Today I will touch a little on WL Meekins Sr.'s love for the sea.
WL Meekins Sr. was born in the town of Wanchese on Roanoke Island in the sound of the Outerbanks. Roanoke Island is a small island. You can get to the water in any direction fairly quickly, in fact when WL Meekins Sr. was a kid, that was all there was, they had to take a ferry to get onto the island. The Island has a rich history, one of which the natives are proud. You may have heard of Wanchese before, just last year a show on the National Geographic Chanel began, called Wicked Tuna: North vs South; Wanchese - a fishing town - is the southern town featured in the show.
WL Meekins Sr.'s grandfather owned a boat shop that Joe (WL Meekins Sr.'s father) worked at, Joe joined the Navy in 1917 to help build ships. In 1920 he took a position as an engineer at Globe Fish Co., where he worked on many different boats. In 1931 Joe started working for Texaco and was a boat engineer on a tanker ship. Upon retirement, Joe renovated an old boat and utilized it for fishing. This was WL Meekins Sr.'s background. It was inevitable that he would one day work on ships as well.
It is to no surprise then, that WL Meekins Sr. joined the Navy during WWII and traveled around the world on a ship. While WL Meekins Sr. did not pursue a professional life on the sea, between his upbringing and very origin, he had a love for all things nautical. I tell you all this, because one thing I have come across during my time at The Surveyor's Office is countless paintings, pictures, and displays of boats. Below you will see a fraction of the nautical memorabilia in the office.
I think one thing we can learn from WL Meekins Sr.'s love for the sea, is that there is value to who we are and where we came from. WL Meekins Sr. moved far away from where he was raised, but he never forgot his roots. In a way, by placing these images of boats all around the office, WL Meekins Sr. was honoring where he came from and those who made him to be the person he became.
Next time I will hopefully be able to write about that Tea Pot. ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment