'"Call it Paradise and Kiss it Goodbye" or My Childhood Memories of the Beach

I am getting ready to go down to the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area for a couple of days. As I am packing, I am remembering my childhood memories of the beach.

I grew up a little over 2 hours from Gulf Shores. At that time, it took much longer than that to get there due to road conditions, etc. But at least once a year, we would go to the beach. I remember several occasions when we would stay for a few days, but usually, we would go for just the day. Wow, what an experience!

Mama would go to the store and get stuff for a picnic.  She would fry a chicken the night before and we would also have sandwich fixings. We would carry potato chips and drinks.  In retrospect, this probably was not a vacation day for her, since she had to work twice as hard as usual just to get us all there packed and with food. But she always made the day special. 

We would leave early in the morning, wearing our swimsuits and away we would go. The entire trip was two lanes, so traffic was a variable. Also, there was the drawbridge over the river that we as children were always worried about. We were never certain that we were actually going to get to the “Beach” until that obstacle was overcome. One time, we waited and waited only to have to turn around and come home.

Once the drawbridge anxiety was over though, excitement would build. In those pre-seatbelt, car seat days, we would sit/lay wherever we had chosen as our spot for the trip and watch the sky or watch the wires swoop and hit the telephone poles. Sometimes, someone would say something that at the time we considered profound; usually it was my youngest brother. One trip he voiced his thoughts by announcing, “Wow, Granddaddy would have to have a long trot line to run this river!” as we crossed Mobile Bay.

We would travel through the piney woods of Clarke and Washington counties, go through the city of Mobile, cross Mobile Bay on the Causeway (pre Bay Way days) and head through the farm land of Baldwin County. At that time, there was nothing but farms, and the tiny towns of Spanish Fort, Fairhope, and Foley. We could tell when the journey was almost over by the smell of salt in the air.

Finally, we were there! The road came to a T. and there was the ocean.  There was asphalt for maybe a half mile in either direction, but otherwise nothing but ocean and beach. No fast food, tourist attractions or entertainment, just the Hang Out and the beach.

We would play all day.  It was one of the few times except for Sundays that we got to spend a whole day with Daddy. He would play with us the entire time. Looking back, I realize that he was probably exhausted and would have liked to just sit and do nothing, but he never let on.

Lunch was wonderful. There is nothing better than cold coke, cold fried chicken and pimento cheese at the beach. Nobody cared that occasionally the food was a little gritty from the wind blowing sand onto the blanket.

We would stay until we started looking pink. There was no sunscreen in those days, but I really don’t remember getting badly burned. Maybe it was because we played outside all the time and our bodies adapted. Finally, we would have to leave. There were tears and pleadings “just a little longer” but we would load up the belongings, and get into the car.  We would get in with our suits on, sand and all, and ride all the way home with the beach all over us.

At bedtime, after my bath with the bottom of the bathtub covered in sand, I would lie in my bed and feel the ocean moving me along and hear the waves in my dreams.

As an adult, I moved to Gulf Shores and my children grew up there. It was a great place to raise children and my dearest friends are still there, but it is now more of a destination location. The beaches are as beautiful as ever, the people just as friendly, and the food outstanding. However, I will always miss the beach that I had as a child.

Many years have passed since that time. My granddaughter Chloe' is graduating from 6^th grade at Gulf Shores Elementary this year but it seems like yesterday that I was her age and eating fried chicken on the beach!

Chloe' and me on the Beach!