World's shortest personality test

[Kerry]

I agree!  And Kerry, you and I are kindred spirits.  I wasn't fortunate enough to live near a large body of water all my life, but I did live on a fairly sizable glacial lake between the ages of 13 and 22.  As the line in "A River Runs Through It" goes, I am haunted by waters.

Not sure that I am "haunted" by water as such lol. More like "enchanted" by water. The first 17 years of my life were spent with the sound and smell of the ocean. You could smell the salt in the air and would be lulled to sleep each night by the sound of the waves breaking on the nearby beach. My parents relocated when I was 17. We were still near the coast, but had a low hill between us and the ocean, meaning we didn't have the ocean's soft, drumming lullaby to rock us to sleep each night. None of us could sleep for the first couple of weeks. Couldn't figure out why, until we realised that the sound of the ocean was missing. Must have been harder for my parents, cause they had lived in that house by the sea for 30 years. Yes, indeed, I love the ocean. I love lakes and rivers, streams and creeks, too.

[ednbarby]

When I lived on the lake, our house was actually built partially over the natural shoreline.  We had a breakwall in which was planted a yard and trees that extended out past the shore about 30 feet.  My bedroom window on the second floor was adjacent to the shore, and there was a rocky beach directly beneath it.  So I got a similar lullaby - especially in the cool fall and spring months when I could keep my window open a crack all night.  I only got to have that for about 5 years, but I can still remember exactly what it sounded like.  The combination of that and the thick, oily leaves of a sumac tree making a sound like wind chimes in the nightly breezes used to lull me to sleep.  Lovely, lovely.  The palm fronds down here in Florida make a similar sound to those leaves in the wind, but I miss the sound of the water.

My husband and I talk regularly of buying a condo on the beach when we retire/when Will (our five-year-old) goes to college.  He's had a few brief stints of living on or near a beach in his life and misses that sound, too.

[Kerry]

When I lived on the lake, our house was actually built partially over the natural shoreline.  We had a breakwall in which was planted a yard and trees that extended out past the shore about 30 feet.  My bedroom window on the second floor was adjacent to the shore, and there was a rocky beach directly beneath it.  So I got a similar lullaby - especially in the cool fall and spring months when I could keep my window open a crack all night.  I only got to have that for about 5 years, but I can still remember exactly what it sounded like.  The combination of that and the thick, oily leaves of a sumac tree making a sound like wind chimes in the nightly breezes used to lull me to sleep.  Lovely, lovely.  The palm fronds down here in Florida make a similar sound to those leaves in the wind, but I miss the sound of the water.

My husband and I talk regularly of buying a condo on the beach when we retire/when Will (our five-year-old) goes to college.  He's had a few brief stints of living on or near a beach in his life and misses that sound, too.

That lakeside house sounds sooo beautiful. My childhood home, near the beach, was situated on a spit of land between beach and lake, so we got the beautiful chorus of the water birds at dawn and dusk each day. Where I live now, quite close to Sydney Harbour, I still hear some of that same birdsong, and I am always jettisoned back to my childhood whenever I hear it. Happy memories.