Playing on Tybee

On Saturday morning, I dropped Tiller off at Grandma's near Macon and headed down to Savannah for Tommy's memorial. It was held at a church on Wilmington Island and i just barely made it in time. I brought clothes with me, and changed in the parking lot like a common tramp; I am sure some of the more snooty older Savannahites were appalled at me slipping my skirt on over my shorts, then pulling my shorts down and tossing them into the Pilot as I traded my ratty flip-flops for a nicer pair of wedges. Oh well.

Connie seemed genuinely touched to see me there and gave me a big hug. I sat alone during the ceremony, which was really more of a celebration of his life and work. I learned things about Tommy that I didn't know before. Tommy kept journals and had traveled the world. He was very religious, but very tolerant. One of the eulogists remarked that Tommy often said that the two places he was most at home were a church pew and a barstool; I was a little sad that I hadn't gotten to know Tom better.

Afterwards, we proceeded to Connie's on Tybee, changed into more comfortable clothes, then headed over to Tom's stepson's rental on the beach. One thing i really miss about living in a smaller, more southern town is the food. I ate three pimento cheese finger sandwiches; Pop eats about three whole pimento cheese sandwiches a day, but I had given them up completely and hadn't had one in years. Oh.MY.GOD. They are so fucking good. I also had homemade pound cake that tasted like my Grandma's, and honeybaked ham sandwiches on homemade biscuits. Did I mention the lemon squares and homemade cookies? Oh, and Bloody Marys. We had a lovely time with the Manhattanite friends of Tom's son and daughter, and one of his friends told an interesting story about how she is friends with the guy who used to be married to Tori Spelling. During most of this time, though, I was itching to see the Auburn/LSU game, and I found an ally in the most unlikely of places; Graham and Adam's cranky old grandmother, Gaggy. Gaggy finally managed to get her son (who had co-coached my first baseball team, the Birmingham PeeWees) to take her home and luckily, i was later able to watch the second half back at Connie's. Adam and I used some forethought for once and bought beer on the way back to the house.

It was at this point that Adam's wife Jenny noticed the nail in my tire, so Adam and I took off to try and get Freddie before he left his garage for the evening. No luck. Oh, well! Guess we need to go back, and drink and watch football! We headed back to Connie's.

I think Connie may be the origin of my love for animals, and not much has changed in the 34 years I have know her; She is probably even the source of my pet Tourette's, as my friends like to call my penchant for speaking to animals out of nowhere, a la "Hiiim's Bad!" Sure enough, she had one bird, four or more dogs, and numerous cats, two of whom she calls "The Terrorists." All of them lounge around on the furniture and get good lovin.' We sat around with dogs on top of us, eating fried chicken and feeding the animals without guilt. It was just like being a little girl again. Except for the beer.

Auburn ended up winning, so I called Todd to congratulate him - He was well into his celebration, and slurring his words, which is not usual for him. I missed him and was sorry i missed seeing him cut loose; My husband is very possibly one of the most fun people to drink with ever. Why do you think I married him?

Adam and I started watching the Florida/Tennessee game, and then decided that we just had to have oysters, so Adam, Jenny, and I walked down to the end of the street to a dive called Quarters. We drank lots of beer, watched football (and the locals) and ate our weight in steamed oysters. Graham and Elke had met up with us by that time, and so i walked back to Connie's, then hitched a ride with Graham and Elke to Connie's cousin Mimi's house. I had a bed all to myself, and slept until about 7 a.m. Graham and Elke, being childless, slept until much later, so I scavenged for food in the kitchen (all i came up with were some stale pretzels and a cold Coca Cola). I took them out to the covered patio, curled up on an adirondack chair, and munched while enjoying my breakfast. About this time, Addie came by on his bike, and we snagged one of Mimi and Harvey's bikes. I think it may have actually belonged to one of them as a teen in the fifties - it was rusted, no gears, and creaky as all getout.

This was easily my favorite part of the trip. Adam and I traversed the quiet streets of early morning Tybee, headed towards the back river. The only sounds were the birds and the occasional fellow biker, jogger, or dogwalker. Lucky bastards were drinking coffee on their cool porches, and at one point the smell of bacon frying wafted out to us. Without exception, every person we passed said a friendly hello. September on the island is glorious; this morning was about 70 degrees, under a sunny cloudless sky, and with a continuous cooling breeze. We took our bikes off the main road onto a gravel drive leading down to the river beach. I think I had forgotten the exhilaration of speeding up to make it through the sandy trail, or hopping sideways off a bike as it is still moving. We took off our flip-flops, tossing then into our bike baskets and pushed the bikes down to the beach. I definitely had forgotten how hard it is to put down a kickstand and prop a bike up in the sand.

We walked past the catamarans and out towards the packed sand at the water. Two kids and their hot dad were putting on life jackets and preparing to paddle their kayak out into the water. A few people were fishing from the docks, but we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Addie and I waded in, and talked about having kids, and there was such excitement in him about becoming a Dad. It made me feel old and young and full of wonder at the same time. I am so happy for him, and thankful that Rollie and Matilda will have a cousin so close in age. We rode back to Mimi's in our bare feet, chatting along the way, and I felt completely recharged. Some day i will live in a place where there is nothing I need that is not within biking or walking distance.

I spent the rest of the morning taking my car to get the tire patched. While the tire place worked on it, Graham, Elke, and I went to The Crab Shack. This place is totally touristy and ridiculous, but the steamed seafood platter is awesome. We sat out on the deck, downed coffee and sweet tea, and stuffed ourselves on more oysters, crab legs, mussels, potatoes, corn, sausage, shrimp, and crawfish. Just to really top off my Morgan Spurlock weekend diet (by Sunday night, I tallied up one large vanilla milkshake, two Quarter pounder value meals, one chicken biscuit, one sausage egg and cheese biscuit, two orders of hash browns, and one Arby's Roast beef sandwich with curly fries), we all split a piece of Key Lime pie. Afterwards, we checked out the gators and bunny rabbits, then I went and picked up my car and headed for home.

It was a sad weekend, but also a great weekend - It is so wonderful and comforting in sharing a common past with people, and knowing that no matter how much we grow, and move, and change, we still know each other as if we were six years old again. I will cherish the morning I spent with Adam - it is not every day that as an adult, you get to play for a morning with someone you played with every day as a child, and to think about what it will be like for your children to play with each other as well.