This is my post for #freewriters Monday prompt beach house hosted by @mariannewest.
I grew up on an inlet and had no electricity until I was in third grade the only way to get to where I lived was a 5-mile road made of beach sand. People who did not know what to do to get there were always getting stuck, they either had to wait for someone to come by or walk to a beach house which there were only 3 of them and if you were lucky someone would be at one and they would get them to pull their car out. The trick to driving on soft sand is to let some air out of your tires.
This road was on what they call the barrier island, just about the middle between the ocean and the river. It was the only way in and out of the inlet other than by boat.
Either the state or the county built a paved road to the inlet to the west of the old road, to build it they filled in three big coves that had rock bottoms and was a good ecosystem for small fish to grow up. They call this road A1A. After it was finished we got electricity.
This is A1A It is eroding from the west, too. In 2019 they had to re-enforce the west side of the road. The power poles used to be 25 feet from the water with a nice size shoreline to walk on. Now they have dumped big rocks there and there is no shoreline.
All but one of the old beach houses are gone. The one that is left now sits below the dune line, right down on the beach. That is also where the old road is now at. The owners of the beach house have moved it to the west 2 times. The last time they moved it, they put it in the middle of the old road. This is how much the beach has eroded.
But it will not erode anymore, this ungreat state dumps more sand on it each time the sand disappears. They put so much sand that now there are no little hills on the beach, it is so steep that if you had a sled you can ride it down to the ocean. They do not care that the sand is covering the reef, they do care that the rich who live there do not need to worry about erosion.
In my language this is called Telapia fish 🐠
we call them sheepshead there is a different fish that we call tilapia.
Ha ha nice 👍 it was so fun at childhood when we use to do fishing
That is an utter tragedy, measured in handfuls of sand, waiting on God to grow tired of it and run a tropical storm up there ...
They will just put more sand. It is not even beach sand, it is something that they are pumping from way offshore, it is denser.
It seems that much of the past is going just like the sand. I am mourning the sale of Conneaut Lake Park to a land developer. They have torn up the parking lots and picnic area I've visited since a child. The park will be gone and some measly Lake access for locals is written in to the contract but they are putting in homes for the rich and who wants to walk down there? I think we may just not buy my rental after all. The Lake was my favorite part about living here.:( I'm sad that they neglect your beach.
I feel your pain, they do not care that they destroy memories or special places like parks. It sickens me. If it is anything like here locals will be allowed at first but after they get all the homes built and the rich move into them, they will pass an ordinance saying homeowners only.
The same bureaucrats who lecture us about the environment have administered programs that have done incalculable harm. It doesn't prove they are wrong, but it certainly makes them look bad.
I will never think that they are in the right, you can not change nature and exspect a good outcome.
I have a road like your old sand (beach) road. Only the sheep shit makes it a mess especially if it rains. So you have asphalt today. I hope here one day too although poop of 400 sheep will not make it any better.
At the Riverside they made a beach too. They add white sand but it doesn't help a bit. The sand goes into the river and the Riverside is clay. You basically sit on humps of clay while the river is filled with sand and... trash.
that is sad that they dump sand there, too. maybe with asphalt, it would be slick but you might not get stuck.