summer days

first memories as a child

 It was a warm and summer day, we were on own are first vacation at Biloxi, MS on the beach. I was about 5 years old,summer of 1986. As we approached the beach i could feel the excitement inside giving me the first set of butterflies inside my tummy.  The smell of the ocean entered my senses, a very unfamiliar smell, the feel of the sand between my toes was one of the softest feelings i've ever felt, I could feel the salt floating in the air as well as taste it on my lips, it was a very thick icky feeling.  I noticed the sea gulls flying and scooping down into the ocean that was very funny to me.  This was when i first started remembering things as well as one of the most memorable vacations we ever took.

My father was a mean and abusive man so it wasn't always smiles and laughing going on.  I looked up at mom and noticed the biggest smiles i've ever seen and remember her having, she was having a blast just like us and that made me feel really good inside. We had come across hermit grabs and as we were all bent over looking at these amazing little creatures i notice mom snapping some photos with her camera, the old style one that took film, so we would look up every now and then so she could hurry and take her pictures, we didn't want to take our eyes off of these cool little guys, they ran pretty fast. We lined them up and watched them race, they were very easy to find, we would have at least 5 each, that made the race even funnier, some would race back into the ocean as i would watch the waves crash against the shore line and the waves take the crabs back into the ocean, only to go and play with more.  We were there a couple days so we got to do this several times.  I remember not being able to get into the ocean because the first day there i got in and instantly got out once my body sunk into the ocean and the salt got into my pores, i raised up and started screaming and crying the water was hurting me it was burning my skin, mom came in and grabbed me in a frantic mode, she wasn't sure what was wrong, as i began to tell her my skin was burning she rushed me to the room and gave me a shower trying to get the salt off of me, i am still allergic to the salt water today.  But that didn't stop me from having fun with them crabs and making sand castles with mom and dad.  That was by far the happiest days in my life as a child.