The beach ball’s invention is usually credited to a gentleman named Jonathon DeLonge in 1938. I think he’d be pleased that his brain child with the misleading name was still fooling people in the late sixties.
Have you ever played with a beach ball on the beach? If you have, I bet it wasn’t here in Myrtle Beach. You see there is wind here. Sometimes a lot it. Not in a bad way, but in the beach way. The wind is why these two late-sixties lovelies on this postcard have been relegated to the dunes. The beach balls were gifts from their studly boyfriends who you see in the distance.
The girls are making the best of an awkward situation by attempting to do their daily sit ups in the dunes. But it turns out they must hold their beach balls down for dear life. The wind whips a bit briskly around in the dunes today. Still, they remind themselves that it would be very unbecoming to carelessly lose these nice gifts on the same day they were received! So they play it safe and stay away from the worst of it. So they think, anyway.
To add to the girls’ list of problems, there are sandburs everywhere. These nasty little banes of nature are no doubt, already clinging to the eyelet trim of their McCalls patterned bathing suits. Even worse, several are lodged in the right palm of the blonde girl’s palm. Trust me: those aren’t real smiles on their faces; they are gritting their teeth. And they don’t even know yet about the ones that are stuck in their well Aquanetted hair!
The next morning the lovelies don’t make the connection that their sore biceps are a direct result of pressing down like that on their beach balls for such an extended period. If they had, perhaps they could have taken this information and invented today’s exercise ball as we know it, decades ahead of schedule. Buff biceps on girls weren’t considered an asset back then anyway, so there’s no reason why they should have thought of it.
You’ll be happy to know that the next day they’ll conveniently leave their beach balls in the car. They will pull out their baby oil spiked with iodine and line a double album cover with tin foil and get down to business – far from the dangers of useless gifts and violent sandburs.
For more Postcard Friendship Friday, be sure to visit Marie at Cpaphil Vintage Postcards!
And if you’re lucky enough to visit a beach this weekend, stay off the dunes!
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed!
{ 15 comments }
I figured they were up there on the dunes with the sea grass so that they didn’t blow away, kind of an erosion thing. Huh. I never knew.
And that guy on the right does have a fabulous set of buttocks.
LOL Love those suits!
Not to mention the sand crabs and sand flies that attacked them, leaving little welts that don’t quite tan right.
Ahhh… the Beach is always full of surprises… Loved the comment on AquaNet hair! And those swimsuits… well… LOL, Great post!
~blessings~Pearl
April ~ AUTISM Awareness Month~
I grew up on the beach. I (sacrilidge I am sure) hate the beach. I hate sand. Never had a beach ball in my life. Too much wind in NJ too.
Like the beaches in Hawaii – love the flat, black lava rock. No sand.
Love your writing. Hate sand. Have you figured that out yet?
Oooo, I remember those burrs, yowch!
Pricilla sounds like Anakin from Attack of the Clones.
Anyway, I’ve always disliked the “grassy knoll” area of the beach. It just doesn’t seem…beachy…to have all that vegetation.
Who’d a thunk all that drama was going on behind those er…smiles. I’d forgotten all about baby oil and iodine! A very breezy PFF to you and the Dunes-berries
tim, you never knew when a tidal wave was about to hit in the olden days. I noticed that too – the guy on the right.
ModernMom, they are very spiffy, aren’t they?
Jenn, I shudder to think what frightening critters, flotsom and jetsam might be in that mess. Nothing like a bad welt to ruin a day in the sun.
Pearl, thanks for stopping by! Happy PFF
Pricilla, I’ve never seen a goat on the beach. Now that would be a good day even with a few sand burs in my hair. I love the beach, but only when it is PERFECT, as far as wind, temperature and sun/cloud ratio.
blueviolet, they are right up there with hangnails, and paper cuts on the list of minor injuries, that cause mind boggling pain.
Shawn, interesting choice of words – “grassy knoll”. I’m guessing you believe there was a third beach ball?
MuseSwings, Knowing what I know about these natural landmines, there are many very good reasons to be very suspicious of these smiles. Happy PFF to you too!
McCalls’s patterns! I read that and right back watching my mother make my summer plan clothes on the sewing machine.
So glad it is 2009! I would not want to be those girls holding a ball waiting for some man to marry me.
I was attacked by a giant sea urchin …..
Ha haaaaaaaa !!!!!!!!!!
I grew up in Kentucky and all the people who could afford to go on vacation with their families went to Myrtle Beach during the summer. I was always so jealous.(We were super-poor back then.) I’ve still never been!
BTW, I’m up over at my place for “What I’m NOT Buying this Weekend.” Check it out! I’m loving this idear!
Oops, didn’t mean to leave my last comment as “Snuggles.” Oh, well.
Hahahaa…how funny! A beach ball these days, might pop on the harsh grasses growing on the dunes. They plant it in order to keep the dunes from washing out to sea. Tch tch tch!
Comments on this entry are closed.