Published: April 30, 2008 09:54 am            

It’s our beach, too

My son Dana and I just returned from the Gulf of Mexico for the last time until at least fall break. It was sad to see the small motels vanishing and the high rise condominiums taking over the beach properties. It will soon be like Hilton Head Island, S.C., where beach access is all but impossible.

Outsiders are building them so close together that you will soon not even be able to see the emerald blue-green waters of the Gulf between them. That’s NOT a good thing!

After all, it’s OUR America — yours and mine. I hate to see the high rises take away our beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico ... which has always been free for all of us. Who can afford to stay in a condo for $2,000 a week?

When I go to the beach, I leave my watch on the bedside table in my room and forget about the time. My life has always run by the clock and I watch the clock all day long... and half the night. I hit the floor running at around 3 or 4 a.m. every morning. Habit, you know.

Friday before spring break, my son Dana and I headed south on I-65 toward Birmingham, Ala. I wanted to see the ocean just one more time before school starts again in mid-summer. Dana needed some warm sunshine on his aching bones — Me too.

We hit some heavy rain most of the trip, but there was hardly any traffic on the road for a Friday. I’d say gas prices had something to do with the smaller crowds.

On the way down through Nashville, we stopped at the Safari Restaurant and had lunch with my Uncle Ted and my daughters, Juli and Robin. Uncle Ted brought us a few pieces of his late wife’s jewelry to distribute among the girls in the family. He says it makes him sad to look at it, and he wanted to get rid of it.

At the Driftwood, I sat on the balcony overlooking the Gulf — watched the lovely sunset, forgot the cares of the world and just rested awhile before I went to sleep. I watched the white-caps roll in at high tide and the moon rise over the sparkling waters. Shrimp boats were in the distance.

When I woke up Saturday morning I couldn’t believe it was 10:30 a.m.

I made history. I haven’t slept that long since I was 15-years-old! But I never fail to sleep well on Panama Beach, where there is a cool night breeze, even after a hot day. Pop-up rains and thunder just make for better sleeping.

I snuck out and left Dana sleeping each morning, and went to the fishing pier that juts out into the ocean. I watched the dolphins jumping and the fishermen trying their luck. I watched the seabirds glide above the sea oats, sugar-white sand and the aquamarine waters, with yellow flags warning of riptides. I got a suntan on my sandaled feet.

Then I bought a local newspaper and sat at a picnic table and soaked up some more morning sun as I read about the new high rises.

I remembered how different it was when we first began to frequent that beach 38 years ago.

Times, they are a’ changin’!

Of course, I had to go to Wal-Mart to stock our refrigerator. By the time I got back to the Driftwood, Dana was getting up and ready to go out for a delicious seafood lunch.

We just drove around for awhile, doing nothin’ in particular and talkin’ with strangers. We went and sat on our balcony and relaxed and watched other folks keeping up with their children as they played in the ocean waves. Three were parasailers and kite flyers.

We read magazines and basked in the sun. After the sun went down, children played on the beach with flashlights chasing sand crabs and shooting fireworks until all hours. The clouds made a halo around the moon. The beach is such a good place to do just “whatever,” or nothing.

That is not easy for me to do, but I could get used to it.

The face of Panama Beach does not look like itself. It has changed a lot since 1970 when Jeff and I first went there and took the children. Back then, small motels and homes lined the streets and the beach front.

Big money has come there now and has taken over the simplicity. It is beautiful, but complicated. Soon, if you cannot afford the condos, you cannot enjoy the beach. Luckily, retired military folks can get them at a cut-rate. Or buy a timeshare.

Usually we do not go down south in summertime. We go three or four times during the winter, fall and spring. Jeff has relatives down there.

The weather is perfect in October through March.

Dana and I enjoyed our own little slice of peace and quiet on our balcony, and left all our cares and worries at home.

Each evening we watched the palm trees swaying in the breeze and the sun fall behind the horizon in a blaze of gold and crimson, lighting the sky in magnificent splendor and kissing the sea “good night” as moonrise lit up the water in the cool of the evening.

There is something about the waterfront that mesmerizes the tourists year-round on the coast ... where the emerald water dances at your feet next to the white sand, and the gentle breeze teases your senses as seagulls, sandpipers and pelicans chatter in the marshes.

Wonder what it will look like by October? I’d better get us a reservation ... tomorrow!



Shirley Caudill of London is a former newspaper editor/publisher and longtime freelance columnist. She is a Nashville native who has lived in Kentucky 40 years. She has six children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and is married to a retired Army First Sergeant. She can be reached at shirleycaudill@windstream.net

        

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