Oregon Beaches

The Oregon beaches have a special place in my memory.  Both my parents spent time there and told us many stories about their summer visits to various locations on the Coast.

My mother's mother. Grandma Stretcher, loved going to Twin Rocks Beach.  Twin Rocks is just a classic Oregon beach - sand dunes, big waves rolling in, beautiful scenery.  I believe that my grandmother paid for our family to spend time there in a rented house for one or two weeks each year. 

It was almost always fun because the house she rented was  big and had a beach view.  We could sit upstairs in the lounge and see the waves roll in from the main windows and outside from the porch.

Something happened one year that changed our experience.  Maybe the reservations got mixed up by the owners - I am not sure - but we didn't get the big house.  We had to stay on the property, further in the back,  in a little two room cabin.  Most of the time it was okay but the last week it rained most of the time and it was horrible.  I can remember my mother trying to keep the door open so that we could get some air into the place. 

We got to know the people who were renting the big house while we were there.  They had kids our age and we visited them when it was raining.  These kids had a HUGE collection of comic books - Donald Duck, Archie and Veronica, Little Lulu - you name it - oh, also romance ones, too. It was amazing.  My parents really discouraged us from reading comic books. We had a few but nothing like these kids. 

Our father drove back to Portland to work during the week and then returned for the weekend.  It was always fun except for the time we were in that cabin.  My mother, father, sister, me and Grandma - not enough room.  I remember things getting very tense - the rain was pelting down, food had been burned, something about a bad stove, no air in the place - you name it.  The worst was my mother's special camera getting stolen while we were at the beach one day. 

I don't remember us going back there again.  But I wasn't too upset because "Family Camp" replaced the summer beach time.