FREE LIKE A GULL, FREEDOM OF THE BEACH LIFESTYLE

At this very moment, there are bureaucrats sitting in cubicles drawing up new lists of rules and regulations about our nation's beaches and coastal waterways. One of the regulations in some areas is a ban on smoking anywhere near the beach. This is wrong. These type of bans are unconstitutional and should be stopped before the smoker has nowhere near the beach to enjoy a smoke. Since smoking is not unlawful, and since smokers usually pay tobacco taxes, there should be an area where smokers are able to smoke. Let us keep in mind that each of us, smokers or not, have very personal civil rights about the space around our faces and we must reach a mutual agreement on the presence of smoke. However, we must remain sensible about the bans that are posted.

The color photographs in this feature are by David Craig Wylie, one of California's best coastal photographers. I have known David for nearly five years now, though we have only met on the internet and share some of the same preferences in photography. I do not believe Dave is a smoker. I am a smoker and I am one who values my freedom as a treasure. David feels much the same as I do about liberty and freedom.

THE FIRST TIME I SAW THE PACIFIC OCEAN,

IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT...

I have never been the same. Since that summer day in 1959, my mind has been full of the kind of freedom gulls must feel as they soar, swoop, dip, dive and finally find a perfect place to relax for awhile. Freedom of the beach. Let us hang onto that freedom like we do our treasures. Let us not let those who make such rules and regulations ruin it for us and our offspring.

ENOSHIMA ISLAND, A WATERCOLOR BY R.L. HUFFSTUTTER

ENOSHIMA ISLAND was one of my favorite destinations for a weekend getaway while I was stationed in Japan in the early1960s, more than 50 years ago. While that is, indeed, a long time ago, my memories of Enoshima are as pristine and clear as if it was only yesterday when I climbed those steep stairs that led to the top where various shrines were located.

It wasn't the shrines, really, that appealed to me as much as the various little shops where gifts were sold. Some of the items sold were intended, if I recall, for the ancestors while others were for the tourists. Before meeting the young lady whom I shall never forget, I went to Enoshima alone. After meeting Noko, we went to Enoshima together. I still have one of the gifts she purchased for me, a seashell ship with masts. Since I was a sailor, she thought it was perfect. Yes, it was the perfect gift, wrapped in red paper with gold ribbon bow. I remember her eyes watching me as I unwrapped the tiny gift box. Our eyes met when the miniature clipper ship came into view. Neither of us thought about a time not too far in the future when she would be waving good-bye to me, a sayonara time, from Yokosuka pier. But we were in Enoshima and we were enjoying the moment. There would be so much time to think about the future--and the past.

Enoshima probably looks nothing like it did in 1962. What impressed me was the stone walls that were so perfectly constructed on the sides of the stairs that kept climbing up and up. Some were covered with a deep green moss, an emerald shade of green, moist and controlled by the creases in the various stones that served as boundaries for each stone.

Noko and I enjoyed several trips to Enoshima before I finally steamed away from Pier 7 at Yokosuka on 30 December 1963. At the time, our plans were to meet again and spend our lives together. Fate stepped in and changed our plans. As I grow older, I have to accept that it was Fate that made me forsake the love of my life. Am I alone in this situation or are there others who share my sorrows when it comes to affairs of the heart? In order to justify our romance, I must simply say that it was a short romance, one that was not meant to last. If her memories are as bittersweet as mine, then we still share a certain link that will never disappear from our hearts or minds.