Archival Data

The time stamp on the image is March 24, 2012. Seems about right, and computers never lie¹?

Pandemic Protocols left me with extra time to curate some of my extensive and somewhat strange collection of digital images. “Photos,” to some. In the midst of pawing through 2011 to 2013, I stumbled across a special image, one of Long Boards for sale at the Flour Bluff HEB.

Used to stop at that grocery store, on the way to the coast, sort of the last stop before beach, inshore fishing, and island attitude. ²

I first noticed, it’s one of the “super-store” size of location, but I first noticed the fishing aisle. There’s a marginal taco place in the parking lot, on the feeder road, but the stop itself is that perfect blend of South Texas Cowboy, and Texas Surf Culture, with a hat tip towards Jimmy Buffett³ and some Parrot-heads.

The image is special to me, since I’ve never seen it quite duplicated. The boards for sale, real surfboards, real long boards — for sale, on display, right there in the grocery store.

Archival Data

As a digital artifact, the picture means much, good memories, a fine woman, fishing, beach, island attitude, and South Texas beach cuisine.

Still, in a single image, it captures so much of what my own world is about. Was about? Still is, only less so now.

The photo shows a place where conventional limits are not respected. Who says a grocery store can’t sell a decent long board? Why not? As noted earlier, what I first found in that store was fishing tackle, both inshore and offshore, but what I liked best? Popping corks and shrimp buckets — the perfect combination for a successful afternoon in the bay’s balmy waters.

Until we all get handle own the current conditions, though, my trips⁴ might be a little limited.

Archival Data

As I decamped from Austin favoring a gentler, more bucolic pace, and summer-like more southern climes, I noticed that San Antonio was the gateway to South Texas⁵. Then, there’s also the dynamic and ever-changing barrier island, that littoral zone, where the sea meets the land in an ever shape-shifting arrangement along the beaches and dunes?

The fluid and dynamic nature where the water meets the sky, and the land is battered by the tides?

I went for the fishing, but stayed for the cacophonous clash of cultures, old worlds and new, getting mixed up on the sands of the beach.

Like real surfboards for sale in the grocery store.

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1. See the fineprint. ↩
2. See the Capricorn horoscope from 9.4.2014. ↩
3. Jimmy Buffett album covers as wall art. ↩
4. But not too limited. ↩
5. “There’s a hot wind on my shoulder…” Etc. ↩