After missing our early morning flight to our long-planned Florida weekend with our Marriage Encounter group because the town hadn't plowed our roads, we were able to get out on a later flight. We aqrrived late Friday night, and it was great to wake up on Saturday morning to a houseful of friends, and to walk outside in the silky sixty-degree air. I felt the usual mourning for lost and vanishing species as I looked at east-coast Florida's landscape: occasional blocks of vegetation hemmed in by strip-malls and housing developments. Most of these blocks had signs on them announcing coming office-parks or housing developments, and I tried to keep from wondering where all the remaining wildlife would go once the backhoes arrived.
We went to the beach, where W. and I got in our hour of fast-walking. This beach, about 80 miles south of Orlando, had long undeveloped stretches, which was wonderful. We walked past middle-aged, paunchy men surf-fishing, most of them drawing flocks of seagulls when they rebaited their lines from big white plastic buckets. Occasionally, we'd see pelicans, usually in twos or threes, standing by the buckets, and one guy had a big grey heron standing stock still nearby. W. and I thought it was a lawn ornament from afar, but as we grew nearer, we saw the wind ruffle its feathers. It stood majestically still as we passed, as if not deigning to notice us.
As usual in Florida, all my impressions were conflicted: mostly humor mixed with irony or absurdity with cynicism. The roads were full of fresh-permed, elderly women sitting high in new SUV's, most of them with "fatwheels" flashing extra chrome on their hubcaps. Gone are the long, unwieldy buicks, lincolns, and cadillacs; now the elderly all drive SUV's, as if fitting out to safari through swamps in their four-wheel drive. Even when W. was out before dawn on his morning walks, he reported streams of traffic snaking around our housing development, and we only saw one bike-rider the whole three days we were there. Despite the great weather, people drive everywhere.
A trendy new word among developers seems to be "Pointe." To and from the beach we passed big signs announcing "Pelican Pointe," "Lake Pointe," "Palm Pointe," "Orlando Pointe," and many others. Most of these developments had long roads into them, so that all you could see from the road were identical tile rooves above the palmettos. So I gathered that the additional e signalled exclusivity or a step up from the dry, dusty developments right on the road. I'll expect an accent grave over the "e" the next time I go down.
When we were saying goodbye, our hostess complimented W. and me on our fitness, saying that she noticed our cute little butts as we walked down the beach that first day. At sixty, I'm so stunned by this idea that I joked it off, saying that now we'd have to insure them. But as we drove to the airport I savored it, thinking that at last, all the early morning walks and stairmaster workouts were starting to show. Until someone in our van commented on how the sun isn't good for our hostesses' eyes, with her condition. I asked about it, and got the explanation that she has a hereditary eye disease, and is now legally blind.
The fact that I'd forgotten this after eight or so years of meeting with this group, brings me to the subject of the next post: why we were there, what the purpose of our meetings is. Stay tuned.
SUVs are so easy to get into when you're legs are stiff I suppose. You also feel invulnerable, protected, calm. No wonder they suit the elderly. Glad the weekend was OK. I will indeed stay tuned.
Posted by: Tom Cunliffe | February 17, 2005 at 02:13 PM
We own one of the gas guzzling SUVs --- the very largest. We thought long and hard about buying it, but my husband has a fishing boat which has to be towed before hurricanes, etc. I RARELY drive the monster because I cannot park it! It doesn't get out much, poor beast.
Once on a long weekend with my daughter and son-in-law on a winter break to a Florida beach I remember looking up and commenting on all the condos, apartments, etc. and all those flushing toilets and tertiary treatments or whatever and how depressing it was. My son-in-law said I was the only person who could come to Florida on a vacation and think about sewage!
Posted by: | February 17, 2005 at 04:11 PM
We own one of the gas guzzling SUVs --- the very largest. We thought long and hard about buying it, but my husband has a fishing boat which has to be towed before hurricanes, etc. I RARELY drive the monster because I cannot park it! It doesn't get out much, poor beast.
Once on a long weekend with my daughter and son-in-law on a winter break to a Florida beach I remember looking up and commenting on all the condos, apartments, etc. and all those flushing toilets and tertiary treatments or whatever and how depressing it was. My son-in-law said I was the only person who could come to Florida on a vacation and think about sewage!
Posted by: Tabor | February 17, 2005 at 04:12 PM
We lived in southeast Florida, aka Tropicopolis, for three years and it's true there isn't enough room for wild things... including me! But I do miss that softness in the air sometimes. Looking forward to reading more, ML.
Posted by: Amy | February 18, 2005 at 02:20 PM