GOOD TIMES... Spring (Part 69i)

The jacket was a big winner... thank goodness. I did get her to wear a pair of the flowered Carter’s but not the fancy panties. We ended up spending the day visiting both sets of parents. We didn’t need presents for our mothers as bringing the girls was satisfaction enough. That night, after the kids were asleep and the Ed Sullivan TV show was over I got Elle to put the lavender panties on over the flowered ones. I remember her looking at herself in the mirror and sort of snickering because they were so sheer she could see the flowers right through the lavender pair. I also remember her making a comment along the lines that she couldn’t believe anyone would wear something that sheer. From somewhere in the nether part of my mind I got the idea to take a picture of her wearing them. I had to do some serious persuading to get her to say ”yes“. When she did she wouldn’t let me take anything more than the panties. I was very surprised that there was color film in the camera when it was developed which made me very happy. We then followed that up with some enjoyable ”private time“.

When Jay arrived at work on Monday he was in a very good mood. The source of his upbeat attitude was that the barrier island where we had worked together had the access restriction partially lifted. Homeowners and licensed contractors were now allowed. Jay’s father had been a licensed contractor and even though he hadn’t worked in years, the license was still valid. Jay had been on the island over the weekend and had been asked by a homeowner to clear the debris from his property. I’d been working with Jay for over six months and hadn’t seen him this excited in all that time. He asked if I wanted to go over to take a look at the area during lunch. Jo overheard us and asked if she could tag along. As I’ve mentioned, things between the two of them were getting warm so I wasn’t surprised when he said she could.

When we got to the bridge to the island all traffic headed East was allowed but to go West, like we wanted, proof had to be shown. The National Guard was long gone and access was being monitored by the county sheriff’s department. The guy on duty gave Jay a hard time even though Jay had the necessary papers. The problem was that he saw two guys with ties on and a nicely dressed female and in his mind it didn’t add up. Jay, in a nice way, told him that if there was a foul up in his next paycheck, not to be surprised. Of course it was ”tongue in cheek“ and he explained. Somewhat reluctantly, the guy waved us on. The first thing was saw was the beach club, or, what was left of it. All the buildings on the barrier island were ”stick built“ and constructed on poles called spiles that were pumped into the sand. I’d remembered the beach club as being like an enclosed compound, surrounded by dark green lattice. I’d never seen beyond the lattice but now what we saw was a series of damaged buildings. The road, which was made of asphalt, was almost completely covered with sand. Jay’s 4 wheel drive truck handled the sand easily. We saw any number of cars and small pick up trucks parked on the side of the road because they couldn’t handle the sand. It was about a mile to where the breach had occurred. None of the ocean front houses that we’d passed were without severe damage. The dunes upon which they had been built had been reduced by at least ten feet in height if not more. Sitting on the bare poles they really looked silly sitting so high up from the sand beneath them. The Army Corps of Engineers had been in charge of filling the breach by pumping in sand from both the bay and the ocean. It was easy to see where they had been working as they the area was probably ten feet below the now reduced sand dunes on each side of it.

The breach had been filled about two weeks prior but the Corps wouldn’t let anyone use it for access to the west end of the island until the sand had settled enough for them to put down these strips of metal used extensively during WWII when there was a beach landing so heavy tanks and equipment wouldn’t sink into the sand. Jay was one of the first to traverse it over the weekend. Because virtually no one had been at that end of the island the damage looked like it had just happened and not two months ago. The majority of the houses on the island were built on the ocean side with only a few on the North, or bay side, and it appeared they had held up fairly well. The big problem for them was that the debris from the damaged ocean side houses ended up being deposited on their property. The man that had approached Jay to clean up his property was one of the bay side homeowners. Jay drove us down to that house and it was somewhat shocking to see the debris that had been left. I couldn’t believe just how much junk had been jammed underneath the house, stopped by the poles that held it up. Pieces of stairs, handrails, porches, decks, doors, window frames and whole parts of roofs were all intertwined as if they were welded together. I asked Jay what his plan to ”attack“ the mess was and he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. He followed that up with an offer for me to help him but I just shook my head. He did say that the owner was giving him access to the house but with no electricity or water I didn’t know what good that would do. I don’t think Jo ever opened her mouth to utter anything but Ooooo’s and Ahhhh’s as she viewed the extent of the damage. It was a quiet trip back to work.

To be continued...