It has been a long day for Polly McIlvoy, a 93-year-old going on 50. She walked a couple of miles at sunrise, then kayaked an hour later with her two sisters, Myrtle Lindsay, 90, and Nina Keeley, 88, whom she now sits with. There was nothing 80 and 90-something about the day’s activities for them — ranging from swimming in the sound, kayaking, cooking lunches for families, and making trips back and forth to the beach and Roberts Market before the dinner hour. n It’s probably the first chance they’ve had to sit down today. Yet, they are wide-eyed, alive with the anticipation of giddy pre-teens, as if overflowing with secrets they will finally get to tell. What had it been like at Wrightsville Beach for them over the years? What was it about this place that kept them coming together, visiting the same place every year for more than 80 years? McIlvoy is quick to answer. “We all just had a lot in common. And back then, families relied on each other for everything. But, I always felt like I was in charge. I felt like the boss,” she says. “Well,” Keeley says, “you were the oldest. It’s only natural that you’d be the boss.” “She didn’t ask who was the boss y’all, she asked us about coming to the beach!” Lindsay says, laughing. Then, they are on a roll, debating and giggling. Finally, it’s decided. Their summer treks from their home near Winston-Salem began in the late 1920s. “We came to Wrightsville Beach on that railroad,” Lindsay says. Until 1935, the only way to get to the island was by trolley, known as the Beach Car. The end of the line was Lumina Pavilion on the beach. 48 WBM september 2014
2014-9
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