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OAK ISLAND , NC
After myself, Frank was also one of the first on the Island to get a surfboard and learn to surf. In fact, several years later the ice-cream shop closed and Frank opened a surf shop in the same building, which had been occupied by the ice-cream shop and bingo parlor. I bought a new surfboard from him in 1972 and I still use that same board today.
I also made friends with Mike and Nancy Lee who were the children of Ozzie and Edna Lee. Edna and Ozzie worked at the pier complex and were very well liked by everyone. Mike and Nancy�s brother Brad, had not been born yet, but even today when I think of Nancy, I can see her a couple of years later, carrying Brad, who was almost as big as she was, around the pierhouse in his diapers. These were very nice people, and I always thought very highly of Nancy and Mike.
Although many other friends were made of island residents, most of my friends lived in Southport, such as, Tommy McGlamery, Tommy Jones, Ace Long, Billy Fortescue, Jimmy �Tarzan� Atkinson, Willard Atkinson, and many more. This list could in fact, go on and on.
In spite of the diverse types of people around the dance floor, there was very rarely any trouble at all. At that time, beer and alcohol could not be purchased on Oak Island. Abundant amounts, however, were imported from Southport. Most of the people, who drank beer, did so from paper cups as they danced or just mingled with the crowd. The possession of beer was generally all right as long as it was not openly displayed in cans or bottles. Any potential trouble was handled by Herman Sellers, the one and only cop in Yaupon Beach. He was a fixture each and every night, roaming around the dance floor and the parking lots with his thin mustache and �armed� with only his flashlight on his hip. He was a well-liked and well-respected man in the community, and not only a figure of authority, but a friend to the local teenagers as well.
Mr. Sellers was not only the police force in Yaupon Beach; he was also a town official and the garbage collector. He also mowed the grass for the town of Yaupon Beach, and for a fee, he mowed the yards of anyone who needed a yard done, including ours. He also drove the truck that fogged the air to control mosquitoes during the summer.
During the summer months, we could hear that truck coming two blocks away. It was at this time, the rush was on to close the windows on the house or else risk suffocation from the thick, white cloud of insecticide There were times in which I thought that thick white cloud of burning kerosene and insecticide was designed to kill humans and make the mosquitoes fatter, considering I could never see any change in the mosquito population after the fog had finally cleared away. Nope, I never saw even one dead mosquito.
The smell of the mosquito fogger was a bit strong, but it usually lasted no more than ten minutes. This ten minutes was nothing compared to the grayish-white smoke that settled upon the island for hours and hours from the menhaden factories over on the waterway when the wind was gentle and off land.
These factories produced fish oil and fertilizer from pogie fish, and the associated aroma was well preserved in the smoke that gently swept, on numerous occasions, across the entire eastern part of the island.
It was very interesting to watch the menhaden boats, or Pogie Boats, as they were called, working their trade just offshore, catching pogie fish by the school. Several long, sleek gray boats would work together. An airplane flying above would spot the schools of fish and relay the position to the pogie boat�s captain. After closing in on the position, several small boats called purser boats were then put to sea from the larger boats, each with a number of men aboard to encircle the school of fish with a purse net.
On many occasions when the south wind was very light, you could hear the men singing a type of song called a chantey in rhythm to their work.
This entire process is now somewhat of a forgotten and lost art form. But it will never be erased from the minds of those who were a part of that era.