Over on Gwynn's Island at the end of a road that appears to drop off into the Chesapeake Bay is a tiny square of public beach fondly referred to as Tin Can Alley.
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| Tin Can Alley is the few grains of sand from where I'm standing to that first jetty. Beyond that is private property. |
Click here and here for previous posts on Tin Can Alley, one of which (the second link) includes the story of when my grandmother took us swimming here. After a sweltering hot, humid day filled with scalding sand, eagle-sized, biting flies, stinging nettles, and nothing to eat or drink, she "lost" the car keys. Good times.
Stay tuned for several
Happy Tuesday.
10 comments:
Biting flies and keys in the floor.
I don't know anyone who says "the keys are in the floor" but I've been bitten by some big a---d flies, and mosquitos the size of jumbo jets, at a time when jumbo jets hadn't been invented yet.
However, I do know that people (particularly grandparents) tend to have idiosyncratic speech. The first thing I remember anyone saying to me is "dinna fa' doon" and indeed I didna fa' doon, and was very proud of myself, although I've been clumsy for the entire rest of my life and do fa' doon a lot.
K
and a fun time was had by all-
love the photos, so calming, always great shots
Happy Tuesday to you too!
First, I need to spend more time exploring Gwynn's Island and second, I don't get why people act like they're awaiting an impending shark attack when discussing the possibility of stinging nettle stings (referring to the 2008 post). Really, back in the day you endured stings if you wanted to go in the water. You rubbed some meat tenderizer on it and went about your day...
love the missing 'tooth' look of that .. what is that anyway .. a property divider?
OMG I so very well remember that inane stinging nettle fix of urine ... and all the brouhahaaaaaa, ahem.
Private property? You let a little thing like that stop you from, um, visiting? And, LOL. ^^^
Kay - My other grandmother (mother's mother, not the one referenced here who lost the keys) had some very unusual expressions and unique ways of pronouncing certain words including "poosh" for push. My whole entire family has problems with fa'in' doon. If it were an Olympic sport we'd be world champions.
deborah- Thanks. Yes, I suppose there was some fun sprinkled in there somewhere in between all that agony.
DJ-I don't get it either. The sting really isn't that bad unless you land in a pack of them. Or is that a herd of them? A flock? Surely you know what a large group of stinging nettles is. Actually I do too. It's called a mass. A massive pain in the ***.
Daryl-The jetties are to help prevent erosion and, sometimes, coincide with property lines.
MPM-I "mostly" respected the property lines...
Hi...Actually that beach is not public property. Its private and deeded To two homeowners now on sweet gum. They normally have no issues with people driving down and taking pics of the sunrise or a walk on the beach but home owners that border it... May.
Tin Can Alley is still in dispute. The Gloucester-Mathews newspaper has a front-page article. There is 45-foot wide public access. As far as "private property" on Gwynn's Island, I believe any beach front deed specifies "mean high tide" and therefore when the tide is "out" where the water was is also public, thus the long tradition of walking to either "end of the Island" either hole in the wall or Cherry Point. I have done that many times beginning in 1960's and continue to do so. Spouse is age 71 and has been doing this since about age 5 when the family (Pirkle) lived in Petersburg (close to Fort Lee).
Tin Can Alley is still in dispute. The Gloucester-Mathews newspaper has a front-page article. There is 45-foot wide public access. As far as "private property" on Gwynn's Island, I believe any beach front deed specifies "mean high tide" and therefore when the tide is "out" where the water was is also public, thus the long tradition of walking to either "end of the Island" either hole in the wall or Cherry Point. I have done that many times beginning in 1960's and continue to do so. Spouse is age 71 and has been doing this since about age 5 when the family (Pirkle) lived in Petersburg (close to Fort Lee).
Virginia is one of five "mean low water" coastal ocean states in the U.S. The ability to walk along the beach is often restricted because the property line in most cases extends to mean low water.
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