Be
Coming down to Virginia Beach reconnects something elemental in me, as I believe it does my wife, as well. I can’t tell you exactly what it reconnects for her. I just see how she becomes so much more relaxed, and okay to just “be” for a few days.
For me, it always starts with remembering one of the best gifts my mom gave to me as a kid. It was around this time of year, middle of the winter, and I was bugging her about our vacation plans for the following summer. I was eleven, and wanted us to do something different for vacation. We usually went to Pymatuning Lake in Western Pennsylvania, which was great since it didn’t cost us anything. A kind and generous aunt and uncle invited us up there every summer for a couple of weeks, and I still have fond childhood memories of that place.
But, I really wanted to go to an ocean shore. I had just seen the ocean for the first time a couple years before, when we went down to Atlantic City to pick my brothers up after they’d spent the summer working down there. I’d fallen in love with the whole thing — the ocean, the resort town vibe. I found it terribly exciting.
Mom had gone back to school, working towards a degree at the University of Pittsburgh, and of course, the family didn’t have much money for something as frivolous as a week at the shore. But Mom didn’t just say no, as easy as that would have been for her to do. She could see how much I wanted it, and I didn’t ask for much, so she said, “I’ll tell you what, Pete. You figure out a place for us to go, that we can afford, and make the arrangements. If it’s reasonable, we’ll go.” She empowered me to plan our family vacation!
This was 30 years before we had the internet for such things. I pulled out a map of the United States, picked out a number of interesting-looking and sounding towns along the shore and began writing to the Chambers of Commerce of each likely town, from Misquamicut Beach, Rhode Island, all the way down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. They all wrote back with lots of pamphlets and information about their towns, and contacts with Real Estate Rental agents.
I began to whittle down the likely vacation spots until I finally landed on a cottage in Virginia Beach that was large enough to accommodate our whole family (there were 9 of us), plus several friends who came, as well. I negotiated the dates to accommodate everyone’s schedules, the cost, and even threw in a couple hundred dollars I’d earned and saved from my morning newspaper delivery route and evening bakery job. (I was a very industrious lad).
Mom, duly impressed with my effort, blessed it, and the whole family came. I was never so proud as I was about doing all of that on my own. It taught me many things, but most importantly, that if I wanted something badly enough, and was willing to work for it, I could make it happen. I was eleven years-old — what a valuable lesson to learn at that age!
So, coming down here always reminds me of that vacation, 53 years ago, and of my Mom, who I was later able to help move when she finally moved to her own place by the shore (in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina), and who I helped down to the beach her final two times, including ten days before she died. She shared my love of the ocean and the shore, and spending the better part of that summer with her was a really special time — one of the honors of my life, to have that opportunity. She was a truly great lady.
It also reminds me of when I was home-ported in Norfolk, not far from here, my last two years in the Navy. Virginia Beach was where I came to get away from the craziness of my life on a ship. I had some good times here, before things got really bad at the end of my 4 year Navy career.
There’s a definite vibe I pick up whenever I’m down here. It’s hard to describe, something like a supernatural sense of things, a connection to eternity, I don’t know — I just always thought that it wasn’t a coincidence that the famous psychic, Edgar Kayce, established his institute here. I think he picked up that same vibe — or, perhaps, he helped to create it!
Last night when we arrived, it was warm with a soft ocean breeze, as I took a couple of long walks along the boardwalk, just enjoying the moment. Today, it’s turned cold and rainy, but we’re still enjoying a lazy day around the hotel and the pool. We have a couple of massages booked for tomorrow at a good place we found down here.
It’s mostly just a great weekend to “be”.
