DAY 7, CHARACTERS OF TYBEE, (AND A KENTUCKIAN)

Day 7,  Characters of Tybee, (and a Kentuckian)

The People of Tybee are characters, extremely casual and friendly, willing to completely stop and take time to talk to you, and you NEVER EVER know what they're going to say.

Flounder Guy
At the Sunrise Cafe, was a lone coffee drinker with leathery skin, wispy gray hair, longish beard, who looked like an old salt, hardy and forthright.  As he started to pass by our table I asked him how long he'd been coming here, meaning here at Tybee.  With definite pride but mistaking my meaning he said he'd been coming to this cafe since it opened but I was wondering about his life, well, he'd been here his whole life and he suggested we rent a bicycle and peddle all over the island.  In true character, he said it'd be easy since Tybee was "flat as a flounder."

Sunglasses Lady
From our swim we stepped out of the boisterous waves of  the Atlantic Ocean, the tide going out and leaving behind many a tiny seashell, brown, charcoal, ribbed, smooth, cracked.  We walked across the boardwalk over the dunes -- midway there's a little alcove with a built-in bench on each side.  This time the sightseer resting there was an older lady wearing dark sunglasses with her red rolling walker at hand.  We said, "Hi", she said "Hi", and Spencer began his research, "How long have you lived on Tybee and how well do you like living here?"  He so wants to relocate, his mother so won't like it, but she so won't stop him.

The stout woman with silver hair was thrilled to visit.  Tybee residents all are!  She loves Tybee, does fine living alone, missed her family visiting this year due to the coronavirus guidelines, and even though laser surgery took away her central vision and she only navigates on peripheral vision, she sat there praising God.

Her walk with God is what she wanted to expound upon.  And especially how He helped her to learn to brush her teeth with her limited vision.  She couldn't make the tubed toothpaste meet the toothbrush.  She credits God with giving her the idea of getting a small flat jar, filling it with toothpaste, and then dabbing her brush in it.

After having asked her what it was like seeing all the changes, and living through all the events of history, she didn't say much about The Depression, the World Wars, the plagues, the inventions, the decline of her health -- she was a Baptist, she chose to praise God.  She was 91.



Santa Claus
Sitting on black wrought iron chairs dining al fresco, watching the tourists walking towards us, Spencer whispered, "Look, it's Santa Claus.  He's coming.  Here comes Santa Claus."  And "his eyes twinkled, how merry!"  So, though they said, "No, Mom, don't do it!"  I put my hand out and asked Santa if he'd mind if I took his picture, "I'll post you on Facebook, maybe it'll make you famous", LOL.

He "nodded his head" in understanding when I tried to seal the deal with, "Spencer starts counting down to Christmas the day after Christmas!"

But then Faux Santa shook his head,  "No, don't put my name on Facebook, too many people are looking for me."  Over his shoulder his wife said, "And he's not lying."

Musket Man
He was 78 years old, in a cabin at Fort Boonesborough telling about the guns and muskets used during The Great Siege in 1778 during the Revolutionary War.  He told how the Indians came up the river and dug a tunnel from the bank intending to enter the fort, and how Daniel Boone and his men dug a tunnel from the fort towards the river intending to shoot a canon as soon as they saw light and Indians rowing by, but the rains came for 9 days and collapsed it all.

The river provided travel for merchandise until the railroad came through, then the fort became a station for tobacco.  And from there he drifted into today's world and a bit of politics.

Musket Man said there was going to be a parade at 2 p.m. in the big city and asked if we were going to attend.  He said there'd be the LGBT, the African-Americans, the Mexicans, and following right behind would be the Kentucky Militia in full uniform.  "I'd like to meet whoever put THAT together!"  He fully expected a skirmish and wished he could be watching from an upper story. "I wanna be right up on top with my black eyes" and he pulled out of his white muslim shirt a small pair of binoculars, "I wanna see who shoots who first."

Was he in the right century?
Oh, and I can't reveal his name or his political party, here I quote him,  "I'm an employee of the state, and I'm not supposed to say such things."

