Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By KC Smith

Cooleemee Correspondent

Sometime midsummer this year, six women decided it was time to go on a beach trip.

Three werecousins, two daughters, a sister-in-law and a granddaughter.

The island of Sunset Beach in North Carolina was the destination and the house they chose happened to have been featured by HGTV.

When reservations are booked in advance, who knows what can happen to change their plans. The sister-in-law’s husband came down with COVID the day before they were to leave. Despite the doctor telling her to go on the trip if she didn’t have symptoms, she stayed home, tested positive in three days and so did her two children.

One daughter was so happy about the timing of the trip because she was working her last days at her nursing job after 17 years and this trip was giving her a chance to be part of a girls trip without children. She was to start her new job the following Monday.

Well, she came down with a prolonged stomach bug that had been swarming around the hospital and she stayed home.

So, disappointed as they were about loosing two members of the group they were still excited about the trip.

You can know someone for a very long time but not really know them, if you know what I mean. They laughed at stories, shared cooking tips, make-up  brands, best diets that work and more.

During the fun chatter one day, everyone fell silent when the daughter said to her mother, ‘tell them about the life guard.”

“What lifeguard, when, how, oh no you did not.” Might I add she was the most timid in the group which made the story so unbelievable.

After her graduation, she and two cousins and a friend headed for the beach for the weekend in a 1966 Plymouth Furytwo-door. She said she met a lifeguard there and when she was about to head home, he wanted to go with her, so he hopped in the back seat in the middle of a cousin and friend.

They were towing a U Haul carrying a motorcycle for a friend who lived in Salisbury. So dropped off the U haul and headed on to Davie County.

The evening was getting late so when she got home her parents were asleep and her brother was made to leave his bed and sleep on the sofa while the lifeguard slept in his bed. Leaving sand in the bed for the brother to find later didn’t go over well.

Her daddy told her the next morning to, “take his “butt” back home today!” (I cleaned that up a bit.)

Her parents took both cars to work so she called and called but couldn’t find anyone that could let her borrow a car. She wasclose to one male cousin and he agreed to let her drive his car to Winston and right back.

But she didn’t drive to Winston-Salem, she drove all the way to Charlotte to his house. She regrets to this day she lied to her cousin. He told her when he got the car back that she drove more than to Winston. He had checked the mileage before she left.

Her cousin’s car was a gear shift and since she had never driven to Charlotte before and little experience with a gear shift, the lifeguard drove the car to Charlotte. She drove his car back while following behind him driving her cousin’s car.

Believe it or not, the lifeguard sat at the table for a meal with her family before he left and drove back home.

To top it all off, the Masonic Picnic was going on that week and she took him to the picnic even though, get this, even though she had a boyfriend and as far as she knows he didn’t see her.

That night was the last time she saw that lifeguard.

All she could say was, “He was so good looking.”

I guess most people at the age of 18 do crazy things and have fun telling about it. This woman has been carrying around this story for a long time and now the cat is out of the bag.

Names have been kept secret to bring a little mystery about who of the five told the story. You’ll have to decide.

Before parting ways they unanimously voted Cosby Beach Trip for the name of this getaway.

Looking forward to many more.

Pease contact me at www.cooleemeenews@gmail.com, 336.250.1133, I would love to hear from you but, I’ll never tell who.