Davis: Nothing like the beach in summer

Beach.

Beach becomes a pre-eminent and symbolic theme in my imagination during the summer.

Beach, this particular summer of 2015, meant the Gulf Coast of Florida — Destin and Fort Walton to be specific — which is familiar to many residents in this area, due to time spent there with the Air Force.

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The first time I ever saw the ocean, I was perhaps 10 years old, and the coastline in question was Atlantic City, New Jersey, in the days before it became the casino center of the Northeast.

I remember being awestruck and playing in the waves was the most amazing thing I had experienced up to that point. We were staying in a hotel called the Holmhurst, which is actually on the National Registry of Historic Places, having been constructed in 1898.

Unfortunately, our stay there was, for reasons I have never understood, not historic, and we ended up leaving after one night, leaving behind the hotel and the ocean. You would have to ask my parents in order to understand why we left.

Mikayla and her brother, whom we picked up from his home near Destin, had some awesome experiences during our time on the Florida coast. Among the memorable events were their first time boogie-boarding, and some awesome snorkeling off of Destin Harbor, not to mention learning how to negotiate coastal riptides — the last should not be tried without the near presence of a strong adult swimmer.

When I was a kid, Florida was a distant dream, even though we lived in Pennsylvania, one day's drive from Florida as opposed to more than two. In all honesty, there was, as yet, no Disneyworld, and the main draw for families to take off for Florida was thus not yet existent.

Numerous other stretches of beach which I have come to love — Cape Hatteras, Virginia Beach, the Del Marva Peninsula, Cancun and St. Croix, not to mention Florida's southern Gulf Coast and the San Diego shoreline — were unknown to me as a kid, simply names on a map. I grew up in western Pennsylvania, and at the time when travel was, I presume, not as easily accomplished.

I have yet to visit South Padre, which for many in eastern New Mexico, defines the ocean experience. Needless to say, however, there are many in Clovis, especially younger persons, who have not seen the ocean waves break over a beach, be it sandy or rocky.

There's something primal about the presence of an ocean, just as there is about viewing the Grand Canyon. Or, maybe that is not true; maybe it is just my excuse for a love affair with the amazing and unexplored sections of water which divide our continents.

Clyde Davis is a Presbyterian pastor and teacher at Clovis High School. He can be contacted at:

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