BuffettNews.com

Interesting column From the Meridian Star
Published: October 04, 2006 01:28 am

Destin lament

By Robert St. John / food columnist

DESTIN, Fla. — Two fellow Mississippians, Jimmy Buffett and Mac McAnally, wrote a song about being down in this part of the country during the off-season: “The Coast is Clear.”

Twenty years ago, when I first heard the song, I couldn’t relate to it. I thought, that’s just two old guys who don’t like to be around the action anymore. I was living here in Destin at the time, and could imagine how boring it must be when the crowds are gone. I was young and foolish.

...................

From now on, I think I’ll take Mr. Buffett and Mr. McAnally’s advice:

The tourist traps are empty, vacancy abounds
It’s almost like it used to be before the circus came to town
That’s when it always happens, same time every year
I come down to talk to me, when the coast is clear.

Robert St. John is an author, chef, restaurateur, and world-class eater.


http://www.meridianstar.com/local/local ... 12837.html

Well, now he "gets it". Took twenty years, but he "gets it".

chippewa wrote:Well, now he "gets it". Took twenty years, but he "gets it".

my thought, exactly!!!!

funny I loved that song the first time I heard it..

and have never been to the Gulf Shores

Another one of those great "slow" songs ...

"We'll laugh and smoke and cuss and joke
And have a glass of wine"

Always loved that song, I lived on Pensacola Beach on my boat when that song came out, I could identify.

ragtopW wrote:funny I loved that song the first time I heard it..

and have never been to the Gulf Shores

Yeah, but you have been around enough tourist traps to understand the tranquility that comes when they leave.

Living in Boulder, then Aspen and now Newport, I have always loved this song - and in fact I do most of my 'tourist' travelling in the fall if I can! No crowds, usually amazing weather, cheaper rates and often 'locals deals' abound.....

Glad another one finally 'got it'!! Wait a minute....if everyone 'gets it', then will the circus ever leave town????

I put When The Coast Is Clear on every year after they take the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree down and I can finally go outside at lunchtime again. Damn goober toursts.

Two of my three trips to key West have been in off season and i definately relate to this too. Laid back, tables in restaurants, half the
t-sh!t shops closed. Peaceful and easy.

The time I went just before Christmas was a totally different feel

I've loved this song since the first time I heard it. It so wonderfully captures a solitude when you can hear yourself think. I so enjoy the energy of a busy places at times but a quiet beach in an off-season can be a very special place.

Living in a tourist beach town and visiting Key
West in the off-season has always made me
appreciate this song. It never ceases to paint a
picture in my mind as I listen to it.

I've also loved this song since the very first time I heard it. It stopped my in my tracks... Although it was written on and about the Gulf Coast, it spoke to me about my corner of the Atlantic; the New England Coast. I love it when the crowds disappear, things are quiet, you can actually think.

Hello mister other me
It's been a long, long time
We hardly get to have these chats
That in itself's a crime

There's that "other me" in those who love the coast; the one who only comes out when the circus departs....

I have never heard this song live without crying like a baby....

comtnfish wrote:
Glad another one finally 'got it'!! Wait a minute....if everyone 'gets it', then will the circus ever leave town????

ahhhh.....the conundrum of it all.

citcat wrote:

comtnfish wrote:
Glad another one finally 'got it'!! Wait a minute....if everyone 'gets it', then will the circus ever leave town????

ahhhh.....the conundrum of it all.

It'll be a lot harder to get tickets.

SchoolGirlHeart wrote: it spoke to me about my corner of the Atlantic; the New England Coast. I love it when the crowds disappear, things are quiet, you can actually think...

...and I'm enjoying fire island just that way, as we speak!!

For us, any weekend that we go to a certain beach here is hectic. Too many Haitians around with loud monotonous music and people trying to sell us stuff or begging. We try to go to a secluded resturant on the beach during the week now where they serve us fresh grilled lobster and fried bananas with rice. It's a bit quieter better.

Also there we run a retreat center on a knoll above a secluded bay called Zanglais. That brings to mind "One Particular Harbour". No lobster there but well worth the seclusion.

And people wonder why I like being a missionary in Haiti....duh!

Dad and Daughters at Zanglais