Mickey is O'Neal of the Week!

Conk passed a few weeks after celebrating his 82 birthday last November.  Mickey lives in their traditional Ocracoke home, with a tidy yard of neatly tended outbuildings, fig trees, and a skiff and creek out back.

In February, Mickey, born Mildred Ann Garrish in 1932, celebrated her 80th birthday.  Her three sons and two of her grandchildren who live on the island "make sure I have somebody stay with me," she said.  They also help keep her up to date on the latest Ocracoke news.

Ocracoke Current:  How did you and Conk meet?

Mickey:  I don't remember.  Back then you knew everybody here.  We courted just about all of our lives.

Ocracoke Current:  Tell me about your wedding.

Mickey:  Ronald got out of boot camp from Camp May in New Jersey.  We took a train to New Bern and a Justice of the Peace married us.  He had a few weeks leave, then they put him on a ship from Norfolk to Oregon and I didn't see him again for months.

Ocracoke Current:  Everybody else called your husband Conk.

Mickey:  (smiling)  I always have called him Ronald.

Ocracoke Current:  Did you always live in this house?

Mickey:  First we stayed where Kathleen has her shop [Island Artworks].  We moved up here in 1972 after my father and brother Charlie died.

Ocracoke Current:  What was it like raising three boys?

Mickey:  Well, when you're doing it you just do it.  I didn't have any trouble with them growing up.

Ocracoke Current:  What's the longest amount of time you've lived off the island?

Mickey:  Michael was born in Delaware when Ronald was working up there for the Army Engineers.  It wasn't even a year.

Ocracoke Current:  What do you hope Ocracoke will be like in the future?

Mickey:  What I hope and what it's gonna be are two different stories.  It seems like the younger grandchildren won't be able to afford to buy property or build.  They might have to move off the island.

Ocracoke Current:  What do you miss about the way Ocracoke used to be?

Mickey:  The quiet.  Summertime it gets crazy.  But it does stay quiet up here where we are.

Ocracoke Current:  What are some of your favorite foods?

Mickey:  (laughing)  It's hard to say when you like just about everything.  A lot of people like my chocolate cake, but I don't like to cook much anymore.

Ocracoke Current:  When is the last time you saw the Ocracoke Rockers?

Mickey:  That's Martin's band.  It's been a good while since I saw the Rockers!