Sandra

 

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.