Old Beach, New Beach

I love how beaches used to be. When I was a kid, we went to Pensecola each summer for a week. Seven humans and two dogs squeezed into an Oldsmobile. My dad went to work at a conference, while we played. We rented a dumpy, cheap beach house with cockroaches. We tracked sand onto the peeling linoleum floors, slammed the creaky screen doors, slept on the lumpy mattresses, played on the beach all day, and generally had a fabulous time. (That was the early years; later, we stayed at nicer places.) I bet those old ugly houses aren't on Santa Rosa Island anymore.

But on Atlantic Beach, you can still find the Old Beach, thankfully. It's a bit garish.

It's a bit cramped.

But it's all very unique, quaint, quirky, and individual. That trailer is John and Judy's, no mistaking it.

This little trailer park is here, next to the Oceanana Family Resort and Motel. Well, "resort" might be a stretch. It's a tired two-story motel on a large parking lot.

The Oceanana has a fishing pier though, with a restaurant, and ... "The Barnacle Bar"! Hahaha! Adorable!

Women's Dressing Room. Ahh -- that's so Old Beach, complete with cement block and a screen door.

Just down the street is the Sand Dollar Motel. Slightly nicer, but along the same lines.

The little motel where we stayed for our anniversary was much the same -- old, tired, cheap, unique, fun, friendly, perfectly adequate. I'm so very thankful there's still some Old Beach thriving here. You also see nicer trailers and RVs, and they're welcome, of course.

And rows of similar condos and houses, painted those bright beach colors that I love to see! They just make me happy. I'm too chicken to paint my own house that color. (Robin, I admire you!!) But I adore seeing it on other people's homes.

About half of Atlantic Beach looks like this. It's pretty, but it's far out of the reach of folks like us.

And then you have ... New Beach!Developed Beach. Off-limits beach. Gated communities and time-shares, private pools, private parking, private golf courses, private beaches. So very pretty. (But I'm thankful for the Sand Dollar!)

One thing you'll never find in these brown and gray condos:  fish decorations and a sign that says "John and Judy." Not much personal here, and I think that's what puts me off the most. Not the expense, forbidding as it might be. I just don't think it's pretty. It's sterile, it's immaculate it's new. But there nothing Old Beach about it.

Which do you prefer? I must admit, I'd like a combination :) -- the whimsy of the old, without the cockroaches!