Author Linwood “Buddy” Swain has been chronicling his early Hatteras Village memories for decades.
Organized in a handful of binders at his Hatteras home, Swain first started writing down his recollections during a dark period in his life, when his mother’s health was deteriorating in the 1990s.
“It was a really awful experience, and I needed someplace to escape to, and the stories ended up being just that,” he said. “I started thinking about Hatteras, and writing down what I remembered, and that’s how it all began.”
Several of Swain’s stories made an appearance in the Island Breeze, a monthly news magazine managed by Island Free Press co-founder Irene Nolan.
And while Swain revisited and rewrote the stories over the course of several decades, the idea of creating a book never really materialized until a conversation with Gee Gee Rosell, owner of Buxton Village Books.
“I told her about my writing, and she asked to read the stories,” he said. “So, I gave them to her, and she called me back very shortly afterward, and said, ‘You need to put these in a book.’”
Publishing a book was brand new terrain for Swain, but he had two attributes that would make the lofty idea come to fruition – a love of technology and a great network of friends.
Swain may have spent his childhood in Hatteras Village, but his adult years were dedicated to teaching at various schools across the state. After earning a bachelor’s degree at UNC Chapel Hill, he spent more than three decades as a science educator, teaching in classrooms and college lecture halls.
During this career, Swain always had an eye for the latest cutting-edge tools that would make educating easier and more effective.
“I was at Craven Community College for 10 years, and I developed my courses with a new piece of software called Persuasion, which was before PowerPoint came on the scene,” he said. “Some folks over at East Carolina University heard about what I was doing, and they came over and asked if they could sit in on my classes. They did, and the head of the biology department invited me to go over there and bring the new technology into their classrooms… they had all the latest technological stuff there, and so it was like being in a kid in a candy shop.”
Swain eventually retired and ended up where his memories began – in Hatteras Village, and in the same old stomping grounds that he and his brother enjoyed when they were young.
“The house next door is our old place, and my grandparents and my mother grew up here. This is where I spent my summers,” he said. “I moved back here around 2000 and have been here ever since.”
It wasn’t until January 2025 that Swain started filtering all his stories into a book, and his fascination with technology helped ease the process, from using AI-powered tools to correct spelling and grammar, to converting more than 125 pages into a digestible file for Amazon.
Along the way, Swain picked the brain of another newly minted publishing expert and local author, Jan Dawson.
“Jan was wonderful. She didn’t hold back anything, and she was acting like she was thrilled to death to help me and answer all my questions,” said Swain.
Swain navigated the ensuing technical details, from layout design to securing an ISBN number.
Sandra Hughes Benton, a former student and friend, also pitched in by creating the cover design for the book. “I asked her to create an image of two boys—one older than the other—walking along the beach at Hatteras,” said Swain. “The very next day, she sent me the design. The boys are rendered with a soft transparency, giving the impression of a fading memory, perfectly capturing the book’s nostalgic tone.”
By May 2025, the book was ready to publish, and Swain ordered a small batch to sell at Buxton Village Books.
“I just published 25 to start with, and I carried them over to Gee Gee,” he said. “And then just a few days later, she said, ‘bring me 25 more.’”
Like most news on Hatteras Island, word-of-mouth kicked in and helped spread the story of the newly published collection of memories, and Swain brought his books to other shops and sites like Lee Robinson General Store, Hatteras Village Red & White, and the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum.
“There have been about 700 books sold so far,” he said, “and to say I’m shocked at the interest is an understatement.”
Swain may be surprised, but the rapidly growing popularity of Swain’s book, “Summers by the Sea. Echoes of a Hatteras Childhood,” is understandable.
For island natives, it’s a treasure trove of shared experiences and familiar names that will rekindle plenty of memories.
For relative newcomers and visitors, it’s an insider’s look into a world that is long gone, but which is the foundation of Hatteras Village’s lore as one of the most distinctive and character-rich destinations on the Outer Banks.
“The book is about a place, a time, and the people – that’s basically what it’s about,” said Swain. “The place, of course, is Hatteras, and in the course of the stories, I think the reader – if they’re not familiar with it – will get a feel of what it was like in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and they’ll be introduced to all the people in the neighborhood.”
Detailed and deeply personal throughout, the book leaves readers with a real sense of Hatteras Island in the mid-20th century, but it also touches on both happy and painful themes that are simply universal.
“I’ve had a lot of folks tell me that they laughed, and they cried, and I was really flattered that they got the same kind of feeling I did writing these stories,” said Swain. “Nicholas Sparks, if I’m not mistaken, once said, ‘If you can make them laugh and cry, then you’ve got something.’ I wasn’t exactly trying to do that, but I’m honored when someone says they’re amused by the book, or laughed a little bit, or were touched by a story – that just means the world.”
Where to find “Summers by the Sea”
“Summers by the Sea. Echoes of a Hatteras Childhood” is available online and in person at a number of local Hatteras Island shops and sites, including Buxton Village Books.
