Bolivar Peninsula, Crystal Beach, 946 Gulf Drive, Holiday Beach

The Beach House

As most of you know and for those who do not, we have lost our home away from home – The beach house.
Let’s go back to 1979 – I celebrated my 13th birthday that year and what better place to be and celebrate becoming a teenager: the beach. Wow that was a long time ago. That place was a mess with broken windows, holes in the walls from darts and knifes being thrown at them. The down stairs was partially enclosed with a few walls missing. The lot next door had knee high grass and weeds with a little bit of trash thrown in. I remember finding a dead shark on the beach. I thought it was the best place on earth!
My parents had the opportunity to purchase this little piece of heaven and I am thankful that they did. For many years we would go down to the beach house every weekend and I mean every Weekend all year long. Dad, Billy and I fished every day twice a day. During the summer we would stay for a week or two at a time. Across the street there was a big field with dirt bike trails running through it. Billy and I spent a lot of time on them trails. Our first bike was a little “50”; we rode the heck out of that thing. And believe it or not we both could fit on that bike together. On one occasion Billy and I were riding around the neighborhood and some dogs started chasing us. We were going as fast as we could while turning a corner and ran into a pile of wood. We knew we were about to be eaten by the dogs – luckily the owner of the dogs came out on their deck and called the dogs. That was a close one!
I think Billy and I tried to explore every inch of that peninsula. “Zoom Bugs”, nutria rats, lots of sea shells, sea gulls, ducks, turtles, frogs – lots of baby frogs were a few of the many things we saw and / or discovered at the beach. But the biggest discovery we made at the beach were the friendly people and the many friends we made and grew up with. I thought it was the neatest thing to drive down the road or riding in the boat and every one would wave at you and say hello. That is some thing you really do not see growing up in the city.
Over the years many changes have been made on Bolivar. The field were we rode bikes was cleared off and the biggest beach house (really the biggest house period.) I have ever seen was built. More houses and business went up and a lot more people started coming over to our side of the beach.
Dad worked on the beach house, with help from many different people, and slowly made changes. The vacant lot next door was cleaned up and mowed. (What a difference it made.) The first biggest change to the beach house I can remember was after Hurricane Alicia, 1983. As we drove down that long road, Hwy 87, to see the fate of the beach house.... to our surprise the house was still standing and the only damage was the stairs were knocked crooked, one broken window and one of the remaining walls down stairs had a hole in it. We were lucky. Others on Holiday Beach were not so lucky. Some houses were on the ground, others were missing a roof, wall or deck and others only had pylons left.
The next big change, 1985, was Air Conditioning – thank god for Cody. Mom and Dad were not going to take that “little” baby to the beach with out AC. It was okay for us kids but not for the baby. (Spoiled Brat)..... Just kidding little Bro.
Then......April (me), 1991, decides she wants to get married at the beach house. The vacant lot next door would be the perfect spot. That was when the real changes were made. The whole beach house was remodeled inside and out. Family and friends from all over came to the beach for the wedding. Some rented beach houses, some stayed in the hotel and some just came up for the day. What a great place!
In July of 1997, Billy went to the beach for the weekend. He gave me a call and said that there was a “For Sale” sign on the vacant lot next door. (Mom and dad have wanted to buy that lot for years.) He gave me the phone number and I called right away. Kevin and I purchased the vacant lot, the very lot that we were married on.
As we have grown and gotten older we did not spend as much time down there as we use to but it still was our home away from home. Lots of family and friends have borrowed the beach house and have their own memories of going to the beach. Some loved it some much that they bought their own.
We have celebrated Easters, family reunions, Mardi Gras, birthdays, honeymoons, Anniversaries, Forth of July, Baby Showers, Bachelorette & bachelor parties, girls weekends, boy weekends, fishing trips, fishing tournaments and a Wedding..... All at the beach house.
In less than 12 months from now Mom and Dad were to make the beach house their retirement home. The last couple of years Dad has been working on the drawings for the changes and additions that were to be made. Unfortunately,
The final change was made on September 13th 2008 by Hurricane Ike.

Many of the beach houses on Bolivar have names. For example... “Chilln by the Sea”, “Nuts and Bolts”, “Mango Mansion , “Hotel YaYa”, “Sea Castle”, “Serenity”, “Bikini Bottom” or “Herman’s Hideaway”.
Ours has always been simply “The Beach house”.

The reason I have written all this is to share my memories and ask you to share yours, either by words or by photos.

Thank you,
April Greenlee Gavin