Thursday, January 2, 2014

Top Sail Beach, NC remembered

We are wanting to plan something nice for our family on our 60th wedding anniversary. I get a little anxious and think,  maybe it should be on our 59th.

So in that vein I sent an e-mail to the family for suggestions of THINGS to do. The first response was from Jack Jr. he said all that thinking hurt his head.Smile  The second response was from Jennifer, our future Granddaughter in law. And that is what keyed this blog entry.

196catsmeow_street

Street side

She said she thought a nice place on the beach for a close family get together would be nice. Where we could cook together and relax talk and enjoy the beach. She knew some one who rented the ‘Cat’s Meow’ (a large house on the beach), it is located on TOP SAIL BEACH she had always wanted to do something like that.

196catsmeow_oceanside1

Oh do we remember Top Sail beach? 1957 That was the closest beach to our little 26’ trailer love nest at Camp Geiger, NC.  Our Saturday’s ‘cheap’ day out. You cannot picture it now, but then there were no buildings even close to the beach much less on the beach. It was secluded, very few folks wanted a beach with no board walk and excitement, but this newly wed couple thrived on that.  During the day we might see ten people.

One day we were just walking along not paying much attention, about knee deep. I felt us going out and tried to angle back to shore, but it was like walking on marbles. Sherry did not swim and I did not want to scare her, she trusted me. Before I knew it we moved fast and we were neck deep with waves over  our heads. Seconds later there was no bottom within reach.

My girl has always been a praying person, so I said, “Honey you better pray, I cannot get us back!”

I was trying the life saving stroke but the ocean was too much. then I tried going to the bottom and holding her feet as High as I could then when I was short of breath giving her a shove toward shore, then coming up for air.

After a few of these attempts I was treading water with her holding round my neck when she  said, “I love you, you can make it without me, I give up.”  With that she turned loose and pushed out to sea with her head underwater. At that time she had beautiful long hair. It spread out in a perfect circle, and scared me to death. I reached out and grabbed her hair  pulling her head out of the water. I yelled above the sounds of the sea.

“We can make it, your mom will think I brought you out here and drowned you! Come on now let’s get to shore.”

While all this was happening some folks walked up the beach, we yelled and yelled and they kept on walking.

Anyway I renewed the life saving stroke, and told her to lay on top and kick her legs.  We made it, I still had my love.

Oh yes Jennifer, we remember Top Sail Beach.

I learned a valuable lesson that day, Life is precious and YOU CAN DIE YOUNG !  We were 17-18 yrs old.

Nite shipslog

PS:

And she still trusts me.

(We were caught in a rip tide/current)

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Cher:  I have no idea why they were called Tommy toes unless it was a twist on the name Tom – a –toes

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63615_1950_Hudson_2-Door_Sedan

Just about a bathtub.. ‘50 Hudson

11 comments:

shirl72 said...

That is scary I am glad you and Sherry are still hear. That is the first I heard the story..I bet you never told Mother and Dad. Do you have anymore surprises?

When the sand starts moving under my
feet I am headed for shore.

It may not be a good idea to go
back to the same place..and relieve the past..we need to move
forward.

shirl72 said...

PS: We had a 1954 Hudson in our car
collections. The 54 was the one that won all the races that year.

TARYTERRE said...

Scary indeed. Glad it ended well. I love the beach though. sounds like a nice idea for your anniversary.

Mevely317 said...

What a scare, Jack.
Tho' my head knows you two made it back in one piece, when you got to the part about Sherry taking off alone, my heart was beating so fast.
Absolutely heartbreaking.

Thank God for watching over you two "kids" ... then, and now!

Hugs,
Myra

Jackie said...

Oh my goodness! My goodness!!
What a terrifying event for both of you. I love the love that you have for each other, and I love the fact that together you will always be...
Thank you for sharing this story with me.
Jackie

Paula said...

I'm so thankful you two made it. The beach is beautiful but can be so scary. Can you go back there without bad thought? I don't know if I could.

betty said...

Oh my gosh, what a story Jack! It is so easy to have those riptides be like that and "sweep one away". Definitely God was not through with both you and Sherry and gave you the strength to bring both of you to back to the shoreline! so glad that was the case!

On a side note, sharing a beach house with family sounds like a great thing to do for your 60th!

betty

Chatty Crone said...

Isn't that a coincidence that you will have an anniversary party near where you started your life together?

Kismet.

So when is your anniversary?

Love, sandie

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

It's nice that you want to share your anniversary with your family, but please no more scary events! Hope you all enjoy it to the fullest what ever you do!

Lucy said...

That sounds so scary. But you had faith and made it back. I do not go in water above my knees. One time was enough when some knuckle head took me out to far and I couldn't swim and he left me. I would have drowned had it not been for a member of our party and realized I could not swim got me to where my feet were on sand. He had quite a time cause I was so afraid I nearly pulled him down. 60 years!! Wow!

Louis la Vache said...

What a hair-raising story!
Everyone is glad you made it back! Whew!

It's too bad we lost Hudson. They were priced in the medium price class, but they were built like cars in the luxury class.

«Louis» saw the Hudson Hornet Steve McQueen once owned at the RM Auction in Monterey a couple of years ago.