Uncle Jack's Weblog - OBX Connection

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UNCLE JACK'S WEBLOG

Friday, March 21, 2014

Bye Bye Brick's

Another Nags Head landmark made the long, sad trip to the rubble landfill this week, demolished by order of the Nags Head commissioners who ruled it as unfit for human habitation and dangerous back in December. Brick’s gas station and convenience store near the corner of Lakeside Street and the Beach Road was a fixture in that neighborhood from the early 60’s until it closed in 1984. The store was operated by one-time Nags Head mayor Clarence “Brick” Brickle and his wife Dorothy and was frequented often by Uncle Jack and his family in the 70’s when “Dot” Brickle ruled over the cash register, cigarette dangling from her lips at all times. She died in 2004.
       The building and adjacent properties were purchased in the early 80’s by Anthony Ribeiro of New York City (?) who became a very good friend of Uncle Jack’s when he opened a beer bar and souvenir shop in the building.
(Uncle Jack lived nearby at the time in a house on the sound at the foot of Lakeside Street and would often visit Tony’s bar on the way home from a dry day’s work at Yellowhouse Gallery). Sadly Tony died unexpectedly shortly thereafter and the building has been unoccupied since his death.
       One of Uncle Jack’s fondest memories is associated with that venerable building and with Tony and his boys. They had put up a basketball hoop next to the building and were often outside playing when Uncle Jack stopped by for his daily beer. On one occasion they threw the ball to him as he emerged from his car perhaps 40 feet from the basket. He immediately fired off one of his patented two-handed set shots which miraculously “swished” without touching the hoop as Tony and the boys gaped in astonishment. It was perhaps the high point of Uncle Jack’s life before he met Mrs. Uncle Jack in 1992.
R.I.P. Tony-----and Brick’s store.

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Another day should do it.

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There's a driveway under there somewhere.

posted by Uncle Jack at 8:51 PM

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Monday, March 10, 2014

Marchin' through Sonag

Uncle Jack and Mrs. U.J. fled Charm City last Tuesday after yet another storm dumped 8 inches of trouble on the city the day before. Luckily I-95 was dry and almost devoid of traffic so they made it to Sonag in record time.
Unfortunately a three-day noreaster arrived at the same time so all they could do was hole up and wait it out while Mother Nature tried to blow the roof off.
They finally got up to the beach on Friday and also made it over to Wanchese to end their serious fried-oyster deprivation at O'Neal's Sea Harvest. By Sunday it was warm and sunny enough to encourage a trip down to Salvo and back. Among other things they noticed an almost total dearth of swans and geese in the Pea Island Sanctuary ponds. Strange at this time of year. Surveyors were out in force in the area of the temporary New Inlet bridge where the D.O.T. plans to replace it with a two-mile long causeway of some kind.

Route 12 between the Bonner Bridge and Rodanthe was completely open in spite of the battering by the northeaster this week. Those are some mighty big sand dunes at the S-Curves and windblown sand seems to be the biggest problem for the D.O.T. right now.

They will be here for a couple more weeks so look for another blogavation soon.

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No swimming in South Nags Head this day. The tail end of a northeaster that started Tuesday night with drenching rain and high winds and continued for three days.

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Looking north toward the Outer Banks pier. Incredible amounts of sand were blown westward during the storm and giant waves left the beach flat and hard for easy walking.

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With a sharp, cold wind out of the north walking south was the thing to do with the return trip via the splendid Sonag Multi-use Pedestrian Walkway---at least the parts that were not underwater.

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Windblown sand dunes have left the row of derelict houses on Seagull Drive isolated on the ocean side.

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Blowing sand and snow have made keeping Seagull Drive open this winter a challenge for the Town of Nags Head.

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The N.C. D.O.T. has started work to replace this short bridge at New Inlet (which now carries route 12 over dry land) with a new 2-mile bridge. This should be interesting to watch over the next few years.

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The ancient graveyard in the Salvo Day Use Area got a new fence sometime earlier this winter.

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A beautiful resting place for members of a number of Hatteras families.

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Sadly, no fence can stop the steady encroachment of Pamlico Sound from the west. Considerable damage is evident in this photo.

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Uncle Jack's house in South Nags Head had its first March renters this week. The prime weeks are filling up fast but many good weeks are still available. Google "Uncle Jack's Beach Cottage" or Cola Vaughan Realty for more info.

posted by Uncle Jack at 6:17 PM

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Except for short hiatus in Baltimore Uncle Jack has lived in Nags Head for over 45 years. He was a columnist for the Outer Banks Current and its successor, the Outer Banks Sentinel, for 20 years. A collection of his columns is available from Amazon Kindle under the title Uncle Jack's Outer Banks. He and Mrs. Uncle Jack, aka Sue, live in South Nags Head whence he observes and sometimes comments on the passing parade.