Growing up in Virginia, near the Potomac river, but still hours away from the ocean coast, I did not know much about the salt life that I read about in other people’s lives.
Deciding where to start life over, we took my iPad and started following a path down the coast. “Let’s find a place that’s warm and fun.” Spotting Savannah and seeing it was near the coast, we figured we should check it out. A few clicks and a couple days later, we finished up the last day of our Savannah visit wiggling our toes in the hot Tybee sand. The girls spent hours in the water body surfing the salt waves. Two weeks later we signed a contract to rent a beach house on Tybee for the winter. We then proceeded to sell everything we owned.
Six months later, we crossed the Lazaretto bridge in search of a new life on this little 3 x .5 mile clump of sand. Not at all knowing if we would stay beyond our three month lease, but we would at least enjoy the winter away from the bitter cold and see if we could cope with sand always rattling in our shoes.
We didn’t spend too much time on the beach in those three months, because it still gets cold on the Georgia Coast. But we did spend time meeting locals and getting to know our neighbors. On the contrast, in Virginia, we lived in a house for 15 years and would only see our neighbors once or twice a year, usually passing them on the road early in the morning or after dusk. Most people’s lives there consist of sitting in their cars 3-5 hours a day just commuting to and from work.
Our first trip to the Tybee Market IGA, the only grocery store on the island, was on our second night here. We needed to stock our pantry from scratch. Pushing our cart through the narrow aisles searching for what we needed. An employee with black curly shoulder length hair wearing a ball cap twisted backwards asked if he could help us. He immediately spotted Sean’s Redwing’s hat and a discussion on Michigan began. This led into telling him that we had just moved into the island the day before. On a dime, the conversation changed. Garrett extended his hand for a hearty shake to introduce himself to us. In an instant we were not tourists only here for a couple days, but new members of the community. Stopping his shelf stocking, he took the time to give us a local’s advice. Telling us the best places to watch the sunset, favorite fishing spots, where to catch live music and this amazing pizza joint called “Hucapoos” where a slice is a quarter of a pizza for four bucks and beer is $2.
We both stood there really feeling like we were in a dream. An employee stocking shelves would stop to welcome us to the community and give us a headstart explaining things we needed to experience and know about if we were going to live here? This is something we would not have seen nor experienced in our rushed lives just outside the nation’s capitol.
Almost four years later, Garret has continued to be one of our friends on Tybee. Always a smile on his face and loving life, no matter what job he finds himself doing. He knows if you’re lucky enough to live on Tybee, well then you’re lucky enough. You can’t help but to smile when you see him.
We met a couple wonderful families in the first few days living here. In the first week we had been invited to dinner parties to welcome us here and meet other neighbors.
Spontaneous gatherings would happen at the instant of a phone call. Sunny warm days in December meant time to grab a chair and gather at the beach, even if the water was too cold. The gathering would then evolve into last minute pot luck dinners in someone’s back yard around a fire pit, or just standing in the kitchen.
We quickly found that our new friends move at a much slower pace taking the time to get to know each other. No one was in a rush to leave, since their mornings and afternoons are not spent in bumper to bumper traffic, this automatically gives one more hours in their day to enjoy friends and island simplicity. Some still travel off island for work. But most commutes are under 45 min.
We loved the new pace, but it took us a little time to get used to it and jump off the Northern Virginia treadmill and not feel rushed or over burdened. After a month living here, someone asked Sean why he was still wearing a wrist watch. He took it off that day and never put it back on.
We live a very full social life now. Several nights a week we are out and about, usually involved with something musical as Sean performs in several bars and restaurants here. Everyday we see our friends, whether we’re in the IGA buying groceries, picking up our mail from the post office, or out for the night making our evening rounds listening to live music.
The diversity of people on Tybee is just amazing. We have a permanent population of 3,000 locals. This number grows to 30,000 in the tourist season which is from March through mid-October. But it’s in the off season that you get to learn who the locals are. From artists to musicians, entrepreneurs, bartenders, engineers, writers, teachers, boat captains, fishermen, shrimpers and cab drivers…the diversity is great.
However there is one common thread that these people have. They embrace the fragility of life and seem to understand that you only get one shot at this gig, and you have to embrace it everyday.
Our friend Glen, from Michigan always said “Don’t sweat the petty stuff and don’t pet the sweaty stuff” that’s pretty good advice from a Michigander. (Although they probably don’t have much sweaty stuff that far north.)
Like anywhere else, there are disagreements and political debates here too, but here they are usually hashed out over a beer and left to pick up on another day, not ending a friendship over it.
It’s hard to put words to what island life is really like, some things just can’t be explained, but have to be experienced. I’d like to invite you to come and see it for yourselves, but it’s only in crossing the line from island visiting to island living, that you can really experience it. I hear it’s not for everyone, (that’s hard for me to comprehend), but I’ll save that for another post. Till then, I hope you have a great week and make a decision today to be happy.