“One tree is like another, but not too much. One tulip is like the next tulip, but not altogether. More or less like people–a general outline, then the stunning individual strokes.” Mary Oliver, Upstream, Penguin Press, NY,NY, 2014. “Family is a place where when you go there, they have to take you in. Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides.
I began the first leg of my flight to Charleston at 6:00AM on July 15, 2018. It was time for my annual vacation with my siblings in South Carolina, Palatka and Tallahassee, Florida. Di met me in baggage claim. She is losing her hearing and cannot orient to my voice when I call to her in the cavernous cacophany that is the Charlotte airport. The city is building an addittion to the present airport, and it appears to be constructing it directly in front of the current airport. This results in zero, nada, noplace for passenger pick-up but a 10ft. long area in front of the exit door from the current airport. This is madness. Men in neon yellow blowing constantly on whistles that threaten to bust your eardrums, orange traffic cones everywhere, angry, impatient drivers blowing their horns, people jumping into the cars with their baggage as fast as possible so as not to be killed by the other cars! In the meantime, Jim was stuck in the two lines of mile long traffic trying to get to the “pick-up” area. It was a crazy, dangerous zoo! It took us an hour and a half to get out of the airport! Whew! But it was great to see Di and Jim. I was exhausted from the day and the travel, so it wasn’t long after our nice reunion that I excused myself and went to bed.
We decided to take a day before heading to Summer Haven and The Beach House. We got up, got our coffee and visited for a couple of hours. We agreed we would head out the next day and travel straight to St, Augustine to meet with David and Rosie at Barnacle Bill’s, where the best fried shrimp in all of Florida comes out of their kitchen. We drove through a couple of rain storms on the way, and we stopped once for gas. Nothing memorable, except Di and I getting into our usual tussel about our differences. Family squabbles happened from Van Wyck to Barnacle Bill’s, part of being family. At about 3 pm we pulled into St. Augustine and the restaurant, met up with David and Rosie and Ben and downed about four dozen shrimp! Then we headed towards The Beach House. Rainstorms greeted us as we pulled up where the old wooden water tower once stood! I can remember washing my hair in the rainwater collected by that great towering basin…showers too. Heaven from an old, rickety water tower that is no longer there. It aged out.