The sand was already hot to my bare feet and crossing the towering sand dunes was like climbing mountains to a six-year-old. The sound of the seagulls filled the air and the waves crashing upon the shore sounded like the roar of the heavens opening and unleashing nature’s fury. The sky was filled with yellow, gold and deep purples as the sky lights up reflecting on the waters creating images of an artist gone mad with color.
It was an experience that I had only read about and dreamed about but the reality of the sunrise and the vastness of the ocean surpassed anything my imagination had dared to create. It was breathtaking in being, much more than as a child I could hold in my mind. It was overwhelming in its overload of sound and color; it seemed I could see to the ends of the earth.
As I walked toward Withers Swash with my cousin Stevie, I had never seen an estuary with egrets, blue herons and sandpipers walking along the mud flats and canals. The smell of the salt marsh was wild and untamed. This was a place of great adventure, and we explored as much as a day would allow. Daddy and Uncle Bill were near the channel leading out to sea. With the tide heading out they were casting a long net toward the tailing school of redfish. We would be eating fresh catch that night.
The sun was setting here where Carolina meets the sea. The colors were a reflection of the morning’s sky only the sunset beckoned the night. We grabbed wicker baskets to fill with oysters. Daddy was going to roast them on the beach tonight. It would be a feast. I was overjoyed by my new home by the sea, a beach named after the waxed myrtle trees all along the coast.
Point Of View
I will never forget the first time I saw the ocean. As a child of six, its beauty and vastness surpassed anything I had seen. Myrtle Beach has grown beyond anything I ever imagined. It was a very small town where everyone knew each other, and neighbors were friends or family. I miss that little town, but I do have so many memories and stories about a little town called Myrtle Beach where Carolina meets the sea.
Beautifully written Larry! I love the way you bring memories forward like a 4D movie.
That one got me. I sure miss the beach and those days from so long ago. Seems like it truly was in another time and in another world. Thank you for taking me back, if for only just a moment.
Thank you my dear friend
Took me there buddy! Thank you…. Love this more each time I read it! JJ
Great memory. I too miss so dearly the simplicity of those dusty roads beside an uncluttered sea where sand dunes and Sea Oats protected the virgin shoreline on the other side and the end of a continent.
Thank you my friend. As I say those were the best of times