The last week has been surreal. Hurricane Ike wrecked havoc on Houston and surrounding areas. Many of my family members who had houses in Crystal Beach, Bridge City, and Orange have lost everything.
I have many memories of our families beach house in Crystal Beach. It is now completely washed away. All that is left is the slab. I can't believe it is gone and will never be there again. My grandpa Schkade built that house. It won't be rebuilt, as I'm sure many of the houses down there won't. It's as if Crystal Beach was wiped off the map.
I have early memories of Schkade family gatherings. Not that many, but I remember taking Joey to meet my grandparents in the summer of 1987. I remember all the junk underneath the house. Grandpa's 75th birthday party. I remember all the carpet sample squares all over the house. Grandpa died in 1987 and the house sat empty for many years. I remember the summer that we went to the beach house (1993) and cleaned everything out. Ashley, almost 2 years old, was helping to sweep the floor. There were magazines in there from the 70's. Old Sears catalogs. Everything smelled musty. Stuff left over from when my grandparent's lived there. We left very little of the original stuff. Most was replaced and it became the families summer vacation spot from then on.
In more recent memories, I think about all the summers that we gathered together with the McComber side of the family. I remember when Aunt Kathleen's family used to stay with us in the house before our family got too big. Then all the grandkids started coming along.
Summer after summer we would line the kids up by "the pole" and measure their height. We did this for at least 10 years with the last time being this July 2008, the last trip to the beach house. The pole became one of the important things about the beach house because it marked many years of kids growing up there. Last summer, in 2007, when the beach house was on the market for sale- we all took pictures of the pole because dad said we couldn't have it. It was a support column for the house. (Don't worry dad, I don't hold it against you) I don't think that pole did it's job of supporting the house in the end. It washed away with the rest of it. I'm glad I have my pictures.
Amy had many birthday celebrations at the beach house because her birthday would always fall during the week we would be there as a family. Many reunions took place with BBQ's, games in the field next to the house, canopies lined up on the beach and the orange fence to keep the little kids corralled. We learned that we couldn't cook scrambled eggs in Grandma Schkade's cast iron skillet, but that bacon sure tasted good that way. I wonder how many dozens of eggs and pounds of bacon we went through all those years?
We watched year after year as dad built his RV garage. He was still working on it as of the week before Ike came. Guess what- it's still standing. At least the main structure. His garage is gone with all his toys, though.
I've watched Ashley grow up summer after summer down there. I used to say we were going to let her live with Grandma and Grandpa Schkade, during the summers, at their Crystal Beach house when she was a teenager. Now she is almost at the age that I was when I met Joey. That is really weird for me. The spot we met is now eroded along with the rest of the beach. Ashley was just at the age where she could drive up and down the beach herself as we did many years ago as teenagers. It's just what teenagers do around here. Go to the beach. Where will they go now?
The Big Store, Waterslides, Ships Wheel,the Eagles and all the "8-liners" are gone now. I wonder if things will be rebuilt. If people will want to start over. I'm sure it will be a long time before we can venture down there and see with our own eyes the devastation. We've only seen pictures and from those, we know it will never be the same again.
This is a video of pictures that I put together of my own memories of times down at the beach. It wasn't just about the house itself, it was about everyone getting together for at least a week every year. Yes, it was loud. Yes, it was chaotic. Yes, we were griping at each other by the end of the week. 20 people in the same house will do that. But, now that we don't have the beach house anymore, I will always remember those weeks were full of fun times and family gossip.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Ice Skating
We all went ice skating this past weekend. My boss and her husband reserved the rink for a private party. So, we all put on our rental skates and hit the ice, or I should say hovered around the wall. Except for Ashley- she took off without fear of falling. She did pretty good. Amy picked up speed faster than Emily and I. Joey decided to skip the skating but did get in on a game of broom ball, in tennis shoes.
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