pink = where we went
I have a personal connection with Florida more than any other state I’ve visited for this project. My wife (Anna)’s parents live there most of the year (they spend a few months at their home in Georgia). We’ve been flying out to spend a week with her parents most years since 2003.
The political and personal nature of this project is heightened for me here, too. Anna’s parents and siblings are at the opposite end of the political spectrum from us. Having them in my life has been an incredible lesson in holding things simultaneously that only make sense together because they’re all true.
We have talked about politics; we have made mistakes talking about politics; we have cried a lot about politics; we have mostly stopped talking about politics.
It is amazing how the very word “politics” can mean something completely different to different people.
While doing this project (i.e., while Trump was president), we went to Florida twice. While I have over 15 years of memories there, I’ll just share moments from 2017 and 2018.
Nana and Papa Tom (my son’s names for Anna’s parents are now my favorite) live on Butler Beach near St. Augustine. They live across the street from the beach. To get to the beach, you walk on wooden bridges over dunes where turtles live.
I am very fond of this place. I never would have expected Florida to feel like a second home to me.
Butler Beach was the historic Black beach for northern Florida. There is no historic marker; there should be.
Asher brought Playmobil figurines and played with them on colorful beach towels.
He flitted around the beach making friends easily. One day, in 45 minutes, he met Zach, Tula, Natalia, Bentley, Bryson, John, and Cam.
On a walk, I see something I’ve never seen before. A white sun with a thin rainbow encircling it, and a second, lighter, wider rainbow around that one. John and Cam’s mom marveled at it with me. A photograph couldn’t catch it.
I love watching everyone playing in the water, so many different people. Playing. Everyone stays while the sky darkens and doesn’t leave until the thunder and lightning are very close.
Nana and Papa Tom take us out to dinner at some restaurants that have become favorites. This is always a treat.
Asher brings books; this time his yearbook. He showed Papa Tom his classmates, often pausing to pet Papa Tom’s head, which is soft.
One day at the beach, a man with a metal detector (metal detector people, a special breed of tenacious hopers!) came up to us motioning to show us a gold coin he had found. I got up and looked at it. I noticed masonic symbols and “DON’T DON’T DON’T” written around the perimeter. From a casino maybe? I asked him if I could take his picture. He said yes. His name was Cliff.
After he walked away, he came back a minute later and said, “You should put this on Facebook. I’m Opossum Boss.” He gave me his card, and told us how he rescues animals that turn up in unexpected places and returns them to their natural habitat: raccoons, snakes, opossums, and alligators in peoples’ swimming pools.
Another day, Anna was on her way into the water when a woman ran up to her and started talking about evolution. The woman said, “Stephen Hawking is really smart. Do you know him? He said we evolved.” The woman said she learned about evolution in school but didn’t believe it because her family was Catholic. She shook her head saying, “It’s kinda messin’ me up.” She’d recently seen a movie or show about Hawking. Then she said, “Well I gotta go in - I’m gonna make some ribs. We did barbeque chicken last night.”
One day we decided to go for a walk on a different beach a few miles away. Vilano beach was hit particularly hard by hurricane Matthew. We walked through the backyard rubble of abandoned houses to get to the beach. Tarps, wreckage, sea shells, garden bricks asunder.
A few days before, a chunk of a ship rumored to be from the 1700’s washed up on shore. A small crowd had gathered on the beach looking at it. One lady in passing said she saw Roman numerals carved in the wood. Word traveled and soon everyone was looking for them. We didn’t find them.
In 2018, our Florida visit included a trip to Disney World. I grew up (in a suburb of Los Angeles) going to Disneyland once a year, so in Disney World I experienced a displaced but welcome nostalgia. It’s the same Jungle Cruise, but it’s a different Jungle Cruise!
We stayed two nights in a surreal Airbnb trailer park in Orlando, which felt like a sweatier Edward Scissorhands set.
Disney is, in a way, America on steroids. At its best it strikes harmony between creepy and charming. In this fleeting state, I function best when I suspend disbelief for the duration; give in to the undertow. Meet all the Princesses.
Looking back at pictures, our visits in 2017 and 2018 featured a lot of stormy weather. We went to Publix for ingredients for dinner, getting soaked as we ran through the parking lot to the car in the rain. Many afternoons we played cards and drank tea with Nana and Papa Tom on the porch with lightning cracking around us.
We fell asleep at night to thunder and heavy rain.
