http://outerbanksparadisephotography.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-simple-things-in-lifeis-bridge-to.html
When I first started coming to the Outer Banks in 1979 the immediate
feeling was peace, serenity and paradise. I grew up in Alexandria ,
Virginia ,,,technically the mailing address...the actual growing space
of my life was done between Penn-Daw and Mount Vernon. I went to
school in the Penn-Daw area and spent my summers with my grandmother,
great grandmother and great aunts , uncles and cousins in the Mount
Vernon area. Almost all of them had worked at the estate of our first
president as well as all our family before them , one working with
George in his surveying and collections. But what that life taught me
was to appreciate the simple things life presents to you, not
necessarily give , because sometimes you have to work hard for
it....such as the taste of home grown garden tomato, dashed with salt
from the salt shaker hiding in your pocket while you are out picking the
garden or weeding it. Sometimes it laying on the ground under a oak
tree one of your ancestors planted watching the squirrel races or the
birds and clouds pass by. Here on the Outer Banks the Simple Things are
in overwhelming abundance and we have to make time to enjoy them,
because the place we choose to call home is not an easy place to live.
We have bad storms, hurricanes, bridge issues , work is often difficult
and or hard to find... Since I moved here in May of 1999, I have
watched government and organizations take a lot of those simple things
and corrupt them , such as watching the birds dash on the beach , but
the environmentalist groups made us despise something we were use to
protecting and coveting in our way. So we didn't pay as much attention
as we should have, and then they took it one step further and told us we
couldn't build a bridge that we needed to continue the life we struggle
to have because we love it here. Then the government started over
regulating the fishing industry , causing many to seek other kind of
work, yet that is what their families in many cases have done for
hundreds of years . it was their survival. I didn't need a fishing
license when I came here on vacation , nor when I moved here but with in
a few years I did. Doesn't matter , I never have time to go fishing
anyway trying to maintain a living here. But it still all comes down
to people fighting to keep what they love, an island such as Hatteras
where their families have lived for hundreds of years and that respect
the island and its surroundings and the wildlife that is a vital part of
it . And the island I live on Roanoke Island , and the little fishing
village I live in Wanchese , that has its vast and wonderful collection
of souls that love what they do and will always lend a helping hand.
They are trying to change this too...because of the over regulation ,
but the fishermen keep adapting trying to keep their boat afloat on the
waters of their family heritage. The history that has built the Outer
Banks. Then there is the other parts from Nags Head to Kitty Hawk,
built up , four lane road ...two lanes more than when I first started
coming here...so many "Box" stores, before it was a part of the
adventure of coming here to find groceries , fishing gear , camp grounds
and the best little places to eat...but everyone was nice, they were
helpful , they enjoyed the simple things of life here. Knowing in their
hearts how blessed they were to live here, and the community that
surrounded them... Their ancestors settled here and learned the means
of Survival through trial and error. In the last 34 years that I was
blessed to be a part of the Outer Banks , 20 as a visitor, and the last
14 as a resident local,,,a title I found hard to earn , but respect with
all my heart. Something went terribly wrong and the small quaint beach
paradise started being overwhelmed by the Metropolizing of it , bigger
houses, more places to shop , especially when the "Box" stores such as
Kmart and Walmart , Food Lion, Lowes, Home Dept came crashing down like a
tsunami although appreciated by some it hindered the small businesses
that helped this place become what it did, and now we have lost so many
wonderful places because they just gave up.
So now the environmentalists who probably own stock in those companies
and who we all mostly feel have never been here , or if they have not
experienced the real Outer Banks want to shut down basically Hatteras
Island , turn it into a wildlife refuge and tell all those people that
have lived there their entire lives back several great grandparents in
many cases they don't matter. But they do ...because without those
people , Hatteras and the Outer Banks would have stayed a deserted
island, it didn't tho and now we all love our piece of paradise and
gladly share it with as many as we can. One
of the reasons I started this Photo Blog was to share all that I love
about my home.
So what I ask is that you understand
that the Oregon Inlet Bridge is not a Bridge to no where but a bridge to
someplace so special and magical that we are the somewhere over the
rainbow for North Carolina and all the states and people close by and
even far away who have come to love it as much as those of us who live
here.
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| A Bridge to Somewhere.... |
Ok if you have come this far I will share with you what made me write
this piece today, I am usually not this long worded...but well today
,,,one of the simple things that mattered to me disappeared. I drive a
school bus for Dare County and for the last two years I drove a route
on the north end of Roanoke Island. Down one of the streets I drive
twice a day , was a little house with the cutest little Chicken coop
and a few hens. every time I would drive by it , it made me smile,
because it reminded me of my great grandmother and my time as a child on
her farm (Spent most of my childhood there when I wasn't in school) ,
and they had just repainted the coop a beautiful red and gave the
scarecrow a fresh paint ...it was a simple thing that I got to
experience that gave me a happy thought. Well today I drove by the
coop was there but everything else had flown the coop so to say...the
chickens , the scarecrow , the people who lived there. So now I have to
find another simple happy thought...God Bless us all ...
