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Have you ever wondered what you might see if you could elevate all the water from the ocean floor? If you close your eyes, it’s easy to imagine the sight of it – a soggy, sandy valley, virgin to a brilliant sun with sandbars and towering reefs giving way to crevices and canyons. The expanse is littered with the remains of the ancients, of lost dreams and new possibilities. The ocean floor is a graveyard, a garden, a gallery.
Perhaps this is why, when we stroll along the shoreline and happen upon a shell, a worn plank or bottle, broken or not, we wonder at it and the story it might tell. Is it of historic significance, a lovely gift of nature, or just an oddity? You might slip it in your pocket, or if it is large, enlist someone to help you drag it to your car. Why is it socially acceptable to scavenge the beaches when we wouldn’t be caught dead dumpster diving? Is it the thrill of the hunt, or just a lovely way to remember a day on the beach?
In the case of Kill Devil Hills resident Greg Bailey, a divorce, resulting in a very nearly empty house, stepped up his beachcombing habit. He needed furniture, and as luck would have it, another woman came to his aid – a stormy gal named Hurricane Isabel tossed up enough wooden debris to build several bar stools and deck chairs to complement the two Adirondack chairs, also found, that were artfully distressed by the force of passing storms. He also carted home enough salt-treated lumber to frame up the “Castle of Yard” for his daughter, the fair Princess Madeline. The only purchases he indulged in for the project were plywood, paint, some climbing wall knobs, and a zip-line that the heroic Madeline uses whenever she needs to escape from the tower.
As an advertising executive and graphic designer, Bailey is well aware of the latest decorating trends, i.e. the iconic flip-flop now found adorning the walls and shelves of many gift shops. Bailey decided to bring home lost and lonely flip-flops from the beach, and added a few that Madeline has outgrown, and tacked them to his house pilings as if they are going for a stroll.
The former carport and yard has developed into an extension of the family’s living space. Bailey’s imagination and sense of humor are evident in his decorating with debris. The old bamboo roller blinds he found became veneer transforming his cast-off kidney-shaped bar into a Tiki bar fit for a Corona. Banged up, tossed-out doors, none of which match, are now hinged together to enclose his outdoor shower, allowing him to draw them in for privacy or throw wide open for a little warming sunshine. The cabinet of an old television became a pantry, and his sound-system, also free, consists of a 6-channel p.a. he wired into an old computer now turned music library. It’s all finished off with mobiles made of shells and other curious artifacts, such as a broken skateboard suspended near the old Victorian door that is whimsically used in lieu of a gate. Bailey’s summer kitchen and surrounding well-manicured yard is a Mecca for Madeline and a delightful setting for entertaining their friends.
For others, scouring the seaside is compulsive, a therapy perhaps, as in the case of the Outer Banks most famous beachcomber, the late Nellie Myrtle Pridgen of Nags Head. Her collection includes vintage fishing tackle, ancient peace pipes, china dolls, whale bones, colorful glass bottles and beach glass, bricks or ballast enough to build a house, broken shells, rare shells, a massive fulgurite, and all manner of treasures sufficient to attract coverage in National Geographic and the interest of a Smithsonian Institution curator. Nell kept it all. Some say she was trying to safeguard the Outer Banks’ heritage and her birthright.
To an outsider she was a notorious, fussy, confrontational curmudgeon. The few people she allowed into her world, however, understood how deeply she loved nature and her Outer Banks. More than an archivist, she was an activist, attending county meetings and writing many letters to newspaper editors. She was well-versed and prized accuracy. Nellie Myrtle Pridgen wanted to protect the Outer Banks environment from the price of development and tourism. It soothed her raging mind to swim far into the sea and make her daily treks in the wee morning hours and again at twilight along the shores of the ocean and the sound. It was her obsessive ritual that lasted for more than 60 years – her life-blood.
After her parents, Jethro and Mattie Midgette, passed away in the mid-seventies, Nell moved lock, stock and booty into their old grocery store on the Beach Road, now known as Virginia Dare Trail, where she lived out the remainder of her days. Her vast collection of beach finds fills every shelf, stretch of wall and remaining floor-space.
Her daughter, Carmen Gray of Kitty Hawk, whose fun-loving and gracious manner is the antithesis of her mother’s personality, envisioned a museum at the site, and with the help of her family and others, that dream is finally realized. Mattie Midgette’s Store and the Beachcomber Museum operates “the island way,” that is to say, without regular hours. You can visit www.osob.net to add your name to the museum’s email list to keep abreast of upcoming events.
The store and Nell’s collection is now listed in The National Register of Historic Places, and beloved Outer Banks author and historian David Stick has said, “Next to Jockey’s Ridge and the Wright Brothers National Memorial, it is the most historically significant place on the northern Outer Banks. It is an integral part of the Nags Head Historic District.”
Now, while perusing the Beach-comber Museum will be time well spent, and visiting Greg Bailey’s cool digs would make for a fascinating and enjoyable experience, you can savor the art and bounty of scavenging almost anywhere on the Outer Banks. You’ll find scavenger art in many places. It’s in the beautiful beach glass jewelry designed by local artisans and offered for sale at numerous beach boutiques. It’s in the quirky, driftwood octopus created by artist Edith Deltgen that provides a focal point in the bar at Mako Mike’s Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills, and it is certainly in countless yards and homes of Outer Banks residents. Scavenged objects d’art are rewarding in a way that isn’t possible with any other medium: It’s free, so it’s accessible to all. It can be considered perfect “as is” or aching for enhancement, without instructions or copyrights to dictate the result. It has mystery sustaining long-term interest. Found art is one-of-a-kind and without doubt, our best and most enduring treasure. |
