Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
January 7, 2016 11:22 a.m.
Sometimes your life seems to come full circle in ways you hadn’t considered. On my New Year’s visit to Main Beach, it occurred to me somewhat belatedly that I grew up in a beach town. Not on the ocean but an inland sea. I lived in a town a bit smaller than Fernandina Beach on the shores of Lake Huron in Michigan. Note on folks from Michigan. We are the only people who, when you ask where we are from, raise our hand palm out and point somewhere on it. So consider me right hand, index finger, second knuckle down from the tip. I will admit it works better visually than when it’s described.
Unless you’ve seen the Great Lakes, they are hard to believe. Standing on the shore, the view is just like the ocean – all horizon and no discernible far shore. I have taken friends there and had them insist that the lake had to be salt water. I believe that the Great Lakes contain 20% of the world’s fresh water.
The beach in my town had fine sand. The next town north was stony– a gift from the last Ice Age. The water had a gradual slope so you could wade out a ways before committing yourself. Except for a brief scare over lamprey eels, there wasn’t much wildlife in the lake that can harm you. And the eels seemed to be really good at determining fish from humans. I have a friend who has a t-shirt that says, “Lake Michigan. Salt free. No sharks.”
Those are the good points. Not so good is that the lakes are cold. Fresh water seems colder than salt water. Lake Superior is so cold your feet freeze 15 feet from the water line. The nearest I’ve come to experiencing that temperature is in two places – the Pacific Ocean in California and Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts. In the latter, my legs kept suggesting to me that I was demented for wading.
You’re probably wondering why I’m nattering on about the Great Lakes. Here’s the connection. When I was living there, I’d go down to the beach to watch the lake. I found something about the wave action was reassuring. I had the feeling that lives could come and go, but water and sand would still continue their struggle for supremacy. It lent a sense of perspective to my thoughts. That’s part of what my visits to Main Beach do for me now. And trust me, a little perspective is quite useful.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.
Oh yeah,
I lived on the other side of Michigan just North of Muskegon- water so cold it used to turn your lips blue as a kid. Canoeing over white sand bottoms on water so clear it felt like you were floating in air. And storms that raced across the water and caught you far from shore.
Winter time a sea of slush turning to ice reaching to the grey horizon. Cold, aurora lit nights of infinite motionless silence.
I grew up in Ludington. In the winter you could walk on the same beach water where you used to swim.
Evelyn’s article brought back memories for me, too. I grew up in Silver Creek, NY, on the south shore of Lake Erie. My dad was the town’s swim instructor each summer. My job was to take the water temperature. If Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes, did not warm to 70 degrees, classes were held on shore. Somehow it seemed like it wasn’t truly a winter unless my brother or I broke through the ice mounds and fell into the lake at least once. And then there was lake effect snow … Today I am grateful that the only white stuff on Fernandina ground is sand.
Great piece, Evelyn! Although I’m from the Ann Arbor area, my favorite places to visit are Traverse City, Petoskey, Mackinac Island, and the Saugatuck (an artsy town frequented by Chicagoans on Lake Michigan). People who don’t know Michigan are surprised at its beauty. Go in summer when you can enjoy the cool, fresh air, then come back to Amelia Island to warm your feet.
Great article! We loved our visit to Michigan this summer, and my daughter bought a spirit jersey with the same sentiment… no salt no sharks! lol We also came to Amelia Island from Maryland. We lived in Montgomery County in Olney. How about you? Love to watch the waves… good stress reliever!!! Go Terps!
Donna, took our boat to those towns on Lake Michigan doing the Great Circle Loop and love them as well as Charlevoix and Grand Haven…
When I moved to Chicago for a job the view out my windows was Lake Michigan. I kept calling it “the ocean.” To me it was never ending; as the Atlantic Ocean was growing up in Asbury Park NJ.