Birthday Beach Fun

Every August my family would go to Carolina Beach for my birthday. We would stay in a two-story house that had been converted to several small efficiencies.

Each evening we would walk to the pavilion. I would ride the hobby horses, my mom would play bingo, we would walk the boardwalk and watch the candy folks pull taffy and make those giant pinwheel lollipops. Our last stop was at Dairy Queen for free ice cream as the owner of the house where we were staying ran the DQ. My dad brought his own inner tube to use as a float, fishing poles for him and my brother, and he and I would dig big holes on the beach and just sit in them. Best times ever that I cherish in my heart.

—Lucy Buchanan, Fairview, a member of Union Power Cooperative