Daily Archives: October 6, 2018
Our “You Can’t Go Home Again” Tour . . .
After a nice morning of coffee and conversation, we left the rig about 2:30, heading for the Gulf Beach.
We had planned to stop in Foley to take in the Train Museum and their Model Train Layout, but I misread the time, and they were already closed. Maybe next year.
Our first stop was for lunch at De Soto’s Seafood Kitchen, another of our favorite local seafood places, and another one we’ve been eating at for years.
We both had the same thing, the Broiled Seafood Platter, differing only in our sides.
Jan got hers with the Steamed Veggies and the Fried Green Tomatoes,
while I got it with Steamed Veggies and their delicious Sweet Potato Casserole with candied pecans.
In a trade out, Jan gave me some of her Tomatoes while I gave her some of my Sweet Potatoes, which we both saved for our dessert.
It’s that good.
Although we got seated immediately, by the time we left around 4, the place was filling up. The young lady cashier said they were on a wait until 9pm last night.
It’s that good.
Finishing up, we drove down the beach road toward Orange Beach to check out some of our old haunts. Our first stop was a long-time favorite of Jan’s, Tallulah’s Treasures, a really neat gift shop. We’ve been coming here for years, even before we started RV’ing, and even before it when it was called Tootie Green’s Yellow Broom.
After driving around for a while, we headed back up the beach road and stopped off a the local Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. I was looking for a new Hawaiian shirt and I found just what I wanted.
While we were there we talking about visiting the original Cocoa Beach Ron Jon’s, back in 1967 when we were dating.
It was located in a small building in a strip center, and was pretty much just a long aisle with surf boards propped up on each side.
Now it’s pretty much a mall all by itself.
Finally about 6pm we parked down by the beach and set out to watch the sun go down and people watch.
There were a lot of people leaving for the day, but a whole new group of people walking out on the beach just as it was getting dark.
Jan even got to see some of her favorite pelicans make one last pass up the beach.
We waited until the sun had finally disappeared before we were back in the truck and heading home.
Most of our blog readers know that I grew up here in Gulf Shores, from when I was about 2-1/2 until I was 13 and we moved to South America.
This is me with my father in January 1951, right after we moved down here from Birmingham where my father was a Detective on the Birmingham Police Department, and my mother was a Public Health nurse.
Over the next months they built a large motel here called White’s By The Sea.
And yes, that’s me in my favorite cowboy suit.
If you know anything about Gulf Shores, and know where the Sea N Suds beach restaurant is located, that’s where our motel was. And the Sea N Suds itself is built around what was once the pier house store on the motel’s fishing pier.
With my history in this area, it’s kind of hard to come back every time and see more and more of my memories being erased, torn down, paved over, and built over, But then on the other hand, I see places that have survived, seemingly unchanged, since the 50’s.
Family cottages that have made it through the many hurricanes that have ravaged the area, small buildings and offices that have seem multiple iterations of tenants, once a grocery store, now a tattoo & piercing parlor, once a gas station, now a restaurant. It all changes,and it all stays the same.
What it all boils down to, I guess, is that you can go home again. It just won’t really feel like home anymore.
Thought for the Day:
Even when a man listens to his wife, you just know he is gonna get it wrong.
adfafd
