THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504200173
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY DARA McLEOD
CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 270 lines
EACH SUMMER, thousands of tourists come to these remote barrier islands. They relax on the beach, wriggling their toes in the sand and soaking up the sun's invigorating rays.
Within a few days, many are dreaming of staying forever. Some even consider calling the boss back home to say, ``Sorry, I won't be coming back.''
The locals say these tourists have got ``sand in their shoes.'' And once it happens, they say, there's not much you can do about it.
Most people don't even realize it's happened. Like an invisible virus, they pick it up unknowingly, and it keeps growing even after they've gone home. It gets stronger each hour they spend fighting traffic on their way to work, each time they hear their city's latest crime statistics, and each time they cross the bridge on their way back to the Outer Banks.
So how many people who dream of quitting their jobs and moving here actually do it? Well, no one knows for sure.
Angie Brady-Daniels, spokeswoman for the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, says the chamber sends out about 1,000 relocation information packages each year. Although there are no estimates of the number of people who move here annually, the year-round population is steadily increasing.
Dare County's population grew from 22,746 in 1990 to an estimated 26,558 in 1995. Currituck County's population went from 13,736 to an estimated 15,486 over the same period.
``Traditionally, what we find is people come down here on vacation and they see the potential for a better family life, a more relaxed life style, and they want to find out more about employment and business opportunities,'' Brady-Daniels says.
Local real estate, business and employment agency experts say they get thousands of inquiries, but most believe only a small percentage of people who want to leave the ``real world'' behind will actually go through with it.
But when you ask around, you'll find the Outer Banks is full of them - from college students who came here for summer employment and never left, to up-and-coming professionals who have risked everything they've ever worked for to live here.
Glen Hopkins is one of them. He used to wake up every morning, put on a suit and tie and fight traffic all the way to his office in Newport News. The insurance salesman was constantly checking his watch to make sure he wasn't late for work.
Not anymore.
``Now I work when I want to work. I work according to the weather,'' says Hopkins, now a commercial fisherman who lives in Manteo with his wife, Katherine. ``But you don't make any money if you don't catch any fish.
``It's good hard work and honest work. Sometimes I'll be gone fishing three or four days at a time, and other times I won't work for two or three weeks at a time. It's definitely longer hours, but they're more enjoyable hours.''
After Hopkins earned a business degree from the College of William and Mary in 1984, he got a ``real job'' for a couple of years.
``Then one day I bought a boat and told my wife we were moving to the Outer Banks,'' he says. ``It was real sudden. I had a lot of contacts here because I had worked here for five summers while I was in school. Then a boat became available for me to buy, and that's what prompted me to do it. I moved down here that winter and moved my family in the spring.''
Glen's wife, Katherine, had graduated from William and Mary with a biology degree, and she was teaching at Hampton Roads Academy in Newport News at the time. After the couple moved here with their first child, she started in retail sales and later went into real estate sales because of the financial opportunity. She's now an associate broker at Pirate's Cove Realty.
``I always thought maybe we would retire down here, but the fact that he picked up and bought a boat and went into the commercial fishing business shocked me to no end,'' she says.
Although Katherine found the idea of moving to the Outer Banks appealing, she was terrified at the thought of leaving behind her friends and family, a rewarding job and financial security.
``But I've been happy ever since,'' she says. ``Now whenever we go out I'm always thanking him for moving us down here. And now that I'm in real estate, I see other people that are just dying to live here.''
J. Aaron Trotman, a former newspaper photographer who lived and worked in the Indiana suburbs of Chicago, and his wife Laura, a former special events organizer at Chicago Kent Law School, left behind their fast-track careers and moved their family here in 1992. Laura's parents had been visiting the Outer Banks annually for about 30 years and retired here in 1990.
Shortly after arriving, Laura's father noticed a photo lab for sale in Manteo, and he suggested the couple take a look at it.
Trotman says he came down here trying to convince himself it would never work. But he discovered the lab had studio space in the back, and after visiting with local business people, he realized there was a market for commercial photography, wedding photography and portraits.
