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April 2005 The Shoreline Page 19
Meet One of Our Pioneers ^Vivian Macdonald
By Marge Green
Tom Brokaw wrote a best selling book
entitled “The Greatest Generation.” Many
residents of PKS are members of that
generation and agree wholeheartedly with
the premise of Brokaw’s book. Most
members of that generation were ordinary
men and women whose parents probably
were forever marked by the Great
Depression. These ordinary young men and
women put aside everything they were
doing, answered the call of their country,
and literally saved Western Civilization.
This month, in addition to writing about
a new neighbor, I want to tell you about an
early Pine Knoll Shores family which in
small ways helped make our town the haven
it is by just being themselves and helping
out here or there as the need arose. Many of
you know Vivian Macdonald, but may not
remember her husband. Bill, who died in
1991.
In March Vivian celebrated her 90th
birthday. She and Bill Macdonald had a
wonderfully full life together, experiencing
the usual ups and downs. Vivian was bom
in Bayside, then a suburb of New Y ork City,
on March 26,1915. She felt it important to
say that she was bom and lived at the same
address until she married. That is rather
unusual in this day and age when most of
our children are very mobile. Vivian had a
twin sister, Marjorie, and an older brother.
Jack.
At a 17th birthday party for the twins, a
cousin invited some of his fratemity brothers
from Lehigh University. Among them was
Bill Macdonald, who immediately intrigued
Vivian. Vivian said she and Bill knew from
almost their first date that they would marry
as soon after his graduation from Lehigh
University as was practicable.
In those days a girl’s father had to give
his permission and his standards were often
strict as to the intended husband’s prospects.
Dad’s blessing was all important and
sometimes that could cause a wedding date
to be further in the future than one liked.
While she was waiting, Vivian took up
a hobby that has been a lifelong joy. She
took art classes at night and bonsai classes
and flower arrangement courses at the
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Anyone who
visits her home comes away with a feeling
of awe.
Vivian and Bill were married on July
18, 1936 in Bayside and moved into their
own apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In
January of 1938, they were blessed with
fraternal twins, Jean and Bill Jr. Seventeen
years later another son, Garen, was bom.
Bill and Vivian had an interesting and
busy life as he climbed the corporate ladder
and she raised their family. Things that we take
for granted today were new in the 30’s and 40’s.
Air conditioning got its start in 1912 and was still
in its infancy in the late 30’s. When Bill, as a
young engineer, was looking for work he noticed
a help wanted sign in the window of a Carrier Air-
Conditioning office. He went in and came out
with an offer to start the next day. From that day
forward he never looked back, remaining with the
Carrier Corporation until his retirement 41 years
later. He was responsible for setting up new
manufacturing plants and offices, a role that
required him to move his family quite a few
times. They lived in many places in New Jersey,
Pennsylvania and New York.
The cataclysmic event of the 20"' Century,
World War II, finally beckoned him and he was
mobilized with his Bordentown, N.J. reserve unit
as a second lieutenant He served for four years at
the Picatinny Arsenal. After the war, Bill and
family moved back to the New York City area and
started moving again. Vivian said she hated to put
up the good curtains for fear that another move
was just around the comer.
You can easily see that Vivian and Bill had a
fairly interesting life moving about as much as
they did. It is no wonder that they were looking
for a nice quiet place to retire where they could
enjoy fishing and boating with a little RV travel
thrown into the mix. By that time Garen was the
only one home. In 1971, he and Vivian went
down to Charleston, S.C., to meet Bill, who was
retuming from a business trip to Japan. They
stayed at Hilton Head looking around to see if
they might like it for retirement. Florida was not
at all in contention for their retirement. They
drove up the coast, going to such places as Myrtle
Beach and some of the island communities along
the route. They had seen an intriguing
advertisement for Pine Knoll Shores in National
Geographic that featured a beautiful sunset over
the ocean beach.
