The Locals' Guide
To Summer Sanity
This is for people who live here
year-round, but you visitors are wel
come to read along ? after all, it's
your vacation, a rare and precious
time, and you have a right to do (or
not do) just about anything you want
during it.
Okay, locals, listen up. Gripe
about the heat, the traffic, the fact
that you can't get into your favorite
seafood restaur am without having to
stand in line. Whine all you want ?
to anybody but me. It's butterbean
season and I'm happy.
All the little aggravations of sum
mer are a small price to pay. Life is
never sweeter than when the sea wa
ter reaches 80 degrees, daytime lasts
15 hours and every produce stand
and fish market in the South
Brunswick Islands is open for busi
ness and stocked to the hilt.
Judging from my observations of
nlhor 1/waU tltja jo
tude toward peak tourist season. In
the past couple of weeks I've
watched some of you store clerks
roll your eyes and sigh, palpably an
noyed by the fact that you're busy.
I've overheard you nine-to- fivers
wearily proclaim that you're going
to spend the weekend at home, "hid
ing from the tourists." The most in
sufferable of you confess smugly
that you haven't set foot on the
beach all summer.
GET HOLD OF YOURSELVES!
We live in a place people are will
ing to pay upwards of a thousand
dollars to visit for one week each
year ? and that doesn't include the
cost of gassing up the old cus
tomized van every four hours be
tween Cuyahoga County and
Brunswick County. They live for
that week all year, because they love
it here. If you think that's a mystery.
Lynn
Carlson
? ** i
7*1
> * 1
then what are you doing here?
In that spirit, I humbly offer this
list of Locals' Tips For Summer
Sanity, suggestions for activities to
help you carve out a little piece of
summer vacation for yourself. I
must confess I have not always, for
one reason or another, been able to
adhere to these guidelines myself,
but I do deeply believe in them and
make it a point to try hard to:
B Spend at least one hour on the
*
cvuvu WOV4I nwvA.
"But it's so crowwwwwded," you
wail. It's a lie! Unless you're too tri
fling to walk a couple hundred
yards, you're virtually guaranteed to
find a nice quiet place to park a sand
chair that distance in either direction
from any public accessway.
When we lived in the mountains,
the serious backpackers called it
"Trail-Head Maggot Syndrome," a
crude but oddly fitting analogy.
During peak leaf season, traffic is
bumper-to-bumper on the Blue
Ridge Parkway, and every overlook
brims with vacationers as thick
as...well, larvae... But you need only
to hike one mile into the woods
from any trail head to be sufficiently
alone to have yourself a fine Wilder
ness Experience.
Same is true of the beach, but you
don't have to walk as far.
? Go swimming in the ocean.
The water is warm and silky and
will cleanse body and soul in way a
thousand showers never could.
? One night a week, prepare an
entire meal using only ingredients
obtained from your most convenient
fish market and produce stand.
The possibilities are endless ? two
dozen varieties of fresh seafood run
ning the gamut of cost and flavor,
from succulent little clams at two
bucks a dozen to lilefish at $3.95 to
delectably sweet lump crabmeat
at.. .don't ask. Slice some ripe toma
toes or fry up some green ones. Pick
out a fragrant cantaloupe the size of
a volleyball and eat it for dessert or
chum up some fresh peach ice
cream.
? Sit outside in the shade. You'll
realize the weather is quite pleasant
and it's not really that hot after all. It
just feels that way when your only
?? ? WW
has been walking across pavement
between your car and your office.
(The most meaningful shade-sitting
sessions include a porch rocker, a
good book and a cold beverage gar
nished by lime or lemon.)
? Sometime during the summer,
put something up for wintertime.
It doesn't have to be complicated,
and you don't have to have a deep
freeze or a lot of time. I don't have
cither one, but 1 do manage to shell
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and freeze just one bushel of butter
beans and about 20 pounds of
shrimp to ensure we'll have a little
taste of summer during the waste
land that is February.
Bean-shelling and corn-shucking
are also pleasant shade-sitting activi
ties; and when you do it outside, it
doesn't feel at all like work.
If you've read this and still main
tain that you don't have the time, i
regret to inform you that you may
very well be a lost cause. Your only
hope is to ride around Sunset.
Holden or Ocean Isle Beach and
witness my spouse and I call
"Sadder Day Morning" ? when the
vacationers around us glumly re
load their vans for the long ride
home while we rock on the porch
and watch them.
They'll travel quietly, reminiscing
about lying in our sunshine, listen
jwg J/\ Qi?r wg Q??r
beaches, swimming in our ocean,
feasting on the gifts of our waters
and soil, and doing what too many
of us take for granted ? being here.
MORE LETTERS
He's Out Of Joil Before
She's Out Of Hospital:
There Is No Justice
To the editor
As reported in a Winston-Salem
paper, a young mother was wounded
in a drive-by shooting, necessitating
hospitalization, surgery and thera
py ? very expensive health care. The
perpetrator was caught and convict
ed of the crime He was sentenced to
10 years, but the judge suspended
the sentence. He was out of jail be
fore she was out of the hospital. We
may be talking about legality, but
certainly there was no justice.
In such cases the courts should
establish that the perpetrator should
pay for the medical care of the vic
tim, plus any related costs such as
child care.
The article was another attempt to
condemn firearms, but instead has
pointed to the real problem of
crime ? leniency, no jail time, no
fine. This is the most shameful case
of injustice I can recall reading
about.
What was done to the perpetrator
to convince him not to do this
again? How much did the medical
care cost you and me?
Because ot the socialism in both
the crime bill and the health care
bill ? neither of which addresses the
problem as stated ? they should be
defeated as proposed. We need more
justice in this country.
J.C. Fletcher
Calabash
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