WASHINGTON — Things change at the beach all the time. Usually, and most noticeably to tourists, it’ll be restaurants and bars that might change hands or management from one summer to the next. It happens a lot with restaurants in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and Ocean City, Maryland.
The condos and beach houses there change hands all the time, too, with no shortage of real estate agents ready to help you find an investment property or summer getaway.
But then there’s real change, which takes places over the course of several decades.
You may not be able to imagine it, but there are people whose families make up the fabric of the Delmarva beaches who can remember when the several miles of hotels, condos and restaurant buffets were nothing but spacious sand dunes and wide-open beach.
Bunky Dolle can recall it well. His family has lived on the coast for more than a century, running boardwalk stands famous for saltwater taffy and other candies.
“Oh gosh, as a kid, it’s totally different,” said Dolle.
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