Saturday Night In Lloyd

 

Lily sent the group that picture last night along with some others of Princess Magnolia June Woman Baby. She was going to a princess ball at her school with her dad. I'm not sure the school sponsored it but anyway, it was held in the cafetorium where the princesses and their escorts dined and danced. 

Here's a picture of her with Jason, her handsome daddy. 

Here she looks to me far more like a queen than a princess. Queen Magnolia, ready to address her people. Obviously, she is a staunch defender of all in her rainbow dress and crown. She is magnificent. She is royal! 

It was quite possible that today was the most beautiful day of the year. Or possibly in history. 
The air was sweet. I'm sure I overuse that word but that's the only adjective that I can think of that would describe the gentleness of the way the air felt. Again, cloudless and cool and still feeling clean from the rain two days ago. I weeded a little bit in the garden before Gibson got here. If tomorrow is anything like today was, I hope to spend a lot more time outside. Hank sent around a picture that tugged at all our heartstrings. 

That picture is of an oyster bar that I am sure many, many local people grieve the passing of. It was open for a long time but finally, one last hurricane took it out. It was absolutely THE place to go on a weekend day like this one- cool and clear and always a month with an "R" in it which used to be the only months you could get oysters. September through April, every kind of people flocked there to drink beer, eat oysters either raw or steamed, boiled shrimp or smoked mullet. That was the entire menu until a later incarnation of it when other foods were served. 
There was a jukebox, the floors were so uneven they made you feel drunk before you'd had your second beer. The building jutted out over the water of the St. Mark's river and there was a deck out back. May's first solid food was a bite of smoked mullet there she snatched from me when it was on its way to my mouth. My first husband I used to take Hank and May there frequently and they would eat saltines with cocktail sauce on them until they got old enough to really enjoy the mullet. 
You never knew who you'd see at Posey's. FSU professors and students, lawyers, sheet-rock hangers, carpenters, fisherpeople, hippies, musicians, drug dealers, politicians. The changers of the oil and the tillers of the soil, as my friend Leonard used to say. And all the rest of us too. 

Well. Posey's is no more and the Apalachicola Bay, where once some of the finest oysters on earth were raked, is now off-limits to oystering and that's a whole other story. 
God. We miss the oysters and we miss Posey's and I feel so fortunate that we were able to experience those things while they were here. 

There's a very fine article about the oyster situation in Apalachicola HERE with some gorgeous pictures if you'd like to see it. 

Our boy Gibson is with us tonight. He and I played Battle which he won in  record time. He's played with the Oculus. I've made the sauce and the meatballs for tonight's supper and should get in the kitchen and make the salad, cook the pasta. I think he's glad to be here. He keeps giving me hugs and he gives the best hugs. I wonder if he'll let me read "The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza" tonight. If he does, it'll be out of sheer kindness. He can read as well as I can now. 

Sigh. 

All righty. Y'all enjoy your Saturday night and we will too, here in Lloyd. 

See you tomorrow.

Love...Ms. Moon