They bought the lab and began exhibiting his photographs there, which helped to introduce his work to the community. Laura runs the business end of the venture.
``We're very lucky,'' Trotman says. ``But Laura and I still look at each other sometimes, like when the Kodak bill is due, and say, `What did we do?' But the worst days here still beat the best days where we were.
``Beyond the issue of our home life being more sane, we wanted a little bit better control, sort of a handle on our careers. We had always worked for somebody. Now we have more control of our own destinies.''
Trotman says he and his wife were both up-and-coming professionals, but they were getting busier and busier, and seeing less and less of each other. And they had always dreamed of working together.
``We're able to maintain a lifestyle that we like,'' Trotman says. ``We're building the business, so we aren't eating filet mignon every night. Basically, everything goes right back into the business. It's a little bit frightening. On one hand, I can't get fired. On the other hand, it's a big gamble. I don't recommend it for everybody.''
Running their own business is often so demanding that the Trotmans don't have much free time to enjoy the things that always attracted them to the area.
``Sometimes we have to pull over on the beach road by Atlantis,
and I say, `Look honey, there's the ocean. That's why we're here. OK, now let's get back to the office,' '' Trotman says.
``The big challenge now is where do we go to vacation now that we live where we vacation.''
The exodus from the big city to these isolated Outer Banks is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the economic foundation of this tourist resort was laid not just by independent, enterprising natives, but also by ``transplants'' - ``refugees'' - ``downshifters'' - whichever you choose to call them.
``All fringe coastal areas seem to me to be populated by refugees, and I mean that not in a derogatory sense, but people with a pioneering spirit who are seeking something new,'' says Outer Banks businesswoman Mary Ames, who claims to be a refugee herself.
``The Outer Banks is definitely an example of that. I think we have more refugees here than natives.''
Ames, owner of Tar Heel Trading Co., moved to the Outer Banks in 1978 with her husband, John Stubbings. Ames had been a newspaper reporter, a researcher for the Office of Technology Assessment, and she was just completing a book on science policy when the couple decided they wanted a different way of life.
``I gave the final chapters of the manuscript to the publisher the same day we moved from our apartment and drove here - on April Fool's Day,'' Ames says. ``We still don't quite know who the joke was on.''
Stubbings, who now has a successful real estate business, was assistant superintendent of schools in Alexandria, Va., and he was a strong candidate for the position of superintendent.
Ames says they were both looking for jobs in their fields in rural areas.
``We wanted a different lifestyle - at a much more rural area where the air was clean and the crime rate was low. I was looking for a reporting job at a small newspaper, and John was looking for a classroom teaching position.''
Then they decided to start their own business. Initially, they considered opening an ice cream parlor and deli. But they had a good friend who had opened a kite shop in Ocean City, Md., so they decided to open one here.
The couple says their friends and colleagues were a little shocked to hear their plans, but some were envious too. The newspaper Ames had worked for was doing a story on Stubbings' resignation from his high-profile education post, and the headline read, ``School Official Quits Job to Fly Kites.''
Stubbings says he was looking to escape the ``rat race'' in the city. He admits there's a rat race here too, but it's quite different.
The couple planned to open the store that spring, but when they got here they discovered the building wasn't ready. And that was just one of many surprises to come.
``Everything was new in terms of the business side of things,'' Ames says. ``Some things we really goofed on. We had to just learn by doing. We had some strengths and weaknesses, but we didn't know what our weaknesses were.
``The first thing is getting over the realization that you yourself, based on exactly what you do, generate money.
``When you work for someone else, you take pay for granted. Then you realize how much money you make relates to exactly what you do and how hard you work. That first year we took no time off, ever.''
And the financial changes took some getting used to, as well, Stubbings says.
``We were completely broke that first year,'' he says. ``That was quite a challenge, because Mary and I had both made decent money. We were real secure with our financial future. I had annual leave, sick leave, retirement benefits and hospitalization.
``And then all of a sudden none of that exists, and you've got to go to work and sell something so you can eat that night. We lived off fish. Thank goodness for fish.''
