be AUDacious: wayback Wednesday: growing up on the Gulf Coast

This is one of my favorite pictures of my little sister and me as kids. My guess is that I'm 6 and she's 4 here, so that would make this '79 or '80, most likely. We're standing in front of the USS Battleship Alabama in Mobile Bay. While I was growing up, my papaw owned a seafood restaurant, and Mobile was where his fresh seafood distributor, Ralph, was located. Dad made the trip often, and during the summer we would make family vacations out of it. We always stayed at the Best Western here.

I love our little terrycloth short sets; Mom frequently dressed us alike (sometimes exactly alike, other times in different colors of the same outfit).
I love how brown we are; as kids, we were constantly outside, running, playing, building, swinging, flipping, digging.
I love how you can see our attitudes and personalities in the way we are standing: the little smirk on my face, the sassy hands-on-hips pose that Elisha has.
I love our crazy hair. You can't really tell it from the photo but both of us had really long hair when we were young -- like down-to-our-waists long. Mom usually put it up in a ponytail, and by the end of the day, all these little wisps and bits of hair would be standing out around our faces like tiny halos.
I think this might be the vacation where Mom forgot our shoes -- if I could see our feet, I could definitely tell you. Mom and Dad would usually leave really early in the morning for trips like this; 3:00 or 4:00 am was common. They'd just load us in the car in our pajamas, still asleep, and by the time we woke up, we'd be halfway there. They did this one time and Mom forgot to grab our shoes. So when we arrived, we had to stop at a JCPenney's store and buy a pair of flipflips. They were brown, and mine had red straps and a red stripe around the sole, while Elisha's were royal blue.

We spent almost every summer on the Gulf Coast: Mobile, Gulfport, Biloxi, Gulf Shores, Destin, Ft. Walton, Pensacola. There are times when it almost feels like I grew up there. I've only been back once since Dad died; a couple of years ago, Mom and I took the girls and Marilee (Chris's mom) to Gulf Shores for Spring Break. It was bittersweet to see all the same places and realize how much they (and I) have changed.

2 Comments

My husband and I met while living in Pensacola and we recently returned with our family now. That area has such a unique character and charm. Thanks for sharing your memory!

Posted by: Amy | November 03, 2011 at 07:31 PM