You’ll Be Missed, Jimmy……

I have posted before about the experience of a Jimmy Buffet concert and our long time as Parrotheads. I don’t tear up when I hear about celebrities passing away and this morning was the exception. I was surprised to hear he had been battling an as yet undisclosed illness for the past two years. According to the statement released, he died peacefully, surrounded by family and those closest to him; passing away in the same way he lived.

To say he was a phenomenon is no exaggeration. Many years ago, he was simply one more singer/songwriter struggling to be heard, dreaming some day of making it big. I doubt his definition of “big” actually included the extent to which his empire grew; music of course, a few acting roles, merchandising, then restaurants as in not uncommon. Resorts and casinos don’t usually follow nor do 55-and-better active adult communities. The number of his “Latitude Margaritaville” communities were supposed to expand and perhaps his heirs will keep with that plan.

Although certain of his songs were iconic and as he always said, “a must play” at his concerts, his body of work was such that he had fans of them all. In fact, his song, “Bama Breeze”, inspired me to write my short story, “Closing Time, Closing Day” (https://charliehudson.net/stories/story200701.html)

I can only imagine the kind of partying that will be going on in Key West and Mobile, where he was originally from, this weekend. If we had a Margaritaville Cafe close by, we’d go around for at least a couple of drinks ourselves.

Speaking of Amazing Women….

100 women in almost 40 airplanes making a 2,684 mile race from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Homestead, Florida. Now that isn’t something you see everyday. The small planes, each with a pilot and co-pilot, left ND Tuesday, Jun 20, 2023 and had until Friday, Jun 23 at 5:00 p.m., to make the trip to be qualified to win. Programmed stops were Mankato, MN, Ottumwa, IA, Hastings, NE, Ponca City, OK, Sulphur Springs, TX, Jonesboro, AR, Pell City, AL, and Cross City, FL before arriving in Homestead. This was also the first time in the 46-year history they came as far south as Homestead. The race changes each year to different parts of the country. This is from the initial Press Release we were provided:

“he oldest race of its kind in the nation, the Air Race Classic traces its roots to the 1929 Women’s Air Derby, aka the Powder Puff Derby, in which Amelia Earhart and 19 other daring female pilots raced from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio. This year’s ARC celebrates the 94th anniversary of that historic competition, which marked the beginning of women’s air racing in the United States. Today, the ARC is the epicenter of women’s air racing, the ultimate test of piloting skill and aviation decision[1]making for female pilots of all ages and from all walks of life.”

There were of course weather issues and a couple of mechanical failures, but most arrived, tired, sweaty, yet successful. Since they all had different airplanes (quite a few Cessna 172s), there was a formula used in a controlled course prior to the start of the race to provide a “handicap” that was applied to the final flight information to determine the winner. Ages were mixed with college teams all they way into women in their seventies. Hubby was taking the article because it was definitely one that needed great photographs. There was one team in particular the paper was interested in as the pilot is a member of Rotary. Hubby began following her using the tracking system and with the delays, he had to finish teaching a class when the team was scheduled to land. I went out to snap an easy photo, get a few details and set up a time for Hubby to interview them that evening.

I spoke with several volunteers, mostly women, again in a mix of ages. It takes

One of the all women teams in the 2023 Air Race Classic

quite an effort to put something like this on and to have that many accomplished women in one place at one time is incredibly inspiring.

“ABOUT THE AIR RACE CLASSIC

Air Race Classic Inc. is an all-volunteer, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization with a mission of encouraging and educating current and future female pilots, increasing public awareness of general aviation, demonstrating women’s roles in aviation, and preserving and promoting the tradition of pioneering women in aviation. For more information, go to airraceclassic.org. Follow Air Race Classic on Facebook. On Twitter: @AuthenticARC”

 

 

A Powerhouse of Women…..

There have been extra events this year for Women’s History Month and today was the annual Ladies of Legacy Luncheon with the Chamber of Commerce. The format is the same; five or six women across the spectrum of business, politics, and non-profit on a panel with a moderator. We were fortunate this year to have Holly Raschein serve as Moderator again. She is that rare individual who as a business owner, wife, and mom entered politics with the true ability to put principle above party. I won’t say more except she is what a politician should be. Anyway, today’s lineup was impressive as always.

