Beach season. Hot afternoons, warm evenings and cool, refreshing water. Since my family and I moved to Grand Coulee last winter, I had been enticed by the promise of lazy, warm days on the beach. Almost every afternoon since those promised warm days have arrived my daughter and I load on the sunscreen and head to the beach for some fun in the sun. As the water in Lake Roosevelt rose and pushed the beachgoers into a small crescent of shore, people watching became one of my most interesting summer activities.
I found as the summer season progressed that people seem to undergo a transformation when they get to the beach. Except for young children, people of all ages seem to shed some level of conformity when their feet hit the sand. It seemed to me that the toddlers and younger children were the only ones acting predictably: up to their necks in sand and inquisitively exploring their surroundings. I saw teenagers building sandcastles and parents playing with their children. Grown men and women were swaying joyfully on the swings. We bare our imperfect bodies in bathing suits that in any other setting would be considered scandalously inappropriate. It was almost as if everyone was so far out of their normal, everyday element that predictable behaviors didn’t apply.
It was the teenagers who first caught my eye. Rarely do you see a child past the age of 12 simply playing. Is it the absence of other entertainments that allow them to enjoy the things they used to as younger children? Combating boredom is an effortless thing these days. There are cell phones, social networking sites, email, computer games, video games and possibly, if you’re lucky, a book or a school sport. In the absence of these possibilities, it seems as if the imagination rose from the ashes, and before you know it, there they were: conducting a sand castle competition, swimming out to the dock and swinging on the swings.
As I watched the rest of us join ranks with the young children, it made me wonder what it is about the beach that brings out the child in all of us. If we were all half as active as we are at the beach, America wouldn’t have such an obesity problem. If we interacted with our children as much on a daily basis as we do at the beach, perhaps there wouldn’t be as many problems in our schools. It’s almost as if a day at the beach grants us the same freedom as a vacation does. On vacation some of our everyday comforts are stripped away, leaving us the time and attention to focus on activities that are simply for pleasure.
I think being at the beach reminds us on a very deep level of being one of those sand covered kids we see at the beach today. It reminds us that simply getting dirty and playing, then jumping in the cold water to rinse off is a rush of simple joy that is deeply satisfying.
For much of my childhood I lived in a beach town. My summer afternoons and weekends were spent in the sand and the sun playing with my parents and little friends I would meet down by the water and then forget the next day. I grew up hearing stories about my brother and I purposefully throwing our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the sand, picking them up and eating them merrily. This summer, I watch my daughter eating a sandy nectarine and know that if we were at home and she ate something that dirty, I would be appalled. But at the beach, there’s much that we do outside of our comfort zone and regular day activities. And you know, I think I like it.
Previously published in "The Star," Grand Coulee, Washington. August 24, 2011
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