| Beach Bum |
Florida like Boca or Palm Beach or Jupiter—there are rib joints and
barbeque and lots of fried chicken places and motels with neon
vacancy signs mixed in between bus stops and plenty of liquor stores.
I head north after a fantastic morning of reef fishing on the Mad-Son
Drift Charter. All six on board, four named Mike, caught loads of fish:
grouper, yellow tails, grunts, and eels that the mate kept calling Haitian
Hot Dogs or Green Weenies. He kept them to sell to some fish store.
Back on shore I tipped the mate and then got a cold Corona with a lime
wedge before heading out in search of a way to get cleaned up.
I knew there were outdoor fresh water showers at Macarthur State
Park so I headed north on A1A, keeping a sharp eye out as I passed
the stores in the run-down part of Rivera Beach that's when I saw a
Dollar General store.
No sooner did I park my rental car when a man on a bike rode up
behind me looking for a handout in exchange for keeping my car safe
in the Dollar General parking lot. I gave him a buck and he God-
blessed me and peddled off. So much for the private paid security
guard, I thought.
Inside Dollar General I bought a three-pack of Bugle Boy-brand
undershorts (three colors per pack), and I got a toe nail clipper and a
box containing 1,000 Q-Tips. The total came to $3.70, not including
the security guard’s fee who was no where in sight, God bless
him.
One thing I’d forgotten was a bar of soap, but I decided not to return to
Dollar General. Instead I would scrub my body with beach sand,
thinking that there was a time before soap, and I imagined that Indians
scrubbed with sand like I was doing now in the rough breakers. I
sanded my body clean in the salt water. After my cleansing I swam in
the warm ocean for as long as I could, doing the breast stroke parallel
to the beach until I tired of swimming amongst the strong current and
going up and over the cresting waves, rolling in and pounding the
shore.
I felt cleaned and polished and headed for the outdoor freshwater
shower pole to wash away the salt. I had all my dollar store things and
trekked off to the men's restroom for the finishing touches.
I entered that wash room looking like a beach bum and left ready to
travel back to New York with freshly clipped nails, clean undershorts
and a three-dollar shirt I picked up at Walgreens the day before. I
would fit in with the airport crowd now in my long khakis and hiking
boots.
I brushed my teeth back at the car and spit the water into the
undergrowth thus completing my transformation. I was clean and dry
and smelled good again. This is how I spent my final four hours in
Florida after bumming around for two and a half weeks.
Michael Domino
Port Jefferson
January 13 2008
barbeque and lots of fried chicken places and motels with neon
vacancy signs mixed in between bus stops and plenty of liquor stores.
I head north after a fantastic morning of reef fishing on the Mad-Son
Drift Charter. All six on board, four named Mike, caught loads of fish:
grouper, yellow tails, grunts, and eels that the mate kept calling Haitian
Hot Dogs or Green Weenies. He kept them to sell to some fish store.
Back on shore I tipped the mate and then got a cold Corona with a lime
wedge before heading out in search of a way to get cleaned up.
I knew there were outdoor fresh water showers at Macarthur State
Park so I headed north on A1A, keeping a sharp eye out as I passed
the stores in the run-down part of Rivera Beach that's when I saw a
Dollar General store.
No sooner did I park my rental car when a man on a bike rode up
behind me looking for a handout in exchange for keeping my car safe
in the Dollar General parking lot. I gave him a buck and he God-
blessed me and peddled off. So much for the private paid security
guard, I thought.
Inside Dollar General I bought a three-pack of Bugle Boy-brand
undershorts (three colors per pack), and I got a toe nail clipper and a
box containing 1,000 Q-Tips. The total came to $3.70, not including
the security guard’s fee who was no where in sight, God bless
him.
One thing I’d forgotten was a bar of soap, but I decided not to return to
Dollar General. Instead I would scrub my body with beach sand,
thinking that there was a time before soap, and I imagined that Indians
scrubbed with sand like I was doing now in the rough breakers. I
sanded my body clean in the salt water. After my cleansing I swam in
the warm ocean for as long as I could, doing the breast stroke parallel
to the beach until I tired of swimming amongst the strong current and
going up and over the cresting waves, rolling in and pounding the
shore.
I felt cleaned and polished and headed for the outdoor freshwater
shower pole to wash away the salt. I had all my dollar store things and
trekked off to the men's restroom for the finishing touches.
I entered that wash room looking like a beach bum and left ready to
travel back to New York with freshly clipped nails, clean undershorts
and a three-dollar shirt I picked up at Walgreens the day before. I
would fit in with the airport crowd now in my long khakis and hiking
boots.
I brushed my teeth back at the car and spit the water into the
undergrowth thus completing my transformation. I was clean and dry
and smelled good again. This is how I spent my final four hours in
Florida after bumming around for two and a half weeks.
Michael Domino
Port Jefferson
January 13 2008
© 2007 by Michael Domino
Traveling around South Florida.
Have meager supply of clean
clothes.
One week since visiting a
laundry-mat.
Need undershorts, Q-Tips, and
a nail clipper to feel clean again
before my 7:15 PM flight back
to New York but I'm all checked
out of my hotel and off a fishing
boat out of Rivera Beach
smelling like fish and bait and
sweat and sun screen lotion.
Rivera Beach is not upscale
Have meager supply of clean
clothes.
One week since visiting a
laundry-mat.
Need undershorts, Q-Tips, and
a nail clipper to feel clean again
before my 7:15 PM flight back
to New York but I'm all checked
out of my hotel and off a fishing
boat out of Rivera Beach
smelling like fish and bait and
sweat and sun screen lotion.
Rivera Beach is not upscale
Denis Proulx / Shangri-La Studio