A Family's Legacy on Dune Allen Beach - 45 Straight Years and Counting

In 1958 there was only one house resting on the south side of Scenic 30A on Dune Allen Beach - only one. Bo Rentrop and her late husband Billy Rentrop were there, and Bo remembers that single house very well.

The couple was visiting from their home in Louisiana, and didn’t return to Dune Allen Beach again until 1969. They found more houses on the south side, but not much else had changed. There weren’t many restaurants or businesses yet. Everything felt quite untouched. But there was something special about the place. Something that would keep them and many more generations of the Rentrop family returning to Dune Allen Beach every year for 45 years.
 

 
Helen, Bo, Glenda, and Jane

Today the Rentrop family spans five generations with Bo, the 83-year-old matriarch (referred to lovingly by her family as the Queen Bee), still in charge, still running the show. She still has the fiery and charming personality you would expect from a lady who makes it a priority to provide her family with a beach vacation each and every year.  It takes a bit of planning – the Rentrops are scattered all around the US - some in California, some in Kansas, others in Texas, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

Every summer, without fail, children, parents, grandparents and great grandparents come flying or driving in to spend yet another summer vacation together as one big family. And I do mean big. This past summer the Rentrop crew numbered 62 people. All staying at for a week and turning a small stretch of Dune Allen Beach into their own private paradise for a family reunion under the shining Emerald Coast sun.

This year, more than ever, it was apparent what sort of legacy Bo had created for her family. The only time of the year that every Rentrop is in the same place at the same time, enjoying together the tranquility of Dune Allen Beach.
 

 
Rentrop Family Kid Portrait by the Pool

My interview took place over the phone with five Rentrops. Keeping straight who was speaking was practically impossible, but the enthusiasm to talk about their family’s memories on the beach was obvious, and so too was their respect for the one who made it all possible.

If only life was nothing but a summer vacation all would be well and good, but over the course of 45 summer vacations, were also 45 years of real life. Children grew into teenagers and adults, those moments of blissful innocence building sandcastles on the beach turned into complex lives marked by adult responsibilities and the ups and downs that real life brings. 

As the contoured streams connecting the dune lakes to the gulf took on new shapes and new forms, so did the Rentrops’ lives… “There were the beautiful summers with loved ones who are no longer with us and may best be remembered through memories of times once shared together.”

The mosaic of family memories and Dune Allen summers would be full of beauty, dotted by sadness, and rich with change. One summer would also be challenging. In 2005 during the aftermath of hurricane Dennis, the Rentrops held what was to be a beautiful wedding on the beach. As it happened, their rentals at the Dunes condominium had been badly damaged, and the family instead ended up in a single beach house. 

Full of energy, and certainly doused with disappointment that the weather had put more than a kink in their beach wedding plans, a family meeting was held to install order into the cramped space (siblings, spouses, children, and Bo). The adults voted Bo in charge. “It was the summer of the Ten Commandments,” they fondly recalled, “honor thy mother and father!”  They did just that. 

In the end, the wedding was held in a condo, the beach too damaged to host the ceremony. But the ceremony was beautiful nonetheless because the Rentrops were together, and besides, that’s the way Bo wanted it.This last summer presented the best vacation they had ever had. The sun shined the entire time, they watched the 4th of July fireworks in the sand, and it seemed as if the beach had been restored over the years, the natural processes of the waves and weather rebuilding the shore. It was as if “God had given us the beach back.”
 

 
Rentrop Family Beach Wedding: Jennifer and Billy Spees

On the phone, Mickey Rentrop Shannon told me that the fifth generation of the Rentrop family doesn’t quite yet understand the significance of this family tradition. To them, it’s just the beach. But to Mickey, to John, to Amy, to Ruth and Liz and Nicole, there is recognition of the sacrifices it once took for Bo and Billy to make their summers on Dune Allen Beach a reality every single year.

There is recognition of the gift that has been given to all of them, this legacy of vacations on the beach. They may spend only a week here each year, but they revisit it often in their minds, a precious place of calm and happiness. They remember the bonfires and the long walks searching for driftwood. To the Rentrops it feels like heaven. A place where what really matters counts - a week of nothing but family and the cheerful days of summer in a place that they love.
 

 
The path from boyhood to manhood is measured in summers on Dune Allen Beach.

__________________________________
 

Shared with us from our friends and partners at Dune Allen Realty - Visit their website to read the blog.

The Rentrope family has entrusted Dune Allen Realty Vacation Rentals every year for the last 45 years to make their family tradition come to fruition. The company is still family owned and operated since 1958. So many families have made lasting memories at Dune Allen Beach over the years and the staff at Dune Allen Realty knows what it means to them.

Dune Allen Beach... 50 plus years of peaceful family vacations and still counting.

South Walton has become hotter than the Florida sun. Get in your car, on your bike or take a walk down Scenic 30A and you can get all the shopping, music, food and nightlife you want. Then, come back to your peaceful place... Dune Allen Beach, on the furthest west end of 30A... it has always been and will always be the way South Walton began, a beautiful beach for that relaxing family beach vacation you've been dreaming of all year long. 

For Dune Allen Realty, it all began in 1958 when the Allen Family (the Allen in Dune Allen) opened its doors to families from around the Southeast who couldn't wait for that week-long beach vacation on the world's most gorgeous stretch of sand.

Those families, some now old friends, found their beach paradise right here in Dune Allen and have been returning ever since. More than half a century later and South Walton has hit the big time. But the quiet beach of Dune Allen still remains the same, as does Dune Allen Realty, offering the guests of Dune Allen the best of both worlds - a peaceful family beach just a few miles away from all the action.

What more could you ask for?