A Little Loopy

I met Jim Beck at Old Dominion University in 1988; after thirty+ years of friendship and marriage, he still makes me smile at the drop of a dime. I had just broken up with some W&L boy and sworn off all men (like that was ever going to last). My oldest friend, Michele Gebler Hackworth, planted my little pitiful self at the ATO table while she went for drinks. Jim must have been the brother who lost a bet because when he sat next to me - there was a definite exit strategy. He made me laugh about something - who knows what - and later we were sitting on the lawn listening to Speidel, Goodrich, Groggin & Lille (takes ya’ll back huh?). I swear it felt like I had known him forever. I thought: ok, handsome like a rascal, notkillherthrowherinthewoods, and music - this might work out. That first fraternity party - dear lord! What did I know about fraternity parties? Well, too much to be honest and all ending with some near escape from the law through a window. It turned out to be a gr...

I should start off with my relationship with the ocean; before Jim, there wasn’t one. Jim grew up on the water; I grew up sitting on a beach looking at the surf. He never had to wear a ton of sun screen - I was coated. He maneuvered boats in the waterways of the Potomac River and Aquia Creek; I strategically placed my chair just out of reach from the surf to give the impression of enjoying the crashing waves. We were definitely not navigating with the same set of charts. When I was little, in Kill Devil Hills, NC, dad told me the undertow would take me out past Avalon Pier then return me to shore miles down the beach. I connected that little nugget with watching fishermen catch sharks off the end of the pier; I was a solid ‘play in the surf’ kid. My cousins from Gloucester County, Virginia, were always on the water. One Thanksgiving my hero-like-cousins, Gregory and Phillip, had to watch over us younger cousins. After a rousing game of yard darts, why that game went away- I still don’t...