Island Memories

With 2017 marking Elegant Island Living’s 15th year, we turn our thoughts to all the different features we’ve written, events we have covered, and the many people we have met who have become a part of EIL’s story. There are the subjects of our articles, our advertisers, photographers, models, and many more people with whom we work each issue, and, of course, we wouldn’t be here without our readers.

Recently we spoke with reader Carolyn Hatala about her writing. Carolyn graduated from Glynn Academy and Brunswick College (now the College of Coastal Georgia). She retired for the Board of Education after a career in Special Education. A mother, grandmother, and an author of two books, she considers herself an armchair St. Simons Island history bluff.

Carolyn wasn’t keen on telling us too much about herself, but she eagerly offered up stories about growing up on St. Simons Island. She mentioned going to the beach and dancing at the casino, lively picnics under the giant oak, and walking hand in hand with her friends on the wooden pier. She said, “I could tell you about the causeway’s old wooden bridges and when we all stopped and helped turtles cross the road safely. I could tell you about the scent of honeysuckles, wild azaleas, and the giant magnolias that greeted us when crossing onto the island. Of beach towels that filled with sand while white-haired boys played and tanskinned girls forgot about tomorrow.”

BREEZES

Can you smell the salty sea breezes, the murky rivers that winds blow inward? Can you smell the decay of marsh grass in the soft muddy streams that wind through marshy coves? Can you smell my island’s wild fermented grapes lying on spongy ground beneath the brown tangled vines of winter? Can you smell my island when tourists come and cars ascend and mix their

breath with mine?

Can you smell the wild honeysuckles, azaleas and red trumpet vines that dangle helpless in the gentle winds of autumn? Can you hear the rolling ocean splash against cement pilings that now replace wooden ones crusted with barnacles?

Where people go to rest in breezes that cleanse the mind and wash the soul; All hidden and resting now, in the serenity of another time.

Can you hear and see my island, the noisy sea birds that escort the tides in and out, where sand and sea meet and greet each day with the joy of living?

WHEN WE WERE GIRLS

We sat on sandy beaches’ made sand castles out of sand.

We played in sun and shadows watching sea gulls dive and fish. We lived with peaceful freedom. Days slowly drifted by. When our girls’ days were over and life dreams crossed our path, we reached across the game we played and woke where no castles be;

Blown by the wind. The sand lay flat No birds, no castles, just sea and life Await fulfillment of our dreams When we were girls.

We think Carolyn’s words capture our beloved island beautifully! Thank you, Carolyn, for being a devoted EIL reader, sharing your poetry, and having a role as part of our story.

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