Golden Isles T h e M a g a z i n e f o r B r u n s w i c k , St . S i m o n s , J e k y l l & S e a I s l a n d s
Beach Reading Winnning Short Stories by Local Authors
Local writers of the golden isles
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Table of Contents
July/August 2010
features:
12 Writers’ Bloc
20 Beach Reading
34 Serving seconds
Storytellers find their muse in
The winning entries to our
Waitresses work double-time
the Golden Isles.
2010 short fiction contest
to make ends meet.
by Cary Knapp
by Amy Carter
by Bob Dart
12
48
20 in ever y issue: 6
Editor’s Note
9
Flo on Food
19 Par for the Course
28 18 departments: COASTAL PROFILE 40 Pamela Mueller 44 Steve Berry
31 Nature Connection 60 Coastal Calendar 62 Out & About 70 Coastal Cuisine
34 on the cover: Emily Brown, the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Forrest Brown of St. Simons Island enjoys a good book at the beach. Photo by Joe Loehle, EOJ Design & Photo.
Golden Isles The Magazine for Brunswick, sT. siMons, Jekyll & sea islands
Business & Finance 48 A Reel Good Reason to Go Downtown
Beach Reading Winnning Short Stories by Local Authors
72 Last Call
LocaL writers of the goLden isLes
12 2
g ol d e n isle sm a ga zine.com
waitresses working doubLe-time
movies at the ritz downtown
34
48
20
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Golden Isles T h e M a g a z i n e f o r B r u n s w i c k , St . S i m o n s , J e k y l l & S e a I s l a n d s
mailing address
247 Edwards Plaza St. Simons Island, GA 31522 912.634.8466 publisher
C. H. Leavy IV art director
Editor
Joe Loehle,
Amy H. Carter
EOJ Design & Photo
photographers
Joe Loehle, EOJ Design & Photo Brooke Roberts
advertising
advertising
director
Design
Heath Slapikas
Stacey Willis
Retail sales
Marketing
Manager
consultant
Burt Bray
Angel Hobby Circulation Director
Frank Lane publication info
Golden Isles Magazine is published six times per year by The Brunswick News Publishing Company. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to: The Brunswick News Publishing Company, PO Box 1557, Brunswick, GA 31521-1557. Periodicals Postage paid at Brunswick, GA. USPS-068180 Submissions
Golden Isles Magazine is in need of talented contributors. Unsolicited queries and submissions of art and stories are welcome. Please include an email address and telephone number. Submit by
(Back Row) Rebekah Acosta, Jason Lavender, Mallary Joris - (Front Row) James Grella
email to the editor, Amy Carter: acarter@goldenislesmagazine.com or by mail to the St. Simons Island address up top. Only work accompanied by a self-addressed
Hairstyling • Hair Coloring • Make - Up • Weddings • Hair Extensions Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy
stamped envelope will be returned. Submissions to out & about and Coastal Calendar
Please direct to Kathi Williams by mail above or
134 Follins Lane St. Simons Island, GA 31522 912-634-9777
(Island Cottage Business Center, off Arnold Road)
imageartisansstudio.com
kwilliams@thebrunswicknews.com Advertising
Information regarding advertising and rates is available by contacting Angel Hobby by phone at 912.634.8408 or email at ahobby@goldenislesmagazine.com We always appreciate letters from our readers
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“Looking for easy atmosphere, and enjoy the outdoors? This is it!” Live Music Friday through Sunday nights.
On Tuesdays during the “dog days” of Summer (July and August), bring your wellbehaved pooch for dinner on our docks and we’ll donate 10 percent of the proceeds to the Humane Society of Coastal Georgia.
Editor’s Note “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling
I
’ve always aspired to write fiction; indeed, some of the people I’ve written about lately might say I’ve achieved my goal. People like Jim Barta, owner of the Barbara Jean’s chain of restaurants and one of several pilots who graciously shared his love of flying with me for the May/June issue of Golden Isles Magazine. After that issue hit the stands, Jim pointed out to me, not unkindly, a mistake in my description of his service in Vietnam; to wit, casting him as a U.S. Army infantryman before he traded his boots for the wings of a Marine Corps aviator. Jim Barta was and always will be one of the few, the proud, a Marine; I stand corrected. Fiction would appeal to a career journalist at a time like this because the facts can be tweaked for the sake of a good tale; and truly, who doesn’t love a good story? But truth trumps pretend every time, like the feature Vanity Fair recently published recounting the tumultuous romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The Brangelina of their day, Liz’n’Dick, as the tabloids dubbed them, conducted a torrid affair condemned by both the Vatican and the U.S. House of Representatives. No fairy tale can compete with that. One of the world’s greatest actors, Burton once said he would have liked to have been a writer, and his letters to Taylor reveal his talent for the trade. My favorite passage from a letter written as their first divorce loomed in 1973: “God’s eye may be on the sparrow but my eye will always be on you. ... I shall miss you with passion and wild regret.” A story written is a story that never dies; the words burn long after the emotions cool. Real or imagined, a good story is both an escape and a lesson, a rare and honest insight into the thoughts and feelings of another. In this, our Beach Reading Issue, we are pleased to publish stories by four promising Golden Isles writers, the top entries chosen from more than 50 submitted to our 2010 Short Fiction Contest. We will bring you the best of the rest (along with illustrations by our own Stacey Willis, graphic artist extraordinaire) in subsequent issues, so stay tuned for more great reads to come.
Amy H. Carter Editor
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Flo on Food
Cheesecake to diet for by Flo Anderson
I
f any of you have seen me around the grocery stores, the restaurants, or the golf courses (my life these days) you may have noticed that I have lost a few pounds. My doctor informed me, way back in September, it was “do or die.” Well, I chose the first option. My sister Irene and good friend Annabelle said if I would cook for them we could all get healthy together. Misery loves company. Well, I got the new version of the good old South Beach Diet and reviewed what I had learned five years ago. The new version is much better in al-
lowing tomatoes and beans and grains. Of course, once I got my head around all of the recipes, I started to create my own versions. .I forgot to mention that not only was I supposed to lose weight but I had very high blood sugar and was now a Type 2 Diabetic. Boy, was that a blow. I am the cake and cookie queen. Anyway, the SB diet allows for fruit, but not for me. I was challenged! I cooked from the book and
-Good-For-You st o lm -A e m so e w Flo’s A Cheesecake Filling: m cheese 1- 8oz regular crea eam cheese 2- 8 oz fat free cr m cheese 2- 8oz 1/3 fat crea 2 cups Splenda ers 1-1/2 cups egg beat , grated Rind of one lemon ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup sour cream
Crust:
ground oatmeal cookies, 1 pkg. sugar-free melted r, tte bu ce t Balan 3 tablespoons Smar h springbottom of a 9-inc Press this onto the Pam. been sprayed with form pan that has mo ve re s, te nu mi s for 10 Bake at 350 degree 325. er temperature to from oven and low
d at in the Splenda an soft and fluffy. Be til un er til th un r ge sti to t se ee overbeat, jus Mix the cream ch at a time. Do not tle lit a e s, th er in at t us be g cr eg over the slo wly beat in the ng ingredients. Pour ini ma re 30 e r th fo r in r te Sti on the coun all is incorporated. oven and let cool gar ur. Remo ve from ho r fo ver it with some su ke ba Co ! d an rry pan but not to wo k, ac s cr ue ly iss ab it ob fru pr e ll n’t have th minutes. The top wi looks. And if you do r fo 12 ing st go lea e at ar r u yo it. Chill fo free Cool Whip if strawberries over ce some nice fresh sli uld slice my cheeseco to u ss yo , flo ve I ha s. (I use dental ing rv se your 16 o int it ce le of times around hours and then sli long, wrap it a coup et fe 2 ss is flo e at th th ll ce pu e hand and cakes. Tear off a pie . Release from on ke ca e th o int wn gerator. fingers and press do e cake in the refri ep slicing.) Store th ke d an ap wr Re . thru
lost some weight but quickly got bored, so I started to create my own dinners and desserts. I would take them down to the 4th of May Café in the evenings and six of us would dine together. My son Tom, my husband Mike and my brother-in-law Kent joined Annabelle, Irene and me. Of course, the men being from another planet and all lost weight as fast as I could cook! I discovered that there are a lot of new products in the stores that can make this lifestyle fun, delicious, healthy and expensive. But what price do you put on good health? I have learned you can make a tasty spaghetti using turkey sausage, ground chicken and turkey meatballs and a spaghetti squash. Mashed cauliflower tastes almost like mashed potatoes, and the tofu noodles in the produce section are absolutely wonderful if you can get past the smell, which you rinse off. Of course, we had to have a little dessert. Well, Jello sugar-free pudding cups are very good (remember I cannot have fruit) but boring. Well, I made a cheesecake. It was SB and diabetic friendly and very tasty. I will share the recipe with you and caution you to please cut it into 16 servings or all will be for naught. Also you may only eat one 1/16 every two-and-a-half hours. Worked for me. Questions, advice or encouragement? Reach me at flosgalley@comcast.net. Flo Anderson took her first restaurant job at the King and Prince Hotel in 1971. She’s been cooking ever since. Her restaurants, The 4th of May Cafés, endure in the St. Simons Village and in downtown Brunswick. Flo is the mother of three and grandmother to seven, all of whom live on St. Simons Island.
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Writers’
BLOC 12 g o l d e n isle sm a ga zine.com
by Cary Knapp
C
oastal Georgia has always been a magnet for writers. In 1878 the poet Sidney Lanier was moved to write “On the length and the breadth of the marvellous marshes of Glynn.” The Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O’Neill lived at the Casa Genotta on Sea Island and wrote his only well-known comedy, Ah, Wilderness!
Eugenia Price visited St. Simons Island in the early 1960s and stayed for a lifetime writing novels, inspirational books and autobiographies. Titles such as The Beloved Invader, New Moon Rising, The Lighthouse, Don Juan McQueen, Maria, Savannah, Bright Captivity, Where Shadows Go, Beauty from Ashes and The Waiting Time, were not only best-sellers (selling more than 40 million copies), they also brought – and continue to bring – thousands of tourists to Brunswick and the Golden Isles. Bill Diehl found fame and fortune when he penned his blockbuster novel Sharky’s Machine at the age of 50 and it was that book that enabled him to move from Atlanta to St. Simons where he lived for 21 years and continued to churn out top-selling thrillers such as Chameleon, Hooligans, Thai Horse, 27, Primal Fear, Show Of Evil, Reign in Hell and Eureka. The literary tradition continues with all sorts of writers, some quite well known and others on the brink of celebrity. Any science fiction reader knows the name Jack McDevitt. This Brunswick resident and renowned writer is a former naval officer, English teacher and customs officer, stationed for 10 years at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He won the Nebula award for Seeker in 2006 and has earned countless other awards for a list of titles that includes: Time Travellers Never Die, The Devil’s Eye, The Engines of God, A Talent for War, Cauldron, Moonfall, Chindi, Eternity Road, Polaris and Ancient Shores. Echo is due out in the fall. Tina McElroy Ansa grew up in Macon but now calls St. Simons home. In 1971 she graduated from Spelman College and hired on the copy desk of The Atlanta Constitution, being the first black woman to work on the morning newspaper. She and her filmmaker husband, Jonee Ansa, moved to St. Simons in the 1980s, and when she published her first novel, Baby of the Family, a star was born. Reviews were glowing, CBS hired her as a commentator on their Sunday Morning show, and she published four more books: Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With, You Know Better and Taking After Mudear. Tina has established herself as one of the top African American writers in the country but, not one to rest on her laurels, she has launched DownSouth Press, created to promote the literature of African American people that will “enrich, enlighten and edify the world.” And speaking of CBS on Sunday mornings, Face the Nation also has ties to our coast. Its host Bob Schieffer lives on Sea Island and no
Storytellers find their muse in the Golden Isles doubt wrote a few of his books there about his career in journalism: Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast, This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV, and Bob Schieffer’s America. English-born Stephen Doster moved as a toddler to St. Simons, a place he tenderly remembers as “Mayberry with tides.” A graduate from the University of Georgia, he works in advertising in Nashville, Tenn., where he is a business writer by day and a novelist by night. His debut book was the delightful Lord Baltimore, the fictional coming-of-age account of a country club island youth who travels through Gullah country along the Georgia coast. Stephen’s second book is Voices from St. Simons: Personal Narratives of an Island’s Past. George Dawes Green moved to St. Simons with his family when he was 12. After exploring the world he tried his hand at writing and his first book The Caveman’s Valentine (the film adaptation starred Samuel L. Jackson), won an Edgar award. His next one, The Juror, was a best seller in 22 countries as well as adapted into a successful movie starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin. George’s latest book, Ravens, takes place in Brunswick and it was named as one of the top 10 books of 2009 by Stephen King. Stanley Booth is considered one of the country’s top music historians. More than that, he epitomizes the survivor. In pursuit of his craft, Stanley lived and traveled with the Rolling Stones, overdosed at Graceland, suffered epileptic seizures while withdrawing from drugs, broke his back, went to jail, was crushed by a lumber truck on the Memphis-Arkansas bridge, was assaulted by Hell’s Angels at Altamont, and has written legendary music books. His times with the Stones resulted in The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, and many writers feel that Stanley’s tale is not only the definitive book on the Stones, but one of the definitive rock books, period. Stanley went on to write Rythm Oil: A Journey through the Music of the
July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 13
American South and Keith: Standing in the Shadows. He currently lives a quiet country life in Brunswick with his wife, the award-wining, highly acclaimed poet Diann Blakely (Cities of the Flesh and Dead, Farewell My Lovelies, Hurricane Walk). Stanley writes about music and Roslyn Rensch-Noah lives it. This legendary harpist, who retired to St. Simons in the 1990s, has written the definitive book of the harp. Harps and Harpists could well be subtitled “everything you ever wanted to know about the harp, but didn’t know enough to ask.” Although the book is certainly written with a narrow core audience in mind it is quite readable and interests those who are curious about the social history of ethnic Celtic societies in which the harp played a significant cultural part, and of 18th-century France. Many authors come to writing via other careers. For Jim Daher the travel required for his career in health care management provided the perfect opportunity to read thrillers by authors such as John Grisham and David Baldacci. He became fascinated with how they “entertained” their readers and vowed to write a novel when he had time. Now living on St. Simons, Daher wrote his first novel, Righteous Kill. His latest book, Blood Money, is the sequel.