Snake Non-handler
Our waitress at Waffle House at 5 a.m. was happy as a lark!  She made jokes, she grandly brought our breakfasts, and she happily refilled our coffee cups.  We were just "waking up to Folgers in our cups" while she was ending her shift heading home.  Before she went she was regaled by her relief waitress with a tale of the night before, loudly, because we heard every excited word.

"It was a baby one, right there on the pavement, in the parking lot.  It was a rat snake.  I don't care if it was a baby, it's still a rat snake.  I ain't gonna get out of my car with a rat snake right there.  I sat there for 20 minutes.  I called Shane.  I called my son, "There's a rat snake right there and I ain't getting out!  Look at him lying there all unconcerned!"  Un-huh, no ma'am, Lordy Jesus, I wasn't handlin' no snake, I wasn't gettin' outta my car 'til Shane came!"

It's worth the asking.  It's worth the hello greeting and the handshake.  It's worth the time, because you NEVER EVER know what the other person is going to say!

DAY 6, SEEING SHIPS

Day 6,  Seeing Ships

Oh, my lands!  It was HUGE!  I was an ant and it was a gigantic monster.  Silently gliding along was a cargo ship!   And I mean SILENT.

We were on Savannah's River Street, a cobblestone road lined with myriad shops, restaurants, and a trolley ride stand.  The cobblestone road was made of rocks and stones carried in on ships from all over the world which were sold to the early settlers.

We'd just left The Peanut Shop which sold Spencer's favorite nuts -- Smokehouse Cheddar and Bacon Peanuts when something started moving in our left paripheral vision.  It was HUGE!  It was stealthy. It was silent.

I had no clue the waters along River Street were deep enough for a cargo ship to traverse!  I thought it just a channel or canal, but no, it was the Savannah River.  It has strong currents and turbulent waters which explains why I never saw anyone near the water.  And this 1200 foot long ship with the capacity to carry 8,000 containers was gliding along as easy as an air filled inner tube on a pond.

Another day we went back to experience red snapper at The River House restaurant.  As we sat there at the Mediterranean style table, with a distressed black buffet to our right, and blackened ceiling above, there was large movement outside their picture windows, "What's that white and red thing going by?"  By golly, it was a riverboat!  Specifically, it was the Georgia Queen.

She loomed large!  230 feet long and 68 feet tall, it took time for the Georgia Queen to paddle-wheel on by.  We next saw her tethered to the dock and boy, was she a beauty, the biggest paddleboat I'd ever seen.  I just had to take a picture.  In the middle 70's a 4-H group of girls and I took a tour on the Belle of Louisville and she was something then, but nothing compared to this now.  It's what makes one think of Mark Twain's characters' adventures.

As we traveled down General McIntosh Blvd. heading to Tybee, I spied what looked like the tops of the building moving from right to left.  Just two stories on top.  And...low and behold, they really were moving!  Then from the left of the stationary building came the prow of a dirty maroon colored barge.  Shew!  I thought I was seeing things.  LOL, well, I guess I was, I was seeing yet another vessel on the Savannah River, in town!

I was seeing things no landlocked, landlubber was used to seeing.

Landlubber.  Landlocked.  That's me living in Indiana, so why Tybee Island calls like ice cream on a hot day, I don't know.  The fellows stopped at Seaweed's Snow Balls and Ice Cream, for sure, but I was yearning for other quests.

I have to tell you my first experience of River Street was thrilling!  With many a large barge and a paddleboat easing on down the watery road in a silent glide in my memory banks, maybe even callings from my ancestors, I'm destined to return.

DAY 5, LIONS AND TUSSLES AND "WHERE?"

Day 5, Lions and Tussles and "Where?"

We've all quoted "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh, My!", well I have my own "Oh, My's" -- Lions and Tussles and "Where?"

At The Cotton Exchange restaurant --
Calvin:  The menu says "Starter" so let's start with Fried Gator Tail and I'll just share it 'round.  (And I shivered and whispered to Mary, "He's eaten octopus tentacles before, you know).

At Gallery Espress,
a coffee shop and artist outlet--
It has hand-painted sceneries on the walls, the place is occupied with bookcases, old fireplace, and an antique wood bar where they serve their coffee fiends their caffeine delights.  The place has an old house feel with creature featured arm chairs, naugahyde couches, patina scratched tables, and old velvet covered settees.  John sits in a chair with lion heads carved in the back.  The credenza displays funky and elegant coffee pots.  On the counter mocha cookies and cake wedges for sale.
Me to Calvin:  This place is just saturated with coffee smells.

