Rebuilding Memories
Logically, I should be in bed, I know this. I have to be up at 6, but I'm not quite sleepy enough yet. Hell, that's almost my bedtime here lately. So I decided to regale you with some childhood memories. I know you're just dying to know, aren't you?
Most of y'all that talk to me on a fairly common basis know I spent a lot of summers and vacations at Myrtle Beach, or really, it was Garden City/Murrells Inlet to be accurate. You know some of my ghost tales (Lord knows the house provided enough) and some of the sad events, but it occurred to me that I never shared the happier things. Like, say for instance, Sam's hotdogs. Usually I absolutely hate the damn things, but Sam's had a way of making them just so good! It's located across the street from the beach, across from the Garden City Beach pier. And I can recall all kinds of interesting conversations and just generally good family moments there between my god moms and I. Nona, my deceased god mom, was absolutely in love with the place. Its nothing really; just a place with a few slot machines type games, booths, and a counter, that sat next to a pretty decent arcade. The thing is that it just felt like it belonged. If I recall right, it survived Hurricane Hazel, long before most of my list's time including me, and Hugo. Down the street was a round home, a dome one. It was there for ages before they were really popular.
At the pier you could see the sharks swimming along side the people (which is why the Atlantic Ocean and I don't get along), and during spring break, the beach was full of beached jellyfish (best way to get it off is bleach according to one lifeguard). At the end of the beach was a sandbar. It was there that I almost got stung by a jelly, and luckily only grazed the top. That happened when I was out with my friend Jaime and her family, who took me in when my god mom was in the hospital and the other was watching her. I had a huge crush on her brother, and he me, but of course at 11/12 you don't really know what to do, or at least I didn't. I can remember running through Jaime's house like it was my own. Actually, it was identical, and we even had the same room in our houses. Jay was around my age while Jaime was a couple years younger.
There were other girls to play with, but I didn't want to after all. Actually, there were more boys than girls. When I first moved there, I went snail and fiddler crab hunting in the marshy part below the retention wall. Oh, the times I spent there and the community dock. Now I'm not really a tomboy, but back then I could beat any of the boys at nearly anything. I'd been swimming since I was little over one, and I knew all kinds of tricks. Which kind of reminds me of more Jay watching and touching. We’d play tag under water all the time. Actually, I think I may have pulled his pants down once or twice, all in the name of best-friendom, since he was bugging Jaime.
These aren't all my memories, or even half, but I guess I just wanted to get out that I did have fun there. I grew up there in a lot of ways, just like I did down here in Atlanta. The Beach was where I got to be free. Hell, I even went swimming the inlet (and that water is grooosss) in order to catch little fish by the dock. Or I'd sit on the dock and just watch everything going on in the water. There's nothing like seeing a crane walking along on low tide and finding food. Or watching the fishermen going in and out depending on the tide. Sometimes I miss that, a lot actually. As much of a city girl that I am, I do so love the inlet and all the peace that comes with it.
Most of y'all that talk to me on a fairly common basis know I spent a lot of summers and vacations at Myrtle Beach, or really, it was Garden City/Murrells Inlet to be accurate. You know some of my ghost tales (Lord knows the house provided enough) and some of the sad events, but it occurred to me that I never shared the happier things. Like, say for instance, Sam's hotdogs. Usually I absolutely hate the damn things, but Sam's had a way of making them just so good! It's located across the street from the beach, across from the Garden City Beach pier. And I can recall all kinds of interesting conversations and just generally good family moments there between my god moms and I. Nona, my deceased god mom, was absolutely in love with the place. Its nothing really; just a place with a few slot machines type games, booths, and a counter, that sat next to a pretty decent arcade. The thing is that it just felt like it belonged. If I recall right, it survived Hurricane Hazel, long before most of my list's time including me, and Hugo. Down the street was a round home, a dome one. It was there for ages before they were really popular.
At the pier you could see the sharks swimming along side the people (which is why the Atlantic Ocean and I don't get along), and during spring break, the beach was full of beached jellyfish (best way to get it off is bleach according to one lifeguard). At the end of the beach was a sandbar. It was there that I almost got stung by a jelly, and luckily only grazed the top. That happened when I was out with my friend Jaime and her family, who took me in when my god mom was in the hospital and the other was watching her. I had a huge crush on her brother, and he me, but of course at 11/12 you don't really know what to do, or at least I didn't. I can remember running through Jaime's house like it was my own. Actually, it was identical, and we even had the same room in our houses. Jay was around my age while Jaime was a couple years younger.
There were other girls to play with, but I didn't want to after all. Actually, there were more boys than girls. When I first moved there, I went snail and fiddler crab hunting in the marshy part below the retention wall. Oh, the times I spent there and the community dock. Now I'm not really a tomboy, but back then I could beat any of the boys at nearly anything. I'd been swimming since I was little over one, and I knew all kinds of tricks. Which kind of reminds me of more Jay watching and touching. We’d play tag under water all the time. Actually, I think I may have pulled his pants down once or twice, all in the name of best-friendom, since he was bugging Jaime.
These aren't all my memories, or even half, but I guess I just wanted to get out that I did have fun there. I grew up there in a lot of ways, just like I did down here in Atlanta. The Beach was where I got to be free. Hell, I even went swimming the inlet (and that water is grooosss) in order to catch little fish by the dock. Or I'd sit on the dock and just watch everything going on in the water. There's nothing like seeing a crane walking along on low tide and finding food. Or watching the fishermen going in and out depending on the tide. Sometimes I miss that, a lot actually. As much of a city girl that I am, I do so love the inlet and all the peace that comes with it.