Blue Moon
Full moon on 2 July makes this night of 31 July - 1 August a “blue moon” then down it fades into waning gibbous. There’s one shrimpboat moving on St. Andrews Bay, flat and white ‘neath the moon. From my angle, directly over BayPoint and far out over the Gulf of Mexico, lightning in a cloud. Two flashing red buoys: channel lights just over a stone’s throw from my porch. And with rubies set in it, that diamond bracelet string of lights from Courtney Point round Thomas Drive.
Thomas Drive. My memory of it being opened, cut in deep white sand when I was an adolescent. A dirt road and all too easy to get stuck, though I never did. A friend’s father had a new 1950 Cadillac 62 sedan, a bunch of us, the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church youth group, took it and our ’49 Plymouth woody wagon out to the beach one Sunday afternoon. Instead of driving all the way out to Wayside Park, we went to the brand new Thomas Drive. Because I was more interested in the Cadillac
than the beach, she let me drive it around while everyone else went swimming. A skilled driver by then, I took care not to get it stuck in the sand. My first time driving a Cadillac, smitten for life, V8 hydramatic and nobody ever heard of power steering or a/c, but oh man was it silky smooth. Still a friend and neighbor, the girl remains anonymous. That’s the memory Thomas Drive strikes.
than the beach, she let me drive it around while everyone else went swimming. A skilled driver by then, I took care not to get it stuck in the sand. My first time driving a Cadillac, smitten for life, V8 hydramatic and nobody ever heard of power steering or a/c, but oh man was it silky smooth. Still a friend and neighbor, the girl remains anonymous. That’s the memory Thomas Drive strikes.
Still lightning, and the moon is sliding down the southwestern bowl of the firmament. Too still for comfort, humidity 92% but either I’m a native Floridian or I’m not, so out here I sit, my chair against the porch rail. This time yesterday I was browsing lower case g in various fonts to choose one, ended up with American Typewriter, a favorite except that it has no slant, for obvious reasons, no italics. In typewriter days, for italics we underlined. I neglected to underline Pudd’nhead Wilson so went back just now and did that along with a modest overhaul of yesterday’s early and groggy blogpost.
What’s today’s blogpost about? Usual nonsense and a ride down Thomas Drive. The girl’s father next had a 1954 Cadillac 62 sedan and I got to drive that one too.
Still lightning, now wider and brighter to the south beyond Shell Island now but no thunder. Occasional splash in the Bay: mullet jumping?
Blue moon in the cloud now.
Wäller now Weller