My Great Aunt Nancy remem-bers
watching the fancy cars drive
by on their way to the newly built
luxurious Pembroke Jones estate
as she and her sister Jean combed
the water’s edge at low tide,
catching fat blue crabs and then
steaming them and picking the
meat to sell by the pound to add
a little extra to the family income.
My Great Grandmother Nettie
wrote: “Life on the sound all these
years made the children happy
and independent. The water was
their natural habitat, and when
my relatives from upstate came
to visit us, they wondered if
my children had web feet. One
day they were the Swiss Family
Robinson, coming ashore in my
washtub, the next, with pick and
shovel they were pirates digging
for treasure; in cool weather they
were pioneers, with ax and frying
pan, bacon and beans, off to the
woods to clear the land and build
a log house.”
oyster roasts
were another cool-weather tradi-tion
celebrating the outdoors
and bounty of the sea. My
Grandmother Jean wrote that the
oyster roasts began their tradition
back in her father’s dairy.
“In my youth, a cook-out
meant an oyster roast. We had
one fireplace on our waterfront
that we used in the warm falls,
but the best ones were down at
the dairy. The oysters were put
in big milk cans and cooked by a
hose of steam — the same steam
used to sterilize milk bottles.”
My Grandmother Jean Smith
Holman and her husband Joseph
Wright Holman moved just down
the street as newlyweds, to the
Heinzberger house, on the corner
37
WBM www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF TAYLOR SMITH RILEY