The town of Bethany Beach in Delaware was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by members of the Christian Church. They wanted to have a seaside camp where they could send their families for the summer to worship and study in a pleasant and religious environment.

The early days of the town were very much those of a church camp. No one really went into the water so there was no problem with exposing any body parts. Sometimes, on hot evenings, folks would walk out into the water until incoming waves wetted them up to their knees. That was the extent of the "bathing" practiced in those days.

The original founders were from Pittsburgh, but they failed to sell many lots to other church members from that city so they opened sales up to Christian Church members from other cities. One of the early families from Washington, D.C. was the Tanners. And, when he became an adult, one of the Tanner boys, a lawyer in Washington, became the assistant minister of the Temple in Bethany. He spent the summer there with his family and received a small stipend to assist with the services.

The kids were pretty much raised in Bethany Beach. They spent every summer of their lives there, knew everyone and everyplace. And when they grew up they perpetuated this practice.

The Tanner boy, Ed, eventually inherited the old family cottage. He was already spending much of every summer there, even though he, like his father, was an attorney in Washington. Once the cottage was his, his family lived at the beach every summer, just as he had.

Ed was married to Margaret, who was exactly one day older than he. That gave him one day every ten years to go around asking everyone, "Can you believe that I'm married to a 40 (or 50, or 60, etc.) year old woman?" Though the two were very devoted to each other, they had nearly totally opposite personalities. Ed was always upbeat and optimistic. Margaret was just waiting for the world to end or to die, whichever came first.

Ed knew Bethany Beach and, when it became apparent that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge would be built and that the formerly two-day trip from Washington or Baltimore would be cut to a few hours, he knew that the place was a gold mine. He talked to Margaret about buying some land. She firmly rejected the entire concept. Either, she figured, no one would want to come to this sandy place which was usually full of man-eating mosquitoes, or the next storm would flood the place for eternity. In any case, any money spent on land there would be just wasted. You might as well just throw it away in the trash, and so on and so on. Ed got the idea. He could never invest in this gold mine, at least if Margaret knew about it.

Every so often a big storm does hit Bethany Beach and lays waste the property near the ocean. After those storms, property owners have to make a decision about whether to rebuild or sell. It's a good time to pick up land cheap. After one of those storms Ed found out that an ocean-front double lot that he had always liked was for sale at a ridiculously low price. The fact that it was under about two feet of water might have had something to do with that.

He had been secretly saving money for several years and could pay cash for the lot, so he went to the seller and swore him to secrecy. He bought it for $2000 and prayed that Margaret wouldn't find out.

In fact, few people learned who the new owner was. A couple of years later one of Ed's oldest friends in town, Bill, learned that Ed had bought it and Bill was upset. He and Ed had talked many times about that particular property and Ed knew how much he had wanted to buy it. Bill went to Ed and complained that he should have talked to him before buying it. Ed immediately offered him half interest in the property. Bill was delighted and bought half interest for $2000.

Now Ed owned half of a double lot on the ocean for nothing. Still, he didn't dare tell Margaret. He and Bill plotted what they could do with their land. It was next door to a hotel, the third in a line of three hotels. They thought they could build a hotel on their land, too, but the town wouldn't allow it. They were limiting development to single-family dwellings with very few exceptions.

For years Ed and Bill tried to get the town to change its mind and let them build something grand on their land, but to no effect. However, eventually the town made a proposition. The town would approve a fourplex, but, due to the dimensions of the lot they would only permit the building to be constructed perpendicular to the beach. In other words, just one of the units would be ocean front.

The friends, despairing of ever getting a better chance, decided to go ahead. This was a difficult decision for Ed since he would now have to tell Margaret. He was by now retired and didn't have any resources squirreled away. He needed her signature on the loan application.

Surprisingly, there wasn't much fuss about it, at least as far as their friends could tell. Everyone noticed that Margaret spoke more frequently about the storm that she was certain would soon wipe the buildings from the beach. In fact, she now had statistics to back up her prediction. She said there was one major storm every ten years and that it had now been over ten years since the last big one. They were overdue. It would only be fair, she said. They would be left with a lot under two feet of water, just the way it was when Ed bought it. But, overall she took it all better than anyone had expected.

As the building neared completion, Ed started offering his friends a chance to buy one of the interior units for $140,000. Bill had taken the end unit away from the ocean (he didn't want to be "bothered" by the beach noise.) Ed and Margaret took the unit on the ocean, despite the fact that Margaret was certain it wouldn't last the summer.

The interior units were quickly sold. It was only then that it became known that the cost of building the fourplex had been $280,000. Ed now owned an ocean-front condo for nothing.

They still owned the old cottage and Margaret had declared that she wasn't leaving it so they had decided to rent the condo. One of Ed's most endearing characteristics was his total lack of taste. He usually wore a baseball cap with an obscene message on the front to complement the tattered old clothes that he always sported. Fortunately, he recognized that shortcoming and convinced Margaret to take charge of furnishing the condo for rent. Margaret accepted the job with her usual reservations about the certainty of a plague of disasters.

The week before the first rental, Ed and Margaret moved in to give the condo a shakedown. Some of their kids came over and helped put it into rental shape. Margaret sat in the den barking orders while her husband and kids hustled around fixing, cleaning, placing, and whatever else she ordained. The place was really looking great.

During a break in the activities on the last day before renters, she told a visiting friend, "I don't think I want strangers using 'MY condo'."