I'm a native Floridian, born in Fort Walton Beach in the Panhandle. The memories of my grandparents who lived in Pensacola are among those I hold dearest: Playing red light/green light and "Mother May I?" on the front porch; eating Grandma's homemade biscuits or fried mullet that my grandfather caught the night before; skipping down to the old-even-then wooden corner store to buy bubble gum for a penny (or Lucky Strikes for my Grandma - those were different days).
Papa was a fisherman, who for many years was
captain of a party boat (taking many people out to deep sea fish). Later he was an independent mullet fisherman, a hard-labor nighttime job of setting and pulling in nets and selling his catch to seafood resellers. It was back-breaking work that didn't generate a lot of income, but theirs was a happy life that I remember fondly.So I think about the oil spill and the people, like my grandparents, who it will impact. What Katrina didn't obliterate along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts - and points east, like Pensacola - this environmental disaster is sure to take down. My heart and prayers go out to each and every one of the people whose lives are forever changed.
Photo by John Boyer
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