Why Ford?

The Hatteras lighthouse is an ionic landmark. I was up early this cold, rainy Friday morning. I grabbed my cellphone and mindlessly flipped through the posts on social media. One of the first or second posts was a clip with a 6 foot tall model of the Hatteras lighthouse. It reminded me of an Outer Banks family camping trip with my parents and brother. 

Mama taught 8th grade North Carolina history and my Daddy had a land improvement company. On weekends, mama would combine her passion of teaching and family adventures and we would load up the car and hit the road to visit historical sites. She would bring back pamphlets and post cards to enrich her classroom lessons. This particular Saturday, our destination was the Otter Banks. My parents left Chadbourn early in the morning and drove to Lake Mattamuskeet. My memory of this is very choppy and basically this post is my attempt to record what I recall. 

I remember seeing geese flying off, at sunrise,  from Lake Mattamuskeet. Amazing! The sky was covered with black shadows, as they headed out to forage for food on their stop along their migratory path to breeding grounds in the South. 

The family car was a ‘50’s Ford Fairlane.  Manteo and attended the first show on the evening at the Lost Colony. I do not remember much about that except mama’s story about Andy Griffith and how he starred in the production in the early 50’s before I was born. Mama was at Chapel Hill after WWII when Andy sang in the Glee Club. 

That Saturday, before the Lost Colony show, We visited the Wright Brothers memorial over on Kitty Hawk. I think my parents decided it was cheaper to camp on the beach Saturday night than rent a motel room. We never sat in restaurants. Mama would find bread and we had a cooler in the trunk with some slices of ham and water in a jar to make Kool-Aid. Mama never kept mayonnaise in the cooler. I know we had mayonnaise because two growing boys could always get a mayonnaise sandwich when we got hungry. 

Evidently, after the show, we went back to the Kitty Hawk area and Daddy pitched a tent for us to sleep in. I recall the wind changed during the night. The night air on the beach went from clear, to pouring rain, ripping the cheap canvas tent out of the sand and we got the tent settled back down. Then, salt marsh mosquitoes the size of moths ran us off the beach and we spent the night in the car parked near the road. Sunday was all about seeing the light houses and riding the ferry. I do not remember much about Sunday, except seeing the Bodie Island and Hatteras lighthouses. After not sleeping Saturday night and having Calamine lotion smeared on the sand covered lumps on my legs and arms from numerous bug bites, the back seat of the Fairlane road like a cloud!  

We made it back home. Wiser and with a life time of memories. Got to see if I can find those Kodak photos we made.  haha.