More North Carolina, past and present

After many years visiting Cape Cod beaches in the 1980s-, we were ready for a less expensive venue.  Much as we enjoyed Welfleet, Truro, Provincetown, it was time for a place with fewer airs and crowds.  We also were tired of socializing with smart people who talked mostly about their great  real estate ventures.  That was the 1980s.

Judy Lombardi, our Baltimore friend told us about  Holden Beach, a barrier island near Wilmington,  North Carolina.  It was very different from the Cape, quiet and reasonably priced.  "Proud of what we do not have" is their motto. Going south was a change for us-- territory where we knew no one.  We found a comfortable house right on the beach, "PostHazel," named after a 1954 hurricane, "one of the worst of the 20th century on the east coast."

Through another Baltimore friend, Debbie Bedwell, we were encouraged to visit a gallery run by her friends, Tom and Stephanna Tewey above their printing shop in nearby Southport. Debbie and other artists from Baltimore Clayworks had exhibited in their  gallery, Blue Dolphin.    The second year we were at Holden, I showed some of my own work, necklaces of shells, beads, hardware.

They have sold the business and moved into Wilmington where we visited their house in the woods one afternoon on this trip.  Always active in politics and the environmental movement, we asked many questions about newspaper stories we'd read in the local paper--good news and bad.

January 1, 2010 marked the start of a smoking ban in restaurants and public places.  Who would have thought a tobacco state would do that!  The dark side was opposition by the county to permitting  high school grads who were illegal immigrants to attend the local community college.

As a northerner who expects the worst from the conservatism of the south about social issues, I was surprised by  this sign in a Wilmington gift shop (great selection of altered rubber duckies--as hippies, pirates).  Talking with the owner of The Black Cat Shoppe, about her strong commitment to health care reform reminded me--once again-- that there are people of reason everywhere.  She had made a trip to D.C. with her business organization, The Main Street Alliance, to talk with her congressmen.  She  joined the Alliance after becoming disgusted with the local Chamber of Commerce.  Check out her website.

Wilmington, an old port on the Cape Fear River, was a place we enjoyed when we were vacationing at Holden Beach.  Ron suprised me on my 60th birthday when he asked a women's trio (what were their names, my faulty memory wants to know) playing at a local bar to sing "Happy Birthday."  They were a group from D.C. with an hilarious extended version that delighted me--and the bar crowd. 

Here's the river at twilight...with a red kayak  in the background.

Comments

[Hattie]

So now I know what you've been up to! I'll bet you could make some interesting comparisons between the Atlantic and Pacific coastal scenes. I loved the cups on the Baltimore Clayworks web site. But I love funky! What is fun about clay is that no two people work alike in the medium. At least that's the case in my ceramics class.
Distance grandparenting is a challenge, as you say, but it does make more of a special occasion out of the time I spend with my grandkids. We're going to see them in January in Seattle, and then they are coming out here in February.
Roxie is darling!

[Claude]

What a superb photo of the twilight! Stunning!

[Kay Dennison]

Love the photos!!!! Glad you're having fun!!!!!

[jude lombardi]

Hello Naomi,

Where are you? It sounds like you might be here on the east coast in the cold south. Tell me. love judy

[Anne Gibert]

Only 60? Gosh, you're just a kid! And you sure do get around. I have grandchildren on that on the "right" side, and I think long and hard before I cross from the comfortable "left" side.

[naomi]

Hattie, Claude, Kay: So good to know yor're watching what I'm up to in a life far busier, more involved than when we were in Manhattan.

Jude: Yes, momentarily on the east coast and you needed to offer warmer weather!

Anne: Oh, no, yours truly is 76, way way past 60!