B: Brothers and Beaches

    There are, among other things, two things that have been core to my life so far:  brothers and beaches.   I have ALWAYS felt supremely special and lucky to have grown up as a middle child with  seven brothers (four older, three younger) and one little sister.  As kids, my brothers were my best of friends and, at the same time,  the biggest annoyances in my young life.  We were a tight crew on a tight budget and the sense of family was huge.  There was a great deal of pride in being one of the gang because one of the gang meant you excelled in school, you worked hard at anything you attempted, you were seen as valuable to the greater community,  you knew how to be respectful, and you knew how to have fun.  As we marched into adulthood, those aforementioned attributes continued to pay dividends.  Equally important, that sense of camaraderie and support only got stronger.  As a group, we span the baby boomer generation and the oldest of us has hit retirement age.  We have all had children of our own and our children have become best of friends in much the same way we were (and still are).  Although we might not all see each other frequently, I know any of us would drop anything to be there for the sibling in need.  There is a bond that cannot be matched in our relationships with each other.

    It was from my father, I do believe, that all my siblings and I got the connection that we have to the ocean.  My father grew up in Michigan but came to California just prior to the outbreak of WWII.  He enlisted and was stationed in San Diego until shipping out for the South Pacific for three years.  When the war was over, he married my mother and they settled in Los Angles County.  We grew up going camping at Tin Can Beach in So Cal (aka Huntington Beach), or at Jalama (closer to Santa Barbara), and down in Baja California.  As a college kid, I lived about a 35 minute drive from Santa Cruz, CA and spent many weekends (all year round) hanging out on the coast.  I knew that wherever I settled after college, it would need to be a relatively close drive to the beach.  It took me a few years to get through college and grad school but when I was ready to start a family, my husband and I relocated to a wonderful community in NorCal that, yes, features a 25 minute beautiful drive to the beach.

    The most cool times have been when beaches and brothers came together in life's adventures.  The camping trips when we were kids, the college beach outings (yes, several of my brothers were nearby in my college days), the times when, as adults we took our children camping together on California's northern coast - all of these occasions make for the warmest of memories.