Coastal Georgia has always been a magnet for writers William Rawlings writes thrillers, too. A true Renaissance man who divides his time between Sea Island and Sandersville, he’s a medical doctor who has written The Lazard Legacy, The Rutherford Cipher, The Tate Revenge, Crossword and The Mile High Club. Tom Dennard is a St. Simons lawyer who is more comfortable hiking in the Himalayas or paddling down the Amazon than he is in a courtroom. His love of adventure travel has led him to not only open a local hostel for fellow vagabonds but to write his first book, Discovering Life’s Trails. He also has written Buzzard’s Roost and Born a Ramblin’ Man. When businessman Rand Tuttle moved to St. Simons over a decade ago he became intrigued by Hampton Point, where he has a home. His curiosity became an obsession and he has recently published Weepin’ Time, a historical novel about slaves and their owners. Nancy Raines Day settled on St. Simons after living in California’s
Marin County. Becoming a published author of children’s books was somewhat more challenging than Nancy expected; it took her 10 years to get her first book of young people’s fiction, The Lion’s Whiskers, published. Her other books include Flamingo’s First Christmas, Double Those Wheels and A Kitten’s Year. On a Windy Night is due out in the fall from Abrams. Patsy Smith Roberts also writes for children but her books are a result of more than 18 visits to Africa. A gifted photographer, Patsy combines her pictures with her words and creates such crowd pleasing titles as Rory, the Adventures of a Lion Cub; Kabelo, the Adventures of a Baby Giraffe; Willis, the Warthog; and Nigel, the Adventures of a Baby Elephant. June Hall McCash, recognized both for her writing about Jekyll Island and about women in the Middle Ages, has published six nonfiction books as well as numerous articles and several recent poems. Retired from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, where she was a professor of French and humanities, she divides her time between Jekyll and Tennessee. She has won eight literary awards for her nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Her books included The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony, The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women and The Jekyll Island Club: Southern Haven for America’s Millionaires. June has recently completed her first historical novel, Almost to Eden, a captivating historical novel set on Jekyll. June is in heady company when you examine the College of Coastal Georgia, the state’s newest four year institution. Not only is the school dynamically growing in size and scope, a number of the faculty have published in their fields. Just to name a few: Craig S. Fleisher, Chair of Business & Public Affairs and Professor Management, has written The Handbook of Public Affairs; historian and Professor Emeritus Jean Choate has written Disputed Ground: Farm Groups that Opposed the New Deal Agricultural Program; Eliza Johnson: Unknown First Lady (Presidential Wives Series) and edited At Sea Under Impressment: Accounts of Involuntary Service Aboard Navy and Pirate Vessels, 1700-1820; Claire Hughes, Associate Professor of Special Education, is known for her work in Autism and recently published Children with High-Functioning Autism: A Parent’s Guide and Psychology Professor Carla Bluhm’s Someone Else’s Face In The Mirror: Identity And The New Science Of Face Transplants has been praised as “…opening insight into the sense of identity tied to the human face and problems one must engage in disfigurement...” And, for a glimpse of some rising literary stars pick up a copy of the college’s Seaswells 2010. This award-winning magazine, which has been published since 1966, showcases the creative endeavors of the campus community and it’s packed with talent. There’s little doubt that the area is changing. The Golden Isles have been discovered and perhaps some of our paradise has been lost. But we’ve gained something, too. Many of the people who call this coast home are extremely gifted and creative and more are bound to come. There’s a new energy in the air and judging from the writing talent alone, it’s obvious that Coastal Georgia will continue to shine bright for a long, long time. Cary Knapp is a librarian who lives on St. Simons Island and loves books.
July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 15
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Par for the Course
Perfect Practice Makes Perfect by thomas D. Brinson, PGA
S
ummer is finally in full swing! By now, you have spent the spring working on the weak areas of your game and are playing great golf. The goal for the summertime should now shift from working on complete overhauls of those weak areas to maintaining your new and improved swing. The best way to ingrain your new swing is proper practice. There is a big difference between practicing and just hitting balls on the range. True practice is hitting each ball with a specific purpose, as well as working on every type of shot. By structuring your practice, you will be able to get the most out of your time on the range.
You should also place an additional line perpendicular to your target line to illustrate ball positioning. This will not only help train your body and eyes to where the ball should be in your stance, but it will also highlight after a shot where the ball was in relation to your divots. Divot patterns are an early indication of swing flaws that are developing. Stopping problems before they start is the best way to keep your game in top shape for the season. When practicing putting, use the same sticks mentioned above to practice, taking your putter straight back and straight through. It
is best to work on this motion with three different putts: short putts (under 6 feet), long straight putts (25 feet-plus) and hard break putts. For the third, pick out a hard break up on the practice green and align the sticks at the breaking point in the putt. This will not only continue to help you on your straight back and straight through motion, but it will help you learn to read greens and focus on putting to a particular spot on the green. Remember when you practice to focus on what you are working on with every swing. Just going to the range and haphazardly hitting balls is not practice, and can harm your game. If you have questions about practicing or any other part of your game, you can contact me via the email address on this page, or contact any of the PGA Professionals in the Golden Isles.
Thomas D. Brinson, PGA, is a Certified PGA Golf Instructor. He lives on St. Simons Island with his wife Alexandra and their retriever, Bogey. He can be reached at t_brinson@hotmail.com.
photos by alexandra brinson
After you get loose from stretching and hitting several clubs, it’s time to start practicing. It is hard to stand beside the ball at address then look at a target in the distance and know if you’re properly aligned. If you are not properly aligned, your body will start to change your swing in order for you to hit your target. This is where most bad
habits and swing flaws begin. You should never hit full swing shots on the range without some kind of alignment aid on the ground. I typically use driveway reflectors (as pictured). You could also use an old club shaft or long irons as well. These lines are important to continuously train your body and eyes to perceive the proper alignment.
July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 19
Beach READING photo by kathryn kasper
Our Judges
Linda L. Wright
Charlotte Harrell
Marcia Stutz
There is no more cheerful defender of the King’s English than Linda Wright. A retired English teacher whose war on comma splices and run-on sentences is carried on by Glynn Academy graduates of a certain (middle) age today, Linda continues her crusade to teach the gospel of good grammar in local publications, newsletters and charitable endeavors. She counts as her most memorable philanthropic adventure an Earthwatch expedition to Italy in 2005. She worked with manuscripts in the Rare Books Room of the Vatican Libary, many of which hadn’t been opened in 600 years. “It was a bibliophile’s dream come true,” she says.
Charlotte Harrell is a writer/artist whose arts instruction studio became Artmakers and Wordfinders in 1991. Her background includes English teaching through college level, Art History teaching at The College of Coastal Georgia, and an MFA degree at Florida State University in The Associated Writing Programs. Since 1991, she has been Studio Arts Instructor and Wordfinders Group Leader at her St. Clair home and studio. While living in the Golden Isles her entire adult life, she was married to attorney Wallace Harrell Sr. for 36 years, raised three grown sons, Wallace III, William P. and George L. Harrell, and has four grandchildren.
Because she’s the owner of Hattie’s Books in Downtown Brunswick, one might assume that Marcia Stutz reads constantly. That’s not quite the truth, as a bookstore is a business, too, but good stories are still a passion nonetheless. Marcia and her husband, Don, moved South from Columbus, Ohio, five years ago after buying the bookstore at the prompting of her son, Sean Kasper, a Realtor who called upon listing the property for sale. Marcia carries more than 9,000 books in the store, specializing in local and regional authors. Marcia and Mr. Wiggles, the popular schnauzer who helps her keep shop on Newcastle Street, will happily order any title that’s not in stock.
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The Winning Entries to our 2010 Short Fiction Contest
W
hen we decided to give ourselves a break this summer and turn the magazine over to aspiring fiction writers, we never dreamed the response would be so overwhelming; more than 50 authors responded to the call for entries in our first Short Fiction Contest. The best of the best are printed here for your enjoyment, a little light reading to help make these hot summer days a lot more entertaining. As a result of some expert judging, we’re bringing you the best of the best, four distinct and well-written tales sure to please every taste. To thank our winners
photo by Joe Loehle
for sharing their work with us, we’ve awarded each with passes to the Scribblers’ Retreat Writers’ Conference Aug. 12-14 at the King & Prince Resort on St. Simons Island (http://scribblersretreatwritersconference.com). Coastal Georgia’s own best-selling author Steve Berry, who credits a Camden County writer’s group for helping him hone his talent, will be the keynote speaker at the August conference. The short stories that follow – and others we’ll publish in future issues of Golden Isles Magazine – prove Coastal Georgia is more than just a pretty place. Just remember, you read them here first ... .
first place
Can the Snakes Go Home Now? By Trudy Harrison ( with a lit t le he lp from Joan H arris ) Ill ustration by Stacey Willis You won’t believe this! I almost don’t believe it myself, even though it all happened to me. I’m a normal twelve year old girl, by the name of Trudy, with a not-so-normal family. I live with my mom, Gabby, her friend Molly, six dogs, two cats, a Dumbo rat (with bug Dumbo ears), a beta fish and a hermit crab. We call our house “Chaos Cottage” and that pretty much describes it. Something is always going on at my house. Sometimes not so good, but mostly exciting.
wrong, any part is good if you put yourself into it and it’s just fun to be there. I really wanted to be the best snake ever. Besides, the costume was awesome. There was this boy playing the part of a monkey, JB, and I sorta kinda had a crush on him. Well, this monkey boy is very funny and I like that in a boy. Besides his part was important and I like that in a boy, too. Gramma would say, “Be still my heart.” Isn’t that the goofiest expression you ever heard? Gramma’s a hoot when she talks “ole timey.”
I practiced my snake moves all over my house. I practically became a snake and the dogs thought it was great fun except Gypsy. She was practically a puppy and very excitable and she didn’t like my snake stuff at all. I must admit, I teased her with my hisses and lunges but she just barked and ran around me in circles. This stirred up the other dogs so it got to be pretty noisy at my house when I practiced.
I am going to be a famous movie star or a television star or just a celebrity star someday and to get my career going I am a member of a community theatre group that puts on plays in the summertime. I guess I get this urge to act from my genes since it just so happens that my Gramma is the director of the summer workshop for young people where I spend my summers acting and working on plays.
Rehearsals went on forever and we would get tired of waiting till our scene came up so after the “marketplace scene” we appointed (you know – paper, rock, scissors) one of the snakes to go up to the director and ask, “Can the snakes go home now?” And Gramma, who was getting tired, too, would laugh and call it a night and everyone would go home. It got to be a kind of signal that we had all worked hard and were tired and when one of the snake dancers said, “Can the snakes go home now?” we gathered up our gear and split.
She has been doing it a really long time and I have been in a few of her plays. So far I haven’t landed a major role, but I’ve had a good time and made lots of friends. Especially Beatrice, my quiet pal who I’ll tell you about later. Anyway, that’s what I love to do in the summertime.
Sometimes I would ride in the same carpool as JB, the monkey boy, and we laughed a lot and sang songs from the play. He was into knock-knock jokes and he cracked me up over and over. It was a fun thing to do in the summertime if you’re a kid and doing what you love to do.
I started my career on the stage as an oyster who dances around the stage following the Walrus in the play Alice in Wonderland. The Walrus leads the foolish oysters off stage in a line and one oyster is missing every time he leads them back on stage. He’s eating them one at a time, don’t cha get it? Well the audience always does and I love to make the audience laugh. My Gramma says I’m a born comedian which is good, but I sometimes get in trouble about it.
During the day I played with my pets and went swimming in our backyard pool that we share with my Gramma. I’m a good swimmer and liked to swim like a snake to practice my moves. I figured that when I became a STAR I may get a role as a snake because by then I would have it down pat. That’s called “method acting” in case you are interested. The cast of my all time favorite musical that I saw on Broadway, “Cats,” spent days acting like cats lying around, licking their paws, scratching, hissing until they practically became cats. So I guess I sorta became a snake that summer.
This past summer we were doing a play called Aladdin and I tried out (it’s called auditioning) for just about every part, but I ended up being a snake in a basket in the marketplace scene. Now don’t get me
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So now the stage is set, as we actors say, and the play begins. We rehearsed four nights a week and since I don’t speak any lines I spent most of the time trying to move in a snake-like way, even though I would be in a big reed basket. I practiced my snake moves in a cardboard box in the practice room at the theater with Miss Jennifer, the choreographer, helping me get them just right. She is a great dancer and a college student which is the next best thing to being a star.