The five women held high level positions in County government, the medical field, corporations, and a civilian who works with family support in the military organization, Special Operations Command, South. None came from privileged families and some had overcome very austere upbringings. The seven questions this year will be familiar to anyone who has prevailed in a career that required hard work and often times balancing family and career. How to develop as a leader, making your way in a  non-traditional field, etc.,. One especially intriguing one was, “If you could go back to your thirteen-year-old-self, what would you tell you?” In remembering those years, most recognized that the uncertainties at that age fluctuated between doubts and lofty ambitions. The theme though was, “Don’t be so hard on yourself; understand things will work out even if they don’t go the way you expect.” A few individuals had their daughters with them and they were probably inspired to at least some degree.

This was one of those occasions when I was “triple-hatted”. I am a member of the Chamber of Commerce that puts the event on; I was covering the article for the paper, and I was promoting the upcoming Art and Artisan Show for Homestead Center for the Arts. Oh yes, and of course I did hand out a few bookmarks to showcase my writing. That’s an “always thing” if appropriate no matter what the setting.

 

 

STEM and STEAM……

Musing ahead alert. There is an awesome principal at one of our charter schools which is a grades 6-12 academy and we have covered them a few times for the paper. We deal with a lot of the schools and when the principal reached out to the paper a few years ago, I wasn’t impressed with the location for reasons I’m not going to detail here. However, it was another one of those situations where I was so glad I went because the principal has made it her mission to provide what is in essence an educational opportunity oasis to students. We have some of the widest school choices in the country and charter schools are a major part of that. (I’m not going to get into the pros and cons of charter schools here)

The particular charter school company this school belongs too seems to be especially good and this principal is determined she will bring in every advantage she can for the students no matter what path they choose. Here is the link to the article we did last week, bottom of the page:  https://www.southdadenewsleader.com/eedition/page-a01/page_8d945f10-d1bf-54c3-b23d-e21492e285ed.html

Going back to STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math curriculum which is all the rage (I mean that in a good way). STEAM is one of two things where A is either for Aviation or Art. As I have posted numerous times, trying to make a living in any of the arts is usually difficult, yet when the passion for art in whatever form exists in an individual, it is equally difficult to balance the need for a “practical” choice and fulfill the passion. Deriding or trying to suppress the passion is not something I recommend based on our experience. If I could go back and change one thing when son was in college, I wish I had accepted his request to swap to theater major with dance minor (major wasn’t offered). Insisting he do something more “practical” did not work for any of us.

Days Slipped By Again…..

I would ask how almost a week passed since my last post, but barring computer or internet issues, it’s the usual answer of extra tasks thrown in to get me off-schedule. Nothing bad although a couple of genuinely annoying things to deal with. They aren’t worth getting into. I had vague hopes of being able to dive this week and that isn’t happening.

Speaking of diving, a friend who has found and/or identified numerous shipwrecks has done it again. Michael Barnette (met him while working on Mystery of the Last Olympian) has done exploration in many places and apparently, a famous yacht sunk in 1931 is his most recent success. Here’s part of a Facebook post from earlier today. “The wreck of INGOMAR has eluded divers until just recently. A survey conducted by William Hoffman, Joseph Hoyt, and William Sassorossi documented the unidentified yacht in 2017. Imagery collected by John McCord revealed the graceful lines of an elegant yacht. Using their baseline data and looking through archival information, I suspected the wreck was INGOMAR. The dimensions, machinery, and position largely match the attributes of INGOMAR. The wreck rests on her starboard side in deep sand. While not a conclusive identification, the available evidence coupled with the lack of other suspect sites strongly suggest this shipwreck site is indeed the historic yacht INGOMAR.”

The process for officially identifying a wreck after it’s located can easily take years and when I wrote Idyllic Islands, I did a few chapters about how it works. (https://charliehudson.net/books/idyllic-islands.html) That part of the book served two purposes. I needed to introduce a character who would become important much later and the reason I chose that way to do so is because it is such an intricate process. In this case, I made it fairly easy to better match the rhythm of the story.

An Evening Remembering……..

