Starting all over

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

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, after being washed away by Helene and blown by Milton, my wife and I have repeated the same. We left Siesta Key behind, but this time permanently. For me all told, having been on the island some seventy plus years, I randomly now found my family's old neighborhood street once again. There we took an annual lease on an unfurnished cottage, just a few houses down from that nearly forgotten, early childhood.  

 

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 had made for me for a school play. 1957

 

When the family finally divided (late, late '58), my older sister Caren, soon would be sent off to boarding school. My father had left, and had moved on. While my mother and I staid together, and moved 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, with Hurricane Helene and Milton, hundreds of black, unmarked "double-haulers" are noticed roaming about town - presumably collecting all those lost forgotten souls. All Souls Day - a day, 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

Hurricane Helene

Thursday, September 26th;  Hurricane Helene

Major flooding out on the barrier islands from a historic storm surge.

"It may seem irrational to see some people stay with their homes to defend them, but consider coming home to a damaged house that an insurance company may never compensate you for."  Jeff VanderMeer, NYT, September 27, 2024.

Finding the couches not in their right place, a refrigerator overturned, the beds and furniture, the books, the family's photo albums all scattered about, all had been floating around the home the night before. Returning home, finding all those belongings now quietly resting, but well soaked, was at the least, bizarre and disturbing.

One of a few items that was actually meant to float, I found perfectly upright the following morning. 

 

Interesting photo, incoming surge. 

 

 

Riding the hurricane out by myself became an intense wind-filled night, spent mostly holding a flashlight in hand while swimming in near chest-deep water. 

By early evening, a four to five foot high Gulf surge with heavy winds had lifted our outside deck and threw it up against the house trapping the outside exist thru the living room's sliding glass doors. By 8:00 pm a whirling, dark brackish water had run it's course through-out the home's interior. Somehow, prompted by someone's concerned social media post, a neighbor from down the street of much higher ground, luckily came by kayak - and yelling out my name, rescued me.

 

 

Downtown; Hotel Voco.  (Evening of the following day).

Below; some of my wife's jewelry, my old Stetson, and our dog Lolly's reaching paw, from my attempt at retrieving some small carry-able items after that first return back home. Many more days of retrievables to come. Thirty more years worth.