Something a Little Different

Regular readers might remember that my husband and I were away last week, off for a few days at the beautiful North Carolina coast.  This is not the usual fashion history post, but I never can resist looking for history wherever we happen to be.

We started out in Oriental, NC, an old fishing village now known more as a sailing town.  My father-in-law grew up here, but I’d never visited.  What an amazing little place!  There are only about 800 residents, and we saw more people getting around town on bikes than in cars.  So when in Rome…

We also visited Atlantic Beach.  It is at the very bottom of the Outer Banks, though it is not actually considered to be in the OB.  It is a place full of history, and great seafood.

We visited Fort Macon, which played a role in The Civil War, and even as late as WWII was used in our coastal defense.  It’s a wonderful old fort with new interpretive exhibits.

This is a denim fatigue uniform from WWII.  Even though the fort had been turned over to the state of North Carolina and was made a state park in 1936, because of German submarine activity in the waters off the east coast the fort was leased by the US Army and was used in the defense of the ports at Morehead City and Beaufort.

We stayed at a super 1960s motel, the Atlantis Lodge.  Even though the rooms have been updated and remodeled, we still got the feeling of being in a vintage motel.  Best of all, it was dog-friendly.  We didn’t take our Spooky, but there were plenty of friendly furry faces.

This is Chance, one of our neighbors.

And as promised some time ago, here is a photo of my Claire McCardell play set.  It was perfect for a day at the beach.

On the way home we stopped in Winston-Salem for a visit to the Old Salem Tavern.  It is located in the Salem part of town, which was established in the 1760s by Moravian settlers from Pennsylvania.  This part of town still has many of the 18th and early 19th century buildings, and many of them form a museum called Old Salem.  But other buildings in the village area are still dwellings and are used for restaurants.  It’s an interesting little time-warp in the shadow of the city of Winston.

This is not Williamsburg and there is no real attempt to make the visitor think he or she is in the 18th century, which makes the costumes of the museum interpreters seem a bit, well, odd.