I love Jimmy Buffett and this is the story of how his lyrics became a part of my life….
My very first tripp to the panhandle came when I was only a couple weeks old. It was the beginning of the very best days of my life… the days when the satisfying smells of banana sunscreen and billowing charcoal smoke floated through the back porch of the old place at sand piper into the anxious nostrils of my nose. The salty breeze that whirled the palm trees and danced in the sand dunes was famous for bringing in mouth watering aromas every night at the beach as a kid. Similar to the way the fisherman return to the docks every evening with big catches of snapper and grouper in the summer time I returned to the pool to swim through the colorful sunsets... and at that time they were about as common as capri suns and oreos. It was only the innocence of my childhood that would allow me to take everyone one of these sunsets for granted.
“Mother mother ocean, I have heard you call, I’ve wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall..” -A Pirate Looks at Forty
As I grew older the days at the beach grew longer… as a kid it seemed like I would never go back home once I got there. There was no sense of time and no reason to hurry. Throwing a fishing pole over my shoulder and walking to the bay with Woody was a slow enough pace of life, I reckon, and that was the only need that I had to fulfill at that time.
“The days drift by, they don’t have names, none of the streets here look the same…” –I Have Found Me A Home
Putting on a wet bathing suit after waking from a sunburnt nap was a common occurrence and feeling the sand sprinkle down over my toes just served as a reminder that I had to put on cold sunscreen all over again. As we got older the need to run wild and escape supervision became a priority. But no matter how far we ever roamed I knew I would be close to home when I could here the sounds of Buffett easing out of the speakers on our back deck and the smell of old bay and crab claws filling the air with the sounds of a blistering low country boil spewing out of the steamer. Friday nights would roll around and Rand, Woody, and I would be skimboarding into the sunset… too young to care much about going out yet…
“'Jambalaya' was the only song I could sing, Blackberry pickin', eatin' fried chicken , And I never knew a thing about pain , Life was just a tire swing…” –Life’s Just a Tire Swing
July Fourth fish fry’s brought lots of joy and contentment to us all while we watched our family begin to grow…. But while the family was growing I was growing older too. My first beer was in that old sand piper cove… a Miller Lite that sparked a cultivation for a taste of many many more to come. As I recall and look back on the days at sand piper cove that’s when I began to realize that days do slip away… the good times were now passing by so quickly now… much quicker than they did just a couple years ago....back when I was ten years old without a care in the world.
“Warm summer breezes, french wines and cheeses, put his ambitions at bay, summers and winters scattered like splinters, and four or five years slipped away…” –He Went to Paris
For me when I listen to Jimmy Buffet he brings back every good memory I could ever imagine... and my best memories as a kid were at the beach. But now I'm older... and his songs are still relating to my life... and a lot of my best memories are still from the beach...Spring Break is almost here and I'm sure that the Bama Breeze will be blowing in and intertwining with the warmness of the nostalgic gulf breeze that blows in every night at sunset. I can't wait to feel it... Can't wait to feel the sand between my toes....
