heart is

 

A drive along Water Street, from the bridge north toward our hotel. A favorite building that may have been in use, perhaps an oyster shucking house, when I came here with my father back in the mid-to-late 1940s. In Time, developers will push it down and clear the lot for something nice; but to me it's too classic old Apalachicola to destroy. I'd leave it.

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This is not the house that Jack built, but it is the Rainbow Motel where the night we arrived in Apalachicola in July 1984, the alligator ate the cat that lived in not the house that Jack built.

This is the other end of the Rainbow Motel where the alligator ate the cat that lived in not the house that Jack built. We liked to stay at the far north end (above), and there was a rickety stair for getting up to that level, that only a damn fool would have used, but we did.

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This is the storm tree at the far north end of the Rainbow Motel.

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This is the next building heading north, in former Times a seafood restaurant called "Frog Level," in later Times, because the former owners sold the restaurant but kept the name, it was re-named Boss Oyster. They had excellent grill-roasted oysters and you got a passel, open them yourself. 

Now closed. I liked the Frog Level then Boss Oyster when we lived in Apalachicola; and returning in later years I nearly always insisted we go there. The deck side was right down on the river and you could eat while taking care that gulls didn't mess with your food. Maybe Hurricane Michael closed it down, I don't remember for sure.

One more night here in Apalach, then a meal tomorrow, Saturday, when I mean to have more raw oysters and fried oysters, then the drive home is always bitter-sweet and melancholy, because I never wanted to move away in the first place. 

As for that, though, retiring from Apalachicola the first of October 1998 set me up for serving off and on about twenty years as Priest Associate at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church our old home church where Linda and I were married, where our children were baptized, and where I officiated both my parents' funerals; for being chaplain and religion teacher at Holy Nativity Episcopal School, a highlight of life; and more life highlights, serving 19 months as interim rector at Grace Church, PCB, and serving five years as the priest at St Thomas by the Sea, Laguna Beach. Not to mention the joy of being home permanently to raise Kristen, my daughter/granddaughter, whom I adopted when she was very small.

Life is Fun and Good regardless, almost no matter who, what, when or where! Fun and Good, a Gift and a Blessing.

RSF&PTL

T89&c