The Competition
When I was five years old, we were heading to the Oregon coast from Tucson, Arizona, where we usually vacationed once or twice a year. I was pretty excited because the place we always stayed at was right across from the ocean. My family always rented this same place and we came to know the owners pretty well. The place is known as "The Cabin", though it's not really anything like a cabin that you would imagine. It is a double-wide manufactured home that is decorated to look like the inside of a ship. That is because the owner, named Warren Sherman, was a captain at one time, as was his father before him. His wife, Lorraine, collected many items over the years along with old pictures and created this getaway with her "Captain" in mind. The bedrooms, there are two, and on the doors they each have plaques with their own titles. One is for the "Captain" and the other is for the "Mates". All over there are memories and documents of Warren's and his Dad's time on the sea. There are seashells, an anchor and bell at the front door, a couple life preservers hanging on the walls, and of course, pictures of both men on their ships with their mates, and other memorabilia. It's really cool, and it's fully furnished too, so you can just bring yourself and your stuff.
My favorite thing about going there was that it was right across from the ocean and we could go most anytime we wanted, with a parent of course. I loved the smell of the ocean, and still do. It's always windy there and even inside you can hear the waves crashing on the giant rock formations along the edge of the beach. The cabin had a wooden deck that went around three sides of it so we could go outside and watch the waves as the tides would go in and out.
In the summer I would feel the warmth of the sand as I walked in my bare feet. It was just awesome to me because the ocean is so big and so blue and it seems more like a miracle or something. We always went as a family, so my two brothers and sister would go too, and we'd run up and down the beach. We'd stand close to the water and wait for the next wave to wash up on the shore and run and laugh if one would come in particularly close. One of the best memories I have is that it always felt so good to hang out with my older brother, Andy. He was about nine and a half that summer, so only being five, he was the best. To me, he was the coolest and I liked to do what he did. If he threw rocks, I'd throw rocks. If he dug in the sand, I'd do the same, always trying to do better than him, of course. We'd always compete with each other, like who was the fastest runner, who could throw farthest, or who was the strongest. Of course, it was mostly always Andy who could boast and declare himself the best of most everything. He's an awesome brother, but he could also get me to do some pretty stupid things at times, too.
One time when we were one the beach Andy challenged me to a "sinking contest". That's when we'd go very close to the edge of the incoming tide, where the sand becomes very soft and you get the feeling that you're in a sinking pit. We would wriggle our feet around and start sinking into the wet, wet sand. Both of us would laugh so much as we tried to see who could sink in the farthest. Since I was shorter it looked to me like I was going to beat him at this. At the time, I didn't think about being shorter. I just knew that I was into the sand up to my knees and Andy wasn't in as deep as I was. Standing there laughing and wriggling around, we both noticed a huge wave coming our way. We tried to get out of the sand quickly, which Andy did, but I couldn't. I couldn't even budge! I was stuck. I started screaming and crying for help. Andy laughed as I got washed over by that huge wave. Lucky for me, my Dad saw this and was already on his way to rescue me. When he pulled me out of the sand it felt like the skin came off of my legs. The sand was rough and it felt like getting my skin rubbed with sandpaper! My pants were heavy and wet and with every step back to the cabin my legs felt the pain. The worst part was that Andy was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe. I guess I won though, even if I had to be rescued.
We ended the day by going back to our cabin. We took nice warm showers, as Mom washed all the sandy clothes, and we sat down to a nice, warm dinner together. I went to bed that night I replaying my day over and over in my head, and thought of what the next day might hold and what I might beat my brother at. And I could still hear the ocean outside, its waves still crashing onto the shore, as I slowly drifted off to sleep.
