The Little Place On Carolina Avenue

This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. It’s going to be a nice long 3 day weekend to hang out at my family’s beach house on the Chesapeake Bay out in the middle of nowhere. Tomorrow after work I’m heading home and getting mi familia packed. This weekend The Boy is with his dad so it will be me, Big Daddy and The Princess heading down to meet up with my family at the local redneck bar for a late dinner some strong cheap drinks and loud obnoxious karaoke. That’s the perfect ending to a long week in my book.



The first weekend down at the beach is usually a work/fun weekend. The weekend is spent cleaning, prepping, and doing any projects the lieutenant (mom) wants us to. While the General (mom-mom) supervises. This year, our screen house is my project. It needs some major love and Im just the person for the job. The floors need to be stained and the screens need to be scrubbed. The furniture all needs a new coat of paint and we need new lights to be strung around the ceiling. I love that screen house. When I was little the screen house consisted of just that. A little metal house with screens. Then after years of taking that thing down every fall the parentals decided to do something a little more permanent and built a big beautiful wooden one. With a real roof and shingles and everything. Still no real walls, only screens to keep out the bugs. The new one has electric which means a nice ceiling fan and no extension cord running from the house. This also means no chances of running the cord over with the lawn mower. That’s a nice relief for every one. Especially since the closest store is 15 miles away. The closest grocery store, 40 minutes. Man, I really really love that place.



So we started and finished most of our projects last weekend. The screen house still needs a good cleaning out, but with rain most of last weekend I couldn’t pull everything to sit outside while I was staining inside. So until I get a free weekend to be able to do that, the screen house will just get the basic clean out. It still holds the same result in the end. Total relaxation.



Our beach house was built in 1953 by my grandfathers own hands. My grandmother was a few months pregnant with my mom and she helped out where she could, considering my uncle was 5 years old that summer and kept my grandmother hoppin. My grandparents saved every bit of money they could and slowly but surely built that tiny little cottage as they were able to get supplies. Nothing went on credit, no loans were taken out for anything, EVER. If they didn’t have the cash for it, it wasn’t bought. Once that place was done, it was fully theirs. And it was beautiful.



Now in 2010, it is a little bit sad, and very much outdated, but I still love that place like I built it myself and I would love nothing more than to restore everything we can instead of replacing it. My grandfather was tragically taken from us in 2003, so this is the last thing I have from him. I want to keep as many things he has touched and built there as long as I can. It will always stay in the family passed down from my grandparents to my parents, from my parents to my brothers and I, from us to our children and our grandchildren.



It is small and cramped with only 2 small bedrooms and 1 small bathroom and a second outside shower, but we make it work. Our families keep growing, we always have people visit, and we always find a way to fit more in. My grandparents loved having parties, and having people around and so we continue the tradition. The pictures that I have seen from the times when that place was at the top makes me wish I was born in the 50’s. Pictures of my grandmother, thin, but beautifully shaped, perfect porcelain skin, always so stylishly dressed, and hair perfectly coifed. Always smiling, always happy. She had the perfect life. Wonderful kids, wonderful family and friends and the most handsome, devoted, husband who adored her. His beautiful blue eyes and long eyelashes were enough to make any woman from age 4 to 94 blush with just a smile. They made the most beautiful picture. They looked like fashion models. But they also knew how to get their hands dirty and work hard for everything they had and every thing they wanted. That little cottage on Carolina Avenue proves just that.



Over the years, my mom has spent just as much time and money, working, fixing and replacing the things that were necessary. If it wasn’t broke it wasn’t getting fixed. My mom thinks like I do, she wants to preserve as much of the original house as possible. That place was her childhood. She spent every year from schools end to schools beginning, running the streets, playing with her friends, and being a kid down there. She met my dad there when they were 16 years old. After they married and had my brothers and I it wasn’t even a question of going. It was a, make sure you pack everything you want before we leave. Unless there was another weekend long event, we were at the beach. We have each made our debut at our beach house for the first time after we were born as soon as possible. My oldest brother, and August baby was only a few weeks old his first trip. My younger brother and I both at 5-9 months old since we were winter born babies. The Boy has been going there since he was 2 weeks old. As with normal protocol, every single one of the 7 grand children and 5 great grandchildren got a bath in the stainless steal kitchen sink with a ton of pictures taken. I wish I could find them all. That would make for a great collage. Ok, that’s it for now, since this really ended up much longer than I expected.