Now everything wasn’t as great at it sounds that summer. There were a couple of snake
girls who gave me a hard time about my “snake moves” and said I was showing off and over-acting. The director didn’t, though. (Gramma told me that she wore the director’s hat at the theater and the Gramma’s hat every place else.) Well, she thought I was OK and I wanted to do my best, so I tried to ignore them and Bea (my friend Beatrice) sat with me all during rehearsal and did what friends do – she just sat there and smiled at me every once in a while and I knew she was saying how sorry she was that the other snakes were being mean to me. That’s a friend for you. She made me feel better by just being there. Bea is so smart Gramma sends her on important errands. She knows a lot about the theatre and can run lights and sound up in the light booth, help backstage and help her mother, who is in charge of the lobby. She knows a lot about being a good friend, too. JB was there, too, but I didn’t talk to him very much because he was cutting up with the other boys. Besides, he doesn’t know I exist except to punch me on my arm every once in a while. Gramma says that means he likes me but I don’t get it. It’s a funny way to show it. Boys are weird, aren’t they? The play was coming along fine and we were starting dress rehearsals. That’s so much fun but hard work, too. We had to get into our costumes and sometimes part of a costume wasn’t ready yet so it was really funny backstage with people in robes and jeans or a long T-shirt with a big “Georgia Bulldog” on the front and blousy harem pants. The mothers were working like crazy sewing. Ms. Dorothy was all over the place with her trusty hot gun. That lady could put together an awesome costume with a staple gun and a hot gun. You might call her a “Two Gun packing mama.” I think the snake costumes were the best but they only came to the tops of the legs because we were in a basket and did our dancing from the waist up, so we walked around like half a snake and half a girl. Can you imagine? It was a sight. The funniest (OOPS!) most fun part was the makeup. Even the boys had to wear makeup! They moaned and groaned about it but I noticed that when the rehearsal was over they didn’t take it off. When we went to the pizza place afterwards they had a lot of fun strutting around in their dark tan faces and other stuff. We had to wear foundation
makeup, blush, eye shadow, eye liner, eyebrow pencil, and lipstick, and the snakes wore glitter. What a ball we had getting that gunk on our faces but we really looked awesome. We had a group of moms making us up and some of the older girls helped. It was as much trouble getting it off as it was putting it on. Cold cream was a new friend and worked better than soap. And so the summer flew by and I was thrilled to watch the older kids practice their lines and songs and dances. I was glad I didn’t have to learn all those lines and let’s face it, when I sang around the house all the dogs howled. There was a lot of giggling and sighing going on with the older girls and boys and the rumors flew about who “liked” who – at least for that day. All the younger girls had crushes on Michael, the lead boy. Well I’ll admit he was pretty cute and he could sing and dance but I was too much in “like” with JB to notice him much. One time he did speak to me and said my name and told me I was being a good snake. Well, that just about bowled me over and I didn’t wash the hand where he “high-fived” me for a while after that. It’s hard to wash only one hand, though, so pretty soon the spell was broken and I was back to drooling over JB. The snippy snakes were back at me with Annie in the lead with her sarcasm and I was trying not to pay any attention to them, which was hard to do. But Michael had said I was good and JB and Bea got me into a corner one night and told me to just ignore them so I just kept on keeping on. “The Show Must Go On” says Gramma. I don’t think she makes those things up but she is full of them and every once in a while I find myself thinking of one of her “sayings.” And so the time came for the opening and everyone was so pumped up it was like electricity in the air. The theater was just humming with kids singing and going over their lines everywhere. JB was practicing his “monkey walk” with Gramma showing him how to do it and let me tell you that was a sight to behold! My Gramma is very, very old I think, but she is pretty spry, as she says, “for an old biddy” and you should see her do the monkey walk. I made the mistake of laughing (well, I actually rolled on the floor laughing) at her and she gave me “the look.” Teachers are born knowing “the look,” I think, and Gramma was a teacher a long, long time so she had a double wham-
my “look.” That stopped me in mid-roll and I apologized and told her I would never, ever, ever laugh at her monkey walk again. I really tried to keep my promise. “And now, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to welcome you to the ... etc. Etc. Etc.” Gramma was giving her speech to the audience telling them to please turn off their cell phones and pagers – no food allowed in the theater, no smoking, no photography and all the other stuff she has to say in her welcome speech. I think she secretly likes to do that but she says she doesn’t. Sometimes she makes a “funny” and when the audience laughs I can tell she likes it, and so ... ON WITH THE SHOW.
...we walked around like half a snake and half a girl. Can you imagine? It was a sight. Ms. Liz, the accompanist, played the overture and the house lights dimmed. What a magic moment as the curtain opened and the marketplace scene was right there with all the characters parading around, singing and acting like they were buying and selling “wares” in the market. The snakes danced in their baskets and Aladdin came on stage followed by the monkey. JB was great jumping around and when he got near my basket I leaned right at him and hissed for all I was worth. I could tell the audience liked it and when JB got over the shock of me lunging at him, he began to tease me and we had an interaction thing going on. Now I know we aren’t supposed to change anything that we hadn’t rehearsed but I could look out of the corner of my eye and see Gramma sitting in her seat on the front row cracking up. So I figured it was OK to “leave it in” and she would either let it go or chew me out after the show was over. I decided to take my chances and keep in character as a snake. continued on page 52
July / Aug ust 2 0 1 0 23
second place
The First Snowfall By Kathryn Adams Illustration by S tacey Willis Squinting into the half-gloom of twilight, she pressed her face against the thick pane of glass and watched as tiny flecks of snow began to cover the ground. This was the first snow of winter, gentle and soft and teasingly beautiful as it lightly fell in the growing darkness. As a child, she had loved this moment, when dusky clouds first skidded across the sky to lay a soft blanket of white over barren tree branches, empty fields, and muddy trails. An early snow was pleasant and welcomed.
ing on two wooden pegs above the cabin door, the rifle waited primed and ready. Heavy patchwork quilts, sewn throughout the long, dark months of the previous winter, covered the double bed nestled against the opposite wall. Two chairs stood waiting at the rough-hewn table in the center of the small room.
The approach of winter brought change, she knew. Somehow the falling snow outside had deepened the silence within. Closing her eyes, she bent her head and listened. Nothing. Each day his voice grew fainter, distant, cold. Perhaps today was the day it disappeared, frozen into silence by the falling snow.
Now, however, she recognized the deceit of this first snowfall, as the tip of her nose touched the coldness of the window pane. A sudden gust of wind shook the cabin walls, and she considered the harshness that would soon follow: drifts that buried her home, blinding whiteouts that obscured sight, howling winds that sucked away all heat. Winters on this side of the mountain were long and unsympathetic, making prisoners of settlers who struggled to survive the stretching months of icy cold. She watched the first snowfall of winter and hoped she was prepared. Long stacks of split logs stretched from the southwest corner of the cabin along the side wall and beyond. A small, sheltered enclosure that could hold her few livestock during the most frigid days stood within twenty paces of the cabin door. Bales of hay lined the outside of three of its walls. Having stretched a taut rope between the cabin and the livestock pen, she hoped she would find her way from one structure to another even during the fiercest of blizzards. Maybe next year she could build a small barn for their animals. Turning her gaze from the window, she glanced around the inside of the cabin. Chains of dried fruits, vegetables and smoked meats hung from the rafters. A small supply of wood waited beside the stone fireplace built into the far wall, a cheerful blaze popping from within its depths and warming a kettle of water. Rest-
Aspen leaves turned brilliant gold then faded brown as she pulled deadfall from the forest floor and chopped it all into firewood with a sharpened ax. She waited patiently among the trees for a turkey or a deer to wander past, providing meat for the coming months. As cool autumn evenings ended in exhausted sleep, he sang lullabies that followed her into her dreams.
Turning back to the darkening landscape just beyond the cabin window, she sighed and stared at the low hill just beyond the yard. A lone aspen stood at the top, tall against the field of fading brown grasses soon to be buried by the falling snow.
“I no longer need two chairs,” she whispered quietly to the ghost of a man standing beside her. “If I get desperate for firewood...” her voice fell off into nothingness. Somehow the falling snow outside had deepened the silence within her home. She stood still and waited, listening. Throughout the warm summer months she had heard his voice, answering her questions, giving directions as she tended the garden, cared for the livestock. After dark he had whispered in her ear, a constant companion through warm sleepless nights spent rocking alone on the front porch. Autumn came and he remained by her side, urging her to prepare for the coming cold.
“Are we ready for winter?” she asked the shadow standing beside her at the window. No reply. He had remained by her side throughout the heat of the summer. She remembered the warmth of his touch on her shoulder as the sun beamed hotly upon them, his hand lightly caressing her hair as summer breezes swept past. At the close of a day spent toiling alone on their homestead, his fingers tugged at her wrist as she dipped a weary hand into the cool mountain stream flowing below the meadow. Tinged with sadness, his touch remained throughout the fading days of fall. She had felt his cool tears falling on her cheeks as dripping rains plummeted from leaden skies. She could taste the hard press of his mouth on hers as she bit into a crisp red apple picked from the apple tree just below the cabin. She stood still now, in front of the window,
and waited, waited for a feeling, any feeling. Nothing. Each day his touch grew weaker, distant, cold. Maybe today was the day it disappeared, frozen into stillness by the falling snow. She studied the granite stone that had stood beneath the aspen on the hill since late May. For two days she had fought the rock-choked ground to dig the perfect hole. For two days she had searched surrounding hillsides for the perfect piece of granite. The bright greens and yellows of spring were flourishing when she used one of their mules to drag the thin slab of pink-andblack-speckled rock from within the shadowed forest. Lacking tools to carve meaningful symbols upon its surface, she simply allowed the beautiful piece to stand sentry there upon the hill, over the hole, under the aspen tree. She required no engraved name or date to remember. Now she watched as a dusting of snow began to accumulate on the stone and the ground beneath. “Are you cold?” she whispered, her breath clouding the pane of
glass. “Do you feel the snow?” Grabbing her husband’s heavy winter coat from where it waited on the row of pegs beside the door, she gathered one of the colorful quilts into her arms and stepped outside into the frosty air. Snow quickly covered her shoulders and hair as she raced across the cabin’s yard, jumped the spring flowing down through the meadow, and climbed the small hill to the base of the tree. She knelt before the granite marker. “Are you cold?” she repeated as she spread the thick quilt across the slight mound of dirt rising from beneath the brittle-brown summer grasses. The bright reds and greens and blues dimmed in the growing darkness. “This is the first snow of winter,” she continued, kneeling in the skim of white. “More snows will come, the ground will harden, the water will freeze solid, but I will remain here,” she promised, her heart tightening as she spoke. She waited, quiet, listening, longing. Shaking the barren branches of the watchful
She recognized the deceit of this first snowfall, as the tip of her nose touched the coldness of the window. tree above her, a sharp gust of icy wind provided the sole answer to her vow. His voice was silent, his touch absent. And in the fading light of the first day of December, under the chilling blanket of the first snow of winter, the woman shed her first tears of aloneness. Kathy Adams teaches history full-time at Brunswick High School and parttime at the College of Coastal Georgia. A native of Ohio, she is married with two children (Drew, 15, and Lucy, 11).
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second place
Mechanical Inclinations By Thomas Goodrich Illustration by Stacey Willis It was the first time I realized something was wrong. She backfired twice while pulling out of the yard. I knew it was serious. She had hesitated a couple of times; but never backfired. Deep down I knew it was only a matter of time. She was, after all, eight years old. But even so, she had been well taken care of. Fresh oil and new filter every five thousand miles. New plugs every fifteen thousand along with a new tune-up every year. Sadly, the telltale signs began to show up. I was adding more oil between changes and checking the timing more often along with constantly fiddling with the carburetor. It was so gradual that I didn’t suspect the worst until it was too late! It seems like only yesterday that I brought her home for the first time. Her engine throbbed with subdued power. A touch of the ignition and she roared to life. The engine purred and the transmission shifted with silky smoothness. She performed flawlessly for many years. I guess I really thought that it would go on forever. I just felt as if she couldn’t break down, much less ... die! She came from a class A line of relatives. Her family history was spotless. Consumer Reports had given her a clean bill of health. I’m talking about a better-than-average mechanical reliability, excellent rear-end, tight suspension and a good fuel system ... the works! But the odds worked against her. The deterioration was quick. Puffs of blue smoke became blinding clouds of fog. Ignition became a 50/50 chance. The transmission soon became balky and even began to clash. I was incredulous! I tried all the miracle drugs. The claims gave me a shred of hope to cling to. I actually believed I could
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find a cure for her in that familiar blue can of STP. But the clouds of smoke told me it was hopeless. I even tried the magic of transmission repair-in-the-bottle. But the clashing never stopped; instead the shifting became worse. I was desperate. How do you stand and watch a friend die? I caught one of those television ads for a
new Teflon additive that you add to the gas tank. Visions of a new “ring-job while driving” danced in my head. I put my check in the mail the next day ... airmail! When my package arrived I hurried outside and slowly opened the gas cap. I patted her roof and said a silent prayer. I poured the contents in and replaced the cap. The instructions said to drive normally for about two weeks. But normal driving was out of the question for her now. I just hoped she could live for two more weeks in spite of retarded timing and constant backfiring. It was not to be. She didn’t respond to the miracle drug. I was so depressed I didn’t even bother to send for my “money back if not delighted” refund I had one more chance. I had heard of a “doctor” who operated out of a grimy ga-
rage in the middle of town. He was highly unethical and shunned by everyone except for the truly desperate. He didn’t offer any written warranty. No old parts returned for your inspection. No Quaker State. Just the bare-knuckles kind of work needed to bring back a heap from the specter of the wrecking yard. All visions of a smiling Mr. Goodwrench vanished when you drove through the door of his garage. He only worked at night. The local authorities and the BBB knew all about him and his shady tactics but they largely ignored him. He filled a void in this town. Rusting hulks of metal were somehow brought back to life to lead several more years of productive service. He was my only hope. I watched as he opened the hood of my friend. He barked orders to me above the din of her sick idle. I switched her off. He probed here and there with a screwdriver. I could hear him whistling as he worked. He didn’t really care about her and the pain she was suffering. Suddenly he stopped whistling. He made his way over to his mountainous toolbox and after a few moments of searching he withdrew something. Beads of sweat covered my face as my breathing quickened. I let out a gasp as I realized what he had in his hand ... a compression gauge! I waited for the words I knew would come. He told me to start her up. He checked each cylinder for life or the lack of it. I waited patiently. He told me to shut her off. I watched as he slowly walked back to return the gauge. He turned and looked at me and slowly shook his head. I fought back the tears. He said it looked bad. He had hoped that it was just a valve or two but now he just didn’t know. In the next few moments I
listened as he gave me my options. I elected to go with exploratory surgery. I sat like a zombie in his grimy waiting room flipping through magazines with pictures of her relatives in “cream puff” condition. I was reliving old times when suddenly I heard him call my name. I hurried to the operating room and our eyes met as he opened his mouth to speak. I tensed as he told me the news. He had opened her up to see if there was any hope. But he told me that it was too far-gone. It had spread to the pistons and the cylinder walls. He said that even the camshaft was worn-out, the main bearings were questionable and the valve train was in critical shape. Then he let me have it with both barrels. The only hope was an engine transplant with the promise of another three or four years of relatively normal life. But I shook my head no. She would not want to continue with just a semblance of her old life and vitality. I told him that I would pull the plug. I called Tri-City wrecking yard and within
the hour they arrived with a tow truck. They talked in hushed tones as they pondered her worth like so much meat in a butcher shop. They offered me a small sum, which I numbly accepted. They hooked her up and slowly pulled out of the garage. I watched dejectedly as they disappeared around the curve. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. The mechanic had tears in his eyes as he explained that he had never lost one before and told me how sorry he was for my pain. I shook my head in understanding. He tenderly led me back to his office while offering words of comfort along the way. In a manner befitting the kind of physician he was, he regaled me with stories of other cases he has known. Others who had been devastated by rear-end failures, brake squeal and even complete body panel rustthrough! He recounted how they had all recovered and gone on to lead normal lives. I was like a desert soaking up the cool rain of his encouragement.
