Dunkin

We just got back from a week at the beach in the Outer Banks, a place we’ve visited almost annually for the past 20 plus years. It was different this year, just our immediate family and even then, we were missing our youngest who had to stay home and work.

Everywhere we went inspired memories of past years when our own children were small. The presence of Reidy, our 14-month old grandson brought up memories we had all but buried. Of sleepless nights, nonstop vigilance in a not-quite childproof home, sand absolutely everywhere, fussing and very little relaxation. It was awesome.

On two separate occasions, while riding around looking for junk-shop souvenirs, both of my older children pointed out a particular Dunkin Donuts in Kitty Hawk and mentioned remembering stopping there one year when we arrived early to the beach before we could get into our house. This of course was every year, but our time-filling stop this particular year happened to be at this Dunkin. It was the year John got his first iPhone, and I remember him sitting on the curb outside Dunkin with his sister and one of their cousins (each in bathing suits and ready for a week of non-stop fun) proudly showing the two girls his new phone, an early model still absolutely magical in its capabilities. The image is seared into my memory, as it was in both John’s and Natalie’s. I don’t now why some things stick with us, but perhaps it is a good reminder that everything we do matters, especially when our children are watching.

I hope we made good memories this past week. Reidy is too young to remember them, but perhaps our kids will remember the daily walks to the beach (me riding on the pink-tired, pineapple-adorned beach cruiser), John’s lavender bathing suit (though he insists it was light blue), and Dad’s insistence on showering before heading down to the beach each day. Overall, it was an uneventful though beautiful week with little to distinguish it from other vacations, but then, so was the year the three cousins sat on a curb admiring a new phone.