Free 2Nite

Obvious now that summer is on its way to the beach. Southern winds are blowing in signs of warmer air, greener water, cumulous clouds adrift on pale blue skies. It’s in the air and upon every leaf, in every greeny tumble of surf and everymornings of pale blue air. A plane flies over the coastline pulling a long banner with the words, LADIES DRINK FREE 2NITE PUB 44 N SMYRNA BEACH. The long strip of beautiful local beach is seeing more footprints and the honky-tonks are heatin’ up downtown. “Summertime and the livin’ is easy…” The words could be about summer in NSB.

Four and five times a day someone walks past tossing off the often repeated, ‘Beautiful day, isn’t it?’ I have all the appreciation in the world for the climate here, but it’s hard not to take it for granted. My unspoken answer to those ‘beautiful-day-isn’t-it’ greetings is commonly “When is it not?” Probably sounds offhand but living along this particular beach is for sure a true blessing.

On an early afternoon walk the sand just above the surf line is a hard-packed wet cardboard brown. A little more traffic on the beach this Saturday but not anything that says crowded. Walking is a mind-free business, on and off the almost warm surf splashes up my ankles, raising the thought of going for a swim. The lifeguard’s chair a hundred feet back had a sign saying that ocean water temperature is 70°. Probably a little cold for us timid bathers but the water seems fine for the hundred or so bouncing on waves. Swimming season is upon us, each day closer to perfect.

I pass some time on the patio with a couple of friends fresh from their beachcomber chores. The haul today was a tiny plastic toy soldier, heaved across the waves from who knows where. That little soldier now drafted into duty stands guard for Clarisse, a faded-pink metal flamingo perched on the patio. Poor old Clarisse. She’s another story.