locked and loaded
umbrellas, coolers, ready
its time for the beach
For some folks beach day is not an easy day.
My wife and I have been spending a lot of time at the beach lately.
We got it down.
We have two small folding beach chairs with shoulder straps.
A collapsible cooler with a couple sandwiches and some chips inside.
A beach bag with two beach towels and two thermos water bottles filled with ice water.
A kindle and a book and we are ready for a day at the beach.
We can set up in a minute and pack up in less than a minute.
Time at the beach is the point and we plan to spend as much time as possible enjoying the beach.
I watch other families hot the beach with as much equipment as the US Army landed in Normandy at D-Day.
Beach roller carts filled with umbrellas and tents.
Multiple coolers filled with a multiple choices of drink and eats.
Separate coolers of snacks.
Then there are the beach chairs.
Chairs I would be proud to have in my living room.
Chairs with more configurations that a rubics cube.
Chairs with cushions, pockets, slings and even seperate umbrellas.
Then there are the beach games.
All the toys necessary to be able to enjoy a day at the beach.
Sometimes all this equipment is packed into multiple beach carts so that families look like they are headed for the Oregon Trail rather than Normandy.
Then the site selection conversation takes with bits of information considered like is it high tide or low tide and how far are the restrooms.
A choice is made, this the place says someone and camp is set up.
It must have been like this to watch Moses and the Children of Israel march across the Sinai.
Umbrellas are reaised.
Tents are pitched.
Chairs are arranged in millimetric relationship to each other and to the sun.
A beach game or two is set up.
Towels are spread.
Coolers are opened.
Drinks and eats are passed around.
They venture down to the water and maybe wade in up to their waist.
They gather on the edge of the surf for a group selfie.
The Mom or someone will stand at the edge of the water and use an iPhone to make a movie.
They all return to camp.
They sit back.
They look at each other.
Someone checks their watch and says what time are the dinner reservations and how long will it take to get ready?
With silent universal agreement, the camp is struck.
The equipment is packed up.
They are gone without much more than footprints left in the sand.
We are still there in our two little fold up chairs.
I feel almost bad.
That first group won’t be back until next year.
We’ll be back next week, if not tomorrow.
Part of a series based on an afternoon spent at the beach on Hilton Head Island.
I wanted to see if I would be ‘inspired’ by what I saw, by what I heard, by what I smelled, by what I tasted, what I felt emotionally and what I felt tactilely.
Some turned out okay.
Some were too forced.
Some were just bad.
Some did involve some or all of those feelings.
As far as it goes, I guess I was inspired by by what I saw, by what I heard, by what I smelled, by what I tasted, what I felt emotionally and what I felt tactilely.
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