Head, Shoulders, Knees and… CRABS on my Toes!

We have wonderful, beautiful beaches in Charleston.

My family would spend every weekend at one of them and oh how glorious! We go for long walks collecting shells by the bagful. Yes, Charleston beaches do you have shells—quite a collection of them—from lettered olives to horse conchs. We need to play handball for hours, listen to music or just eat, drink, and be merry.

Those were the days.

Those were not the only experiences we had at our local beaches. Somewhere not so pleasant.

One day we walked down to the mouth of the river, through the old Coast Guard Station, on Folly Beach. We waited in the water only to have a three-and-a-half-foot hammerhead shark circling around our feet. And this happened more than once! Another time, while swimming a little farther out in the water, I put my feet down to stand up... and... stepped on something. I jumped backward about 3ft only to land on that same “something” again.

Don't know what it was but it was BIG!

Another time, we were chest-deep in the waves when hundreds of fish were frantically swimming past us only to almost knock us down in their frenzy to get away from something. Not a good feeling...

I remember one fishing excursion when we were out all day and we could all we could do was laugh because we caught everything imaginable. Everything—but fish... Crabs (horseshoe and Atlantic blue), a hammerhead shark, an eel that wrestled with us for hours, and miscellaneous trash-- but NO fish!

One thing that stands out in my mind is how many crabs we could see in the shallows around the rocks and lots of crabs washing up on the sand as the waves rolled in on the beach. For some strange reason, I was the target of these crabs (or at least my toes were). It happened almost every time that I decided to go in for a swim.

I know I'm sweet, but gee whiz!

I was at the point of not wanting to go back into the water. This particular hot humid day, I decided I would take my chances and headed out for a swim, jumped into the waves and OUCH! I pulled my foot out of the water and there clinging to my little toe was a huge Atlantic blue crab. I screamed!

David came a running to help. It was quite a funny sight watching him trying to pry this huge crab from my little toe without being bitten. My toe was bleeding. All I could think of was how sharks can detect blood in the water from miles away. Crabs eating my toes and now the rest of me was going to be eaten by Jaws!

I got out of the water—FAST!

What was the solution to this dilemma? I love the beach, love the sun and love the water. What could I do?!

Ah-hah!!!  An IDEA!

I grabbed a pair of clunky tennis shoes (water shoes were not invented yet—this was in the Dark Ages). I knew the crabs could not pinch through those shoes. Everyone was turning around staring at me as I jumped into the water in my teeny-weeny bikini and the pair of BIG, CLUNKY, TACKY tennis shoes on this less than a hundred-pound girl. I didn't care!

The shoes were the solution to my problem and never again was I going to be the main course.

It's one thing to have someone I love play with my feet or tickle my toes, it's quite another to know that there is something out there with razor-sharp pincers wanting to taste one of my little toes!

~Jeannie Joyner