The Essential Beachcomber

My family minus me who is taking the picture of course. As Christmas & the New Year draw near, we all get nostalgic, recalling and anticipating (or in some cases not so much) celebration of family traditions. In my family the traditions have morphed over the years due to death, divorce, & just shear survival.  We started out trying to be like a Martha Stewart version of the Walton's but ended up more like a southern version of A Christmas Story (you'll shoot your eye out).  Now in 2011 with the loss of parents & grand-parents, the addition of new spouses & babies into the family, & the logistical issues of sibling distance our Christmas has settled into new traditions.  My mother (who lives with me now) loves Christmas & has always gone all out to make it special for me & my siblings. One change in Christmas tradition started about 25 years ago when my mom & dad became full-time pastors ministering to the kids in the migrant camps o...

Overheard somewhere on the beach...... Are you going to the swanky Christmas soiree at Stump Pass? Ssshhh!  I don't know if they are invited. Was this dressy or just Florida casual? Let's head for the buffet table. This is the freshest seafood ever. Hey, that's disgusting.  No double-dipping! Oh no Gurlfren! You did not just swallow that whole. Christmas parties are the best! Why wasn't I invited?  Fa la la la la la la la la ...

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"Royal Palm Manatees" painted by Scott "Scooter" Thompson. My first home was a boat.  My birth father was a frustrated fisherman who worked for the phone company during the day but fished every other waking breathing moment of his life.  We lived on a small charter boat that he finagled a slip for at a small city-owned marina in Clearwater back in 1958.  I learned to swim before I could walk.  For reasons beyond my control I have always had an affinity for the smell of diesel fuel, bait buckets, & men that...shall we say.. have potential.  Between Jesus & Dr. Phil I pretty much have all those issues under control except I just can't pass by a marina full of boats without stopping and taking a look around.  Imagine my delight at stumbling upon this little treasure right in my own backyard.  I was told by an Englewood resident that the restaurant Zeke's had the best hamburgers in town.  You just have to find the darn place.  Zeke's...

(Credit:  www.manmadediy.com) My great-aunt Annabelle was a shell artist.  Her big apartment was right on the harbor overlooking Clearwater Beach back in the 1960's.  Whenever my mom would take us with her to visit Aunt Annabelle I knew I would have to be a very good little girl because her little-old-lady dwelling was crammed full of antiques that were breakable & tables full of shells in the process of being colored with dye & glued into flowers, critters, & other shell works of art. As we climbed the front steps to Aunt Ann's house your nose was always greeted by the distinctive whiff of glue fumes.   Back in the day the only glue available for shell craft  was the kind that would give off a vapor that would make you a little woozy  & it took a quite a while to dry.   My mother carried on the shell crafting tradition.  She had her little plate with a puddle of glue.  She would dip her toothpick in and dab a littl...

Keep close to nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. - John Muir