For those who regularly follow the blog, I’ve written previous posts about the USS Spiegel Grove, the 610-foot Navy Ship (LSD Class) that for quite some time was the largest ever ship deliberately deployed as an artificial reef. It’s an amazing dive off Key Largo and brings divers from all over the world. On Sunday, Hubby was on a special dive where a plaque was installed on the ship. He was covering it for the paper although since Horizon Divers provided the boat, he would have been able to go anyway. It was one of those very special moments because everyone on board had either been directly involved in the project or has many, many dives on her.

Last night, May 17th, was a reception with a lot of artifacts on display and quite a few for auction from the History of Diving Museum who has a special exhibit up for the month of May. There was both a film and a slide presentation as well as a panel of seven individuals, who were significantly involved in the project. It was a bit of a long evening at two hours on a weeknight, but good to see so many people turn out. We had a chance to catch up with a few friends during the reception and while I didn’t learn much new from the panel and M.C./moderator, there were some insights I hadn’t heard before.

In my book, Islands in the Sand: An Introduction to Artificial Reefs in the U.S.A., I devoted a chapter to the Spiegel Grove and later, my friend Don Altemus asked me to co-author a photo book with his photos and my writing. Groupers and Gunmounts: Inside the USS Spiegel Grove was where I learned the story of the ship itself and met some more great people during the process. The History of Diving Museum carries the books.

Great Music Plus……

There are unexpected things that can touch us and for a number of people that happened in the unlikely place of the Seminole Theatre Saturday night. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, the Seminole has a Showcase series where they book a mix of performances and then there are multiple other productions by individuals and organizations such as when Homestead Center for the Arts does a show. Due to the cost (which of course then drives the ticket price), there is usually only one ” big name” per showcase series, but they bring in quite a few tribute bands. These are the bands who specialize in a famous band’s music and we’ve attended several over the years; all of which have been good.

So, Saturday night was the “Best of the Eagles” and with continuing concerns, the audience was smaller than it probably would have been otherwise, but there were still maybe 200. Ordinarily, the Seminole Director speaks to the audience in the beginning with a welcome, etc., We’d seen her earlier actually helping out up front to open the second bar and a gentleman we didn’t know was at the microphone instead. I didn’t catch the name (and now wished I had), and he explained they would start in a few minutes. They were from New Jersey and he was the promoter. Although this was his first time to bring a show to Homestead, he was impressed with the theatre and staff and had two or three others lined up for the season. He asked for all active duty military and veterans to stand to be recognized. After we sat down, he said he usually started a show with the Pledge of Allegiance, but since there wasn’t a flag, he would pass on that. Two things happened next; Katherine Rubio, the Director, (or it might have been another staff) called out there was a flag and one of the staff dashed down the aisle to go behind stage. There was a guy in front of us who had a flag patch on the sleeve of the shirt he was wearing and we all called out to say, “Hey, here’s one.” The guy looked only momentarily confused as the promoter asked if he would mind; that he didn’t want to be disrespectful of the guy. The guy willing went forward, and held his arm up toward the audience at about the same time the staff member brought a flag out. He positioned it where it was aligned with the guy and everyone recited the pledge. Now for the next part.

The promoter said he was at a venue (which he didn’t name) and they told him he could never do that again. He said he had multiple shows booked there and cancelled them all, that he wouldn’t agree to that rule. “Yes, it cost me a lot of money, but that’s okay.” Not surprisingly, there was a big round of applause. The band then came on stage for what was an excellent performance.

“We Can’t Help Everyone”……

In writing for our weekly community paper, I have and continue to cover many non-profits and often pass them along in posts here. Some are events held by the national/international organizations like the Kiwanis and others are regional or local. I have also covered multiple small groups that aren’t able to sustain even though they had good intentions. Running a non-profit requires a certain level of organization and some administration as it should if you’re going to ask people to give you money. There are, unfortunately, those groups that do spend far too much of their revenue on “administration” rather than programs and even worse are those that are out-and-out scams.

Setting aside the negative aspects, I’ve also previously posted about the sheer number of legitimate organizations means no one – not even the multi-billionaires – can contribute to all the worthy causes. Which leads to the phrase, “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone”. I used that as a lead-in to this week’s article about one of the local non-profits that has managed to sustain since they started a few years ago when I first learned about them. (https://brightseasons.org) I did a post as well, but that’s been a while. The lady and her husband began with a small group of friends and have grown. Their mission and goal are to help people who are going through a “tough time” and just need a bridge to help them across the turmoil.

