Learning not to hate Florida

I return to my first visit to Florida with my pal Joe. The Epcot Center and Daytona Beach “turned me off”. And ‘though it was great to see Al and Doris Williams in Leesburg, I did not think highly of their Town.

Nonetheless there were bright moments.

1. Al and Doris drove Joe and I to a neat restaurant which was either by the sea, or by a river. As I check my maps I suppose that they took us to Crystal Rover, or to Homassa – each place being some 40 – 50 miles west of Leesburg. I seem to remember that it was a rainy day, and also that our lunch place was “cool”.


2. When Joe and I returned to Leesburg after our trip to Sea World we ate dinner at an independent Fried Chicken joint. (We’d asked Doris and Al not to prepare dinner for us so that we would not be bound by the clock).


In memory I think that we ate the best Fried Chicken ever - so good indeed that I cannot eat KFC, nor bear to smell it.



3. On leaving the Fried Chicken joint, we discovered a flat tire/tyre on my Mazda 323. Joe and I took the wheel off, replacing it with one of those old “donut” spares. We were due to drive back to Massachusetts the next day, and I knew that we should not attempt such a drive on a donut wheel. I began to fret.


But within minutes of driving towards Al and Doris’s home we passed a “24 Hour” tire/tyre business. We U-turned into the tire/tyre shop, and within minutes the man on duty found and installed a “used” tire/tyre – sufficient for our drive home.

That was so great, but “get this”: the man on duty had only one hand. His other arm ended in a handless stump. This man earned his bread by changing wheels and tires/tyres.

As I watched this man at his work, I swore that I would never again complain about my lot in life.

But of course I have whined many times since then.

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