The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Beach Time!


This is from last summer. We've got a beach house lined up in Duck, NC, on the Outer Banks. Usually we have four to six people, but this year it'll be a dozen or more, so we're getting one of those large, Gormenghast-size houses, with all the bedrooms, bells & whistles. Nothing too overbearing or decadent, but it does have a swimming pool. I can't do the beach stuff like I used to, having overdone it some in my youth I'm advised to avoid all that direct sunlight that you often find outdooors. But I like the view, and the food, and the late night games of Spoons, Russian Rummy, Hearts, etc. And finding what humidity-bloated paperback best-sellers come stocked with the house. And what unusual items the kitchen drawer holds, and the annual search for which switch controls the ceiling fan, and renting bikes with my daughters, and finding revolting yet interesting items that've washed up on the beach, and the late-night beach strolls, which are always enlivened by trying to avoid all those tiny, scurrying ghost crabs, and seeing the moon rise. It's all good.

Like I said, this is from last June, when the Almanack celebrated its tenth anniversary. So here we are at the eleventh. I'm not sure what the correct gift is for an Eleventh Anniversary, but I think it's gas. Please leave your gifts of a gallon of gas in the driveway, betweeb the van, the station wagon that doesn't work and the garage. Thank you.

7 comments:

Mark Anderson said...

I'm gonna splurge and get you a gallon of jet fuel! Enjoy!

Bear said...

Is "betweeb" some sort of arcane Outer Bankian dialect?

Stacy Curtis said...

Gasoline?! Oh! I thought you were referring to the gas of the White Castle kind.

We just came from the beaches of Saugatuck, Michigan. It has been a while since I've been to a beach of any kind and I can't wait to go back.

Michael Devers said...

Our family is headed to Port Aransas next week and I think we got one from your series. It's advertised as a "remote, private hideaway with cozy accomadations". I believe it may be a tent on a garbage barge.

here today, gone tomorrow said...

I'm going to Chincoteague this weekend, but I'm staying at the Hampton Inn. And I can't wait.

arcticcircle said...

Can I drop by for the card games? I love card games, but I have managed to always have boyfriends who hate them.

I have to take extreme measures to play, involving hiking 5 hours into remote huts, which don't have electricity and forcing complete strangers, who are too polite to say "no", to play blackjack by candlelight.

richardcthompson said...

Thanks, Mark! Even though I hate flying, kinda.

Bear, yebs, it is.

Everybody who's going to the beach, I expect a postcard. Emailed if necessary.

Hungrydog, come on by. Our games of Spoons get so violent that people fall off chairs sometimes, so be warned.