COASTAL LIFE// Welcome, Relax, Have Patience

STORY// NICK LEINWEBER

have patience

PEXELS

Summer 2021! At long last, things are starting to look, almost, like normal. After this past year, some quality vacation time on the Outer Banks sounds more enticing than ever before. But a healthy dose of patience is what will be needed this summer season.

Outer Banks businesses welcome the patronage of vacationers in 2021. The men and women assisting you this summer are more likely to be working in a place that is short-staffed. Workers are working overtime, and in some cases, seven days a week, and have been since the end of last summer. Many local workers are going into this season feeling the type of burnout that usually comes at the end of the summer. Employees and owners all over the beach will be incredibly appreciative to anyone who can understand their situation.

This year, some of the places you walk into are going to look a little bit different than you might expect. You’re likely going to have to wait a little longer to get food at a restaurant or check into a hotel room. These are all just small inconveniences in exchange for that long-overdue vacation.

After a year of waiting and dreaming of the day when it would finally be possible to go out and travel to the beach…you’ve made it! Now all you need to do is relax and enjoy yourselves. Please show your appreciation to those working to help you unwind. All it will take is a smile and a patient attitude, and we can all work together and look ahead to brighter days!

Even in a “normal” season, there are not enough full-time residents in this area to fill the job positions needed to tend to the hundreds of thousands of visitors who vacation each year. A sizable percentage of the people that work on the Outer Banks live elsewhere. There are the thousands of foreign exchange students who arrive annually. Young women and men from countries all over the world come to the Outer Banks to work for a four-month period. They are an essential component of so many hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. Unfortunately, very few are back this year.

As for the businesses who were able to weather the storm, most did so by the skin of their teeth. Restaurants had to get innovative, adapting their menus and service to accommodate more delivery and take-out. Staff members at hotels and retail stores had to double as housekeepers and work overtime to do all of the extra cleaning and sanitation duties. Many business owners were spending almost all of their time doing whatever extra work was necessary to keep things going. These same owners were, in many cases, forced to sacrifice their own income to pay their staff and hopefully (maybe) break even.

As the summer months of 2020 dissolved into the fall, a funny thing happened, saving the day for some of our starving businesses. When the tourist season would normally be ending, a good number of visitors were still arriving. Not necessarily in droves, but just enough for many businesses to stay open during a time of year when they would normally be shutting down for the season. Ask a local, and you will hear that last year’s tourist season never actually ended.

Cut to the present. Most businesses have spent almost a full year working their hardest to adapt to the new world of COVID. Now that the restrictions have been relaxed, they have been making adjustments, creatively innovating, but mostly just working like crazy!

Nick Leinweber lives in Kill Devil Hills, where he is a recreational writer and an aspiring surfer.

Eden Day Spa Eden Day Spa & Salon & Salon established 1996 established 1996

An AVEDA Concepts Salon & Spa An AVEDA Concepts Salon & Spa

~ Expert Hair Styling for ~ Expert Hair Styling for

Men & Women Men & Women ~ Advanced Coloring Techniques ~ Advanced Coloring Techniques ~ Makeup Application ~ Makeup Application ~ Massage Therapy ~ Massage Therapy ~ Spa Treatments, European ~ Spa Treatments, European Facials Facials & Microdermabrasion & Microdermabrasion ~ Pedicures and Manicures ~ Pedicures and Manicures - Bridal Packages - Bridal Packages

aCOROLLA 817 Ocean Trail, Suite C Monteray Plaza Corolla, NC 252.453.0712 CURRITUCK 2870 Caratoke Highway Currituck, NC EDEN DAYa COROLLA 817 Ocean Trail, Suite C Monteray Plaza Corolla, NC 252.453.0712 CURRITUCK 2870 Caratoke Highway Currituck, NC 252.232.1306 252.232.1306

PERFORMERS

STORY// STEVE HANF

Diners crowded the restaurant. Music from the band filled the room. For Jonny Waters & Co., it was just another spring night entertaining folks on the Outer Banks. Except it wasn’t. This was no ordinary show at Basnight’s Lone Cedar Cafe. The first weekend of March 2020 was filled with dread and uncertainty. The coronavirus was spreading. A lockdown was coming. “You could tell that people were on edge,” Waters recalls. “It was the weirdest gig we’ve ever played just because of that social dynamic, and it was this unspoken elephant in the room. I’ll never forget that.” The shutdown orders that came one week later, from coast to coast, chased musicians off stages, actors out of theaters, comedians away from clubs. But some of the light now seen at the end of this coronavirus tunnel is a spotlight, shining once again on performers who are overjoyed to be sharing their craft with audiences who are overjoyed to see them. Comedian Greg Smrdel, who missed a regular summer of standup at the Outer Banks Comedy Club, traveled to Cleveland in March of 2021 for four shows that he’ll never forget.

Live performance of Jonny Waters & Co.