THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 2, 1996 TAG: 9609020082
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: 113 lines
Bill Bond was barely a teen-ager when his mom and her sisters first brought their brood to the Outer Banks in 1946.
Carrying chickens and children from their Edenton farms across the old wooden bridge, they spent summers on the sand in wooden cottages near the sea. At the season's end each year, the clan cleaned out their ice boxes - eating whatever food remained so they wouldn't have to bring it back to the mainland. Those gatherings consisted of about a dozen people and two card tables on the beach piled high with leftovers and half-full liquor bottles.
This weekend, Bond and 150 friends and family members celebrated their 50th Labor Day reunion with songs, skits, games, revelry and plenty of remembrances.
``This is the biggest celebration we've ever had - fittingly so,'' Bond said, puffing on a trademark cigar as Sunday's afternoon sunshine beat down on his captain's cap. ``We've got four generations in my family alone here today. We look forward to this weekend all year long.''
The unofficial ``mayor'' of his narrow neighborhood, 63-year-old Bond is the only year-round resident in the group of eight cottages that run perpendicular to the Atlantic and have come to be called ``Edenton Colony.'' His house, one of the original five on the seaside block, was built from pine planks felled on his father's farm. Last year, Bond and his wife were dubbed ``King and Queen of Labor Day'' by the other colonists - who include several cousins.
On Sunday, Bond's mom, Emma, and two other matriarchs of the tanned tribe were given violet paper crowns studded with rhinestones and recognized as the queens who started the annual celebration.
``I can't believe it's been more than a half-century since my sisters and I were sitting on our porches in Edenton that night talking about how much we'd like to have a place at the beach,'' Emma Bond, 93, said while sipping a Bud Light and sitting in a lawn chair near the surf. ``The men came down here in '46 and found this property to please us. Bought two lots and put a road down the middle so the houses could spread out on each side.
``It really is amazing how much the Outer Banks have changed since then - and how many people come around for our Labor Day gathering now. I have so much to be thankful for. It's been a lot of fun.''
Emma Bond is the eldest original resident of Edenton Colony, all of whose residents originally lived and worked in Edenton. Sadie Hoskins, 92, ranks second. And 85-year-old Ruth McVaugh - who traveled from Fort Myers, Fla., for the weekend reunion - is the remaining member of the triumvirate that has presided over the annual parties since they started.
Sunday's celebration started with a noon parade that marched across the beach road and stopped traffic twice. An official invocation and pledge to the flag followed. And by1 p.m., festivities really got under way with a crazy hat competition, limbo contest, egg toss, three-legged race and an unusual event in which five women from each house formed a relay team and tried to pour ice water into an empty beer bottle tucked into a male family member's swim suit.
At one point, ``Hurricane Edward'' blew through the crowd, chugging tequila and baring his bald head with an ``I'' taped to the top. Ed Buckholtz is a familiar sight at Edenton Colony gatherings. And everyone seemed relieved that the real storm had swept on up the coast, far north of their fete, by the time Sunday's soiree began.
``A lot of these folk we only see once a year. They come from as far away as Texas. So we're glad so many could return this time,'' said Richmond resident Ramon Bryant, 59, whose oceanfront cottage served as backdrop for more than 100 beach chairs spread out around the sandy, make-shift stage. ``The way this place started was eight people paid $100 each for the property. Then they each drew lots to see who built where. My house used to be the party house - until too many tequila shots were consumed and someone started throwing tomatoes at the ceiling fan.''
Tom Ward, whose grandfather built another of the original colony cottages, remembers that night well. Sunday's post-beach party event used to be a drinking fest, he said. Saturday night he roasted a 144-pound pig for the traditional pre-beach party barbecue.
``I've been coming here since I was able to walk,'' said Ward, 39, who lives in Edenton year-round. ``This is when the owners all get together. You can come down here and act completely different than how you act at home. And what happens down here stays down here. It's all a joke.
``We come down here to get away from it all.''
Ward's mom, Betty, agreed. ``It's like a commune around here. We're all one big family. Always have been,'' said Betty Ward, 63 - who is Bill Bond's cousin and has been coming to Edenton Colony since it was built. ``If one of the kids is missing, you know they're being taken care of by someone in another cottage. If you party too much to get home, you just sleep on someone else's sofa.
``Even those people who aren't physically still with us are here today having fun,'' Betty Ward said. ``We all remember them - and these times together. And the little ones talk about these reunions for the rest of their lives.''
From age four months to senior citizen, most of the people at Sunday's gathering sported specially designed ``Edenton Colony 50th Labor Day Celebration'' T-shirts over their bathing suits or shorts. Each cottage was sketched on the back with a saying stenciled above it. ``I spot the fish blizt'n,'' said the southernmost oceanfront home. ``Bloody Marys on the beach,'' chimed in another. An airplane overhead pulled a banner bragging, ``Skits Happen.''
And, indeed, it seemed the afternoon skits were the high point of the day. Bill Bond, his mother, 6-year-old grandson and other kin sang a specially penned song to the tune of Jimmy Buffett's ``I don't know where I'm gonna go when the volcano blows'' about the colonists' worries during impending hurricanes. The Bowens family danced and crooned about farmers' tans - with one son baring a two-tone bicep for effect.
Winners of each event were awarded gold or silver spray-painted shells strung on twine. By 5:30 p.m., almost everyone wore a shell medal around their neck - and a slight sunburn above the neck of their T-shirts. All agreed to return next Labor Day for another reunion.
``It really doesn't seem like 50 years since this thing got started,'' Emma Bond said. ``I believe I enjoy it more each summer. And I know my children are gonna carry it on - with the children from all the other cottages - long after us original residents are gone.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON\The Virginian-Pilot
The matriarchs of the 50th annual ``Edenton Colony'' Labor Day
gathering are serenaded, above, but manage to enjoy the gathering
anyway. Of course, no gathering of nonsense-mongers would be
complete without Joel Williams, below, leading a parade. by CNB