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OAK ISLAND , NC
But each February, the normal island routine was abruptly changed by the annual �George Washington�s Birthday Fox Round Up�. Pick-up trucks, dogs, and foxhunters from almost everywhere would show up to hunt the foxes, which were abundant on the island. A very large portion of Oak Island was totally undeveloped, and the woods were home to not only the foxes, but to a few wild boar and deer also.
This was a two day hunt, and everywhere you went you would see dead foxes lying across the lowered tailgates of parked pick-up trucks, and hunters occasionally holding up a fox to proudly display their �trophy� to any passerby who displayed any degree of interest at all.
The roundup was a very nice economic boost in the off season for the area motels, restaurants and other businesses, which would have had very modest profits during this time of the year. And of course each year, the events of the Roundup were captured by my Grandmother�s ever-present movie camera, in all of its glorious detail.
The fox roundup was discontinued in the middle of the 1960�s because of a greatly reduced fox population, development of the area, and some other factors, mostly political in nature. But the event will always remain in my memory as one of the highlights during the cold and mostly uneventful winters of the early 1960�s.
The foxhunt was also an early reminder that spring was only a short while away. The emergence from winter was always the most anticipated event of the year.
By early spring, my Grandfather had decided that it was time for me to learn to drive a car. After all, he said that he had learned to drive when he was only ten years old, so my being thirteen was not too young to learn. He also explained to me that when I learned to drive, I could use his 1961 Pontiac Tempest station wagon to transport me and my surfboard to the water and back, so that I would not have to lug that monstrous thing so far of a distance. Well it sure sounded like a great idea to me. That board was so heavy that my arms went numb before I could get back home from surfing, especially if there was a strong sea breeze blowing. At times, in a strong wind, I felt like a weathervane in the middle of the road.
My driving lessons took place on all of the side roads in both Yaupon and Long Beach, and predominantly along a new road called Yacht Drive, that was being made on the north side of the island along the Intercoastal waterway. At this time it was only about two miles long.
He not only taught me the normal driving skills, rules and regulations, but he taught me a lot of stuff that can�t be found in the driver�s manual. He taught me things that were very useful and needed on the undeveloped side roads of a sandy beach environment. I learned things such as, controlling the vehicle in mud and deep sand, getting the vehicle out of deep sand or soil, and recovering from slides, spins and number of other quite abnormal circumstances and situations.
I really could never figure out just where, how, or exactly, my Grandfather learned these things himself. I asked, but he just grinned and never would tell me.
But one thing was for sure; I got very good at all of it. In later years, in various places around the area and the island, from time to time, each and every skill my Grandfather taught me came into play.