As fate would have it, their visit coincided
with a massive rain storm. Vivian felt if they
could like the place then, they were sure to like it
when the sun was shining. They bought their lot
in 1972 and moved into their house in 1974. At
that time, the canal was more or less a drainage
ditch and was not bulkheaded. There were very
few houses even though most of the roads were in
place. Verne and Jim Wallaces’ house
(Martynowski’s today) had just been completed
when the Macdonalds started theirhouse. Initially,
they were the only two families in the cul-de-sac,
to be followed by the Birkels in 1977 and the
Meads several years later.
The drainage ditch tumed into our
present canals in 1974. The new bulkheads upset
the many resident alligators that were hard pressed
for food because there were not too many dogs
and cats to go around. Vivian said she could hear
them at night calling to one another, especially in
the mating season. The sound was like that of a
lion roaring. Fish shared the canals along with the
alligators. Vivian said she would sometimes get a
creepy feeling while fishing in the canal. It was as
if something or someone was watching you. She
said more often than not it was Charlie, the blind
alligator. I asked her how she knew he was blind.
“That was simple,” she said. “He would come up
close when I was fishing and I could see that one
eye was closed over.” After awhile, Charlie
became a nuisance. His carcass was found one
day along the water’s edge near the golf course.
Pine Knoll Shores developed slowly. The
area east of the Oakleaf bridge contained mostly
weekend cottages. Few people there were
permanent residents. The land west of the bridge
was occupied by mostly permanent residents.
The only grocery store was the IGA on the
causeway. In the early 70’s Shopping Town
opened in Morehead City. Roses and Eckerd’s
were early occupants, followed by a men’s store
and a few specialty shops.
The Macdonalds started motor homing when
they were still in New Jersey. They had a boat in
Connecticut and would go there for weekends,
using their motor home. Once they came to Pine
Knoll Shores, they sold the boat and bought a
newer, larger motor home. They parked it initially
at a campground so they could supervise the
building of their home. Then later they would go
to Florida for January and Febmary staying at
time-share camping sites.
Bill Macdonald and Bill Robbins set up the
fire company for the Town. Vivian was a firelady,
meaning that she actually fought fires. During her
five years she fought major fires at homes on
White Ash Drive and Yaupon Drive and the cart
shed at the golf club. I had to laugh when she said
she was the lieutenant of the fire department. Tlie
reason for this was the fact that she was the only
one who could shift the gears on the antiquated
fire truck.
Vivian and Bill both avoided the political
scene. They were early members of Pine Knoll
Shores Country Club. She remembers the first
dinner they had at the club. It was a fish fry in the
men’s locker room in a building that still did not
have a roof. After the second nine holes were
completed the club went into bankmptcy and
was sold to the members, who renamed it Bogue
Banks Country Club. Vivian was the second
president of the Ladies Golf Association, which
had about 25 members. Through the years Vivian >
has held many positions in the LGA.
Vivian is a charter member of the Garden
Club. She went to her first meeting the day she
and Bill moved into their new home. She told Bill
to take care of the move and she would see him
later. She has been an active member ever since.
In 1964 she finished the requirements and became
a Master Flower Show Judge. She also took
courses in bonsai and started a bonsai club here
and is still active in demonstrations, shows and
exhibits.
To catch you up on Vivian and Bill’s family
in the years since their marriages, Jean Ann, one
of Vivian’s twins, now lives in Big Canoe,
Georgia. Jean Ann has three children and now is
the proud grandmother to ten grandchildren. Bill,
the other twin, died four years ago. He and his
wife, who now lives in Crescent City, Florida,
had two children. Garen and his wife live in ^
Dover, Pennsylvania, and have two children. Bill
and Vivian’s family grew from three children to
seven grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.
Before I took my leave of Vivian, I asked her,
as she looked back on her 90 years, what was her
most satisfying experience. Her answer was, the
love of her husband and her family and the joy she
has had watching her children grow into
responsible citizens raising their own families.
She also feels blessed to have lived in Pine Knoll
Shores where she has so many friends. Life has
been full and rich. Who could ask for more?