Spencer chimes in:  Yah, like your skins absorbing it.

Where DID these coffee lovers come from.  They aren't s'kin of my s'kin.

At Tybee Island Pizza --
It beckons their palette.  Pizza calls.  They call for pizza.  One hour wait.  You see, guidelines for thwarting the coronavirus pandemic were relaxed here in Georgia just a few days before we arrived.  Everyone is out and about and the food lines are long, and the waits extended.   Of their pizza Spencer complained, "It was disgusting.  Don't ever eat there."  Then why did they bring it home.  This morning?  Trashed.

***

We women in the motel.  Men out on the golf cart.  They're cruising 'round killing time waiting for pizza.  For the first time Calvin's behind the wheel.  He approaches an intersection, looking left, looking right, looking straight ahead, "No car, no car, no car.  We're down to 3 minutes."  And he continues his announcement, "Ain't got time, gotta run the stop sign." 

Nope, he didn't even come to a "rolling stop!"

It's been reported he didn't roll the golf cart, though he tried to do wheelies, and it didn't work when he tried to do burnouts in the sand, "He was scary at times," laughing Spencer declares.  Success, though, in the gravel on the ramp to the ocean's turquoise waters, he finally did a burnout.

It's bedtime, "time for bed!"  Relaxing comes easy.  Turning out the lights?  Not so easy.  Shutting down brain and mouth?  A definite challenge; still something left in there to expunge.  Example:  Spencer and Calvin laughingly tussle over whether Spencer can park his water bottle on the head of Calvin's bed.  It's a water bottle fight.  No water's ever air-borne its stays in the bottle tight, but the hits keep coming.  One calling out "Mom make him stop."  I feel like it's 1999 all over again and two elementary boys wearing rolled up jeans are shooting nerf guns...."Stop it or else!"

Their reply,  "Or else what?" 

My reply, "Or else I'm gonna tie a knot in your tail!" 

"What's that?"  And the film continues to rewind in mind-time.

Now Spencer dangles his foot in Mary's face.  Puppet-like, with wiggling, waving toes he says, "Hello-oo, how are you?"  

With quick wit, she exclaims, "Nightmare!  NIGHTMARE!"

Now it's another sunrise.

Birds again chirping up the sun from over the sea.

Faithful joggers jogging.

Morning sleepiness still prevailing.

Quietness, contented quietness.

I, on a second floor balcony, hear from somewhere across the pool, the motel's laid out in a U shape around it, a very loud sneeze, "AH-CHOO!"  

On the island, life is relaxed, everyone's here for the same pleasures, it's easy camaraderie.   I loudly answer, "God bless you."

From an unknown location, showing manners his momma taught him, comes a deep and mature male voice,  "Thank you."  Where, oh, where did that come from?

"And that's Tybee for you, out of the way friendliness" says Mary.

So, yes, thank you, and "You're welcome." 

DAY 4, TROUBLES ABOUND ON THE WAY DOWN

Day 4, Troubles Abound On The Way Down

The road, with its white-lined boundaries, curves through the smoking mountains of Tennessee, then winds out of sight in the bends ahead in the Carolinas, and teases you with familiarity as you get closer to Savannah, Georgia.   Heading for Tybee Island, the 5 of us are taking turns driving.

Twice other vehicles about cause us to wreck.  The worst was a black pickup coming from the left, pulling out in front of us, but Calvin skillfully swerved to his left, right down the center line to avoid any oncoming car.  It scared the wits out of us!  We thanked Calvin and God for our safety.

It bode of things to come.

The last time we went on vacation to San Juan, Puerto, Spencer got deathly sick.  As motivation to get well, I promised him a return trip to Tybee Island.  So, here we are ....

