People & Places, Sights & Sounds

Postcard: Spring at the Beach

by Mike Williams | 1, Add your Comment | Apr 17, 2009

cape-san-blasThe windows are open and the air got so crisp last night we had to pull out a blanket. This morning’s walk with the dog was downright chilly, at least for the first block or two, as the air had plunged to something below 60 degrees overnight and a brisk breeze off the ocean made it feel much cooler.

It was fabulous, made more so by the fact that it’s probably the last breath of cool air we’ll feel here in Florida until late October or even November. Any day now the veil of heat and humidity will descend. The windows will go down and stay down, the air conditioning will run non-stop for the next five to six months and that damned St. Augustine grass will grow so fast I can actually see it getting bigger by the minute, fat green blades flexing their biceps like 9-year-old boys, laughing at me, mocking me, filling my dreams with sweat and suffocating heat.

On my last trip to the North Carolina mountains, a local told me: “I been to Florida twict in my life. Once was in the winter and it suited me pretty. The other time it was summer and it was a pig in a poke, a pig in a poke. I don’t reckon to go back again, not in the summer.”

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One Response to “Postcard: Spring at the Beach”

  1. New blog post: Postcard: Spring at the Beach http://tinyurl.com/cavf9x

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Mike Williams
About the author Mike Williams: With roots in Mississippi and Alabama, Mike Williams worked for newspapers across the South for 27 years. After earning a degree in American Studies at Amherst College, he worked for Alabama newspapers in Baldwin County, Montgomery and Birmingham, followed by stints at the Miami Herald and The Atlanta Constitution. His last job was as a foreign correspondent for the Cox Newspaper chain. He now splits his time between Florida and the North Carolina mountains. His interests include race relations, history, Southern folk culture and the environment.