A Young Eye

I've been reading my childhood journals, which I brought back to England from my mom's house in Florida. In the years since I wrote them I've forgotten so many events, so many people -- neighborhood kids, a boy at school who traded beer cans with me (I brought beer cans to school?!) and others. I filled the journals with drawings, stickers from bananas, wrappers from Easter candy -- you name it. They make for fun reading.

I was especially struck by this passage, from Sept. 23, 1978, when I was 11:

We are going to take pictures today. Sometime this afternoon, Dad says. Although I think the shadows would be better this morning, Dad's the boss! I want to be a photographer when I grow up, I think. I took some pictures a few weeks ago which Dad says are great. I took some of peaches, flowers, insects, spiders, plants and lichens. Shadows make things all the more interesting.

How about that? I was paying attention to shadows even then! The photos I took "a few weeks ago" included this one, which I took using my father's 35mm Minolta camera. I don't think I have any from Sept. 23, though, and I wonder whether we ever did take photos that day.

By that time I'd had my own camera for about four years. It was a crappy little Magimatic, nearly useless for any attempts at art, but I kept it until 1983 when I finally got my own Canon 35mm.

Maybe I was paying more attention because I'd taken photography at summer camp in 1978. In fact, I won an award!

(Photo: I don't have any old, old photos at hand, so here's another from Anna Maria Island -- an interesting wall on a house under renovation.)

Re-entry

Wow, did I sleep like a rock last night! I knew I was tired, but I stayed up through the entire day to get back on schedule. Now I feel completely normal, but we'll see what happens as the day progresses.

Dave and I celebrated our reunion by swiftly returning to our comfortable routines. Last night he made pork chops, one of our dinner favorites, and we enjoyed them while watching "Eggheads" and "The Big Bang Theory." We also watched a terrific show from the National Geographic channel called "Thames Treasure Hunters," about the mudlarks. (Remember my Thames beachcombing experiences?)

This morning, I'm enjoying more routine. I've cleaned the house and cranked up the laundry. I made coffee -- doesn't every coffee drinker think their own coffee is the best? -- and now I'm about to tackle all those blogs I've been missing while I had limited computer access!

(Photo: Outside Publix, possibly the best grocery store in the world, on Anna Maria Island, Fla.)

Views of Anna Maria

Well, I'm back in London, but after my long and happily uneventful flight, as well as unpacking and necessary errand-running, I'm too beat to attempt a real post. These photos of Anna Maria Island will have to suffice!

My friend Sue tells me that Color of Coconut was a local store that closed recently -- which explains why its sign has been relegated to the trash.


This is a love-it-or-hate-it paint job! I think it works, actually.


John spotted this jet trail, illuminated by the sunrise, while we were walking early one morning.


And this was the sunset view from the restaurant where I went with Dave's parents. Not too shabby. We watched for the green flash, to no avail.


I didn't run directly on the beach, but I did go running on the streets in town -- and the streets are just as quaint as the beach is spectacular.

Flying

I'm heading back to England this evening, on a (blessedly) direct flight from Tampa to London Gatwick. I'll land tomorrow morning.

I'm sorry to leave my family and everyone I've visited in Florida, but I'm also eager to get back to Dave and my life in England. People always say the best thing about vacations is going home, and that is true.

This has been a great trip, though. I got to spend time with a few friends and all of my immediate family, and a substantial amount of time, too. I often feel that I'm rushing from here to there when I visit, so this time I tried very hard not to overbook myself and allow several days to just sit and talk with parents and siblings. I think it did us all a lot of good -- I know I'm glad for the opportunity.

My dad once told me that friends come and go, but family members are the people you can really depend on. It's hard not to take them for granted for just that reason -- they do seem so constant. (Fortunately I have lots of friends who I think I can also depend on, but that's beside the point.) I do hope to remain more mindful about staying in touch and communicating better.

Dave tells me it's 40 degrees in London. Yikes! I'm also sorry to bid farewell to sunny and pleasant weather!

(Photo: It's not a real lizard. It's a gate pull, in Key West!)

Scrapbook

My dad recently bought an old house next door to his property in Florida. In the house and an adjoining shed were lots of abandoned documents, clothing and other stuff belonging to the previous owners. Most of this stuff was in deplorable condition -- moldy, mildewed and eaten by eight-legged wildlife -- and they threw it out. Anything that might have had value they donated to charity. My dad and stepmother kept only a few small items and some photos, which they hope to return to the family that originally owned the house.


Among all that stuff was an old scrapbook. As best we can tell, it comes from the Jazz Age -- it contained a church program from 1926. I liked these old cartoons and jokes.


Our modern sense of humor is so different, isn't it? Some of those jokes I barely understand, and none of them are very funny. They appear to be from college newspapers. Wouldn't you think a college newspaper would be edgier than that, even in the 1920s?!

Anna Maria

I'm back from Anna Maria -- no more sunburned than when I left, thanks to SPF 30 sunblock! I had a great time with my college friends John and Sue. You know how some friendships are timeless -- you get together after months or years apart and it seems so effortless, like you last saw each other the day before? That's how my friendship feels with those two. It's so natural.

The weather was spectacular. We took long walks, hit a bunch of garage sales on Saturday morning (where I bought a book about the history of Tampa for John and a photo book about dogs for Sue, but nothing for myself, thanks to my already overfull luggage), and spent time out at the city pier with their pals. Yesterday a powerful windstorm passed over the island and I took some videos of the blowing sand and crashing waves, which I'll share on YouTube when I get back to England later this week.

I also got to visit with Dave's parents, who have a winter home near Anna Maria in one of those quaint older waterfront trailer parks that probably wouldn't be permitted now, with tighter hurricane-resistant building laws and environmental shore protection rules. They were terrific hosts. We went to dinner and talked with Dave via Skype, which was kind of surreal -- I'm usually on the other end of the line!

(Photo: Pelicans on a rooftop in Key West. I can't upload my Anna Maria photos yet -- those will have to wait until I get home!)

Bug

We enjoyed an unexpected burst of pop-culture nostalgia last night while we were all sitting at dinner. My stepsister Jennifer mentioned a movie that scared her when she was little, involving mutant cockroaches that set fires. I remembered it too, and within a few minutes we'd retrieved the name of the movie, "Bug," using the Internet. It was a 1975 production starring a busy but somewhat undistinguished actor named Bradford Dillman, and a bunch of others whose names never quite reigned supreme in Hollywood.

Thinking it would be fun to watch, we searched for it on Netflix. It wasn't there. But then we found the entire movie posted to YouTube. We patched the computer into the television and spent the evening laughing at "Bug." It's fairly suspenseful in places! (Or maybe that was just the wine.)

Isn't the Internet amazing? One minute we're talking about an obscure movie from our childhoods, and the next we're watching it for free. That just blows my mind.

I'm off to Anna Maria Island today for the weekend, and I don't think I'll have computer access there. So look for blog updates beginning Monday. Enjoy a few days off!

(Photo: Bougainvillea in Key West.)