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Summer of 76: The Epic Weekend

Though summer in this hemisphere does not technically begin until late June, by the middle of May it was already well underway in Gainesville. The weather was warm, all the college students were out of town, and I had three full months before I had to be back at school.

On Friday, 15 May, our friends Matt and Kerri, who had been legally married for several months, finally hosted a reception at the Thomas Center gardens in northeast Gainesville. Miriam and I dressed pretty and arrived somewhat early, so that we observed the caterers setting up tables and the band plugging in instruments. Soon enough, all our other friends arrived, food was served, and Matt and Kerri wandered around greeting everyone. There was an open bar, so I took advantage and drank many an IBC Root Beer. The gardens looked beautiful after dark, since the newlyweds had carefully strung lights and hung decorations. They gave out as favors some fake mustaches, and many guests were wearing them. The band was talented, and though people didn’t dance so much, everyone appeared to be having a good time. Such a good time, in fact, that some time after nine o’clock the police arrived. Kerri greeted the officer wearing a fake mustache and explained that she and Matt had obtained a noise permit in advance. The party continued. In fact, it would have kept going had the Thomas Center staff not begun removing the tables and chairs. It was well after ten o’clock when we all disbanded, but only to be parted for a few hours.

Many of the party guests were roller derby girls, and the team was holding a car wash the following morning at Coffee Culture on 13th Street. That place seems to like the Gainesville Roller Rebels: they even have a drink called a “Ruby Typhoon”. The team had held successful car washes there before, and this was a good opportunity to raise money for charity. Miriam and others arrived quite early, but I stopped by later on my way to work. I was glad that Harris was there. He’s fun to talk to. Sara brought Coleslaw, which amused everyone. Tradition has it that everyone will meet at Big Lou’s following a GRR carwash, and when I got out of work I rode my bike over there. Alas, we sat outside in the sweltering heat.

While I went Swimming at Kat and Harris’ apartment, Miriam spent the afternoon preparing food to take to a surprise birthday party for our friend Kyle that his girlfriend Adrienne was holding at her apartment. Guests were advised to dress like Kyle, which for some meant wearing glasses. Many of Kyle’s friends were there, and we all socialized until he was brought home unaware, we hoped, of the party that was waiting for him. Kyle thought he was just coming over to Adrienne’s for a quiet dinner after having some drinks with friends at the Top. You know how you become suspicious when your birthday is coming up, and people begin acting strange? As the party went on, and reports came in describing Kyle’s whereabouts, we began to worry that the secret would get out. At one point, Matt, who was with Kyle, informed Adrienne that Kyle had wanted to go to his own apartment. This was bad, because all the party guests had parked in front of Kyle’s apartment. When he observed the vehicles of all his friends he would be sure something was up. But we hid anyway. Some of us hid, that is. A few friends stayed in the dining room, figuring that we could still get him even if he was suspicious by making him think that he was having a small party, then, Surprise!, we all jump out of Adrienne’s bedroom and it’s a big party. So Adrienne tells us it’s time to hide, and we go in her room and turn off the lights and wait. Kerri and I kept watch out the window, waiting for the boys to come up the steps. After what seemed like forever, they finally arrived. When he entered the house Adrienne was going to ask him to fetch something for her from her bathroom. Sure enough, he opened the door, and I think we almost gave him a heart attack, if not from the surprise itself, then from the sheer amplitude of our shouting. Everyone ate because there was seriously a lot of food, and Adrienne presented Kyle with a cake. We partied until the early morning hours.

The next day (Sunday), Miriam and I awoke and readied ourselves for a little day trip to St. Augustine and the beach. The weather was nice, and after a long search we found good parking in the old historic district of the city. Everywhere you looked couples were walking hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, the service was terrible at the restaurant where we ate lunch. But after that unpleasant experience we took A1A south to Marineland and found a nearly deserted stretch of beach. By the time we left we were the only ones there. Alas, I forgot my camera, so all I got were cellphone pictures. But it was a lovely Sunday, and the perfect end to an epic weekend.

Filed under: Food, Friends, Gainesville, General, Recreation, Special Occasions, Travel on August 14th, 2010 | No Comments »

The Tempest

Last Friday I expected to have an eventful day. I meant to get a haircut, tidy up the house a bit, mow the lawn, and attend a baseball game in the evening. As it turned out, I didn’t get to some of the things on my to-do list, but my day was far more dramatic than I expected.

In the morning, as I was about to depart for my haircut, I noticed some ominous clouds to the south. Miriam had the day off work, so I opted to drive the car rather than ride my bike, as I otherwise would. I am glad I did, because shortly after Danielle got me in the chair it began raining.

The morning rain didn’t last long, but I had a feeling it wasn’t done for good, so I decided by the late afternoon to skip the ballgame, since a thunderstorm would leave me stranded with my bicycle on campus. That turned out to be a wise decision.