looked out the window for a moment before turning back to me. He said that he knew it was early but sometimes it’s better to get on with life quickly after a tragedy. I was puzzled.
Abruptly he stopped talking. He looked me square in the eyes before going over to the window and pulling the curtain back. He
Thomas Goodrich has been married 34 years to Vicki Goodrich. They have
Then he motioned me over to the window to take a look. I glanced out and suddenly felt faint. He reached out to steady me. My mind raced! The color would have to be changed of course but there it was. Hope! Another one just like my lost friend. I sat down and began to weep like a baby. I knew I would take every precaution with her and treat her like royalty. He smiled a big tooth-less grin as we went over to his desk to fill out the adoption papers. The End
two married children and two grandchildren, who all reside in Brunswick. In his spare time Thomas enjoys fishing, the north Georgia mountains, reading, and of course, writing. He believes he has a book hiding somewhere inside him.
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July / Aug ust 2 0 1 0 27
third place
The Island of Feral Cats By H. D. Whatley Illustration by S tacey Willis Prologue On the Island of Feral Cats, there’s a plentitude of God’s creatures. There are canines, both purebreds and mutts, and all types of birds, including robins, herons and vultures. Amongst the many live oak trees, draped in Spanish moss, squirrels run from branch to branch with glee, as there are no hunters here to shoot them. But on the various lanes and roads, hiding behind large palm trees or running out from under the azalea bushes, are cats of all colors – black, grey, tan, white and calico. Some of them are strays, but many are feral cats, afraid of no one, breeding wildly and making their home wherever they please.
“Oh, so you’re a writer. That’s right. You used to work for that big magazine in New York. The financial one,” she said as her voice began to heighten a bit and her eyes widened. “The Contrarian,” said Douglas as he sighed loudly, “Actually, I worked in the research department. I wasn’t really a writer there.”
The co-owner of the coffee house, Ruth, came up to Douglas and asked him, “So, how’s everything going? You adjusting to life on the island, okay?” She refilled his cup without asking him if he wanted one. This is something that would never happen in New York City; here, it was simply hospitality. “Things are good. I have a few job leads and am managing to work on my book some,” said Douglas as he added two yellow packs of sweetener to his mug.
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*
*
*
Having upgraded his usual writer’s attire to a brown suede coat, white button-down, faded blue jeans and a pair of suede loafers, Douglas walked like a tomcat to the front door of Jiggy’s. Flashing his license to the doorman, he was blasted by beach music that filled a space decorated like a Polynesian tiki hut. The place was jammed with dancers, mostly in their fifties and older. Prowling along the edges of groups of gregarious guys were women who were the most feral of all the big cats … cougars. At Jiggy’s, everything was fair game, at least for the night. Couples twisted and turned in the intricate dance indigenous to the southeastern shore known as “shagging.”
-an excerpt from the novel, The Island of Feral Cats Douglas Watson sat alone in the corner of the Village Coffee House at a four top, staring blankly at his laptop screen. It was January and the sun shined brightly on the Golden Isles that crisp, cool weekday. He had been living on the island for just over a month, having made his exodus from New York City right after Thanksgiving. As he was unemployed, and this was the off-season, he decided to dedicate his days to working on his novel, The Island of Feral Cats, in between looking for jobs on the Internet. There were only two other customers in the place; one preoccupied with the recent issue of the local paper, the other busy posting comments on Facebook. Folk music played via satellite radio in the background.
women here on the island. You should go to Jiggy’s in the Retreat Plaza. Watch out for the cougars, though. Some of them bite,” said Ruth as she strolled off towards the kitchen with her tray at her side.
She gave him a once over; taking in his collar-length sandy hair, blue eyes, matching blue oxford cloth shirt, rumpled cords and requisite Harris Tweed sport coat. “Well, you look like a writer,” she said with a laugh. Her dark brown hair blended in with her red and black flannel shirt, black jeans and purple sneakers. “So what is your book about?” she inquired as her ponytail bounced from side to side. “Well, it’s a novel about women that live on the island … only, they are personified as cats,” said Douglas as he wiped some coffee from his upper lip. “Oh, well, that sounds like a good story. There certainly are plenty of interesting
Douglas carefully scanned the crowd and made his way toward a buxom blonde who was sitting at the bar in a black leather mini-skirt, exposing her muscular and well-tanned legs. Her pink sweater was eyecatching and she probably had a little work done on her face. She was drinking a glass of red wine accompanied by a pint glass of ice water with a lemon slice. “Hey darlin.’ Whatcha drinkin’?” he said hospitably in his best Southern drawl. “This one’s on me.” “Why thank you. I’ll have a red wine and a glass of water,” replied the blonde in her quasiFrench accent. Was she Quebecois? Parisian? Douglas waved his hand to the bartender and pointed to her red wine and water. She politely offered her hand to him and introduced herself as Sherri. She was divorced and originally from Quebec. He politely returned the favor and introduced himself as Douglas from New York City.
Just as he finished placing the order, “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” began. Taking the cue, Sherri grabbed Douglas’s hand and dragged him onto the dance floor. He felt as though he was back in college and his shag moves came back to him with more ease than he thought. The two danced as if they had been together for years, until well after midnight, at which point, Douglas was wringing wet with perspiration. They went outside so Sherri could smoke a cigarette. While they chatted, a calico cat ran right past them. “You know, Sherri,” said Douglas, “This is the most fun that I have had in a long, long time.” “Really?” she replied while running her fingers through his hair. “Obviously, you don’t get out much,” she said with an ear-to-ear smile. “Well I was thinking we could have a little more fun some place else,” said Douglas. He followed Sherri back to her place on East Beach and after yet another sleepless night, Douglas realized he was acclimating to life on the island while becoming a tomcat in the process. *
*
“I’d like to go to a dive bar,” Douglas whispered. “Go to Murray’s. It’s right up the street,” Punkie stammered, blushing furiously. “Make sure you bring cash as that’s all they take.” “Thanks, Punkie.” *
*
After an hour and a half of job searching and having finished his bratwurst sandwich with sauerkraut, Douglas decided to ask Punkie about the local nightlife. “Hey, Punkie. Where’s a good place to hang out around here?” Douglas inquired quietly. “Well, that all depends. Do you want a dive bar, a classy place or a place to meet women?” snickered Punkie.
“Oh, well, I see,” she said while carefully balancing her cigarette on the edge of an ashtray. “Well, why don’t you tell me all about yourself, after you buy me a drink,” grinning like a kitty cat.
*
It was a typical off-season late Friday night at Murray’s. A grayish-blue haze blanketed the small groups of pool players and the few folks throwing darts on the bar’s two boards. Southern rock blared from the bar’s speakers. The weather was a bit nippy for the island in January. Most of the male patrons were wearing hoodies with Georgia emblazoned in red letters or the ubiquitous letter “G” that was all part of the local landscape. A few people wore sweaters but there was one that really stood out in the sea of red – a black cashmere with an oversized turtleneck. Douglas moved in closer to confirm his target. Long red hair cascaded down the back of the sweater, sweeping the seat of a pair of jeans so tight they looked spray-painted. Douglas had drunk just enough beer during the course of the evening to approach this fair feline to see if she wanted to play.
*
The next day, while having lunch at the Coffee House, Douglas mindlessly surfed the web, looking for jobs. His waiter, a local nicknamed Punkie, hovered over his shoulder and offhandedly remarked, “I haven’t been off of the island in three months … ain’t that cool?” He walked away with a psychotic grin on his face. Douglas pondered that one for a minute and decided he wasn’t sure if he could stay on the island for that long. But if like Punkie, you don’t own a car, then staying put was pretty much his only option.
Extending the moment, Douglas took a strong pull on his draft beer and returned Maggie’s bold gaze with his own. “Actually, I just moved here from New York City.”
He paused, took a deep breath, and slowly approached the tall woman. She was removing a cigarette from the pack in her purse when Douglas sidled up to her asking, “Do you need a light?” Maggie threw back her long, red mane and purred, “Sure, darlin’.” She carefully placed the cigarette between her lips, her eyes never leaving his. She exhaled a stream of smoke while extending her hand toward Douglas. “Thank you, sir. My name is Maggie. Maggie McKinnon.” “Douglas. Douglas Watson. And you are quite welcome.” As their hands interlocked, his heart pounded wildly as adolescent memories of Catholic schoolgirls careened through his brain. “Nice hands … and a very firm grip as well,” murmured Maggie in her coastal drawl. She took a long, hard drag on her cigarette and her eyes swept Douglas from head to toe. “So, are you visiting from somewhere?” she inquired coquettishly.
They moved to barstools at the end of the bar, where a giant bowl of pretzels was available to those brave or ravenous enough to eat them, and they drank and bantered until the lights came on signaling that it was closing time. They swayed through the bar’s swinging doors and made their way to Maggie’s car, which was parked next to the dry cleaners. “This one is mine,” she giggled. “It’s an oldie but a goodie.” It was a 1986 red Jeep Wagoneer with wood panels. The back window sported a Georgia Bulldogs sticker along with one from the local land trust. “They say that one’s car is a reflection of their personality,” said Douglas with a slight slur. “Is this true for you?” “You betcha. Like me, this car is both tough and dependable,” said Maggie while tossing Douglas the keys. “Do you mind driving? I’ve been over served by the bartender tonight.” “I think I can handle that,” said Douglas, hoping that any eagerness at going home with Maggie hadn’t crept into his voice. “Where are we going?” Maggie took one last drag on her cigarette, tossed it on the gravel parking lot and carefully extinguished it with the toe of her cowboy boot. She sighed as she exhaled and replied, “Why, your place, of course.” She stared at Douglas intensely, her eyes widening. “Is that okay with you?” “Absolutely,” said Douglas as he unlocked the Wagoneer. “Absolutely.” When Douglas woke up the next morning, he knew by looking at the bars of sunlight crossing the bedroom floor that it was late. Stretching, he felt euphoric except for the slight pounding in his head. On his mahogcontinued on page 53
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The Nature Connection
of turtles and bees by Lydia Thompson
B
lueberries are a sweet early summer treat, their arrival in the lowlands of Georgia coinciding with sea turtle time on the coast. Is there a connection between sea turtles and blueberries? Blueberries don’t grow in the dunes, and sea turtles can’t get near blueberries to eat them. Nonetheless, with the help of the industrious honeybee, blueberries are the key ingredient in the salve that soothes the wounds of endangered sea turtles. Honeybees gather nectar to survive. As they fly from plant to plant gathering nectar they are also pollinating crops, and farmers today rely heavily on honeybees to pollinate their crops. There are an estimated 2.4 million colonies in the United States. With modern wooden hives beekeepers can easily move them from place to place. They help pollinate crops like apples, peaches, pears, asparagus and broccoli, safflower, grapes, strawberries and, of course, blueberries. Did you know that crops like almonds are almost totally dependent on honeybees for pollination? Jim Gertis, a local beekeeper, told me that in early spring his bees were over in a blueberry field making honey from blueberry nectar. Blueberry honey! What must that be like? Blueberries are packed with antioxidants, and so is honey. Honey is also packed with healing properties. History shows that honey has been used as a natural remedy since Roman times. It was part of the first aid kit all Roman soldiers carried. Honey also has bacteria-killing properties. As a child I remember
taking lemon juice and honey for colds and sore throats. It was the common remedy used until the middle of the last century when it was replaced by manufactured antibiotics. Are you seeing the connection yet between blueberries and the sea turtles that nest on our shores every summer? As summer progresses, more and more sea turtles will be coming ashore to lay their eggs. Inevitably, the turtles must cross paths with danger, namely in the form of fast moving ships and boats that can overcome the slow swimming turtles. Ship and boat propellers can slice into a sea turtle’s hard shell, causing life-threatening injuries. Dr. Terry Norton, a wildlife veterinarian and the driving force behind the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, had an idea of how to help wounded sea turtles heal naturally. Yes, here is the connection. Honey’s healing properties will work on these gashes. The honeybee produces an enzyme found in honey that converts glucose to hydrogen peroxide. Because sea turtles need to stay in water while they recuperate, the center’s staff uses a whole honeycomb to seal the wounds of injured turtles while they recuperate at the center, thus providing a natural solution to a man-made problem. Bees helps farmers produce their crops of sweet, juicy blueberries, and the bees in turn make honey from the blueberries that can be used to heal the wounds of sea turtles nesting on our beaches. This is one of those amazing nature connections made right here in the Golden Isles.
