This cartoon, One Big Happy, by Rick Detorie, reminded me of a couple of beach episodes some years back, when I lost my keys in the sand.
During the week I would go to a local beach, where not many people would be and on weekends, I went with my friends to Miami Beach where there was everybody in town.
Anyway, at the local beach I would hang out for an hour, maybe two or three. I left one day and walked the long distance to my car, only to see that my keys were not with me. I looked everywhere. At first I thought I might have left them in the car and they were stolen. I stupidly left my school ring in the car at the beach parking lot one time, and that was stolen, so I thought the same thing about the keys.
But I walked all the way back to where I had set up my towel and stuff, felt around the sand, and there they were – the whole keyring was there buried in the sand. Relief!
I didn’t bury the keys on purpose, they just ended up there, but some years later, I would bury the keys to keep them safe. I would leave my beach bag and towel on the beach and go out far into the water, very far, where I couldn’t even see my stuff anymore, so I felt burying the keys was a good idea.
One time, I came back and my beach bag was gone! I panicked.
Luckily the buried keys were safe, right under the towel, in the sand where I left them. I did walk around the bit, in a forest area near the beach, looking for my stuff, and there was my beach bag thrown on the floor. There was nothing of value in it, so the thief dropped it.
That was in the same area where a German shepherd bit me in the ass – but that’s another story for another time.
And at another beach I was lying out under a palm tree and an alligator named Big Joe was staring up at me from the lagoon – I was apparently in his spot under the tree, luckily a man and woman walking by yelled over to me to alert me. Another story for another time. I know, crazy stories. I know his name was Big Joe because they told me.
I did go back the next day with my friend Jorge, looking for Big Joe. Jorge seemed to love the idea, because after that, he would go often with a loaf of Wonder Bread and feed the alligators in the lagoon by holding piece of bread up and having them jump for it.
I’m not sure how long that lasted, but yes, today he still has all his fingers.
At that same beach, racoons would hover over people trying to get food and not leave until you threw them something to eat; and also I remember large groups of iguanas running en mass through the grass if something spooked them. It almost looked like a mini Jurassic Park. They were large for iguanas and they just ran across the lawn in one large group heading to who knows where.
I don’t go to the beach that often anymore, It has nothing to do with the German shepherd and Big Joe, or any of the other wildlife. I just got busy and don’t seem to have the time.
Until next time. . .
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