ENDLESS SUMMER
It was the summer of ’ 72 and my senior year of high school was on the horizon . Home for me was just up the road in Jacksonville , North Carolina , but my beach was always Emerald Isle . A group of friends and I had had the most perfect summer day . We laughed , swam , surfed , had crispy fried oysters-- spritzed with fresh lemon juice , tall , sweating glasses of sweet tea and the world ’ s best hushpuppies for dinner at the Sanitary Restaurant in Morehead City , and now were sitting on the sandy linoleum floor of the AB Surf Shop . Surfer dudes and their surfer girlfriends , we were gathered to watch the iconic surf movie , Endless Summer .
The lights dimmed and we were transported by the story of surfers vagabonding great distances around the world in search of the perfect wave . It was not the easiest of times in American history that summer with the Vietnam war and the draft looming for my surfer friends nearing the age of 18 . But dropping in on a crystalline wave breaking just right near the Bogue Inlet Pier , it was just another carefree , sun-lit day ; surfing and being together at the beach became our prayer , our meditation , where worries about the future melted away . Fifty summers ago , and yet I remember the sensation of paddling fast and timing the wave just so , and the joy of letting the wave ’ s infinite energy carry me to the beach . These days I am content to surf as my father taught me over sixty years ago , body surfing with arms stretched out ahead , thumbs clasping hands together . Pure joy when the wave rushes me to shore , and I am that 16-year-old girl once again .
Isn ’ t that what every beach trip still means to all of us ? Are we not slipping into a warm Gulf Stream of memory and consciousness where we feel every day spent at the beach is mystically an infinity of endless summer days ? We remember wistfully the grandmothers and aunties no longer among us that brought big bowls of watermelon slices out to our beach chairs , which we ate thirstily , juice dripping perfectly onto wet bathing suits . Then gazing out beyond the breakers where our sons and daughters , nieces and nephews , and now for me , my grandsons and granddaughters are the ones bobbing on surfboards , waiting expectantly for just the perfect moment to paddle , then gracefully spring to their feet , crouch , balance and take that sweet ride as far as the wave will carry them . Just this summer our five-year-old grandson John learned from his sixteenyear-old brother Justin how to finesse his way to catch a wave , just as his older brother Mark had once taught Justin . Surfin ’ U . S . A . right here on Emerald Isle ’ s shore .
Our family has been helping surfers and surf lovers just like your family find that perfect island home for over six decades now . Endless summer in the most beautiful vacation beach home on our island . Talk about Good Vibrations !
To honor our VACATIONS 2023 theme , Surfin ’ USA , Emerald Isle Realty is pleased to make a donation to The Bogue Banks Chapter of The Surfrider Foundation on behalf of our vacationing families .