I am sitting here in the dark in a hotel room, listening to someone to which I am related, sleep soundly but not too quietly. Note to self: bring ear plugs next time I room with my sister! We are at the beach with one our dear friends from our younger days.
I am up because I have slept so hard the last couple of nights. My sister said I was acting out a dream and hit her last night, so I am trying to stay awake and not hurt her again as I dream. I will just make up any lost sleep under the umbrella at the beach, listening to the waves and feeling that wonderful sea- breeze later today.
I should not complain (or blog about my sister's sleep habits) because I am really grateful for my one and only sister, Karen. We have been through some really good times and a few scary times. Karen is two and a half years younger than me. She may have lived her early years in my shadow, but in these later years in our lives, I find myself wishing I could be more like her - mostly because she just knows how to make people feel special. She quickly becomes the life of any party or gathering, and she is the greatest role model my daughter had as she grew up that anyone could have!
We are currently getting to spend a week together at the beach. Just that experience alone would be great, but it becomes even more special when we both know of many good times we shared at the beach in our younger days, camping at Myrtle Beach, SC, riding our bikes around the campground, and swimming from daybreak to dark. Those really early years at the beach were in a tent, and then in a popup camper.
Our mom decided the beach was her place, but she was not going to stay there any longer in a tent or popup camper with no A/C; cooking and washing for 3 other people; and walk to the the potty in the middle of the night with one hand holding aflashlight and the other hand griping a young 'un half asleep, and return to try to sleep on a cot or air mattress.
Score a major victory for Mom on that one! From then on it was a hotel or condo at the beach for the Good clan! I must admit, I am not one who regrets my mom's decision at all, Thanks, Mom, for showing us the way to really enjoy the beach!
One other incident may have been the most scariest of my younger days. I was about 7 years old and we were camping at the beach, out in an open area (unlike previous times when we were more in the woods) when a typical mid-afternoon storm hit. Mom rushed me and Karen to the safety of the car while daddy was left to run around the tent and try to tie-down the tent flaps. Did I tell you were parked by this really tall tree that turned into a lightening rod all at once and we saw a bright light and then tree bark cover the front windshield. The next thing I heard was mom screaming at dad to get his hiney in the car. She had seen him jump 3 feet in the air when the lightning struck the tree beside our car, and decided a live husband and dad was better than one fried and burning on top of our tent!
It was almost deja vu several years later when some newlyweds ,.. that would be me and Bill, who with a meeger checking account decided to go to the beach the only way we could...to camp in a tent. We actually stayed in the same campground! But I insisted on not camping by any tall trees. We had great weather almost till the end of the week. That is when a lightning storm hit in the middle of the night. I insisted that we leave the tent and get in the car. So we spend several hours trying to sleep in the car, and finally gave up and packed up at first light (with everything wet) and headed home.
Needless to say I pulled a "Becky" on my husband and said "No more tent camping for me!" We camped maybe one more time and about froze to death the first weekend of June at a campground near South Holston lake! But t has been cono rental living for any vacation since then.
So Karen and I are at the beach together again. Not in a tent, but safely in a condo rental. We will enjoy eating out most nights, making new memories of the being at the beach together along with a mutual friend, and just chilling out for a few days. I wonder if my sister has the same memory of the day the lightning hit the tree beside the car in which we took safe refuge? IF she does, then I don't think I will ever have to worry about camping again..anywhere!
Judy
Oct 2018
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