PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA
TRASH COLLECTED FOR 20 MIN.
BY JAMIE & MARIAN
5 POUNDS
350.5 POUNDS TOTAL
Thank you to Jamie from Panama City, FL for sending in this Community Count post. She found me through a blog on a similar mission to The Daily Ocean, The Flotsam Diaries. The Flotsam Diaries are one man's quest to document what is washing up on the Atlantic shores of Southern Maine.
Thank you for your efforts Harry! So glad to have found your blog.
Below is the impromptu beach cleanup adventure of Jamie, and her neighbors 10 year old daughter who has very good ideas....Read on!
Jamie has a cool blog called, "Southside Atlanta Memories" - check it out, especially if you feel an affinity with the Atlanta/Florida juncture.
Friday afternoon I went across the street to see my neighbor, who is recovering from an emergency appendectomy.It was late in the afternoon, but I still had energy to burn, and from the looks of it so did her 10 year old daughter.
"Wanna go walk on the beach a little?" I asked innocently.
"Sure!"
"I'll probably pick up a few bottle caps and plastic stuff...Is that OK?" I asked the mom.
"Sure..." groggily. They even had a Target bag right there in the trash can waiting to redeem its sordid existence, like a Quisling in reverse.
"So which way?" I asked Marian, my young comrade in bag.
"That." pointing to the west, toward the only place some of you west coasters may have possibly heard of, Club La Vela (of MTV Spring Break fame.)
Immediately our search was rewarded by clear plastic bottle caps that I have previously identified as matching the water bottles given out by BP contractors to their allegedly spottily paid workers who roam the tide line like dispirited sand people.
Marian is great company, keeping up her end of the conversation so well I can concentrate of being as brain dead as I usually am by Friday afternoon.
"You know we should all come down here at the same time and EVERYONE pick up trash together!" says she.
Surprised-out of the mouths of babes, and all, I butt in,"What a great idea! On September 25th, "we're" going to do that. People from everywhere are going to go to their beaches and do exactly what we're doing right now." I put "we' in parenthesis because there is an ICC already scheduled for thePier Park area, but I'd personally kinda like to do one here on "our" beach here on the east end. Any takers?
"Wanna go walk on the beach a little?" I asked innocently.
"Sure!"
"I'll probably pick up a few bottle caps and plastic stuff...Is that OK?" I asked the mom.
"Sure..." groggily. They even had a Target bag right there in the trash can waiting to redeem its sordid existence, like a Quisling in reverse.
"So which way?" I asked Marian, my young comrade in bag.
"That." pointing to the west, toward the only place some of you west coasters may have possibly heard of, Club La Vela (of MTV Spring Break fame.)
Immediately our search was rewarded by clear plastic bottle caps that I have previously identified as matching the water bottles given out by BP contractors to their allegedly spottily paid workers who roam the tide line like dispirited sand people. Marian is great company, keeping up her end of the conversation so well I can concentrate of being as brain dead as I usually am by Friday afternoon.
"You know we should all come down here at the same time and EVERYONE pick up trash together!" says she.
Surprised-out of the mouths of babes, and all, I butt in,"What a great idea! On September 25th, "we're" going to do that. People from everywhere are going to go to their beaches and do exactly what we're doing right now." I put "we' in parenthesis because there is an ICC already scheduled for thePier Park area, but I'd personally kinda like to do one here on "our" beach here on the east end. Any takers?
Panama City, FL looking west..one of the most beautiful beaches in the world
This "clean up" was totally impromptu-I had no thought for how long we'd be out. So when eco girl decided it was time to turn around and go home, (not long after picking up a dead chofer which had looked for all the world like the torn off corner of a plastic candy wrapper) I was OK with that.
And our bag was full. There are county maintained blue trash cans on the beach where I could have dumped my trove, so to speak, but I'd already gotten the idea that this little trip could be my "letter to the other coast" so I wanted to take our goodies home to photograph.
Here, dear reader; our offerings to you. The fruit of about- yes, 20 minutes of walking (albeit after tropical winds spending a week in our Gulf) on about one half - three quarters of a mile of Panama City Beach, FL.
Here, dear reader; our offerings to you. The fruit of about- yes, 20 minutes of walking (albeit after tropical winds spending a week in our Gulf) on about one half - three quarters of a mile of Panama City Beach, FL.
