G is for Galveston

The first trip I ever remember to Galveston was with my daddy and mama to visit Aunt Winnie and her girls (grandchildren?).  We went to the beach on the island.  I was intimidated by the size of the ocean.  But I was enjoying the pattern of the waves on the beach and looking for shells, when it happened...I was racked by a jellyfish! Intense pain.  Hot, wet tears.  My day was ruined, the beach was ruined.  Of course my cousin immediately administered the island home cure of the day, circa late 1960's.  Clean off excess jelly with sand.  Douse the wound in ammonia and then off to a shower to bathe and let the soap (probably original dial gold) make it burn as bad as at first.  I felt betrayed!  Surely someone should of warned me there was that terrible a monster lurking in those waves. 

Years passed, I got over it.  Family trips to Galveston was much more about Sea World and things like that then actually stepping into the waves.  Then my late teens hit.  And the beach just up the coast from the island, Crystal Beach, was the spot to go on a skip day or weekend to sunbath, look and be seen, cruise your vehicle up and down the beach in a never ending parade.  I passed the right of this passage on to my nieces, Kelly and Paige.

In college I only made a couple trips to the beach.  For one thing I went to school at SFA in Nacogdoches, so that doubled the drive time.  Me and one of my boyfriends, Bill, went back to do the Sea World thing.  And once when I was dating a carnie we rode out a hurricane on the island.  But it was nothing like the ones of recent years on the Texas coast.

Finally, I was grown and married to my Pete.  A man who preferred the cool, green of the woods to the sun, sand and surf of the beach.  For us, Galveston became mainly the place you go to see someone real sick in the hospital or a place you try to get into to take tests.  But we have had our share of fun there.  Riding the trikes up and down the seawall and stuff.

My last trip there was in 2009.  I wrote about that right afterward.  Bubba hadn't been there since he was little and Bug never had been.  Pete didn't feel like making that trip, but it was a special day for me and my kids...just us out in the big ol' world together.  

Good evening and God bless!
Barbara