Ian calls.  "Momma, I'm on my way to Nikki".  Here I should tell you that Nikki is his girlfriend who's tending to our ducks and chickens in our absence.  "One of the neighbor's dogs got through their invisible fence and killed them."  Oh my lands!  All the ducks and chickens!!!  Nikki is a tender heart and I knew she'd need help.  So, I called the neighbor.  Mary called our young sister who went immediately over to comfort and assist since she could get there faster than Ian.  Turns out we only lost one chicken.  And though Nikki wasn't attacked, she was shook up.  She was okay.  We thanked one and all and God for his mercy.

Then the call of all calls.  Clinton sends us a Marco Polo which is like making a real-time video.  He says, "I did something really stupid and you get all week to guess what it is."

Good lands, we guessed anything from blowing a hose on the skid steer, to leaving the sun roof open during a rain storm, to jury duty call, to Cub Cadet axle won't fit, to re-welding his hurt finger, to again getting his wife pregnant.   Nope, none of those.

Finally, we beg for truth or hints.

He complies, "I was my own silencer.  I was checking my gun and taking pictures to sell it when I shot myself in the hand."  Heavens to Murgatroyd!!!!  Oh, my Lord!

We're in the grocery store buying milk and eggs for breakfast, I'm trying to find styrofoam bowls, and instant oats, but my mind is whacked out and my stomach is on the floor where my feet are trampling it to a pulpy red mess.  Can I come unglued and go scream in the parking lot right now?

Well, according to his wife, there's a hole in the bedroom wall and the outside siding is vacuous.  According to the policeman in the hospital room, "You can tell me.  Did your wife shoot you?"

Of course, she shot him.  Any woman who's witnessed the self-infliction of a gunshot wound to her bacon bringer is gonna be so hopping mad she'll shoot him herself!!!!  (Actually, she didn't shoot him, it's just something one would say figuratively, right?)

Then the policeman finishes, "I've never seen someone laughing and joking after a gunshot wound.  We've got 4 or 5 doctors here to see about you.  That's a pretty big bore to shoot yourself with!"

Clinton raises his hand, bandaged so thick it looks like Bam-Bam's club, and lays it on his right shoulder.  "I was told to keep it above my heart."

He sure has a lot of heart.  After shooting himself and wrapping it up, he and his wife went to look at a house for sale, then they went to the hospital, 4 hours later.  He still has feelings in all fingers, no torn ligaments, and only a fractured bone.  Thank the Good Lord and God for these blessings.

Next year when it comes time to go on vacation and John asks, "Honey, where do you want to go?  Want to go to Tybee?"  I'm gonna say, "Just take me to the hospital.  I'll wait there."

DAY 1, 2, & 3 "DRIFT INN", TYBEE!

Day 1, 2, & 3 "Drift Inn", Tybee!

Day 1, 2 & 3 - Arrival?
Tybee!

"Drift Inn". "Drift Inn" said the sign on the open air garage's post.  It was dwarfed by a palm tree shedding it's fronds.  Another post was swamped by the largest aloe vera plant we'd ever seen.  And the scene was set -- azure blue skies, cotton puffy white clouds, low lush vegetation, swamp hiding alligators, and plants burgeoning with pink blooms, morning glories and oleanders.

12 hours, 1 London, Kentucky, overnight stay, and we 5 sea-seekers have finally arrived in Tybee, the Island of Spencer's dreams.  He was giddy!  He was bouncing!  He was a sizzle of excitement in his seat, all hand movements, laughter, and joy!

Check in, check beds, and "check eyelids for pin holes" as darling hubby's dad used to describe his own napping.  Checking beds included deciding where snorers & non-snorers would sleep as we had 2 queen sized beds and one pullout couch in this remodeled light teal mini-suite at Dunes Inn.

We were up with the birds!  Oh, and two joggers.  Unbeknownst to us most places wouldn't open until 10 a.m. so the world was quiet, except for those birds chirping the sun up and over the sea.  And, it stayed quiet until 10!

We walked.  Everywhere!
Found a place to eat breakfast, "Sunrise Cafe" where the people were friendly, the cleanliness questionable, but the food was good.   As we strolled from the beach to Sunrise Cafe's doors, we inadvertently split -- us on the shady side of the street and lone Spencer on the sunny side.

Mary stated sadly that she missed her dog Augie's morning greeting and wagging tail.
So, I called to Spencer like calling a dog:  "Whoo-hoo Spencer.  Come here little doggie, say "Arf".  He did NOT play along, he cried, "Stranger danger!  Stranger danger!"

