A Summer to Remember

With summer being right around the corner it's time to think about where and how I might want to spend it. Summer is never complete for me with out spending a majority of it at the beach. A day I spend surfing in the summer is time well spent. I have an idea to do just that, while at the same time paying it forward.

Back in the summer of 1989, I woke up one Saturday morning and turned on the radio. While I was making breakfast and taking a shower, I decided to go to the beach. I made several calls to friends and asked them if they would like to go? No one took me up on my offer, so I decided to go alone. I set foot on the beach around 8:30 on that Saturday morning and sat my board down. As I sipped on a cup of coffee, I noticed a little kid who couldn't have been more than 9 or 10 years old walking down the beach, picking up shells, or so I thought. I went out and came back in after about 1/2 an hour to get warm. The kid came walking back by with a huge trash bag in tow. I hollered at him, and said, looks like you found a ton of shells. He looks at me like I'm crazy and says, this is trash. I was like what? After speaking with him, I found out why he was out on a Saturday morning picking up trash instead of being at home watching cartoons and playing video games. He told me that his father was making him do it as punishment for talking back. He was really mad about it until I told him that someone had to do this, and if it wasn't him, it would be someone else. He asked me why, and I told him that with out someone cleaning the beach, it would get so dirty that no one would want to come and visit it. I also told him that he should feel honored to be the person that day to clean the beach, and that I sure appreciated it. He stated that he was still mad about it. I told him that I would make a deal with him. I said I would clean the beach that next Saturday morning, and if he ever had to do it again, he would have less to pick up. He agreed with me and asked me about where I got my board and if maybe he could ride it sometime later in the day. I told him sure. He definitely came back around 11:00 a.m. with some of his friends and family. I was true to my word, and he kept my board till around 2:00 p.m. that day. After that day, at least once a month I would catch him picking up trash on the beach.  He told me that he sometimes got bored after waking up early, and comes down to the beach with a trash bag or two and makes a once over up the shore, then back. He doesn't mind it so much now, and he had even earned enough money cutting grass and cleaning yards that he was able to buy his first surfboard.

I think that this summer when I visit Cocoa Beach, I'd like to help out like that little kid did. 






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