One of my favorite stories of many was the cheerful young man who worked at Starbucks and was a student at the local college. Aside from paying for college, his wages went to help his single mother and younger brother. So, one of the organization members learned his old car had broken down and he was waiting to make enough money to fix it. This meant taking the bus and walking to work and school which of course meant even less free time than he usually had. The first discussion was to pay for the repairs, but his car was really old. Another member had a basic used car, yet still serviceable and they said they would contribute that. Someone else did take it in to make sure it was tuned up as well as fueled. They delivered it to the young man who was stunned and incredibly grateful. While this was more of a “big project” if you consider the value of a used car, most of the good deeds they do are smaller in scope, yet greatly help the recipient.

Biking for a Cause…

As I think I’ve previously explained, Hubby moved from just helping with photography with our weekly community paper to being a photojournalist. He’s enjoying it and yesterday he attended an event at the Veterans for Foreign Wars (VFW) post where a check was presented to Rick Fit, a cyclist riding from New Orleans to Key West to Washington D.C., to raise awareness about homeless veterans. The full story will be in next week’s paper. The VFW held a Spaghetti Dinner on Sunday and raised a little over $1,000 for the cause.

Mr. Fit served in the Army for only a short while due to a medical condition that permanently disqualified him from continuing in service. As with certain other conditions, it did not preclude him from many types of employment or activities, yet was not compatible with the physical rigors of military requirements. He later became friends with veterans who suffered PTSD and became aware of the high correlation of PTSD and veteran homelessness. He lives in Louisiana and started looking into the issue more, and began to do things like create backpacks filled with items to distribute to homeless vets and help get them linked in with organizations that had resources available. After the premature death of one of the friends, both of whom spent time in Florida, Rick decided on this cycle venture. His original intent was to make it up to Philadelphia where the other friend lives. Others who support him in his efforts urged him to stop in Washington, D.C. to help add his voice and experiences to members of Congress and groups who are also engaged in veteran homeless actions. One of the things he mentioned to my husband during the interview is how giving people have been during this time in helping him make the journey.

Good T.H.U.G.S…….

As I have mentioned on multiple occasions, writing for the community newspaper allows me to learn about people and organizations I would not necessarily come in contact with otherwise. In actuality, this is another case where I didn’t “meet” this group; Hubby did. I will branch off for a quick explanation. I’m a terrible photographer. There were times when photographs were especially important to a piece and the paper would pay Hugh to take them. On other occasions, it would be a photo-heavy piece such as Fourth of July celebration and they would have Hubby and a couple of the others do an array. A few years ago, I was out of town and there was an event where Hubby went alone and did up a short article. Then as they realized how much he enjoyed and understood racing, and the primary sports writer left, he stepped into the racing piece. Yesterday was what one might call a hybrid situation. I’ve been working the story of “National Rebuilding Day”, but things got really jammed for me. Hubby was always going to do the photos and he kindly agreed to capture the quotes as well. (We also had an event to cover last night, although that’s a different topic). Okay, having set the stage, here’s the thing.

Rebuilding Together, Miami Dade (RTMD), is the area chapter for the national organization. It’s similar to Habitat for Humanity except they repair and renovate other than build entire houses. The last Saturday of April is a nation-wide “blitz” day when as many chapters as can focus on multiple houses to complete projects. Professional contractors are used as required to do major work before and volunteers do finishing painting, landscaping, etc., Five houses were the focus yesterday and as the mayor and the lead people from RTMD went to each house Hubby took photos and talked to homeowners and volunteers. One group was from T.H.U.G.S. – True Heroes Under God’s Sovereignty. This is an organization that works with inner city youth in Miami with the express purpose to mentor boys and prepare them for a life without drugs, violence, and crime. The guy explained they work most closely with 8th and 11th graders to help them get onto the right path as they are entering and becoming seniors in high school. They stress vocational careers as well as college. They are a faith-based organization even though they don’t require the boys to be of the same – or any faith. They’re outside the area we cover for the paper, yet I always appreciate learning about these programs.