What makes it summer? July 29 2025
By Elizabeth Ritchie Sherrill
The nostalgia of family beach week
There are feelings that make you nostalgic, and then there are feelings that make you downright giddy with happiness. It is more than nostalgia, it is a combination of tradition and the promise of new memories to be made. For me, that feeling is crossing the Wrightsville Beach drawbridge with the windows down, marking the official start of our family beach week. It is seeing the colorful sailboats dotting the sound and knowing time is about to slow down. It is like crossing the finish line of a 365-day race I didn’t know I was running and taking the first deep breath of salt air.
I have been to the beach many times in my life, and I have also been to many beaches, but there is nothing like this particular week on this particular beach. The Ritchies & Alms have been gathering together at Wrightsville for one week during the summer since 1985. The houses have changed, the beach scene has changed (and so have we), but still we put our hopes in the sands of Wrightsville. Everyone molds together in a surprisingly easy manner to fill the roles in a house of 15-20 people. It’s honestly amazing how many things between the lines have stayed the same. We have traditional meals that cannot be skipped, and baked goods that must be brought (including Heath's Cheese Straws, of course). We have our favorite restaurants, and we know there will be morning coffee on the porch. We build dribble castles in the sand, buy poppers at Redix, and go fishing after dark in hopes of reeling in something truly shocking. But mostly we can’t wait to sit around and laugh with these people we love in the ocean air.
Continuing this trip for four decades means that my parents, aunts and uncles have seen my cousins and me grow up and build core memories with each other throughout our entire lives. They brought us as babies, saw us grow into awkward teenagers, met girlfriends and boyfriends, saw our college friends stop by to say hello, and met our future spouses. Now us “kids” are in our 30s and 40s, bringing along kids of our own to solidify Wrightsville Beach into their own childhood essence, all in the timespan of a single week of summer.
When I think about what makes Wrightsville so special, it’s a few things for me. For one, I found joy in the idea of continuing something my family used to do as children. My dad’s first trip to Wrightsville was in 1955, when he wasn’t yet one year old. His family used to come for two weeks during the summer and stay at their family cottage. Knowing that my childhood was existing in the same realm as his was something I always appreciated. Second, my cousins lived in different states growing up, so we got to see each other for the odd Thanksgiving or Christmas, but beach week was a constant. We always had that week together, and we had our own traditions as cousins at the beach. Lastly, Wrightsville Beach is simply magical. I am no longer an adult when I look off the porch towards the ocean, I am a kid living the best of summer without a schedule or concern. I get to be excited about waves and cookies and shrimp creole. I wonder if my dad and his siblings feel the same way? Beach week was honestly the highlight of my entire summer, and I cannot think of a drive home that did not feel like time went by too fast. And it did, didn’t it? But it always feels the same in our beach week bubble, and I cannot WAIT until next year.