So I'll start with Surfside Beach. Surfside has always been a touchstone for me. I'm not actually aware of when I first remember being at Surfside, but Sherry remembers it being called Floral Beach. The name changed in 1954 and I was born in 1948, so I know I was there at a very young age.

Grandpapa Morris had a beach house 2 blocks from the pier which he called The Ark. The Ark was supposedly built from an old hotel ( or possibly from boards from the plantation The Ark which was here first.) The Ark was two stories with porches on each that ran the length of the building facing the ocean. There was always a breeze on the porches. Not so much inside. The top half was rented by the week and the family stayed downstairs when visiting. The house crawled with spiders and bugs which made it interesting for me! There was an indoor tub but everyone used the outdoor shower since the tub was dark brown with stains ( I guess from the sulfa water.) Grandpapa had a hammock which was the delight of all the grandchildren.

 Surfside is known as The Family Beach to this day and was certainly so when I was growing up. The children had free rein over the beach, the woods, the sandy paths (only the main roads were paved), the pavilion and the pier. The pavilion had rides and bingo and indoor games like Skee Ball, and a wonderful jukebox and small dance floor. Soldiers from the air base came down to Surfside and loved hanging out around the dance floor. I remember a soldier coming up to me to ask me to dance and Sherry stopping him by saying I was only 9. That's what height can do for a girl!

Grandpapa gave a lot to each of his children at Surfside except Uncle Barry who was given a lot outside of Brevard. No one else built except Mama and Daddy. They decided to build while we were living in Acme, NC , and , although it was definitely a bare bones house, it was wonderful to spend as many summers there as we could. The floor was not finished so when we swept up, we would just sweep the sand through the knot holes! Sherry and I used to wonder how tall the sand was under the house when they finally floored it. There was no insulation but there were walls delineating the rooms: 2 bedrooms, a galley kitchen, and an interesting bath. Daddy scrounged for materials so the top half of the bathroom was transluscent - and noisy!  Since the bedrooms didn't have walls and there was only subflooring, we had multiple big spider families that would come out in the dark. Despite not having air conditioning, I would sleep under a full blanket with a flashlight and wake up throughout the night to shine my light on all the spider webs to get the spiders to retreat.

Despite the spiders and mosquitoes, life was absolutely wonderful there. My friend Mike and I would collect coke bottles on the beach and turn them in for cash to buy ice cream and candy. Mr. Barbee, who actually lived for awhile in a trailer on the  beach, built a bath house under the right side of the pier. Mike and I worked for him ( we were 10 years old) and made money for more ice cream and candy. Then Mike's older brother bought the bath house concession and we worked for him. It had showers and lockers for day-trippers to put there things in. Loved working there and met some interesting people.

Although I had free rein over the beach, I was not allowed to go in the water unless there was an adult watching.. Mama was always fishing on the pier and Sherry was always surrounded by a bevy of boys, so I would walk and walk and walk. It wasn't unusual for me to walk to the Garden City pier and back twice a day (4 miles round trip). I also had summer friends from Conway and we were busy seeing how many coquinas we could pile up before they would disappear into the sand. Sherry and I had a contest to see who could find the most shark's teeth. So I stayed pretty busy during those summer days and nights.

Most summers we were at Surfside while Daddy was making the transition to a new town and new house. We were a one car family, so Grandmama Coker would come down from Myrtle Beach once a week and take Mama grocery shopping and to the laundromat. The rest of the time, we hoofed it. I think Mama had as much fun as I did  since she could have fished every day of her life. We got to enjoy the spoils of that fishing and feasted on whiting, spot, and croaker fried up with grits and her hush puppies and her lettuce salad with mayo. Yum, Yum!

That's a lot! And all for now.