It’s Wake Up Time on the Island

When the calendar turns to March 1, it means several things. Personally, it means my birthday month is over! But that’s of no consequence to anyone but me, really. More importantly, it’s the beginning of meteorological spring, and that’s a wake-up call for Hatteras Island. For those of you who visit just during the summer or during the shoulder seasons, you might not think too much about what happens when you’re not here!

It’s amazing to watch the island rouse from its off-season slumber. It occurs gradually, but it definitely happens. It’s in the little things. It’s the extra minutes of daylight, and more days in the 60s rather than the 40s and 50s.

Driving past the high school, the young women are out on the field for softball practice. The marquee at the school suddenly announces baseball, softball and soccer schedules.

There are signs at nearly every place of business announcing help wanted – for servers, for housekeepers, for just about any island seasonal position you can name. And the restaurants are returning – slowly but surely. Some will re-open at the beginning of the month, some around St. Patrick’s Day, and some closer to the end of the month. But with Easter being in early April this year, most want to be open at least a few weeks ahead of time, just to “get the rust off.”

There’s sometimes the sad realization that a few places won’t re-open. The long off-season from the end of October to March brings about changes that aren’t fully understood until it’s time for the new season to begin. Tempus fugit.

Many of the clean-up efforts and projects undertaken during the fall and winter are wrapping up. Storms took out more houses in north Buxton over the past months, and the debris clean-up is on-going. There are still piles to be carted off the island, but they are becoming smaller and fewer. The major project of the electric cooperative is wrapping up as well, and the staging area is now almost completely devoid of pallets, trucks, and pilings. By summer, most, if not all of this, will be gone. Many visitors will be unaware of what occurred just a few months earlier.

Daffodils are beginning to bloom, bringing some welcome color. Azaleas won’t be far behind. And for anyone who has spring allergies, an onset of sneezing, more than anything else, is a harbinger of the change of seasons.

There might be – actually probably will be – a few more unseasonably cool or even cold days. But there is no doubt that the temperature trend is upward. Folks can walk on the beach without cumbersome winter apparel. A few brave folks are already barefooted in the sand. On a very warm day, one might even see a few bathing suits out and about, especially if there’s no wind. And the anglers are reappearing on the hunt for drum, or maybe even big blues.

You can almost feel the island stretching and yawning as it moves out of its slumber.

One important note for this year. Our lighthouse won’t be wearing her stripes again this summer, as repair and renovation work continues. But she’s still standing tall, scaffolding and all, ready to welcome visitors back to their piece of paradise.

For those of us who live here year ‘round, we know there’s two more months until the speed limits change. That’s the real indicator things are about to be in full swing. Until then, we’ll enjoy this gentle wake-up time as we ease into a new season here on Hatteras Island.