by Lee
(Scottsdale, AZ)
The most carefree and happy times of my life were spent at my grandparents house in Craigville Beach near Centerville. I can’t adequately describe what it meant to me to spend my summers with my Gram and Gramp at the Cape. I was truly carefree- in a way I have not known since.
My grandparent’s house was on Lake Elizabeth, which was a short, and lovely, walk to the beach. I and my siblings were given complete freedom to go and come as we pleased.
We would typically wake up,and hear and feel the winds off the lake billowing through the diaphanous curtains of our rooms on the third floor of the spacious home. We would lumber down to the first floor kitchen where generations of family were gathered, and we would eat breakfast. Then we were free to do as we pleased.
Somehow we agreed we would stop at Mrs. Walker’s store (does anyone remember it?) for some penny candy(it felt like Nirvana to be in her penny candy store, each piece was a treasure), and then we kids would walk to the beach. We would immediately head for the water; why not? It was mild and welcoming. By the afternoon my parents and grandparents would join us on the beach with food and umbrellas. Some of them would join us in the surf, and that was the best! Having the grown-ups jumping in the surf made us all equally kids.
Sometimes when my grandfather walked to the beach with me he and I would search for starfish and seahorses in the tidepools. I only found a few over the years, but my grandfather’s collaboration in seeking sealife treasures validated my childish sense of wonder.
I am so blessed that there is a place that holds my memories of the pure innocence and happiness of a privileged childhood. I have lived in disparate places since my childhood, and now live in the desert Southwest. I am grateful for continual blue skies and open vistas. But my heart will always, always, be in the Cape.
