Living by Ihe
Sea in the Winter
Permsinoiil resid<‘iice on the .surf
turns summer resorts into year
о
rou nil com in u n it levs.
«»/ 01.1»
Twenty-five years ago we drove
from the Currituck Bridge to Roa¬
noke Island in February without seeing
a soul, without meeting a car, or even
hearing a dog. Today, around 700 peo¬
ple live in the town of Nags Head
alone, not counting over 200 in Kill
Devil Hills and those in Kitty Hawk
and Southern Shores. Other former
resort towns are having the same in¬
flux.
Twenty-five years ago the beach re¬
sorts were places to visit in summer.
Today they have become also places
in which to establish permanent
homes. The economic impact is begin¬
ning to be felt in the broadening of
Tit t licit:
the market for beach property. There
was a time when a beach cottage auto¬
matically was a second home, and only
those who could afford two houses, or
who wanted to get in the summer
rental business, were prospects for
beach property.
One Home
Now. anyone who can afford a home
anywhere can afford one at the beach;
in fact, he can build cheaper there and
live less expensively, too. This is just
beginning to dawn on people — both
active and retired — and property is
being moved into the hands of "legiti¬
mate" rather than "pleasure" residents.
Winter Visitors
Other factors arc changing the
character of beaches in winter. One is
the growing habit of people to visit the
beaches on pretty winter week ends,
for fishing. loafing or resting. Most
beaches now have accommodations for
these off-season visitors. The Caro¬
linian at Nags Head stayed open last
winter. And cottage owners who once
boarded up their houses on Labor
Day and did not return until school
was out next June now use their sum¬
mer cottages at intervals throughout
the year.
Such use has encouraged business
places to stay open, and this has meant
more permanent residents — people
who own or work for such places.
For instance, at Long Beach now there
arc ycar-around grocery stores, barber
shops, filling stations, motels, restau¬
rants. A few years ago there were
none of these things — and none of
the people necessary to operate them.
Ihe same is true at Carolina, NVrights-
ville, Atlantic and other places.
Civic Life
Conspicuous, too. is the gradual
change from the "holiday" atmosphere
to a more sober and normal one. To
many beach residents now the sum¬
mer season is the least, not the most,
important time of the year. These per¬
manent citizens have their civic, bridge
and garden clubs, their town govern¬
ments, civic and municipal chores,
their dances, chambers of commerce,
churches, parties — in short, all the
day-to-day responsibilities and oppor¬
tunities that inland residents have.
And they get to them in earnest after
the merry - go - round has been
shrouded.
In recent weeks we have been talk¬
ing to winter beach people, to find out
who they arc, where they came from,
why they prefer the beach, and what
it is like to live in winter at the edge
of the surf. A few stay on the beach
in winter because duties compel them
to do so. But most of them like the
ocean, like waterside life, like the tran¬
quillity of winter. "After all," said one
resident of Carolina Beach, "no mat¬
ter how congested one side of your
town is. the other side is sheer wilder¬
ness." And he pointed out over the
cold and empty ocean.
The Florida boom probably started
Americans thinking of the beach as a
suitable place to live, and the idea
spread on up the coast, as pioneer
residents demonstrated that winter
a
THE STATE. March 30. 1963