Here at Tybee you can speak to anybody and they will visit with you.  In the Sunrise Cafe, an older thin well weathered man gave us advice, "I've been coming there since 1987 when this place opened but I've lived here all his life....."Get you a bicycle, ride 'round Tybee, it's flat as a flounder."

Spencer was full of fun.  At Sting Ray's restaurant, after eating our blackened salmon, and fried fish, we discussed whistling and how Calvin, in high school, had decided he was going to spend the next year learning to whistle.  Mary Ann showed us how she could whistle like various birds telling us she learned to do so to entertain her parakeet Oliver.  I complained that I could only whistle one call and it was by pulling in air and then I demonstrated my "You whooo".  The waitress came up and Spencer laughed, "Don't mind us, we're just being a nuisance!"

Walking North, "How far is the golf cart rental place?" I asked.
Spencer, "You don't wanna know."
1.8 miles and 40 minutes later we get our gas powered, 5 seater, easy-to-do wheelies, cart!

During this hot and let's-find-shade walk we see all the signs of island happy life on their blue and deep purple beach homes:

...Island Fever
...Break Away
...The Knot Cottage
...The Pearl

Back on the beach "Under the board walk, down by the sea, walking with my baby" was where we be, and the baby was the ugliest baby bird I ever did see, all skeletal body and fuzz-before-feathers and stepping back away from us in caution.

Me:  Aw, look.  It's all alone.  None of the other birds are tending to it.
Mary retold a vet's comments:  Hey, people, you don't pick up animals and bring them to the vet. Leave them where their mommies can find them, they just left briefly to forage for food!
Their mother's busy.  Doesn't your mother leave you and go buy groceries?  Of course, they're going to leave them behind sometimes, they can't get their own food.  Leave the animals on the beach!
John listened then said:  If I had a kid like that I'd leave it, too.

Riding the golf cart back to the Dunes Inn & Suites, I got the giggles.
Spencer:  I feel something wet coming down  my leg.
Mary:  Ew, gross.
Spencer:  Oh, no!  It's coming from your purse!  That styrofoam cup you're carrying!
Mary:  Oh shoot, it's my cup of ice!

They all napped while Spencer and I did souvenir shopping via golf cart.

Of course, the news is all about the riots and Black Lives Matter, yet thankfully, we haven't experienced any of it in our travels across 7 states.  We did, however, do our part in averting racism by helping a black man who'd lost track of his car...a white Toyota Nissan!!!!  Did ya get that?  Two types of vehicles in one, none having anything to do with the other -- Nissan OR Toyota.

He was all beaded with sweat and was frantic, flagging us down in our golf cart, wanting to know if we knew all the parking lots in the vicinity.  I suggested, "Get on the back and we'll take you around hunting for it."  He didn't want to, but we encouraged him.  "Is it a Nissan or a Toyota?" and we laughed.  Telling us which side of the road it was parked, and making the lights blink with keys in hand, he laughed at his own panic, "It's a Toyota."

Night fall and we all fall -- right into bed.  Earlier in the day we recalled how during the last Tybee Island visit 2 years ago our room had rotting carpet and left our feet black.  Mary, like a mercy maid, went around washing our black bottomed feet as they stuck out from under the white sheets.   Spencer was sure Calvin would enjoy like treatment.  The next thing we knew, she was pampering her nephew's feet with a warm wet cloth,  "Are you on your feet all day at work, Spencer?"  she sympathized.  Spencer, who was taking advantage of time lapse between vocations, replied, "No!  I lost my job!"

We've drifted in, we've been swamped by Island life, and John's defined his state of mind, "I've been kidnapped."

DUCKENS? CHUCKS? NO, THEY'RE CHICKEN DUCKS!

Daily deluge of duck slung water meant daily cleanings of their crate.  Covered in wood shavings it had a red heat lamp and screened top for security.

At the farm feed and seed store the clerk nabbed us six, 3 chicks and 3 ducklings.

One little chick in particular was constantly being nudged out of the way.  Sometimes I put her in a bucket, complete with food and water, just her size.  It was meant to give her an edge.

