Southernism Being Reclaimed By Nature

Amongst the skeeters and poison ivy, the humidity and the heat, lies the hearts of southern men and women. What was once piss and vinegar, feisty and brazen, now seem to have been tamed by time. The ticking of the clock is not quite as fast as it once was. When he was young, he could not wait till he found love and no matter how many times he tried, it just never felt right. Like dancing a waltz in four four time. Now his youth was a little behind him and his stirring was not as it used to be. He had found “like”, but “love” seemed to still dangle in the distance like a carrot on a string on a stick for this mule headed person of a man he had become. That is until today when he just happened to turn the corner of aisle seven in the Piggley Wiggley and run right into Jeb.

Jeb had just relocated down from Yankeeville as I later kidded him. He had moved after his business partner had decided to retire and sell the beachside store in the Carolina’s. Jeb had decided to return back to the sultriness of the south and the Bay Area seemed to fit the bill.

I stood there, a little embarrassed by the fact I had run a man down, but more embarrassed that I was still standing there looking at him like he was, like he was, well, I did not know why I was still looking at him. I only realized I was smiling a little when he smiled back and asked if I was alright. My forehead developed a slight case of perspiration and my heart beat a little faster. Thought maybe I was getting the flu, but my mind said no you fool, look again. I decided to attempt to speak, but decided to just look…and smile…and perspire…

Jeb was the kind of man that everyone wanted to be their friend. He was loyal, kind, always quick with a joke or could fill a room with laughter. As long as Katherine was beside him, his life was magical. But five years ago, Katherine was taken from his side in a rather quick accidental drowning just off the shore from where Beach Treasures sat along the seafront boardwalk of shops and eateries.

Jeb had grieved in his own special way of putting on a great front of “it’s all good” while he felt a little piece of him had died along with her. Inside, he was a wreak, outside, he was just Jeb. For four years he continues to stare out to the waters as he worked in the shop…was he still looking for her to return, or was he longing for the hurt to stop so his life could continue? When his business partner decided it was time to sell the shop, Jeb saw it as time to start anew.

To leave the sea, never, but a relocation to a different sort of sea, well, that was a possibility. When he had heard of the little town by the bay had a shop owner that was trying to retire and pass on the tradition of Treasures by the Bay, it seemed as if fate was telling him here was his new chapter of life, but he did not realize just how different it would begin to turn out.

At least not until he turned the corner at the Piggly Wiggly where shopping for the weekend had suddenly taken a different sort of turn.


I could not get Jeb out of my mind. My Piggly Wiggly shopping spree had been on replay in my mind ever since our run in. So I decided to see if I had the same reaction the next time I ran into Jeb.

A week had passed and our logistics did not seem to line up, so I decided I needed to stop by Treasures by the Bay with hopes of a Jeb sighting. My best shirt, jeans and flip flops and I, sat outside the store for a few minutes accessing the situation, trying to come up with a plan that did not scream of desparation. Finally, I opened the car door and heard a voice behind me.

“Finally decided to get out, huh”? And there he was. Jeb, walking around the corner of the shop, arms loaded with Amazon boxes probably of merchandise for the store. His mouth, half smiled with an impish grin and his eyes…god his eyes… the most beautiful color of green I never thought existed in the color spectrum. I could not think of a damn thing to say.

“Come on inside, we might need to talk” he said as he held open the door with his foot. It was all I could do to just follow him inside, yet to speak.

“I am guessing you are having the same kind of week that I have been having, to run into you again but not really knowing why I wished it would happen”

I managed a little laugh. Here was two grown men, feeling some sort of a new connection. Neither knowing what it was or why it was, but just knew it was nice. Nice with a side of a homey feel. Nice and homey and great.


He followed me into the shop not saying a word, which seemed to scare me a little. Was he not on the same wavelength as myself? Had I “dared to dream” that this man was a sign that my life was about to not be as lonely as before the accident? I turned and saw the look he had on his face, not seeming to understand what was going on or what it really meant.

“So, tell me why you’re here”.

He looked up and quietly said “I honestly do not know except I had to see you”.

OK, so maybe there was some sort of a connection that I was inclined to like after all. Our eyes connected and then we just looked into each others hearts for a minute, getting a read on each other and exchanging pain of the past with a side order of hope…hope for a future?


I had always been the quiet one, Ben the quiet one, Ben needs to take a more active part in class, my first grade teacher had said. But what did she know, she was a force to reckon with, a child degrader that terrified the bejesus out of me…as a child, and still causes me to doubt myself in public situations when I did not know what to say to this day. And this was one such day.

Jeb stood there, looking at me, for what seemed to be eons. But actually, I was beginning to warm up a little and finally said that I was here to prove a point? To solve a problem? To scratch an itch? No, definitely not the last one!

“I, um, I wanted to see about getting some beachy type things to decorate my house on the bay. I have some people coming for a visit and want it to have a certain feel”. I lied. Not that I did have some people coming, but I did not need anything from this place but just to have a chance to see Jeb again.

He gave me a wink and turned to walk off, when he did an about face. “I had hoped you might have found what you might be looking for”. One side of his lips turned upwards with a slight smile. “Or maybe I have been reading the situation wrong”.

No, he was not wrong…he and I both knew it…

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