Whether Lydia
Thompson is talking about birds, banding, or drawing birds, her
major focus is to intertwine her bird studies and her art. Now she is pursuing her studies of birds & the art of the intaglio print. Preservation and conservation of bird habitats are her major concern. She is blogging at www.coastalgeorgiabirding-lydia.blogspot.com.
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Serving Seconds On Thursdays, Sarah Matjazic works a double. After serving the lunch crowd at the Royal Café
Sarah Matjazic, left at
in downtown Brunswick, she drives her purple ‘05 Mazda 3 across the causeway to Palm Coast Pub
her job at Palm Coast on
and Coffee House in the Village on St. Simons Is-
ht
St. Simons Island, and rig
land. And the perky, petite waitress changes more than locales.
at her other job at Royal Café on Newcastle
34 g o l d e n isle sm a ga zine.com
St.
Waitresses are working double-time to make ends meet by bob dart | photography by brooke roberts
Sarah is all preppy at the Royal Café – wearing a polo-type shirt with the restaurant logo on the front and black or khaki slacks. For serving coffee and beers at funky Palm Coast, it’s a tank top and Daisy Duke-length shorts.
But not all restaurant servers in Glynn County restaurants are 21 years old. Landon Moorhead, 47, worked for years at the Island’s 4th of May and at the Blackwater Grill in Redfern Village. She left the 4th of May earlier this year.
“The business people downtown don’t want to see my tattoos as much as the people on the Island do,” laughs the 2007 Glynn Academy homecoming queen. “I look completely different at both places but my personality doesn’t change.”
On days that she pulled doubles, she was a “tired puppy” when she pulled back into her driveway. On Sundays, she left home about 7:30 in the morning and got back around 11:30 at night. Landon says she is enjoying having one job for at least awhile and having time to work in her yard.
Sarah has the bubbly energy of youth to bounce through a six-day work week that puts her at the Royal Café from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays and at Palm Coast from a bit after 4 p.m. to past 11 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays.
“It gets exhausting after awhile,” says Martha Johnson, 25, who worked day shifts at the Sandcastle and evenings at Sal’s Neighborhood Pizzeria until her class schedule at the College of Coastal continued on next page
July / a ug ust 2 0 1 0 35
Serving Seconds from previous page
Georgia forced her to temporarily drop her job at Sal’s this quarter. Hard times are making long hours necessary for waiters and waitresses. “I’ve been a waitress for 20 years and this is the worst I’ve seen,” says Leslie Cross, 37, who works nine shifts a week at Mullet Bay in the St. Simons Village. Before getting these multiple shifts, she worked at Tramici on St. Simons and SeaJay’s on Jekyll Island. “I was always driving back and forth,” she recalls. The number of restaurant diners is way down and those who are eating out are leaving smaller tips and sometimes no tips at all, says Leslie, who has only one day a week off to spend with her two children, aged 16 and 12. “We make only $2.13 an hour (in wages). Our income depends on tips,” she says. “A lot of people don’t realize that. They think we make the minimum wage ($7.25 an hour). If it weren’t for the extra shifts they let me work here, I’d be working in two places now.” The summer tourist season always boosts restaurant business hereabouts, of course. But the long, steep economic downturn has been hard on food and beverage servers across America.
Leslie Cross at Mullet Bay
“We make only $2.13 an hour (in wages). Our income depends on tips. A lot of people don’t realize that.”
“The result is that even experienced servers say they can’t get work and restaurants are turning away an unprecedented number of applicants,” the Wall Street Journal reported during the depths of the financial crisis. “Waiters and waitresses who do have jobs say they’re taking home less money in tips because patrons are economizing by ordering less food and leaving a lower-percentage gratuity on their checks.” Indeed, the early bird specials and other deals for diners that restaurants have adopted to fill their tables can dramatically reduce a waiter’s take-home pay. A 15 percent tip on a $50 dinner is half of the $15 that a waiter gets for a 15 percent tip on a $100 tab. The tips total dwindles as more and more people scrimp and order the cheaper specials. The serving staff at sit-down restaurants survives on tips. “If you don’t have the money to tip, you should eat at McDonald’s,” says a veteran waitress at an Island restaurant. “And tips aren’t 10 percent any more.”
Michael Lynn, an associate professor of consumer behavior at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, has written that 10 percent was the most common tip in the 1950s but this standard had risen to 15 percent of the tab by the 1980s. Now the average tip is about 18 percent, he wrote. Many restaurant servers believe 20 percent should be the minimum for good service. However, Lynn says the quality of service seldom determines the size of the individual tips included in the $16 billion that Americans annually leave as gratuities at restaurants. “Tipping is an interesting behavior because tips are voluntary payments given after services have been rendered,” states Lynn, in his most recent study. “Consumers rarely pay more than necessary for goods and services. Tipping represents a multibillion-dollar exception to this general rule. It is an exception that raises questions about why people tip.” “People know what they’re going to tip when they leave their house,” says Landon. “There are 15 percenters and there are 20 percenters.”
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At Mullet Bay, a waitress says “it’s about time somebody wrote a story about servers” because diners don’t understand their trade. They can actually lose money when customers tip badly or don’t tip at all, for instance, because they have to “tip out” busboys – giving them a percentage of gross sales at their tables regardless of tip totals. And their income tax withholding is based on an assumed average tip of 18 percent of their sales totals – even if the actual tips are less, they say. “If service is good, you need to tip,” says Leslie, who estimates that her tips total about $200 a week in winter and $500 a week in summer. Professor Lynn wrote that his research shows “nonverbal server behaviors that continued on page 57
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{ coastal profile }
Pamela Mueller a wr i t e r o f m a n y v o i c e s by mary helen moses photo by Lindy Thompson / Golden Isles Photography
P
amela Bauer Mueller tells us our past through the eyes and hearts of those who lived here before us. Her approach to telling stories is a reflection of a woman who loves the challenge of new places and new careers, who is delighted with life and comfortable in her own skin. Since moving to the Golden Isles 10 years ago, Pam has penned three distinct works of historical fiction that speak of the past in the voices of citizens of those times. Her latest, Splendid Isolation: The Jekyll Island Millionaires’ Club 1888-1942, brings to life the Golden Age in the Golden Isles. Born, reared and educated on the West Coast in Oregon, Pam lived in Mexico City for 18 years as the wife of a successful architect and the mother of two daughters, whom she raised to be bilingual and bicultural. Pam’s life in Mexico is a metaphor for her life as a writer: she shares the voices of other cultures, other times, and other lives. Pam left her marriage and Mexico in 1986 and moved with her daughters to San Di-
Excerpted from Splendid Isolation: The Jekyll Island Millionaires’ Club 1888-1942 by Pamela Bauer Mueller (Piñata Publishing, 2010) None of the Millionaires escaped the scathing editorials in Mr. Pulitzer’s newspapers, and all reluctantly admitted that there was some truth to them. Nevertheless, they respected Mr. Pulitzer’s keen mind and even more, his integrity. Joseph Pulitzer also provided entertaining comments at any social
40 g o l d e n isle sm a ga zine.com
ego, taking a job with U.S. Customs in 1988. Little did Pam know that when she arrived for training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at Glynco she would be introduced to her future husband, Mike Mueller, and her future home, our Golden Isles. Back in San Diego, Pam raised her daughters and worked as a Customs agent. Once her daughters were grown, Pam moved with Customs to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994. A year later she married Mike. It was in Vancouver that Pam began to write. Her first writing voice was that of a cat, Kiska, a feline she adopted in Mexico. In The Bumpedy Road, Kiska tells the story of the adoption and move from Mexico to California, of family breakups, moves, job searches, adjustments to new places, and children growing up. Kiska’s second book, Rain City Cats, tells of the move to Canada. Mike was central to the writing and “independent publishing” which has given us Pam’s voice; together Mike and Pam formed Piñata Publishing. All of the production and support
work – editing, illustrating, and printing – is contracted out. Mike and Pam do most of their own distribution, which means their garage is full of boxes, full of books. By 2000, Pam had published two books, and it was time for another career, another adventure, and another move to another coast. Pam retired from Customs to become a fulltime author, and she and Mike returned to the place they met – the Golden Isles. Here Pam would find her Southern coastal voices. Pam’s first Georgia book was the third of what is now known as The Kiska Trilogy and, as you might expect from the title – Eight Paws to Georgia – told the story of Kiska’s move to St. Simons Island. Pam’s next two projects were books about dogs, which again gave voice to the real characters in her own life. After her daughter raised a service dog, Pam was inspired to write Hello, Goodbye, I Love You, the story of a young Oregon boy named Diego Escobar who raises the puppy Aloha to be a guide dog for a blind lady living on St. Simons. The sequel, Aloha Crossing, tells of Diego’s trip to visit
event, and was known to be charming if he wanted to be. Club President Lanier decided to seat him next to the guest of honor, Andrew Carnegie.
in-law Lucy did not get on very well.
“Are you enjoying your stay at the Dungeness with Miss Lucy?” asked Mr. Pulitzer, gingerly spooning small portions of steaming squash soup into his mouth. He had heard occasional rumors from other members that Andrew Carnegie and his sister-
“Not a bad idea.” Mr. Pulitzer offered him a sly smile. “This seems to be a slow news week. Perhaps I’ll send it out tomorrow.” Across the dark dinner table he could feel rather than see the frown on Mr. J.P. Morgan’s face.
“Not particularly Sir,” Andrew replied with a grin and a shrug. “Print that if you like.”
{ coastal profile } his friend and her blind partner in a part of the country he has never seen. Life in the Golden Isles gave Pam inspiration for another kind of writing – historical fiction. Charmed by a story she heard on the St. Simons Trolley, Pam wrote Neptune’s Honor: A Story of Loyalty and Love. Many of us know the story of Neptune’s devotion to the Kings of Retreat Plantation; Pam’s book gave us Neptune’s voice. Neptune’s Honor was a National Book Award Finalist. Next came An Angry Drum Echoed: Mary Musgrove, the Queen of the Creeks. The daughter of a Creek Indian, Mary was Gen. James Oglethorpe’s translator and liaison with the Native Americans he found here. Mary’s efforts to straddle her Creek heritage and the English world cost her dearly; Pam learned that Mary became estranged from her children and left everything to follow Oglethorpe. Relating strongly through the loss she felt when leaving Mexico, Pam realized that she could not write Mary’s story in the third person; she had to be Mary’s voice. Another island, another story. Pam and Mike moved from St. Simons to Jekyll Island, and Pam began extensive research for Splendid Isolation. The book tells 54 years of history through the voices of four different employees of the club and its millionaire members – the long-time club manager, the club’s ship captain, the governess for the Macy children, and the driver of the Maurice family. Published just a few months ago, the book is already well into its second printing, and is yet another success for this versatile author.
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Mary Helen Moses has a solo law practice in Redfern Village on St. Simons Island. She lives on St. Simons with her son, Andrew Ruberti, a student at the University of Alabama.
During the third course of the dinner, Joseph Pulitzer posed another question. “Andrew, we’re about the same age, more or less. I believe we have some commonalities in our backgrounds as well. Weren’t you born in Europe and emigrated to America at a young age?”
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{ coastal profile }
steve berry
Pe rs ist ence, thy n ame i s steve be rry by amy carter
photo by kelly campbell
P
roof that success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration, Steve saw publication of his first novel, The Amber Room, 12 years and 85 rejection letters after he finally heeded the little voice in his head that kept nagging him to write. “I had that voice for about 10 years and ignored it,” says the attorney/county commissioner-turned-full-time novelist. “To this day I still have that little voice. It’ll hush when I write.” If Steve harbors a romantic’s fantasies about the occupation of writing, he doesn’t share them with the world. A pragmatist as only a lawyer can play that role, Steve reasoned that someone’s name would be on the cover of a book; it might as well be his. And that, to make a very long story short, is how he came to be a New York Times Best Selling Author.
