“It was my first summer on the beach. I’d just turned fourteen, and Aunt Edna had agreed to hire me.”

“Aunt Edna?” Ivy asked.

“Ruth’s mother and my mother, Jolene, were sisters. Edna was the oldest; then there was her twin, Aunt Patsy; then my ma; and Aunt Beth Ann. Edna moved away when she was seventeen, long before I was born.”

“You said Aunt Edna agreed to hire you?” Ivy asked.

“Mama wrote to her and asked if she had a spot for me. The family had hit hard times, and she decided I’d be better off at the shore. To this day, I’m grateful for that decision. Changed my life.”

Ivy removed Carlotta’s photos from the registration book. “I found these in a camera that Ruth had tucked under a bed at the house. I was surprised to see the pictures turned out so well.”

Talley removed pink glasses from a pocket and slid them on before she dropped her gaze to the photos. Immediately, a smile played across her lips as her mind seemed to drift back. “That was quite the summer. Ruth was only about twelve, but she was older than her years in so many ways.” She picked up the picture of Ruth. “There were times I thought she was older than me.”

“You must have known Carlotta.” Ivy marveled at the youthful light that flickered in the old woman’s eyes.

“Oh, I sure did,” she said. “A few years later she invited us to work on the Maisy Adams, and we went together.”

“You and Ruth worked on the Maisy Adams?”

“For three seasons. Ruth left in 1960 when her dad and then her husband died, but I stayed on two more years. I met my Bernie while working on the ship.”

“I’m surprised Edna let you two go.”

“The Maisy Adams wasn’t a wild place. Carlotta ran a tight ship. She kept strict rules about keeping the young girls away from the male customers and crew members. It was a great time for us both. We saw all up and down the East Coast. I ate my first grapefruit in Florida.”

“What did you two do on the Maisy Adams?”

“Ruth ran the kitchen. She worked hard, just like she did at the Seaside Resort. Takes a lot to keep a crew fed. And I worked the ticket booth.”

Ivy leaned back in her chair, trying to imagine her grandmother anywhere else other than the Seaside Resort. “Who was my grandfather?”

“A young boy in Baltimore. Carlotta always warned us against any dockside romance. But Ruth was swayed by his smile.” Talley’s stooped shoulders bent forward a little more. “They married, but he was killed in a fishing accident right after Carol was born. It was Carlotta who told her to move back home. Edna would take care of her and the baby, and Ruth would take care of Edna.”