At dusk I began seeing flashes in the eastern sky. Eventually I heard the thunder, as the lightning moved closer. When the storm arrived it was frantic. Each bolt of lightning immediately followed the one before it. The rain became so heavy, and the wind blew so hard, that looking through the living room window was like staring into a waterfall. I watched as the cedar tree in the front yard lost one limb, then another. When the hail began, I ran to the front door to try and snap a photo. The floor just inside was soaked from the wind driving the rain sideways under the door. When I opened it, the rain blew in directly at me, and the wind slammed the door shut. I went to the back door, which has a larger overhang. No sooner had I turned the knob than the wind blew the door wide open, and I had to reach way out to grab it and close it. That was my last attempt to take a photograph of the storm.

Then the lights went out.

With the lamp across the street dark, I could see the creepy glow in the sky. I went to the kitchen to try and light some candles, but was disappointed to learn that my stove won’t light without electricity. Miriam, who was in Melbourne for a charity event, called to say she was on her way home, but with a terrible storm raging, and no power to check the radar to see which way the storm was moving and how long it would last, I advised her not to come. She spent the night at her parents’ house in Orlando.

The wind died down after a while, but the rain continued. I began hearing the sound of chainsaws in the distance. Some city trucks came rumbling down the street, but the downed limbs from my cedar tree sent them back in the other direction. Every once in a while I would see an emergency vehicle with lights flashing pass by. Some time around two o’clock I saw the bathroom light come on. I must have absent-mindedly attempted to turn it on when I went to brush my teeth in the dark.

When I woke up in the morning I found my neighbors already outside clearing debris and cutting up fallen branches and limbs. I saw the fellows from the house behind me attempting to untangle a limb from the cable line running from the street to their house. I had so much to do on Saturday that I barely had time to remove some branches that were blocking our driveway, and survey the rest of the yard. One rotten tree had fallen in the back, but, miraculously, it hit nothing of any great value.

The same cannot be said for the houses further down the block. The last house on the street was crushed by a fallen oak. The massive trunk of the tree lay diagonal across the driveway, its enormous weight supported by the house’s brick walls. The roof was smashed. The old farm house at 3100 Northwest Sixth Street had an indescribably large oak tree snap in half, and fall across its front yard, obliterating a fence, and–as I discovered later when I rode my bicycle past, as I do every day on my way to school or work–smashing the sidewalk beneath it practically to dust. Many houses and businesses along Sixth Street north of Twenty-Third Avenue suffered tremendous structural damage, from smashed roofs to downed utility cables. The dozen or so American flags that surround the roof of National Vacuum had all blown away. The rumor is that a tornado skipped through, and I believe it. No other Gainesville neighborhood experienced damage approaching that which the Stephen Foster Neighborhood suffered.

All of us at this end of the street, however, are fine. Elke and her kids rode out the storm in their bomb shelter. The enormous decaying tree that leans perilously over their home didn’t lose a leaf, it seems. Our mulch driveway washed away, leaving sand in its place, but that’s no big deal. The cats were all waiting outside the door Saturday morning. By the time I returned home that afternoon, my neighbors had cut up my downed branches and piled them up by the curb.

The garbage men have a hell of a week ahead of them.

Filed under: Gainesville, Meteorology on May 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

“A Tradition of Heritage”

My preference for Coke over Pepsi is well-known. But, if I had to guess, I would say that Coke is now losing the Cola Wars, or will be soon.

My first indication that the tide was turning came when Satchel’s switched from Coke to Pepsi. Old Man Satchel put a notice on the back of the menu saying that he didn’t have a preference one way or the other, but that the Pepsi people made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. A short time later, the University of Florida announced that it had signed a new exclusive contract with Pepsi, and before long all the Coke machines on campus disappeared. Last year, I walked into Big Lou’s to find them serving drinks in all new glasses printed with the Pepsi logo. They, too, had switched.

Meanwhile, Pepsi is substantially underselling Coke. I have noticed that both Wal-Mart and Publix have priced two-liter bottles of Pepsi at just a dollar, while Coke, when not on sale, is $1.79. (The exception is at Major League Baseball parks, where I paid $8 for a Pepsi a week ago.)

Finally, Pepsi has introduced some new, old products that have soda fans excited. Pepsi Throwback, which I first had last summer, is made with real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. It tastes noticeably better. I had assumed it was a limited-time-only sort of thing, but around the New Year, my friend Harris, a soda fan, told me it was back, along with Mountain Dew Throwback. Both are still available, and both have wonderful retro packaging, with the Pepsi cans, in particular, especially evocative. And though it isn’t a Pepsi product, per se, I recently discovered Dr. Pepper Heritage, also made with real sugar. Dr. Pepper is an odd drink, but I enjoyed this reissue.

Now, it may be that sugar is once again less expensive than corn, and Pepsi is simply taking advantage of that. Or Pepsi might have taken the pulse of the soda buying public, and realized that fans have a taste for real sugar. Coke needs to do the same.

And, unless Coke is really doing as well as they’d like, they need to look out: Pepsi appears to be taking over. Coke still has McDonald’s and Walt Disney World, but for how long?

Filed under: Food, Gainesville, Musings on April 20th, 2010 | No Comments »