Chicken Soup for the Beach Lover's Soul
CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE BEACH
LOVER'S SOUL
Memories Made Beside a
Bonfire, on the Boardwalk, and
with Family and Friends
Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Patty Aubery
Peter Vegso
Backlist, LLC, a unit of
Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC
Cos Cob, CT
Contents
1. UNDER THE BOARDWALK: ON LOVE AND LEARNING
TO LOVE, COMPANIONSHIP, AND FRIENDSHIP
Sand Prints
Pamela Gayle Smith
Connections
Tracey Sherman
Be Like the Ocean
Arthur Bowler
A Love Affair Never Forgotten
Betty King
My Two Loves
Sallie A. Rodman
Did You Turn on the Water?
Jean Stewart
Mr. Crescenti's Beach
Anne Carter
Life's a Beach . . . and Then You Drive
Audrey D. Mark
Five Minutes to Fear
Terri Tiffany
Cycle of (Beach) Life
Craig A. Strickland
Family Time
Stefanie Wass
2. SUNRISE/SUNSET: CREATING SPECIAL MOMENTS
One More Wave
George H. Moffett
A Wave of Joy
Lee Silber
The Treasure
Paula F. Blevins
Only at the Beach
Harriet May Savitz
My Father's Oldsmobile
Avis Drucker
Day Trippin'
Amy Ammons Mullis
The Shiny Half-Dollar
Dolores Kozielski
Saturdays with Granddaddy
Stefanie Durham
A Big Fish Story
Ernie Witham
Two Blankets
Avis Drucker
A Simple Gesture
Janet Matthews
Mom's Smile
Helen Kay Polaski
My Shining Star
Susan Allsbrook Darke
Harry and George
Margaret P. Cunningham
Summers at Rockaway Beach
Patrick McDonnell
Oysterfest in Rockport, Texas
Sally Clark
Searching for Scott
Maggie Wolff Peterson
Reflected in a Smile
Paula F. Blevins
A Toast to a Brighter Life
Karen Theis
A Gift from the Sea
Pamela Hackett Hobson
Good-bye to the Ocean
Sally Friedman
September Song
Sally Friedman
Sunset
Bernetta Thorne-Williams
Confessions of a Jersey Girl
Harriet May Savitz
The Sounds of the Sea
Carolyn Mott Ford
The Penny Jar
Karen R. Kilby
It's a Fine Day at the Beach
Maryann Pasqualone
Capturing the Sunlight
Linda W. Rooks
Ebb and Flow
B. J. Taylor
Yesterday's Future
Helen Colella
Eternal Love Affair
Marsha Brickhouse Smith
Honeymoon on the Beach
Pamela Gayle Smith
Seal Island
Heather Cook Lindsay
Time and Tides
Dee Montalbano
Timeless Sea
Kelly Salasin
The Treasure Buried in the Sand
Elena Aitken
Family Cottage
Sharon Melnicer
Not My Idea of the Hilton
Bonnie Walsh Davidson
Caught on Video
Andrea MacEachern
Frozen Dreams
Diane Payne
The Beach Club
Karen Falk
A Seacliff Serenade
Colette O'Connor
Sands of Time
Emily Parke Chase
The Souvenir
Karen R. Kilby
Summer Fun
Julie Callas
Daddy's Love
Lisa Ricard Claro
Now and Then on the Beach
Paula Gunter-Best
Four Blocks Up
Harriet May Savitz
Condo Without a View
Judy DiGregorio
Dolphins
Margaret P. Cunningham
The Ocean's Gift
JoAnn Clark
Turtle Dreams
Jaye Lewis
Pebble Magic
Roberta Beach Jacobson
Uncle Hamish and the Beach Donkey
Joyce Stark
Lasting Treasure
Linda O'Connell
A Flash of Green
June Williams
“Catch of the Day”
Janice Alonso
The Shell
Ruth Spiro
The Family on the Beach
Sue Diaz
Flying with the Penguins
Sharon Rivers
As Good As It Gets: A Seashore Snapshot
Sally Friedman
What makes a child beg to run barefoot in the damp sand and build castles with moats, only to see their creations dissolve at day's end? It's the same feeling that tugs at an elder's heart to walk quiet distances on a chilly day by the shore. A beach lover's soul is etched in the sand, no matter what region of the continent. They flock yearly to the warm sunshine by the coast, pave trail ways in the snowy sand with their cross-country skis around the Great Lakes, or use the “slowed-down” pace of fall in which autumn leaves are caught at a nearby stream.
This magical place, the beach, casts a spell on us that loosens the tightest grip of anxiousness on a human while refreshing the weariest of souls. Even the most cantankerous of us all find peace within a hard exterior. We walk, rest, and watch our children sift through the sand to find every seashell or sand specimen, then listen to them shriek in delight when another gem is found. Perhaps they are teaching us to find beauty in every bit of sand dollarâso that we can shed life's daily despairs and discover the importance of acknowledging our greatest human assets while accepting our biggest challenges with grace and wisdom.
Our beach-loving readers prove many times, if not thousands of times, that all that sparkles is not necessarily gold, but may be a spot of sand that overlooks the deep ocean or a crispy-cold lake dancing with rays of the sun's ever-present optimism. The stories told in this book range from the quite funny to the deeply soul searching; they all share the same thread of how the mystique of the sand and water directed people to experience a new attitude or outlook. The sands of life do not betray their visitor's dreams or worries; they pack as many secrets as granules on a beach and continue to answer our hearts with a wisdom that only time and nature understand.