Stubbings recalls that one night, a few months after they arrived here, an artist friend called and said he knew someone who had caught a Mako shark at Oregon Inlet. The fisherman had cut the jaw out but was going to throw the rest of it away, because eating shark meat was unheard of at the time.
But that didn't stop Ames and Stubbings and their friend from driving down to Oregon Inlet, loading the shark in a van and taking it to Nags Head Pier to have it cut up. They put it in the freezer and lived on shark meat all winter.
``You can live pretty well on free shark meat and a jar of mayonnaise and noodles,'' he says. ``I know all kinds of ways to fix it. We had shark casseroles, shark salads, all kinds of things.''
Soon the couple expanded their business ventures, opening more kite stores in nearby areas, a bookstore and an arts and handcrafts gift store. As their business savvy increased, they closed out the less profitable ones and expanded the more prosperous ones.
But they realized there would be a limit to how much they could earn through their retail establishments, so Stubbings went into real estate sales, leaving Ames to run the retail stores.
Initially he worked for others, but eventually he was able to establish his own company.
As their businesses have grown, so have their commitments, so it's become increasingly difficult to find time to enjoy the beach and fishing, they say.
Stubbings says he no longer has time to go fishing at 6 a.m., and Ames says she doesn't do any of the things tourists enjoy because she's too busy in the spring and summer. But through it all, they've never regretted their decision to come here.
``The choice to come here was definitely a good one,'' Ames says. ``It's the physical attributes of the place, the realness of the people, and being able to be in charge of your own life to such a high degree.''
But they warn that running a business might not be right for everyone.
``Their perception is they can come down here and work four or five months a year and earn a healthy wage, and we just haven't found that to be true. We encourage them, but we tell them what the reality of it is, too.''
John Harris, another kite store owner who settled here in the 1970s, had spent three years working as a geological engineer with AT&T after he graduated from the University of Missouri, and he was about to begin graduate school when he took up hang gliding in 1973.
Soon he was hooked on the sport, so he moved to the Outer Banks and opened Kitty Hawk Kites with partner Ralph Buxton the following year.
``When I first came here, I fell in love with it. From the moment I set foot on this place I felt I belonged here,'' Harris says.
Like the Wright Brothers, Harris recognized that the consistent winds and the soft dunes were an ideal place to fly. But he admits he and his partner knew a lot more about hang-gliding than they knew about running a business.
``The Outer Banks is a blessed area,'' he says. ``This area and the people here have been good to me and my family, and I feel extremely fortunate to live here. I've seen the quality of life just get better and better. We always tell people it's a wonderful place to live, but it's very hard to make a living.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page 15 of the Carolina Coast for this date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
TRADING UP TO THE GOOD LIFE
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Jim Tobin, 40, of Manns Harbour, gave up a job as a nuclear plant
inspector to move from California become a nursery owner.
Mary Ames, owner of Tar Heel Trading Co., moved to the Outer Banks
in 1978 with her husband, John Stubbings.
Laura and Jim Trotman have developed a successful photography
business on Roanoke Island after moving from Chicago in 1992.
``We're very lucky,'' Trotman says. ``But Laura and I still look at
each other sometimes, like when the Kodak bill is due, and say,
`What did we do?' But the worst days here still beat the best days
where we were.
WORKING ON THE OUTER BANKS
Occupation breakdown:
Professional/managerial - 25 percent, or 4,669
Clerical/sales/technical - 27 percent, or 5,062
Blue collar - 44 percent, or 8,212
Number of jobs available, annual averages:
Dare County - 14,970
Currituck County - 8,990
Unemployment Rate:
Dare County - 6.7 percent
Currituck County - 4.0 percent
Estimated buying income:
Per capita income - $15,246
Median family income - $36,100
Mean household discretionary - $10,846
Average earnings per week/private industry:
Dare - $277.33
Currituck - $301.54
Average earnings per week/government:
Dare - $413.44
Currituck - $380.02
SOURCE: The ``Outer Banks Relocation and Investor's Guide,''
published in 1995 by the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce.
by CNB