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To the Editor:

In 1970, our family of mom, dad and six kids aged 9 months to 13 years, made our first trip to the Outer Banks! I think it took about 12 hours to get there! Our big purchases for the trip were 10 cent flip flops and two 50 cent citronella candles. We made Kool-Aid in gallon jugs and mom made potato salad, her oven baked chicken, pickled eggs and a few more foods that filled the cooler. The first five years, we camped in Buxton. Is it possible the fee was $3 a night? Dad would drive out to a little store almost every day for bread, lunch meat, milk and ice. Dad and the two boys slept in the back of the station wagon and mom and four girls slept in a homemade pop-up made for four. Cold showers, hot sun, huge mosquitoes, sun burns and sandy sheets! We were hooked!

2015 was the last time the original eight would be there together. Our brother passed in 2016 and dad passed in 2017. But we have never missed a year! This year, there will be 54 of us there, four generations! Mom is 88. The 9 month old from 1970 is now a grandmother! We’ve stayed everywhere from Duck to Ocracoke but have settled into the Nags Head/South Nags Head area as it’s centrally located and residential.

I’ve been to many beaches throughout this hemisphere. There’s no place like the Outer Banks! Nothing compares! There is a fish on Jennette’s pier that says it all!!

Paul and Dorothy McNulty Family

Making OBX Memories Since 1970

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