When you look at the boats and 

 nice homes that come along with the 

 sailors, you might forget Oriental is 

 still a small town. There are no fast- 

 food restaurants. No stoplights. The 

 town hall and fire station share a 

 building. To do serious shopping, see 

 a movie or go to a chiropractor, you 

 have to get in your car and drive about 

 30 minutes. 



"You can go to New Bern and get 

 what you need," says Larry Gwaltney, 

 owner of Sail/Loft Realty Inc. in 

 Oriental. "But when you come back, 

 you leave all the crime and pressure 

 and traffic back in New Bern." 



Gwaltney, whose father founded 

 Sail/Loft in 1976, grew up in New 

 Bern and had relatives in Oriental. He 

 moved here 1 1 years ago to take over 



the business. "In the first year here," 

 Gwaltney says, "I made more friends 

 than in the 1 5 years I spent in 

 Asheville." 



You can't talk to any of the 

 "come-heres," or any of the "been- 

 heres" either, before they start talking 

 about the friendliness of the town. 



"I crossed over the big bridge and 

 immediately felt I was home," says 

 Judy Bolin, who moved to Oriental 

 after she discovered it on a trip. 



"I can't explain it," she says. 

 "I've never felt that way before. I 

 think the people make a difference. 

 You'll notice that even if people don't 

 know you, they'll smile and wave." 



Now, moving back to Raleigh 

 years later, she's keeping her apart- 

 ment with the bay window that looks 

 out onto the Oriental harbor — a 

 window that was originally the ticket 

 booth of the train depot. 



"Oriental is in a slower time," 

 she says. "They keep up with things, 

 but it's not a real major thing, a life- 

 and-death situation. It's a laid-back, 

 old-town kind of thing. In some ways, 

 it's progressive." 



People in Oriental leave their 

 bikes sprawled on front lawns and the 

 doors to their houses open. They sit 

 and rock on the porch at Billy and 

 Lucille Truitt's 01' Store, where more 

 knicks and knacks are for sale than 

 sailboats on the river on a windy day. 

 They visit, sometimes stopping the 

 car in the road to talk for a while. 

 Most don't have mailboxes. Instead 

 they gather at the post office to pick 

 up their mail and talk, a holdover 

 from the days when the train deliv- 

 ered the mail. 



But in a little town, isn't it easy 

 to be restless, to become bored? 



"Some people like it; some 

 people don't," says a bicycler who 

 stops to rest on the bridge into town 

 from Minnesott Beach. "Some like 

 big cities. They think there's nothing 

 to do in Oriental but bike and read. I 

 like to bike and read." 



People are active, says Madeline. 

 If they want to sing or see a play, then 



4 JULY/AUGUST 1995 



