This is a picture of me when I worked as a waitress at Barnacle Bill's. The young man with his arm around me is Roger Hanson, a young Marine from Camp Lejeune. I had a tremendous crush on him then. He and his friend Jimmy often came to my family's house for dinner. They worked at BB's and we used to have ketchup and mustard fights with the squeeze bottles. I often wonder what happened to those two wonderful guys. They treated me so well. Notice the swings, lifeguard stand and picnic table in the background - and if you look toward the end of the building you will see part of the concrete walkway that had been built during WWII.

 Barnacle Bill's had been the old officer's club during the war. The pier was definitely the in place to be back in the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I have posted this before, but I am posting it again - these are the KIDS OF SURF CITY -I know a few are missing - some very important to our "crew." If you have any pictures that include more please post them. I love you all - well, most of the time. Anyway, here is a tribute to the kids of Surf City. Hope you enjoy it.

      THE KIDS OF SURF CITY

    We are the kids of Surf City

    Our time knows no boundary

    We live forever, our dreams are bound

    By the sea, its smell, its feel, its sound.

    And all we need to know of truth

    Has been allowed to us through youth.

    From towers left by Bumble Bees

    We saw so far beyond the trees

    To lands and isles and foreign nations

    All brought to us through imaginations.

    Oh, those mighty days, our golden youth

    Were all we needed to know of truth.

    When from our sights we saw the sails

    Of pirate ships and cannon balls

    Like brothers fighting with sea oats swords

    We conquered dunes, becoming lords

    And all we needed to know of truth

    Was provided by our winsome youth.

    New age has come to join our crew

    Creeping Time spreads among we few

   Who lived so free, tho still are bound

    By that sea and all that we had found

    From the blessed colored lens of youth

    Still we hold the secret of the truth.

Carol Ann Ross

I was behind a school bus today and a thought occurred to me - a distinction between the teens of the fifties, sixties and seventies and the teens of today - During those decades teens were given a most important responsibility - driving a school bus. It carried our most precious assets - our children.

Today this would never even be considered. Kids were more responsible and mature then than they are today. Why is that so? Anyway - this is a photo of the kids on bus 5 that ran the Surf City route. I remember, Donald Batts, Audry Batts, Sheila Atkinson and Linda Batson as the drivers. Does anyone recognize the occupants above?