Another Neighborhood Christmastime Get Together

The wood roofed shed attached to the rear of the house looks straight out of the 1950's, and you half expected to see an old Ford pick-up hitched up to a trailer carrying an air boat, ready to go at a moments notice out to the Everglades for some bass fishing or maybe some deer hunting. People just don't build sheds like that anymore, at least in town they don't, and the Everglades which started a few miles to the west at U.S. 27 not that many years ago? Now you need to drive through another couple dozen miles of bumper-to-bumper congested roads in the subburbs before you can get anywhere near places where bass can be caught or deer hunted.

On the other hand, one creature which was on the endangered list twenty years ago, the alligator, is thriving just fine and adapting nicely to urbanization by eating ducks (and the occasional dog) in urban canals and golf course ponds, and they even show up in backyard swimming pools on occasion. Just a few days ago there was a story in the paper about some guy who makes a living (a good one too, it seems!) diving for lost golf balls in country club lakes. A big 'gator grabbed him, but a couple of bystanders managed to get him free with no life threatening wounds.

But here I was, visiting some nearby members of one of the local civic organizations, probably the homeowners association, and ultimately people are people. After dinner the ladies clean up the kitchen and then sit around the living room chatting about what ladies chat about while the guys go out back. Notice the big screen TV in the background. Can't miss the game now, can we? And on the right is a refrigerator (right next to the washing machine) so there was plenty of beer and ice. Councilman Jacques Despinosse has to learn to relax more though, loosen up a bit, and try going just one evening not wearing a tie and jacket.