a new persona (I’m not there)

After ordering a small chest-of drawers about six weeks or seven ago, a wooden shipping crate arrives, addressed to myself, only in Chinese characters. Apparently shipped out on a slow boat somewhere outta a China.

My new 'mail-to' name in caps, with our new, and latest address listed below.

 

 

Starting all over

Three moves in the past two months. Unpacking and stacking in time for the holiday cheer. Just need some lights.

full circle

There was a period when my family dynamic wasn't so dynamic. When we as a family had left Siesta Key and moved closer to town, to 1632 Floyd Street. It lasted for about 2 years, from 1957 through '58. 

This past month, due to being washed away by Helene & Milton, Sandy and I have repeated the same. 

We left the island, but this time permanently. For me having been there some seventy years all told, now had found Floyd by circumstance once again. We took an annual lease on an unfurnished cottage just a few houses down from a nearly forgotten early memory. 

On Floyd Street, my father had walked away from my mother, from all of us - and about the same time, my mother began to drink.

Luckily today, I still have a few of those family photos saved (thankfully) that I had previously copied. Most of those early family albums were lost during our recent, two big floods. Today we signed that lease. And now 66 years later, with me being the last of the family, I'm back living on Floyd.

 

My mother looking not so happy. She wasn't. 1957

 

 

 

My next-door neighbor A.J. and I, selling lemonade on the corner of Floyd & Orange Ave. 1957

 

I loved costumes and outfits. A bull outfit my mother made for me for a school play. 1957

 

As the family divided, my older sister Caren, soon was sent off to boarding school. While my mother and I, later would move back to Siesta Key - just the two of us. (My sister and I at Floyd Street in late 1958).

All Souls Day

November 2nd;

Weeks after two multiple disasters, Hurricane Helene and Milton, hundreds of black, unmarked "double-haulers" have been noticed roaming about town - presumably collecting all those lost forgotten souls. All Souls Day - a day as a reminder to celebrate and honor the past.

Big Cypress Reservation

Seminole Tribe of Florida

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki   "A place to learn, A place to remember"

Middle school student from Ahfachkee (translated meaning; 'Happy'), K thru 12 school. 

(Forgot her name, lost my notes)

 

 

 

Ada "Tater" (Bird Clan, matriarchal).

The red handpaint, painted across the mouth, is a symbol that is used in solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement (MMIW).

 

 

 

 

Dawn's early light

In that morning's Netherworld, looking for answers.

 

 

Hurricane Milton

Been in the dark now for a week.

Milton took down the old growth, and stripped the leaves from the trees. Siesta Key became the center of the storm, coming in at a Category 3 with 120mph sustained winds. 

When a hurricane "eye" passes over, during that short period of calm, some old-timers would say, "Good time to walk the dog."  And we did.

National radar map highlighting the heavy precipitation north of the 'eye' with Sarasota (blue dot) being at the center as the 'eye' rapidly passed over. A way for it to all end.

October 9th, 2024