The Ebb and Flow of My Town---Its Pulse

Does your hometown have a pulse? No that's not what I mean. I mean a noticeable movement of life throbbing within it. Mine does. Although I didn't know it when I moved here in 1975. It has a sort of ebb and flow of people too, mostly out-of-towners. "Visitors" is the polite term, at least that's what our "Visitors Bureau" would call them.

When I arrived here out of college, flat broke, I had no idea what I was in for during the "off" season. The locals knew and they knew I didn't. They were entertained.

I worked through that first summer at Spencer's Seafood Safari Restaurant. It wasn't really a safari but served decent broiled and fried seafood. I could surf all day, wait tables at night, and go home with a cold Lowenbrau and 40 bucks. It was all I needed at the time, along with superb, uncrowded surf in clean water and air. I had seen California and Hawaii. The only thing I was sure of, was this place on this coast suited me just fine.

The first evidence of ebb was the very day after Labor Day. The hundreds of visitors visiting abruptly left. Everyone. No cars anywhere in sight. Beaches and piers were virtually empty. We walked from Sam and Omie's over to the By-Pass (a two-lane blacktop with no traffic lights). We looked south toward Hatteras: nothing. We looked north toward Jockey's Ridge: nothing. Gone. We laid a towel on the road surface and spread out on it for more than a few minutes. Nothing. Bored, we picked up our towel and left. Now that's ebb if I ever saw it.

Likewise, when Easter and then Memorial Day arrived, they (the visitors)would suddenly return and quickly disappear afterwards, a kind of teaser to the coming summer. Then when schools elsewhere closed for the year, about mid-June, the visitors would suddenly appear en mass again...the aforementioned flow. Year upon year repeated this pattern. Each year it grew more intense.

Over the ensuing years I noticed how during the summer I wouldn't very often see the friends I hung with during the winter trying to stay entertained (more on staying entertained in future posts). Many were working in the restaurants and hotels. During the winter, I wouldn't always see the friends I worked with during the summer. Many of them had left too, like the "visitors". I guess we could've called them visiting workers.

And so the pulse of our coastal town continued. It's still similar today. Except the part about no traffic on the By-Pass the day after Labor Day. There's plenty of that. Back then there were less than 10 thousand people living in Dare County. Now there are about 32 thousand of us spread over about 90 miles north to south, most with large bodies of water on both sides. It's much easier to stay entertained during the winter too and you can see your friends almost any time at meetings covering the issues of the day (there are plenty cause there are so many of us now), and even at school events and activities or in stores cause there are lots of them now too. And when the tourists...I mean "visitors" return, there's too many of them and us.

It's winter here now. This is the time of year which calls forth reminiscences of the past and the way it once was. The surf's not really uncrowded like it used to be, but the long-time locals seem more tightly connected than ever. It's still a thrill to watch them ride.