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“Lucky for you, you don’t have to get up off the couch to go to Hatteras, 1950. Hatteras Summers: A Childhood on the Outer Banks, by Buddy Swain, puts you on Hatteras Island when Buddy was a boy learning the world, when the highway along that famous island was nothing but the beach at low tide (no joke). This book, a treasure chest of wonderful stories, written with charm and wit, is a delightful must read. It takes you from your couch to a time and place you didn’t know you crave.” —Clyde Edgerton, author of Walking Across Egypt and Raney
On the sea's edge in North Carolina lies an isolated, idyllic village that shaped a boy’s life.
Nestled along the stunning coast of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Hatteras Village is more than just a location—it’s a part of Buddy Swain’s heart. This tight-knit, isolated community served as his summer retreat from the mid-1940s to the 1960s, when his parents journeyed on a ferry and then drove down the beach to drop him off at his grandparents’ cottage for the summer. Exploring this narrow ribbon of land some seventy miles long and no more than two miles wide, Swain got to know a variety of relatives, local merchants, and anglers—each with fascinating stories to share. In this book, he shares those stories and his own, as he explored the natural beauty of this coast—its beaches and sounds, its critters and fishing bounty—and as he and his brother discover the wonders of growing up in a place that they remember with pure happiness.
This book is Buddy Swain’s ode to that childhood, shared with humor, charm, and keen observation.
Buddy Swain grew up in Washington, North Carolina, and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Botany from Duke University. With a passion for teaching, he spent more than three decades educating students in science, from high school classrooms to college lecture halls—teaching at New Bern Senior High School, Craven Community College, and East Carolina University. Now retired, he enjoys life with his wife, Anne, living in the house where his grandparents spent their whole lives, in Hatteras, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
