Outer Banks Articles & Shorts - Issue 25: Summer 2021

Publisher's Letter

After What A Year, we now have WHAT A SUMMER! But, then, a lot of locals say that it’s felt like summer here since around April with unprecedented numbers of visitors coming to our shores. Yep, it’s busy out there, folks. And that busy-ness is being compounded this year by too few locals and international students to help staff our restaurants, shops and accommodations. It’s kind of like the storm after the storm.

And yet … is there always an and yet? … Outer Bankers are resilient, tenacious, courageous, conscientious, ambitious, loquacious (how, we’re not sure when they’ve worked five doubles back to back), gracious – and, yes, occasionally pugnacious when met with unfair expectations.

We salute all of you workers who are, in almost every case, going above and beyond to take care of our vacationers. And we salute you vacationers who take the time to recognize how their waiters/cleaners/shopkeepers/innkeepers are trying to do the very best job they can.

The summer of 2021 will be one for the books – that’s clear even from the vantage point of early June when I’m writing this. My sincere wish is that we all reach September with a harmonious and collective, “Shew! What a summer it has been!”

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