365 Days of Earrings

Monday, August 15, 2011

Priceless sand dollars

Saturday, August 13

I woke up early and put on my sand dollar earrings. We were heading for the beach.

I've owned these earrings since 1989, when we lived in Savannah. I have rarely been to the beach since--a couple of times for family get-togethers. Our children only visit the beach with friends--they thought John and I must not care for oceans.

But the actual reason was choice: we chose to spend our summers at our cabin on the Clarion River, near grandparents and cousins; when our children were young, additional beach vacations were just too expensive. 

This summer, our son Willem is an actor/tech at The Lost Colony in Manteo, NC on the Outer Banks. Our daughter Kathe joined us in Richmond on Friday night, and we drove down together. A long, slow drive. Lots of time to read the signs along the road.

 Willem joined us, and we spent a few hours together at the beach before he had to report to work. We sat in the front row and enjoyed the pageantry of this show that I hadn't seen since I was a little girl, but I've never forgotten. Will is the soldier on watch in this photo.

When we headed to the beach, I was hoping for a sand dollar. But this beach has only shell shards. A beach vacation has plenty of opportunities to feel as if dollars are disappearing into the sand. But, as those commercials used to say, it was priceless. All 3 of our children within 24 hours.

1 comment:

Käthe said...

Love this post! Beautifully articulated.