life, from childhood to the present.
My earliest remembrance of the ocean started when I was about three years old. I would go to the beach with my grandparents on weekends or any other time they went. The trips were very frequent and became a routine part of my life. We would go to Myrtle Beach where Estelle Poindexter, a good friend of my Grandmother, owned a wood frame boarding house on the oceanfront with a large dining room, which had a wonderful ocean view.
We made these trips to Myrtle Beach for several years. That was plenty of time for me to saturate my memory banks with many wonderful events, such as, stopping to buy peaches at the wood framed packing houses at the peach orchards along highway 220 which at the time, was only a very narrow two lanes from Asheboro to Rockingham.
I remember traveling through the little town of Seagrove and wondering why a town with a name like that was so very far from the ocean.
And of course, each trip was highlighted by a stop at �South of the Border�, which at the time was nothing more than a restaurant and a gift shop wearing a big sombrero. It was much different in those days than the sprawling complex and tourist attraction it has become today. After a LONG ride, finally, there it was, the ocean, the place I learned to swim. I also learned a lot about independence by walks on the beach by myself as I satisfied my intellectual curiosities of childhood by finding seashells, watching seagulls in flight, digging holes in the sand, and staring in awe at the Ocean Forest Hotel in the distance and comparing it in my child�s mind to the Empire State Building.
I remember listening to the music of �The Clovers� and �The Dominoes� coming from strange wooden decks over the sand where people were dancing. I was much too young to approach these places, but not too young to fall in love with the �Beach Music�.
Yes, even at the ripe old age of nine, I knew that I was truly HOME.