Chez moi en Caroline du Nord

As I said the other day, I'm feeling a little bit homesick for the town where I grew up. We lived on the North Carolina coast, three blocks (300 meters) from Bogue Sound, a large salt water lagoon. Below are two the photos of the house I grew up in. I actually remember when we moved into the place in 1951... or at least I think I do.

The house was built in 1910, I believe, by my mother's uncle, whose name was Eugene Clifford Willis. Both of my mother's parents had died, one at the age of 43 and the other at 39. My parents rented the house from Uncle Gene, as we called him, in 1951. The rent was $40 a month, I believe.

 

The house had three bedrooms, a living/dining room, a kitchen, a full bathroom, and an attic. Uncle Gene, as we called him, lived on the same block we lived on. His house was just up the alley or just around the corner, depending on which way you walked over there. He and his wife had taken my mother and her sister in when their parents died. When he himself died in the early 1960s, he left the house to my mother. I lived there until I turned 18 in 1967 and went away to college.

 
Here are a couple of photos of the waters of Bogue Sound and nearby Beaufort Inlet, which is open to the ocean.

Bogue Sound is 25 miles long and only about a mile wide. Around the area there's almost more water than land. We lived a two-mile drive, part of it over a drawbridge, from the closest ocean beach. As a teenager I could ride my bike over there and go swimming. We lived just six or seven blocks from the downtown business district and also from the town's waterfront, with its seafood restaurants, fishing boats, and fishhouses. I was born in the town's hospital, which was on the waterfront back then.