Beach Blog #15

     Don't feed the wild monkeys and a big sailboat washed up on the beach. That's a sentence a I never expected to read or write. But there it is and I didn't make it up. Those are two of the headlines in The Panama City News Herald this week.

Wild Florida Monkeys

     Who knew Florida had wild monkeys? We didn't, but they do and apparently they have enough of these wild monkeys that the primates pose a serious health risk to Jane and John Q. Public.
      The monkeys made news when the Florida Wildlife Commission this week made it illegal to feed the three established species: Squirrel Monkeys, Vervet Monkeys and Rhesus Macaques Monkeys. The commissioners included the ban as an amendment to the ordinance that already outlaws feeding coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bears, pelicans and sandhill cranes.
       Imagine how conflicted our upcoming elections in Scurry County would be if we had to get all the candidates for judge to take a stance on feeding all the varmits in our part of Texas. That's what I'd call real 'Monkey Business.'
     The big sailboat stuck on the beach is "The Phantom of the Aqua." Newspaper reports list the double-mast boat as 45-feet long and 22,000 pounds and apparently that size of a ship is tough to move.

Phantom of the Aqua

     The Phantom's story actually began a few months ago. The skipper needed medical help while sailing to the Virgin Islands. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued him, but left the boat to sink in approaching foul weather.
     There's no news on the skipper but 'Phantom' didn't sink. In fact, she floated and bobbed her way north to Miramar Beach and became stuck in the sand. Now, recovery crews are using everything from tow boats off shore to pull and excavators on land to push her out to sea and to a salvage yard. The heaving and ho-ing has attracted dozens, even hundreds to the site each day.           And it's at this point in the their report that the newspaper, to me at least, reveals what seems a pervasive attitude from the locals for it's out of town visitors.
     The paper repeatedly refers to the onlookers from more northern latitudes as 'Snow Birds" instead of visitors, guests from, or simply their name and hometown. The reference appears more of a label than a fact or more of an attitude about the tourists. I wonder if they had interviewed Teresa and Bill Robertson of Snyder, would the reference have been "Rednecks" from Texas. Just an observation.
      Can the locals spot all of us coming from miles away? Do they say, "thank goodness all these out of towners are pumping millions into our economy" or are they mumbling, "hurry up, order up and leave as soon as you can"?

Bill Robertson, trying to blend in