44 g o l d e n isle sm a ga zine.com
“My life has changed dramatically. I’m a full-time writer now – only a small percentage of writers can actually claim to do that. I’ve been fortunate, but also some of the luck I kind of made myself by hanging in there and not walking away from it and learning from my mistakes. I’m a worldclass expert in rejection. Rejection can be a good thing if properly channeled.” Steve joined a writer’s group in Camden County and spent every Wednesday night for six years sharing his stories with the group and collecting their critiques to go back and start again. He would write every morning between 6:30 a.m. and 9 or 9:30 a.m. five days a week, then during the day as he had time. “I learned to write in chaos,” he says. A lawyer specializing in divorce and crimi-
nal law, he was also a member of the Camden County Commission with constituents in need. Things are a little different now that writing is his sole occupation. “I have to generate chaos. It’s like Andrew Jackson said: ‘I was born in a storm; a calm does not suit me.’ I’m very similar to that. I write better when a lot is going on.” When time was at a premium, he never spent a wasted moment in front of the computer; he did his research the night before and arrived at the computer ready to write. (Being a lawyer, even a former one, Steve says he goes lightly on the Internet research. He only trusts reputable sites, such as the CIA’s World Factbook. Most of his research is gleaned from books, although he’s recently back from three days in England for a story based there. The Chamblin Book
Mine in Jacksonville, a buy-sell-trade Mecca for hard-core readers, is his favorite place to hunt. Now a recognized master of the thriller genre, Steve has found success in that most pragmatic of ways: by writing what he wants to read, not what he knows. “Do not write what you know. That’s horrible advice. Write what you love. I was a divorce lawyer. I tried criminal cases. I don’t want to write about it. I don’t love it enough to write about it. I like secrets, history, adventure, international conspiracies. You’re going to be much more apt to stay with it and hang with it when it gets tough when you’re doing something that you love.”
““I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like...”
“Bicycle Race” by Queen
One day in 2002 he hit the right editor with the right story. He landed a deal with Ballentine, and eight novels later (his ninth, The Emperor’s Tomb, is due in November) he travels the globe searching for new stories and counsels aspiring writers through conferences and lectures as his schedule permits. “People gave to me and I like to give back,” he says. Steve’s advice to writers who aspire to see their own names printed on the jacket of a best-seller is simple: keep writing. “I caught a break,” Steve says. “It took me 12 years to catch a break, but I finally caught one. I’m sort of living proof that it can be done.”
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{ business & finance }
A Reel Good Reason to Go Downtown Summer Classic Movies Return to the Ritz
F
rankly my dear, even Rhett Butler would give a damn about this summer’s line-up of movies at the Ritz Theatre in Downtown Brunswick.
That’s because the 1939 classic Gone With the Wind caps a season of historic blockbusters on Sunday, Aug. 1, with a dramatic afternoon of Southern belle histrionics served up with a side of Southern Soul barbecue. The whole of Downtown Brunswick is getting in on the act this year, with give-aways and special considerations for summer movie ticket holders. Enter Nous, a consignment boutique on Newcastle Street, will be offering an additional 10 percent off to ticket holders, and people can also drop their tickets into a box inside the store for prize drawings. Stitch in Time, an embroidery shop on Gloucester Street, is also running a drop-in ticket drawing for a monogrammed tote/basket. Color Me Happy, a potterypainting shop on Newcastle Street, is giving a $5 gift certificate to everyone who buys a ticket. And Paramount Printing on Gloucester Street is making full-color laminated movie posters to be awarded as door prizes at each movie screening. The shop is also printing posters for business windows and for special retail displays that Ned Cash Jewelers on Newcastle Street is planning in conjunction with the series. Angie Aimar from Coldwell Banker Platinum Partners is once again providing free popcorn at each show. Events like Summer Classic Movies are a fun way to bring people downtown and a great way for the businesses to cross-market themselves. “I enjoy supporting special events downtown and that family aspect comes into play. We all try to support each other and help each other,” says Peggy Parrish of Ned Cash Jewelers. “The more business we bring down here, the more we grow and the more it helps everyone. We need to be inviting and attracting people down here.” Barbara Ingram at Paramount Printing says the movie series is an event movie fans and merchants look forward to every year.
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“I don’t care whether it helps me or Paramount Printing – all I care about is that it brings people downtown. Whether they come when I’m closed or on a Saturday or at night or whenever, I want them to see how amazing and diverse downtown is, to think of coming here in addition to going to the Village and Jekyll.” Since its debut in 2007 the Summer Classic Movie Series has proven to be a hit with movie fans of all ages, including those 35 and younger. Many of the movies on the summer’s schedule probably did enjoy a first-run at the Ritz, which operated as a movie theater from the 1920s up until 1974. “We scoured the vaults for some of the greatest movies in Hollywood history, with something to please just about every taste,” says Rob Nixon, production director for the Golden Isles Arts and Humanities Association. “Over the past few years, we’ve taken suggestions and requests from our audiences and put their ideas into the programming mix this summer to give film lovers what they most enjoy. We’re especially glad we can honor the many requests we’ve received to bring Gone With the Wind to the big screen at the Ritz.” Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) – 7 p.m. Thursday, July 15: Pay the regular $5 ticket price for the season’s last show and watch the movie beginning at 3 p.m. (with short subjects at 2:30), with an intermission at 5 p.m. Or, for $12, you get admission to the movie and a delicious “Southern Soul Silver Screen Snack Sack” that includes a pulled pork slider and two sides. You can take it back into the theater with you for the second half of the show. Tickets for this special event must be purchased by 5 p.m. July 30. You can buy them at the Ritz, or online at goldenislesarts.org. Lest we get our cart before our horse, however, the season kicks off with a showing of a patriotic favorite, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 1. Based on the life of the most famous showman of the early 20th century, George M. Cohan. James Cagney won a much-deserved Academy Award for his acting, singing and dancing in this celebration of unbridled show biz chutzpah and American optimism. The Philadelphia Story (1940) – 7 p.m. Thursday, July 8: After being declared “Box Office Poison” in the late 1930s and returning to her roots on the stage, Katharine Hepburn made a triumphant comeback in motion pictures with this comedy based on her runaway Broadway success.
Fans of classic movies at the Ritz love musicals, and here’s one of the very best, a treat for the entire family. Director Vincente Minnelli and star Judy Garland take us through the life of a loving family around the time of the grand 1904 World’s Fair. Strangers on a Train (1951) – 7 p.m. Thursday, July 22: No one did suspense like Alfred Hitchcock, and here’s a chance to see one of his most acclaimed but rarely screened classics, a strangely twisted story about a young man who unwittingly makes a murderous deal with a stranger he meets on a train journey. Robert Walker and Farley Granger star. Bonnie and Clyde (1967) – 7 p.m. Thursday, July 29: Arthur Penn’s take on the legendary outlaw duo of the Depression had a tremendous impact on popular culture when it was released in the late 1960s, setting new trends in cinematic style, depictions of screen violence (fairly tame by today’s standards), even fashion. As Clyde Barrow, Warren Beatty emerged as a major force in the industry, and Faye Dunaway became an overnight star as Bonnie Parker.
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Snakes from page 23
Oh my goodness, the show just went by so fast and everyone did a great job. I like to think that I sorta inspired the actors to relax and have a good time because after JB and I started doing our thing everybody else started really putting themselves into their roles and even the other snakes started really “acting.” I’ve never had so much fun. The audience loved it and clapped till we almost couldn’t hear ourselves think onstage. And so, as all things must come to an end, the show was over and we sang the finale song. It was time for our bows. The curtain closed and we all got into our places which was the beginning scene and believe it or not, the other snakes told me I inspired them to relax and have fun. How about that! The curtain opened and we were all singing our hearts out as the actors came out in groups to take their bows. Then JB came out and accidentally got too close to my basket and when I did my hissing and lunging act we collided and the basket fell over and JB and I were rolling all over the stage. As I rolled around running into JB and the basket, a voice came into my head and, you guessed it, it was Gramma saying one of her corny sayings: “If you stumble, make it part of your dance,” and so I began to squirm and role on the stage like a pretty good snake, I might add, and JB started rolling with me and then he helped me to stand up and the audience just jumped up and started hooping and hollering and clapping. JB and I just stood there and grinned and he put his arm around my waist, I put my arm over his shoulder, and we walked off the stage like that together. And even though I almost sprained my ankle, the show went on to sell out crowds and the kids said I was an inspiration to them. Even the snakes. And now, dear reader, the snakes can go home. But that is not the end. It’s just ... . THE BEGINNING Joan Harris moved to St. Simons in 1946, so she is practically a native. She has taught in several schools in Glynn County, retiring from teaching after 32 years. She directs plays for The Island Players. This summer marks her 30th (Cinderella) for the Young People’s Summer Workshop and in the fall, she will direct The Pajama Game.
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HERE TO STAY
Feral Cats from page 29
any nightstand, there was a piece of notebook paper, folded in half. It read: “Thank you for a wonderful time last night. I hope to see you around the island. Yours, Maggie.” *
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*
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As he walked to the village, he turned his recent experiences over in his mind, thinking about each woman. Sherri. Breathtaking. She was the kind of woman who knew how to make a man feel like, well, a man. She was a little too dangerous for his taste and a step-mother, to boot. If she were a bowl of porridge on the Three Bears’ table, she would definitely be the steaming one – too hot. Then, there was Maggie. Granted, she was a two-time divorcee, but she was also a smart businesswoman, a single mom with a big smile and an even bigger heart. She came from good stock, like a fine piece of china, but with a few chips in it. However, in life, we all have our chips and cracks. Perhaps the most amazing thing was meeting two interesting women in such a short time in so small a town. Here he was, looking to start a new life, finally start his “Great American Novel” with the barest outline of comparing wild women, later in life, to the feral cats roaming the island. In his entire time in a city the size of New York, he had never encountered women such as these two.
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After his long, well-deserved nap, Douglas spent the afternoon working on his novel. Around 9 p.m., he decided to head down to the pub tucked inside the Village Coffee Shop. He arrived to find Garry tending his wee bar and holding court with a very drunken public defender and a FLETC agent. It was a pocketsized place and nothing fancy, which he liked. He plunked down on one of the barstools and Garry peered over his round eyeglasses and barked in his erudite Southern drawl for Douglas to order. “You want a beer or a wine?” With the standard opening pleasantries over with, Douglas could relax with his pint continued on page 56
July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 53
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Feral Cats from page 53
Don’t
Let Your Wealth Sail Away
of craft brew and enjoy Garry’s eclectic sense of humor, which was as dry as a martini, and equally as dangerous. Douglas quaffed his beer, which was a bit spicy, when his banter with Garry and the boys was interrupted with “Hello, lover boy. Remember me?” a woman’s voice purred into his ear. Douglas turned to see Maggie wearing all black; her sweater, jeans and boots making a dramatic backdrop for her mane of red hair. “Maggie!” sputtered Douglas, as he nearly fell off of his stool. “How are you?” he asked, desparately trying to keep a cool appearance.
Patient Protection and affordable care act of 2010 neW 1099 HeadacHe
“I’m fine, sweetie. Come with me. I’d love for you to meet my step-mom,” she said. Douglas chugged the rest of his beer and followed her out into the courtyard. Maggie proudly announced, “Mom, I’d like you to meet Douglas, who just moved here from New York City.” He couldn’t believe his eyes but the truth often hurts.
Within the 2,409 page Patient Protection and affordable care act of 2010 (health reform law) are guidelines requiring U. S. companies to issue 1099s to every business where they spend $600 or more, effective 2012. The bill expands 1099 coverage to tangible goods and services, expanding reporting and data collection for all the vendors a company does business with throughout the year.
Sitting at the wrought iron table was Sherri. She greeted him with, “Well hello, Douglas. Welcome to the Island,” she said with a Cheshire cat grin.
It is recommended businesses start planning toward the new requirement for 1099s as 2012 will be here before we know it. Not only will companies need to come up with a plan for issuing 1099s but also an internal system for holding 1099s as they are received so they are not missed on their tax returns.
Garry, the eccentric bartender, waltzed by and with a wicked smirk, asked Douglas if he would like another beer.
The 1099 form is not new, it has been the document used to report non-wage income from a variety of sources for years (some examples include rental income, pension distributions and contract work). The Housing Assistance Tax Act created a new addition to the family of 1099 tax forms: the 1099-K. The 1099-K is brought forward to track the payments on credit cards. Starting in 2011, credit card financial firms that process credit or debit card payments will be required to send their clients the form documenting the annual transactions and report the same to the IRS. There are many additional tax law changes and the tax professionals in all of our offices are available to assist you with competent and trusted advice. Please contact any of our offices for assistance.
“No, Garry, I’ll take a single malt Scotch on the rocks. A double.” Douglas fought to keep the flush from creeping up from his collar. “Looks more like a triple to me,” said Garry sarcastically as he broke into a sinister laugh. Live bluegrass music by Banana Nut Bread Republic filled the courtyard of the pub as Douglas pulled up a chair to sit with his feral cats. He grinned wolfishly and softly said, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” as an older black cat with piercing green eyes came up to him and rubbed up against his leg.
H.D. Whatley received his B.A. in English from the College of Charleston
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Ben P. Lee, CPA, CGFM, CFO
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and his M.F.A. in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College/CUNY. After living in New York City for two decades, he relocated to the lowcountry of Georgia in 2008 and currently resides in Savannah where he teaches creative writing to young people at the DEEP! Center.
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communicate liking for the customer, such as lightly touching the customer and crouching next to the table when interacting with the customer, substantially increase the tips restaurant servers receive.” There are other tricks to promote better tips. One Island waitress says she never wears her diamond engagement ring while serving customers. Leslie says she keep pictures of her two kids in her order pad so diners can see that she is a hardworking mom. Generally, the waitresses may grouse about lousy tippers but they like their work. Even while working three days a week at the 4th of May and four nights a week at the Blackwater Grill, including two doubles, Landon still considered it fun to joke with regulars and tourists alike. 276-A Redfern Village, St. Simons Island, GA 31522
Sarah says she enjoys bantering with the button-downed business crowd at the Royal Café in downtown Brunswick and the laid-back folks who frequent Palm Coast. The long hours “keep me busy and out of trouble,” she says. Her best tip ever came during the brief time she worked at a restaurant in Atlanta.