She got the edge alright!  No bigger than a man's fist, and just 8 weeks old, I turned back to see a surprise for my eyes...this baby red chick was perched on the bucket's edge!  Good lands!  Where does this bit of a thing think she's going?????   Wobble, wobble, flop.

They got too big for the garage.  Their stench seeped through our house like a bomb fart in a grocery aisle.  We built a chicken coop.

The fowl had a confab.  They chattered, beak to bill, all about it.  Ever seen a hen party?  I'm not talking about grandmas and aunts and pretty young things gossiping about recipes, babies, and their messy hubbies, I'm talking about fowl chatter of cheeps and peeps, queggeggegging, over what terrible things "farmer" John dared to do.

Why, he made Big Mouth swim in the pond!
Then he stopped an eye to eye, beak to beak disagreement between Baby and Beaker!
And how dare he force Fat Betty to sit on a ladder rung!

These were all things to cluck and quack about as they clustered together while ruffling their feathers in resentment.

They can be dumb clucks.

Example, all the ducks and chickens were pecking in the leaves and brush except one.  Ducky was periscoping his head inside the cage.  We watched and laughed while this duck bobbed his head up and down as he went from side to side trying to get out.  What's crazy was ...  the door was open!

Another example, hearing a cacophony of quaking we looked out the window to see two ducks chasing Brother Big Mouth.  Why?  Why were they quacking and chasing and feet flying after Brother Big Mouth?  He had a 4 inch worm swinging from his beak!

The chickens think if they can get their head and shoulders through a fence hole, their large butts must follow!  Never.  They just get stuck and cluck-cluck-cluck!

Since these fowls weren't imprinted by their parents they have to be taught to do some things.
We've held ducks over water to get them to paddle, they just flail frantically until they hit dry land.
"Farmer" John put the chickens in the top of the coop, parking their claw feet on the perching rungs, but Beaker, like an orange ball of fluff, let go and just bounced 2 levels to the bottom!

I made a visit back to the farm feed and seed store.
I told the clerk our predicament.  He just smiled knowingly when I said,

"The chickens won't roost
and the ducks won't swim."

Can I have a refund?"

Which Five? The Babies And I ...

Windell Wilkie Park, Elwood

There were five of us on that park swing.   It lured us from our picnic and our investigations of the glubbing water under the bridge.  The big catalpa leaves seen in the ripples were declared to be lily pads.

Parents stayed in the shelter house shade.  But five of us ventured forth to the swing.  Which five?  Why, the babies and I, of course.

Like the John Anderson song, "we were just a'swingin' " the babies and I.

"Just a'swinging" included 3 y. o. Miss Lilly, on the far left end, her face showing concern for her security, little 2 y.o. Alayna bouncy, carefree as happy as could be, me holding 9 mo. old Master Jacob who was content gnawing his orange block but looking around with curious eyes, and 5 y.o. Jayden, the "let's go"  boy.  He wasn't sitting!

Jayden started out sitting proper, then he had to sit backwards with his feet dragging between the seat and the back, and finally he stood on the arm rest with his hands on the chain making an X with his body as we swung forward and backward, forward and backward!  We swung and swung.  And we reminisced.

"Jayden," I started, "I held you in my arms when you were a baby.  It was at your parents' wedding."  His mommy and daddy are actually his foster parents who are in process of adopting Alayna and him.

Miss Lilly considers his story, then says, "I was a baby.  But now I'm a big girl.  I'm a Lilly."

To keep the conversation going, I added, "And Jacob is getting big, too.  He's learning to walk with his push behind zebra toy."

Jayden chimes in with big boy braggadocio, "I had a zebra toy.  And mom threw it in the road and it got run over."  He's big into Power Rangers and their prowess these days, so I take this story with a grain of salt.

Little Alayna, not to be left out, takes big brother's story from there, "When I was a baby I got run over," and she looks down and spies her little black patent leather shoes, "and my shoes, too."  She adds a final word, "SMOOSH!"

"Yah," mimics Jayden, "SMOOSH!"

Smoosh!  I gave them each a grandmotherly sweet kiss, five smooshes all around!

And there you have it, in a little park, with gurgling water sounds,  "just a'swingin'", and babies.   Babies talking about when they were babies.