Edith is O'Neal of the Week!
Originally Edith Midgett from Rodanthe, she spent 11th grade on Ocracoke in 1952 while her father was stationed here in the Coast Guard.
She met John O'Neal, who was also in the Coast Guard, on a summer beach ride when she needed his help to fix her car. She was 16 and he was 21.
"I hated him when I first met him," she told the Current. "Myra, who had the drink place and did laundry for people, said 'true love never runs smooth' and that's the way it was."
Later in the fall of that year, they "got together." Edith went back home to Rodanthe, but visited Ocracoke on the next 4th of July. John was even more appealing then. Soon after, Edith's father was transferred to Maryland, and John followed her family there. They were married on May 19, 1956.
John worked for the Corps of Engineers in Delaware and Virginia until he retired in 1980. John, Edith, and their son Richard moved to Ocracoke then, and stayed with John's family home on School Road until their own house was built.
Edith says she felt welcomed by the O'Neals on Ocracoke and they became her close-knit family. She was especially good friends with her brother-in-law Calvin O'Neal. His house was the popular gathering place.
"I would go to see him two or three times a day," she said. "That porch was never empty – there used to be a crowd."
Edith named old friends Larry Williams, Danny Garrish, Blanche Jolliff, Neva O'Neal, Maxine Mason, Elizabeth Howard (a.k.a. Taft's Elizabeth) and Virgina Austin as porch regulars.
"If that porch could talk, it would tell you something," she said.
She also mentioned the happy times they had playing croquet in Calvin's yard.
John passed away in 1999, and Calvin passed away this spring. Their other three siblings (Blanche Styron, Lucy Gaskins, and Ikey D. O'Neal) and their spouses are all gone now, too, leaving Edith as the last one of that generation. She stays busy by working at the Variety Store, and you've probably seen her folding and tidying the large selections of tee shirts.
"As long as I can do the job, and remember what I need to do, I want to keep active," she said. "You're better off moving. If you stay at home, you'll sit around and get old quick."
We talked to Edith just before she was on the move to Tennessee to spend the winter with her grandchildren.
OC: What's the last book you read?
Edith: My Bible. And I just read The Rest of Forever by M. Elaine Moore, about Hatteras. When you read it, you know exactly where you are.
OC: What's your favorite Ocracoke dish?
Edith: Boiled Drum. I was raised on that.
OC: Where do you go for vacation?
Edith: Tennessee. That's where my son lives. I go wherever he's located. I stay the winters with him and his wife, Rebecca, and my granddaughters Caroline and Lilianne. Caroline's 8 and Lilianne's 6.
OC: Where else have you been?
Edith: Maxine [Mason] and I once took a trip to Hawaii and a cruise to Alaska with a group.
OC: What do you miss about the old days on Ocracoke?
Edith: People aren't as sociable now as they used to be. They don't visit enough, it's not the same as it was. Everybody's after that piece of the pie and they don't seem to be able to take time for each other. I like the island the way it used to be. We have a beautiful island here and we've got so much coming in that's cluttering it up and making it look bad. People aren't satisfied.
