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OAK ISLAND , NC
My Grandfather was looking at beach property in Long Beach North Carolina, located on Oak Island, the northernmost island in the chain of South Brunswick Islands, consisting of Oak Island, Holden Beach, Ocean Isle Beach and the new development of Sunset Beach. Oak Island actually consisted of three towns, Caswell Beach, Yaupon Village and Long Beach.
During that era, just getting to Long Beach was somewhat of an adventure in itself. After about four hours of mainly routine driving, THERE IT WAS, forty miles of highway 211, narrow, and for the most part unmaintained, through the middle of the Green Swamp. No phones, no houses, no traffic, no anything except forty miles of swamp, exceedingly large insects, fog, forests, and animals that probably to this day have yet to be identified.
After emerging from the swamp at the little town of Supply on highway 17, and continuing on highway 211 for another fourteen miles of undeveloped country, our turnoff came into sight.
We could easily see the intersection of highway 211 and 133 because of the drive-in theater located at the intersection where the Live Oak shopping center is today and the blueberry farms on highway 211 across from the intersection. After making our turn onto highway 133, A.K.A Beach Road, we traveled about three miles to the drawbridge over the Intercoastal Waterway. This bridge rotated instead of elevating. Some years later a runaway barge destroyed it. We could now see the menhaden factories on both sides of the bridge, and the Oak Island lighthouse rising high above Caswell Beach across about three miles of marsh. We were finally on Oak Island.
This being the first time that I had seen Oak Island, I really did not know exactly what to expect. It took me no more than ten seconds to know for sure that this place was nothing like Myrtle Beach at all. The only similarity at all was that they both had an ocean.
Rather than what Oak Island had, it was more of a matter of what it did not have. It was missing little things like sewer and city water. All of the structures and dwellings, of which there were noticeably few, all had wells for water. The main roads on the island, all two of them, Oak Island Drive and Beach Drive were paved, but all of the other streets were sand or clay.
Rather than buildings along the beach, thick Live Oak forests pushed right along the shoreline in numerous locations, in some places a mere fifty yards or so from the high tide mark. Located no more than 150 yards from the sea, were eight fresh water ponds, thriving with cattails, marine birds, dragonflies, and an occasional alligator. Most of the time an alligator was easier to locate than another human was.
Along with a scarcity of people, was the noticeable lack of accommodations such as motels and restaurants. It seemed as if the entire island was custom designed for private homes and cottages.
Property was what we were there to find, but since that had not happened yet, we were faced with finding somewhere to stay and also finding something, somewhere to eat. There were only two restaurants on the island at that time, Sinclair�s Coastal Restaurant in Yaupon Beach and Clewis� Tranquil Harbor Restaurant in Long Beach. There were no fast food places or convenience stores and Vereen�s Red and White supermarket was the only store within ten miles and the goods therein were priced accordingly.
The choice was made to eat at the Tranquil Harbor Restaurant in Long Beach and the food was wonderful. In 1963 it became Jones� Seafood House, and even today I continue to eat there. The Coastal Restaurant that was located in Yaupon Beach is no longer standing. It was torn down in the 1970�s.
As far as Motels on the island during that era, there were only a few. These were The Coastal Motel, Murphy�s Oceanfront Motel, and Barbee�s Yaupon Motel, which became the Oak Island Inn a little over a year later. There were no motels in Long Beach at all. I�ve never been able to figure out why there were no motels in Long Beach, maybe compliments of Hurricane Hazel a few years before, or maybe there just were none.
In fact, the largest structure was the Long Beach Pavilion, an impressive, all wooden structure that in it�s day had been the center of a number of activities, including dancing and general good times. The Pavilion was torn down in the early 1960�s.
It seems that so many sources of pleasant memories in our lives, somehow, in some way, just go away. But no one can take the memories from us.