50 in
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Dispatches from Dixie.
1H
His book, a collection of his stories about the South is entitled Downhome:
in M
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“They left before I got a chance to thank them,” she remembers.
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The women paid the tab on a credit card and Sarah didn’t notice the tip until she reached the cash register.
St. Simons
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“It was a $130 tip on a $30 tab” and came from “a group of ladies who were drinking margaritas,” she says. “It was kind of slow and I sat down and talked to them. They said I was a smart girl.”
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Second Servings from page 37
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book excerpt from page 41
Mr. Carnegie contemplated him for a long moment. He knew that Joseph Pulitzer did his homework and seldom made polite conversation. “I came over with my Scottish family when I was thirteen, and got my first job working in a textile mill that same year,” he replied, swirling brandy in his amber Belgium snifter. “I see. And I was an impoverished seventeen-year-old Jewish boy in Hungary when my family sailed for America.” Mr. Pulitzer rubbed his long fingers over his eyes. “Even then, I had poor health and eyesight, and the Austrian Army wouldn’t take me.” Andrew Carnegie placed his hand on Joseph Pulitzer’s arm. “And now we’ve both made more money than we can ever spend. And all we can do is give it to the less fortunate,” he whispered reflectively. “I pray that’s enough.” Neither man spoke for several moments. Leaning down to retrieve his linen serviette, Mr. Pulitzer asked casually, “Tell me something, Andrew. Did your brother Thomas and Lucy build Dungeness over at Cumberland Island because the Millionaires Club didn’t invite the two of you to join?” Mr. Carnegie whirled around to stare at Mr. Pulitzer. Then his face softened and he threw his head back and roared. “You old coot! You know very well they had already begun construction on Dungeness several years before your Millionaires Club came into being!” Joseph Pulitzer grinned, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief. “So true. And by the by, they only asked me to join them so they could keep their enemy close. And even with that, they’ve not been able to quash the truths I publish about them in The World.” He lowered his voice and leaned forward to whisper in Mr. Carnegie’s ear. “I don’t think Jay Gould has ever forgiven me for buying his paper out from under him and then turning it into a big money-maker.”
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July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 59
Coastal Calendar
JULY
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The Island Players present their annual Young People’s Summer Workshop production at the Casino Theater on St. Simons Island. This year’s production is Disney Kids’ Cinderella. Children in the audience are encouraged to dress for the ball! Showtimes Wednesday through Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday matinee at 4 p.m. De-
The Big Photo Show exhibit, featuring works by members of the Coastal Photography Guild, opens with an artist reception 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the new Glynn Art Association Gallery, 529 Beachview Drive, St. Simons Island. Details: glynnart.org
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Historic Downtown Brunswick is the place to be on the First Friday of each month. Various restaurants and pocket parks host live music, “He Said Beer, She Said Wine” tastings at select shops, restaurants and shops stay open late. Art Downtown hosts an opening reception for featured artist Terrie Daniel and fundraiser for Citizens for Humane Animal Treatment with live music. Special programs and crafts at the Brunswick Library. Join the fun on Newcastle and Gloucester Streets beginning at 5 p.m.
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Carton A. Morrison discusses his new book, Running the River: Poleboats, Steamboats and Timber Rafts, which documents the rough and ready attitude of river men and the cities along the Altamaha, Ocmulgee, Oconee and Ohoopee rivers. Chautauqua Lecture Series programs take place from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the A.W. Jones Heritage Center on St. Simons Island. Details: saintsimonslighthouse.org
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The Brunswick Bazaar and Farmers Market takes place the first Saturday of every month. Shop the open air market for fresh produce, prepared foods and baked goods, plants, arts and crafts, antiques and collectibles, flea market finds and more. Mary Ross Waterfront Park, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Vendors and spenders welcome! Details: goldenislesarts.org
Have fun and raise funds for disaster relief during the American Red Cross Flip-Flop Ball at Ziggy’s on St. Simons Island. There will be a competition for Flip-Flop King and Queen, appetizers, live music and, of course, a “hurricane” drink special from 7 to 9 p.m. Details: 265-1695 ext. 16
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see what happens behind 17, 24, Come the scenes at a wedding recepThe newest dessert theater 25, 31 tion! production at the Mary Miller
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On July 3, a colonial patriotic display by the Garrison at Fort King George will include artillery drills, musket firings and soldier’s activities, with free watermelon and lemonade from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cannons Across the Marsh.
Theater at Art Downtown/Gallery 209 is Alan Ball’s edgy comedy, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (suitable for mature audiences only). Doors open at 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. on alternate Sundays for dessert and coffee by
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The St. Simons Island Pier/Village area will be filled with arts and crafts and food vendors throughout the weekend during the Annual Sunshine Festival Arts & Crafts Show. As part of the Sunshine Festival, on Saturday, July 3, the Golden Isles Track Club will hold a 1 Mile Fun Run at 7:30 a.m., followed by a 5K race at 8 a.m. Fireworks at the Pier will take place at 9 p.m. on July 4th. Brunswick will celebrate an Old-Fashioned 4th of July with games and prizes, music, and free watermelon for all at Mary Ross Waterfront Park. Brunswick fireworks will take place at dark. Jekyll Island also commemorates the holiday with a family fun party with a Fireworks Extravaganza. Activities take place at the Jekyll Island Beach Deck from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
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Author Pamela Bauer Mueller kicks off the Coastal Georgia Historical Society’s Chautauqua Lecture Series with a discussion of the birth of modern American finance and industry and its connection to Jekyll Island, subjects covered in her latest book, Splendid Isolation: the Jekyll Island Millionaires Club 1888-1942, at the A.W. Jones Heritage Center on St. Simons Island. 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Details: saintsimonslighthouse.org
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Brunswick Mayor Bryan Thompson presents Brunswick: A Book of Memories, a book written by those who knew and know Brunswick well. Chautauqua Lecture Series programs take place from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the A.W. Jones Heritage Center on St. Simons Island. Details: saintsimonslighthouse.org
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Music on the Lighthouse Lawn: A Little Light Music sponsored by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society continues on the St. Simons Lighthouse lawn with local band 3 of Us on July 11. All concerts begin at 7 p.m. SCAD/Telfair instructor Carl Fougerousse holds a “BIG Value Workshop.” Two days of classes from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on drawing and oil painting with a focus on gradation theory. Details: mcintoshartassociation.com
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GIAHA’s Jazz in the Park series continues at the lighthouse with concerts by Savannah’s Silver Lining on July 25. All concerts begin at 7 p.m. Details: saintsimonslighthouse.org and goldenislesarts.org
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Local author and Hog Hammock resident Michele Nicole Johnson her book, Sapelo Island’s Hog Hammock, which describes the island “as a place so linked to its history one can almost see the footsteps of the ancestors.” Chautauqua Lecture Series programs take place from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the A.W. Jones Heritage Center on St. Simons Island. Details: saintsimonslighthouse.org
Coastal Calendar Su 1 8 15 22 29 x
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The Flip-Flop Ball for Kids is a familyfriendly version of the American Red Cross Flip-Flop Ball that was held in July. It will be an evening of beach music, hula hoops and non-alcoholic “hurricane punch.” There will be plenty of activities for children plus information on how to prepare for a disaster. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Ziggy’s on St. Simons Island. Details: 265-1695 ext. 16
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First Friday in Historic Downtown Brunswick. Various restaurants and pocket parks host live music, “He Said Beer, She Said Wine” tastings at select shops, restaurants and shops stay open late. The Ritz Theatre Gallery hosts an opening reception for the Oak Grove Island Artists show. Art Downtown hosts an artist reception with live music for Shirley Hunter’s exhibit. Special programs and crafts at the Brunswick Library. Join the fun on Newcastle and Gloucester Streets beginning at 5 p.m.
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The Brunswick Bazaar and Farmers Market takes place the first Saturday of every month. Shop the open air market for fresh produce, prepared foods and baked goods, plants, arts and crafts, antiques and collectibles, flea market finds and more. Mary Ross Waterfront Park 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Vendors and spenders welcome! Details: goldenislesarts.org
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The YWCA of Brunswick Presents Dancing With the Stars Casablanca Style at the Jekyll Island Convention Center. Watch local “celebrities” compete for the dancing trophy and raise funds for the YWCA’s programs benefiting women and children. Cocktails at 6 p.m.; dinner and dancing at 7 p.m. Details: 265-4100
AUGUST 9, 11
“The BIG Color Workshop.” SCAD/Telfair instructor Carl Fougerousse teaches a two-day figure painting color workshop at the Old Jail Art Center in Darien from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Details: mcintoshartassociation.com
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Spend a “girls night out” at the Clay & Chardonnay Evening at the Old Jail Art Center in Darien from 5:30 until 7 p.m. Registration fee includes clay and glazing. Details: mcintoshartassociation.com
20-21
This year marks the first year that the Beach Music Festival & BBQ Bash will be held in Great Dunes Park and the last in the Jekyll Island Convention Center. The party will kick off with a party at the Convention Center, continue on Saturday with the Beach Blast concert and BBQ competition at Great Dunes Park, and will end that night with a Grand Finale Celebration featuring Craig Woolard & the Swingin’ Medallions at the Convention Center. There are also opportunities to participate in a Golf Tournament, Shag Dance Lessons and a Wine and BBQ Pairing Dinner. It’s a weekend that promises to be full of feel-good music, delicious food, and shaggin’ on the beach! Details: jekyllisland.com
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GIAHA’s Jazz in the Park series continues at the lighthouse with concerts by Gwen Hughes and the Retro Jazz Kats from Atlanta on Aug. 22. All concerts begin at 7 p.m. Details: saintsimonslighthouse. org and goldenislesarts.org
see what happens be7, 8, 14, Come hind the scenes at a wedding The newest des21, 22, reception! sert theater production at the Mary Miller Theater at Art 28 Downtown/Gallery 209 is Alan Ball’s edgy comedy, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (suitable for mature audiences only). Doors open at 7:30 p.m. on Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. on alternate Sundays for dessert and coffee by Daddy Cate’s and friends followed by the show. Details: artdowntowngallery209.com
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Music on the Lighthouse Lawn: A Little Light Music sponsored by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society continues on the St. Simons Lighthouse lawn with local band The Not Brothers Band on Aug. 8. All concerts begin at 7 p.m.
