WE’VE GOT FINS TO THE LEFT! FINS TO THE RIGHT!
The 50th anniversary of the movie JAWS is officially in sight!
We are celebrating JAWS this issue knowing that it’s the movie that launched a whole lot of fun for a whole lot of people. I remember when the movie came out the Summer of 1975.
My parents took me to see the movie after they had already gone to see it. It is considered the very first in a long line of Summer Blockbusters!
We went DOWNY OCEAN HON that August! In Ocean City, JAWS FEVER was everywhere. I remember my mommy reading the novel while we made JAWS sandcastles. The number of people getting in the ocean was down by significant amounts for a few summers afterward. It is probably the movie that sparked Jimmy Buffett’s song FINS! Because of JAWS, Hundreds of thousands of Parrot Heads have followed Jimmy with the fins out!
The first girl to die in JAWS, the naked girl on our front cover also had dandruff… They found her head and shoulders on the beach…
CEILING FANS HAVE PROPELLERS JUST LIKE BOATS
The other day I was installing a new ceiling fan Kisha had asked for.
Removing the old fan was easy. Installing the new fan was also easy… until I got above the propellers. That’s when it got hard… really hard… Trying to fit the remote unit, three connected household wires, adding the grounding wire, pushing all the other wires into a little upside-down tin bowl and ultimately getting the tin bowl connected to the mounting bracket. The tin bowl was just too small to fit everything. IT WAS AT THAT MOMENT that I realized the joke was on me.
This ceiling fan was obviously designed by someone who came from the boat design business! Ugh, but eventually I did win!
Kammy J & the realization: WHAT KIND OF A DOCK BAR IS THIS ANYWAY?
So, 4 or 5 years ago when the Kamster was 6, we were at a local watering hole as a family. At the designated area for kids to order a beverage, rather than a Shirley Temple, Roy Roger or Sprite, Kammy ordered a virgin strawberry daiquiri. The bartender explained they didn’t have strawberry daiquiris! So, she asked for a virgin pina colada to which the bartender explained they don’t sell frozen drinks! The 6-year-old next says, “What kind of Dock Bar is this anyway?” I looked at the bartender and said, “You know she’s right.” So, we boated to the Dock Bar next door… (Lesson… kids sometimes choose where the boat goes!)
THE PERFECT SUBLIME BOATING MOMENT FROM CAPTAIN RAY’S EPITOME OF KNOWLEDGE
So, you are sitting anchored up somewhere watching the sunset. Wife is by your side, the beer is cold, the grilled dinner perfect, the dog is content and you just had a fabulous day of boating. Not like a month ago when you were waiting on a mechanic to fix your steering, the horn was broken, the marina was out of patience, covered in bottom paint and one zinc was the wrong size.
The dog is barking and you’re late for your wife’s dinner gathering. So… that is when you reflect on today, think about how lucky you are, and experience… The Sublime Boating Moment… When everything is finally what you had hoped it would be!
THE TALL SHIP CUAUHTÉMOC in happier more sublime times in Baltimore with the Francis Scott Key Bridge behind her. May they both be restored.
