TRADITIONS

Our family has been going to New Brighton Beach in Santa Cruz every Memorial Day week-end since 1986. We usually go for the week prior to Memorial Day. When the children were still living at home we camped at the campgrounds at New Brighton Beach. It was such a great memory builder. This vacation was always so fun for all of us because there were several other families we knew there as well. The children would play together at the beach all day (and I do mean all day). They would start asking us "when are we going to the beach?" the minute we woke up. We could hardly get the lunches packed fast enough. We would always pick a spot on the beach where about 15 families would meet and the kids would body surf or dig in the sand while we all just sat around and ate yummy snacks and caught up on what was going on in each others lives.

Our New Brighton vacation included many yearly traditions. We would always have a huge family campfire where someone would tell scary stories to the kids, we'd sing songs and roast marshmallows and eat s'mores. Once the kids went to bed all the adults would share hilarious memories about the times we'd all been together in the past. I liked to get up really early and walk on the beach so I could usually find one or two other mothers who would join me and take some of the children for an early morning treasure hunt at the beach.

There were traditions around the food as well. There was one family that always had a supply of suckers for the children. So in the mornings the children would go out exploring and visiting their friends at other campsites. They's end up with a little group of buddies just running from campsite to campsite and they'd always come back with a sucker from Brother Draper. We never knew who to expect at mealtime, it was hardly ever just our family. One of the children would always have someone with them when it was time to sit down for a meal. Bruce say's "you never really knew how much they'd eaten before they sat down at our table either". Brother Curry was famous for his Clam Chowder which he made for the whole group every year. There were tradional camp meals as well. Some families always had one night of Taco Salad, then there was the Hawaiian Haystacks. It was fun just to see what creative things people came up with to have for dinner. We had some traditional breakfast foods as well. I won't go into that now.

As I said our family was usually there for the whole week but others didn't make it to New Brighten until Wednesday or Thursday. Some of the ladies were so anxious to come we would even get to the campgrounds a few days before our husbands who usually had to work until later in the week. I was one of those ladies so I would set up our campsite myself with some help from Nate and Karrissa. Although this was trying because they were constantly wanting to know when we would be done so we could go to the beach. There were always a few men who had managed to come early as well and they would help me if I needed it. I got pretty good at setting up my tent and lighting campfires. Speaking of campfires. These same men, would make a run for firewood and would fill the back of a truck with firewood and we'd all buy bundles for our campfires from them. Thursday nights were the nights the men would go see some action packed Adventure movie. The first few years it was just a night for the guys to go alone then some women decided they wanted to go to the movies as well. So they'd pick a "chick flick" and go to the movies on Thursday night too. I preferred to stay back and sit by the campfire with the other moms and kids who had stayed behind. Then on Friday night we all went to the boardwalk. It was so fun all the adults would sit and eat funnel cakes, or corn dogs, while we waited for our kids on the rides. Friday night usually included a stop at Marianne's ice cream on the way home.

We have a collection of photographs capturing some of these memories of the fun times at New Brighton Beach but I don't think we or our children will ever forget the many wonderful years we spent there with great friends.

I know each year I return my mind floods with memories. I can't go by certain campsites without having flashes of the past. Campfires, walks on the beach, body surfing, the men having water fights with the huge water guns, wandering thru the campgrounds completely soaked looking like comandos with water guns resting on their shoulders. I don't think we will ever forget the year Karrissa hurt her foot at the beach and Jerry Harris carried her on his back all the way up the hill back to the campgrounds. There was the year Karrissa ended up with the flu and by the time we arrived at camp it was pouring and I had to set up the tent and quickly make a bed for my very sick daughter in the rain. I don't know if it was the same year but Bruce had to take Karrissa to Kaiser once she was so sick. Then there were the bad sun burns because little girls insisted on going home with a suntan. There was the year the rain wouldn't stop and we all ended up at Round Table for dinner with what looked like everyone else from the entire campground. I think that was the year we finally gave up on the promise of sunshine and we all packed up our soaking wet belongings and went home early. It seemed we could never leave without Nathan getting a bad case of poison oak.

I can't believe so much time has passed. Now our children are trying to carry on this tradition for their family. Karrissa and Brad went to New Brighton this year with their kids. It was fun for her to see that there were still some of the people she grew up with there with their children. Bruce and I stayed in a rental house in Capitola. Karrissa and Brad brought friends and family to share their campsite with and although I am sure it wasn't the same, it is time for them to begin building their own traditions.

I am still hoping to take the children for walks on the beach in the early morning hours, to eat ice cream from Marianne's and to sit by an open fire with a child on my lap every Memorial Day for a very long time.