Interior designer Sally Newell and husband Guy are raising two sons to appreciate island life. "Kids have a lot of freedom here," she says. They bike, fish, surf, explore the 1823 lighthouse, and watch the island's Banker ponies in their protective pens.

But kids learn the local work ethic, too. Sally and Guy's teenage son has a hot dog stand that caters to tourists who drive in on the 13-mile road from the Hatteras ferry. He hopes they arrive hungry. Working or playing, islanders are nurtured by the constancy of this place.

Some things haven't altered in centuries--such as the way a handful still speak the "Ocracoke brogue," a Cockney-like dialect developed because of the island's isolation. Another constant: Ocracoke's sense of community. As she pedals away from the concert, Lou Ann pledges to carry it back to Indiana: "I can't move here, but I'm gonna take the community home with me."

(published 2003)