Two of my brothers live in a beach town. They are roomies and are very close in age and interests, and I’m glad they have each other around to help out and look after one another. They are too far away for me to visit very often, and there’s not much in this town to attract either one of them to visit here unless it was a business conference or convention that they were required to attend, and that hasn’t happened in over 15 years, so I’m not holding my breath.

On the other hand, it was a business trip that took me to their town a few years ago, so I’m not faulting them. When I knew I would be arriving on a particular date, I sent my brother an email and told him which days I would be there and asked when he would like to get together for dinner and set our plans around that.

After a great seafood dinner in a little place overlooking the Atlantic, we decided to walk for a few blocks on the beach and appreciate the sunset while we chatted about family things and shared memories. That was really nice – quality time.

On the beach, a young man was working pretty hard on something very large, and as we got closer I could figure out that he was making a sand castle of sorts in the sand. This was not child’s sandcastle with plastic pails and gelatin molds. This was a serious sand sculpture and was very well done. Turns out he was doing this project as a way to make money. There was a little bucket and handprinted sign that asked for “donations” and almost everyone who walked by was dropping in a couple bucks to help him out. I suspect at the height of tourist season this venture is very lucrative.

Interesting in that the homeless and the beggars in my town pretend to play guitars on the downtown sidewalks and sing country songs that everyone recognizes, with a hat or guitar case on the ground for donations. Here at the beach, they make sandcastles.