It was the beginning of the summer of 1960. Sandra, her parents, and I were on
our way to Oak Orchard for a couple weeks of fun to start school vacation. They had a
small home there which they used for getaways, and they were nice enough to take me
along.
Sandra became my best friend after Nancy and I drifted apart. Nancy had
discovered Tommy and love blossomed with little time left over for girlfriends. Sandra
was much smarter than me, always winning at Scrabble, but I never quit trying to do
better. She was an only child, and, unbelievably, our birthdays were on the same day,
both of us Scorpios.
Sandra was so smart she skipped the twelfth grade and went instead to the
University of Delaware for her senior year. I felt like a lost puppy without her, but, as
circumstances would have it, in my senior year, I was named valedictorian and received
several small scholarships to the same university, enough for my first year. I attributed
both those honors to Sandra, not only because she was gone, but because she was
one of the reasons I tried so hard. But Sandra had “grown up” during her year at college
without me and things never were the same after that. And then I met Jim and fell in
love, and we completely lost track of each other. After Jim and I married and had our
second baby, I received a “congrats” card from her. She had seen my mom in the S & H
Green Stamp Store and heard the news. I’ve kept the card all these years, moving it
from place to place as we moved. As you can see from the photos, the card has “been
through the mill.” But I could never part with it.
Sandra and I were Facebook friends for a while, but we never saw each other in
person again. She passed away on August 18, 2023. You can read one of her obits here.
Sandra
When we arrived at Oak Orchard on that summer day of 1960, all the trees were
in full leaf. We traveled a shady, dirt road to their small getaway trailer well-hidden in the
trees, keeping it cool and secluded.
Neighbors were close but not too close. The nearest neighbors had a pair of
cocker spaniels that loved to come over and play with us. Their names were Sandy and
Blacky for obvious reasons. We enjoyed playing with them as much as they did with us,
throwing sticks for them to retrieve and racing with them around the yard.
A tiny little post office sat on the main drag through town, and it was our job to
collect or post the mail. We walked along the dusty road with cattails growing in the
ditch along the edges. Dragonflies buzzed around as the sun beat down on us.
Opposite the post office on the water side was a restaurant/hangout for teens. Sandra
and I discovered it early on and went to the Saturday night dances, but our short stay
left little time to make friends.
Oak Orchard was situated on Indian River near the ocean where brackish water
made crabbing and clamming a popular pastime for us all. We would stand in
chest-high water with a floating bucket tied to our waists by a rope. We had to wear
sneakers into the water so the crabs didn’t bite our toes! We dragged our rakes along
the bottom bringing up at least one clam with every swipe. Sometimes we would use
our clam knives to pop open the clam right there and eat it with the slimy juice slithering
down our chins, smacking our lips and splashing water to wash our faces.
Other days Sandra’s dad would take us riding down the river in his motorboat
toward Indian River Inlet, the faster the better. We let the wind and the salty spray
plaster our hair flat and soak our faces. Sometimes we would pull up to a little island in
the middle of the river and have a picnic. Sandra and I would write dumb things in the
sand like “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.”
When it was time to go back home for the day, we would help load the boat on
the trailer and later help wash it down for the next time. It was wooden and barnacles
grew on the bottom. You had to scrape them off by hand. By day’s end we would all be
dead tired; that’s what salty air does to you. Sandra’s mom wasn’t much of a water
person so she usually stayed at home and had something prepared for supper by the
time we pulled in and cleaned up the boat.
Later, in 1962, all of us would marvel at the destruction of the Great Nor’easter of
1962 which brought four feet of flood waters to the little community destroying property
but not our memories. The Oak Orchard getaway was a thing of the past that quickly.
I remember those times like it was yesterday.