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Out & About 1 The Southeastern C oastal G eorgia C hap ter of the American Red C ross hosted a series of H urricane Parties in June to promote preparedness for the 2010 Hurricane Season. Parties were held at Latitude 31 on Jekyll Island, at Coastal Kitchen on St. Simons Island an d at Skip per’s Fish C amp in D arien. In addition to music, food and fun, each part y emphasized the importance of having a disaster preparedness bag ready before a storm threatens. The Red C ross suggests stuff ing a duffle or sturdy shopping bag with such essentials as bottled water, a flash light, batteries, duct tape, a Sharpie pen, medications and important documents (sealed in a Ziploc baggie) and leaving it in a hall closet or the trunk of the car in case an evacuation is called. For a com plete list, visit www.redcross.org. Hurri cane season lasts from June 1 to Nov. 1. (Photos by Lindy Thompson/Golden Isles Photography)
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1 G r a c e Mc C l e l l a n p r e s e n t s M i k e a n d B r o o k e Thompson with door prizes donated by local businesses 2 Crissy Ratliff, Shannon C a v a g n a r o , Te r e s a L e m i e u x 3 E d d i e P i c k e t t a n d t h e No r t h S t a r 4 J a s o n R i c h a r d s o n , J e k y l l I s l a n d F i r e & EM S C h i e f / P u b l i c S a f e t y Director; Leigh Anne Estrada, Development Director for the local Red Cross; and Jay W i g g i n s , G l y n n C o u n t y EMA D i r e c t o r
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Out & About The YW C A o f B r u n s w i ck h o s t e d i t s 1 2 t h A n n u a l Tr i b u t e to Wo m e n L e a d e r s l u n c h e o n M a y 1 1 a t t h e J e k y l l I s l a n d Conve n t i o n C e n t e r, w h e r e 4 0 0 t i c k e t - h o l d e r s g a t h e r e d t o hono r 2 0 l o c a l w o m e n w h o h a v e s e r v e d a s p o s i t i v e r o l e mode l s a n d m a d e s i g ni f i c a n t c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o t h e c o mmunit y. B r u n s w i c k n a t i v e El a i n e G r i f f i n , a Ne w Yo r k C i t y based d e s i g n e r a n d a u t h o r, w a s t h e g u e s t s p e a k e r. S h e i s the d a u g h t e r o f E t h e l L i z a m a G r i f f i n , a r e t i r e d B r u n s w i c k educa t o r, w h o w a s a m o n g t h i s y e a r ’ s h o n o r e e s . I n a d d ition t o s h i n i n g t h e s p o t l i g h t o n n o t a b l e w o m e n , Tr i b u t e also r a i s e s m o n e y t o be n e f i t t h e Y W C A’ s c h i l d c a r e a n d aquat i c s p r o g r a m s , a s w e l l a s i t s Yo u n g W o m e n ’ s C a r e e r Adven t u r e p r o g r a m . ( P h o t o s b y L i n d y T h o m p s o n /G o l d e n Isles P h o t o g r a p h y )
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1 D r. Tina Kirby, co-chair; guest speaker E laine Griffin; and A b r a Lattany-Reed, co-chair. 2 Shirley Douglass, honoree An n a b e lle Beasley, Sube Lawrence and Angela Bailey. 3 G roup p h o t o 4 D iana M urphy, Brian Dolan and Asia H asbrouck 5 Lois Vi e s e r (seated), Becky Rowell, Katherine Thurber, Brad Brown, S u s a n Shipman and Kevin Lokey
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At the Summit Professional Plaza • Brunswick, GA July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 65
Out & About 1
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Lord of Life C hristian Montessori School held its annual D addys and D onuts day recently at the school. The primary and elementary children enjoyed showing their school to their fathers – giving them a tour and showing them what they are working on. (Submitted by N atasha Williams) 1 I a n , Za n e a n d A n n i k a B u c h l i 2 Stephen and Emma Williams 3 L e e , J u l i a a n d Na t a l i e R i c h a r d s
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Out & About L o r d o f L i f e C h r i s t i an Montessori School held its a n n u a l M o t h e r s D a y C elebratory Tea and Brunch r e c e n t l y a t t h e s c h ool. The primary children hon o r e d t h e i r m o t h e r s with a traditional tea by deco r a t i n g t h e i r c l a s s r o om, used real tea in real china, a n d d e l i c i o u s s w e ets and finger sandwiches to g o a l o n g w i t h i t . T h e children gave their mothers h a n d m a d e g i f t s a n d recited a poem about their m o m s . ( S u b m i t t e d by N atasha Williams) 1 2 3 4
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Primary students Sara G race Shutack a n d E m m a W i l l i a m s Tracey and Whitmar s h Te n n a n t Kara and Sara G race S h u t a c k
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Mon - Sat - 10-5 265 Redfern Village, SSI - 912-634-3772 July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 67
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Open Ho m e s Op e n H e a r t s f o r H o s p i c e 2 0 1 0 T h e Auxilia r y o f H o s p i c e o f t h e G o l d e n I s l e s o n c e a g a i n invited m e m b e r s t o o p e n t h e i r h o m e s a n d h e a r t s b y hostin g n e i g h b o r h o o d f u n d r a i s e r s . T h i s y e a r, D a w n e and He r m a n H u d s o n k i c k e d o f f t h e c a m p a i g n i n A p r i l with th e f i r s t O p e n Ho m e s O p e n He a r t s p a r t y t o b e held in B r u n s w i c k . P a r t i e s h e l d t h r o u g h J u n e r a n g e d from a c a s u a l w i n e t a s t i n g e v e n i n g t o a m o v e a b l e feast p r o g r e s s i v e d i n n e r t o a v e r y s p e c i a l g a t h e r i n g a t Brunsw i c k Ma n o r. T h e p a r t i e s v a r i e d g r e a t l y i n t h e m e and st y l e , b u t a l l h a d t h e p u r p o s e o f r a i s i n g f u n d s t o suppo r t t h e g o a l s a n d p r o g r a m s o f Ho s p i c e o f t h e Golden Is l e s . 1 He r man & Dawne Hudson 2 Fred & Janie Alexander 3 B i l l & Jane Thau 4 D on Varnadoe, Bill & Sue Gussman and R a y G ansereit 5 Maryalice K imel and Clyde Le Tarte 6 Roy & Vi v i an P arks with Jack Amason 7 Three of U s provided m u s i c 8 Lola Laurence, D eanna Kavel and C arole Rudder 9 S y l v ia & C arroll Martin 10 Camille & Taylor Adams
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912 - 264- 3230 mon - Fri - 8:00 - 5:30 ~ 24 Hr. towing
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Call Mike Pickett at 912-634-3890 for details. 119 Airport Road St Simons Island July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 69
Coastal Cuisine 4th OF MAY CAFÉ
Ole Times Country Buffet
Toucans Ale House
321 Mallery Street
665 Scranton Road
2450 Perry Lane Road
St. Simons Island
Brunswick
Brunswick
912-638-5444
912-264-1693
Since 1994, Flo and her son, Tommy, have been serving the best Southern style cuisine at The 4th of May Cafe, located in the heart and soul of St. Simons Island at the Pier Village. Offering daily specials which include freshly made entrees, overstuffed sandwiches, delicious seafood fare, scrumptious salads, bread baked daily, a huge variety of home cooked vegetables and the absolute best desserts in Coastal Georgia, nothing beats “The 4th”! It’s all soooo good! (Plus, breakfast is served daily ‘til 1 p.m.) And don’t forget Flo’s Number One Rule … “Eat your veggies!”
Ole’ Times Country Buffet is “Home Cookin’ the Way Mama Does It!” Voted #1 in Southern Cooking and Best Country Buffet in South Georgia and North Florida for the last eight years running.
LATITUDE 31 1 Pier Road Jekyll Island 912-635-3800
At Latitude 31 you can enjoy radiant sunsets and experience the Golden Isles’ premier dining destination. We offer the best service and finest food, in a casual atmosphere. Experience the wonders of nature at The “Rah” Bar which features Georgia Wild Shrimp, Dungeness Crab, Oysters, and our Famous Low Country Boil. Additionally we offer seasonal entertainment.
Coastal Cuisine COASTAL
GEORGIA
Darien River House Restaurant Downtown Darien 912-437-2510
The Darien River House Restaurant and Wine Bar is located just across the street from the Darien River and its famous shrimp boats including a waterfront municipal park and two city operated and owned public docks. Come and enjoy a fine meal and excellent wine in our beautifully restored circa 1867 Victorian lovingly located under the mossy maritime oaks of the Darien River Bluff. You have the option of arriving by foot, or by car, taking advantage of ample parking or even by boat with easy access to two public docks within 2,000 feet of our front door. After you arrive, you will be treated to true Southern hospitality, fine food and wine and the warm feeling that you’re eating in a friend’s beautifully restored Victorian home.
Mack’s BBQ Place 2809 Glynn Ave Brunswick
Menus Summer 2010
D - DARIE N K - JEKYL L ISLAN 1 D - BRUN SWIC Coastal Cuisine Page ST. SIMO NS ISLAN
Check your new s ta n d s fo r
Coastal Cuisine
“The Fun Starts Here!” Toucans Ale house is your destination for great food, great fun and great times with friends and family. Come see your favorite college and professional sports teams on one of our 19 flat screen tv’s. Boasting 23 draft beers and 58 bottle beers, Toucans is your place for a great time!
306 Fort King George Drive
UIDE DINING G
Index - Page 3
912-554-1937
912-264-0605
Located at 2809 Glynn Ave., Mack’s BBQ Place retains its historical reputation for ‘The Best Barbeque in Brunswick.’ From our famous pork plates and battered fries to our great catering options, Mack’s BBQ has everything for the BBQ lover.
Brogen’s South 200 Pier Alley St. Simons Island 638-1660
An island tradition for more than 25 years, Brogen’s dishes up the island’s best burgers in a classic family atmosphere and the liveliest night life in town, right in the heart of the Village. A 30-second walk from the Pier, we are the Island’s only double-decker restaurant with an ocean view. Open from 11:30 a.m. until 2 a.m. Monday through Saturday.
Jinright’s Seafood House 2815 Glynn Avenue Brunswick 267-1590
If you’re looking for the best tasting seafood in Coastal Georgia, look no further than Jinright’s Seafood House. Celebrating our 25th Anniversary in Brunswick, this family owned business is more than just a restaurant that serves award winning seafood and other delicious fare, it’s a Golden Isles institution. Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, Jinright’s is conveniently located and easy to find, just one mile north of the St. Simons causeway on Hwy. 17. (Look for the big shark’s head on the front of the building.) Stop by today and find out why the locals call us “The Best Little Seafood House in the Golden Isles!”
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Brunswick Moondoggy’s 36 Canal Road Plaza 265-5888
We put a lot of thought into creating an inviting neighborhood restaurant that offers a warm friendly environment and that’s fun to visit, too. Come enjoy our sports bar with four big HD TVs; Wi-Fi is always FREE. You can eat lunch for less than $10. But the real reason to come is our generously sized pizzas, pastas, subs and specialty dinners all made from the finest, freshest domestic and imported ingredients. Our pizza and bread dough is made from scratch daily. Call 265-5888 for delivery or pick up, and visit us online at www.brunswickmoondoggy’s.com.
Beachcomber BBQ & Grill 319 Arnold Road St. Simons Island 634-5699
“No shoes, no shirt, no problem!” Great BBQ and burgers just a block from the beach on St. Simons Island. Dine in, family-size take out or catering. Worth the trip! You’ll LOVE the ribs! Open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily. Featured on The Food Network. St. Simons’ Original BBQ Restaurant.
Courtyard at Crane Cottage
The Grand Dining Room Jekyll Island Club Hotel 371 Riverview Drive Jekyll Island 635-2400
Breakfast, lunch and dinner are offered daily in this remarkably beautiful room, as well as a splendid Sunday Brunch. Ionic columns and intricate fireplaces grace the hotel’s full service restaurant. Enjoy live piano music with dinner and Sunday Brunch. Our chef is well known for her delicious low-country cuisine and seafood dishes, and the pastries and desserts are exquisite and all homemade. Dinner entrees range from $26 to $35. Ask about the Sunset Dinner from 6 to 6:45 p.m. for $28.95. Breakfast is $9.50-$14.95; lunch $10.95-$15.95; and brunch is $28.95 for adults, $14.50 for children age 11 and under. Special rates may apply for holiday brunches. Breakfast is served from 7 until 11 a.m.; Lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.; and Dinner from 6 until 10 p.m. Sunday Brunch is served from 10:45 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Brogen’s North 3600 Frederica Road St. Simons Island
375 Riverview Drive
638-2060
Jekyll Island
It’s always game day at Brogen’s North, nestled among the oaks at Frederica North. Grab a cold one and feast on one of our famous pizzas or burgers, or munch on our legendary potato skins. We’ve got pasta, seafood and the always delicious Chicken Swiss Sandwich on the menu, as well as all your favorite brews. Serving lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, we’re a great neighborhood establishment serving great food, great sports and great times!
635-2600
An Italianate Villa originally constructed in 1917. Enjoy a Mediterranean menu with a Northern California wine country flair in this historic setting. Dine alfresco in the loggia surrounding the fountain courtyard or indoors. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday; dinner is served Sunday through Thursday from 5:30 until 9 p.m. Reservations are suggested. Prices for lunch: $9.95-$14.95; dinner entrees: $25.95-$31.95.
Coastal Kitchen 102 Marina Drive, St. Simons Island, GA 31522 912-638-7790
The closest table to the water without getting wet!! We are serious about the food and the service but we live in paradise so we don’t have time for attitude. From House-Made Lobster Ravioli, Crab Stuffed Flounder, Wild Georgia Shrimp and Grits, House-Made Ice Cream to the best Fried Oysters you have ever put in your mouth, Coastal Kitchen will keep you coming back for more. The best way to beat the heat ... come relax by the pool and listen to live music from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday with $2 Sweetwater 420 drafts. Happy Hour 3-6 Mon- Fri half price drinks. Open for dinner daily at 3 p.m. Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday thru Saturday. Sunday Brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
DOUG HARRIS’ FIRESIDE CAFÉ 1801 Frederica Road St. Simons Island 912-268-2330
Island dining in a casual fun-filled atmosphere filled with local history. We’re serving up breakfast, lunch and dinner with specialties like Blueberry Pancakes, Shrimp & Grits, Crab Stew, 8 oz. Hand-Pattied Burgers, Local Seafood, and our award-winning Brunswick Stew. Daily Happy Hour from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m. with 2-for-1 margaritas, $1.50 draft beer and a 15-item martini bar! Open 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sundays. As Doug says: “It’s all good!”
July / Aug u st 2 0 1 0 71
Last Word Evening Dinner B y Sandr a L ee Brown The last crimson red tomatoes were picked from the early fall garden.
My father-in-law inhales each forkful, talking of the past and silently wishing his wife were alive.
The Navy beans bubbling in thick sauce for hours, simmers on the stove.
My dad stares vacantly, looking like the eighty two years he’s lived, automatically eating, not knowing what day it is.
The aromatic bread covered with a red checked towel, steaming hot from the oven waits patiently on the counter.
My daughter talking of today and what she will wear tomorrow.
The table set with blue and white plates, each white napkin folded crisply, neatly, each fork, spoon, and knife in their proper places. I take out a heaping plate of beans, slice one tomato in glorious cartwheels.
I half listen to all of them as I dream of the past and the future— of what never was or ever will be—some other place. Amongst castles and wide rivers, of dancing in St. Mark’s Square under water, drinking champagne while the tuxedoed musicians play and gray pigeons land on my shoulder. Of being younger, thinner, happier—as I scrape each plate, removing the thick brown sauce.
As I serve the banquet before my family, my husband enthusiastically anticipates his meal, talking of the present and the future.
72 g o l d e n isle sm a ga zine.com
Caring For The Next Generation Eric C. Stout MD, PC Board Certified Pediatrician
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2500 Starling Street Suite 401, Brunswick 912-554-0542 • www.ericstoutmd.com
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July / Au g ust 2 0 1 0 3
Accepting Most Insurances
Get moving with MAKOplasty. ®
MAKOplasty® is an innovative partial knee resurfacing procedure that can deliver reduced pain, a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery. Powered by robotic arm technology, MAKOplasty® targets the damaged area of the knee without compromising the healthy bone and tissue surrounding it. Southeast Georgia Health System is the only hospital in the region to perform this minimally invasive procedure.
If you or someone you know is suffering with chronic, debilitating knee pain, learn more about MAKOplasty® from the only board-certified orthopaedic surgeons performing the procedure, close to home.
Denny Carter, M.D. J. Melvin Deese, M.D. Beau Sasser Jr., M.D. 912-262-9961 J. Kevin Brooks, M.D. 912-265-9006
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7/2010