Champagne, Oreos, and Birthdays....

This third week of July I share my birthday with three island women; Marcy Brenner, Karen Lovejoy, and Sundae Horn. The four of us really do love our birthdays. Sundae made us all lovely crowns of roses that we have been wearing all over the island this week.

Each of us has celebrated in wonderful Ocracoke fashion. Karen was treated to a surprise community pot luck supper ( at her own house!) Sundae wanted champagne and oreo cookies on the beach after the Opry this week. It was great fun dunking our cookies into the champagne as we listened to the roar of the ocean and the rising of the full moon. I have yet to hear of Marcy's plans, but it will be as eventful.

I chose the morning sunrise. So this morning at 4:30 Philip and I headed out to the beach. (Yes, we were a bit early!) The full moon was hanging in the Western sky as we walked on the shoreline. We climbed up into the lifeguard's chair to watch daybreak. Both of us lost in our own thoughts. Philip was thinking about ancient sun gods, while I thought of Emily Dickinson, "I'll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time....."

The sun rose as a suspended tangerine in the sapphire morning sky as the moon set in the West. We just watched East to West...West to East. We were spellbound by the vast beauty. We finally climbed down and headed off to the Pony Island Restaurant for breakfast.

And, yes, I worked all day at the shop with my crown on, of course!

Lou Ann

[Our current monthly Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of Kunigunde Guth Howard, published June 30, 2005. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news061505.htm.]

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