Cleo's
Corner - Cold, Squirrels, Cigarette Butts and New Beginnings
Coping with the cold
Yes, it is cold. But I remember last year slipping on a piece
of ice on the sidewalk on 17th Avenue and Gulf Way in Pass-a-Grille.
That cold snap lasted just a short time, however, and this one
seems to go on forever. Since I grew up here at a time when stoves
or heaters were not in every house, and we were at the poorer
end of the scale, I thought a little advice from a “survivor”
might help.
•  When
you get dressed or you dress the children, use your electric hair
drier and blow some hot air inside your shirt, skirt, socks…wherever.
My niece, Karen Willis, who is a hairdresser, taught me that one
and it works like a charm.
• Fill a gallon plastic bottle (we used glass) with HOT
water and move it around your spot in the bed. Then put your feet
around it and you’ll find it stays warm to morning.
• Put on layers. Make sure one goes up your neck and the
other down your ankles into your socks. Helps a lot to seal out
the cold and then put on layers. We would put one sweater on top
of the other…sometimes up to four…to keep warm.
• Put bird food out. I have delighted in watching the birds
and squirrels enjoy a meal during this difficult time.
Squirrels have come to St. Pete Beach
 Speaking
of squirrels, we didn’t have any of those animals in my
day--rattlesnakes, cottonmouths and water rats, yes, but no squirrels...until
recently. I heard a story, which I assume is true, that a woman
saved a squirrel in St. Petersburg and brought it home to nurse
it to health in PAG. When it recovered, she released it and we
now have more than one! I wondered how the squirrels and the rats
would get along, and I got my answer this week. As I was looking
out my kitchen window at the bird feeder, I saw lots of birds
busy eating. Then I saw a rustle of leaves and when I looked up
into the tree, there was a squirrel and a rat, each eating away
amicably not three inches from each other.
Please Put Your Butts Where They Belong--Mother
Earth is Not an Ashtray
 When
I was in my 30’s I smoked about a packet of cigarettes a
day for seven years. As I try to recall that time, I asked myself,
“Cleo, did you just drop the garbage end of your cigarette
on the ground?” and of course my answer was Yes. We all
did. We didn’t realize that our mothers would not be coming
along behind us to pick them up. We also didn’t realize
how disastrous they are in the wild.
In fact, cigarette and Tiparillo butts have become one of the
biggest pollutants on the earth and can be found on every trail,
path, sidewalk and corner of the woods or top of a mountain no
matter where you go.
I ask smokers and non-smokers to think about this. Every butt
that you drop has the potential to kill an animal. It simply cannot
go through the digestive track. Unfortunately, when they are floating
in the water they often look like little jellyfish which are quite
desirable to eat. Each butt is a walking time bomb that will be
where you dropped it, assuming an animal does not pick it up,
for the next seven to ten years for regular cigarette butts and
much longer for Tiparillos.
Is that alright with you? Whether you smoke or not, the question
is directed at you. I have picked up butts from one end of Pass-a-Grille
to the other, even though I no longer smoke.  I
simply don’t want to see my land cluttered with things that
have come from humans’ mouths with who knows what disease
or contamination on it. Someone said to me that weather and time
cleans them up. Really? Do we know that for sure? If someone has
HIV and throws a butt down on the ground after he or she has been
salivating all over it, do we really trust that if we walk on
it without knowing it, we won’t pick the disease up on that
cut on your foot you forgot about?
Here’s another view. We don’t like dog poop both because
it looks bad and because it could carry disease. Right. Same with
cigarette and Tiparillo butts.
So…instead of just griping about this I’ve decided
that every day when I go for my walk I will pick up 10 butts and
put them where they belong…in the garbage can. “EWWWhhhh,”
I hear people say. “I don’t want to touch those butts
with my hands.” Correct, but until we get smokers to be
responsible for their own butts, the rest of us have to be their
mothers simply to save nature. So pick up a butt (use a tissue,
leaf, whatever is available) and drop it in the garbage and then
pat yourself on the back. You have taken one small step to clean
up our environment of these ugly, dirty, unhealthy butts.
For more information about the impact of cigarette butts, please
go to http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Butts.html
for a sobering review of their impact.
 Mr.
Bill from Pass-a-Grille tells his story…
I am in the process of writing a book with an old Pass-a-Grille
resident, Bill McArthur, who is 91 and came to PAG in 1926. The
stories he tells me are fascinating and I will be publishing them
on this site as sort of a mini-series. At the same time I have
been working on my book of growing up in Pass-a-Grille called
Sand in My Soul which also will be presented in a mini-series
of articles over the year.
What I have discovered so far is how wonderful it is to be part
of a community. One story after another shows how we helped each
other then and it pleases me that I can see the tradition alive
and well in 2010. When dogs go missing, people help. When people
get sick, people help. When new neighbors need something, people
help. In other words, our community is not afraid to help out
wherever it is needed and I encourage you, as you walk into 2010,
to keep an eye out for where you may be needed. Maybe you can
babysit a child while the mother is working, drive someone somewhere
for a doctor appointment or simply take someone to go shopping.
I got a bigger Christmas
present than I even asked for!
This year at Christmas I was surprised
by a series of events that really shook up my traditional season.
For the past fifteen years, I have spent Christmas alone until
my daughter and granddaughters arrive several days after. There’s
lots to do here so I was never lacking activity, but lonely, yes.
This year, however, about two weeks before Christmas I was asked
by two young people I know, Cory (23) and Brittany (25) if they
could move in with me to save rent over the holidays. Of course
I said yes since I like both of them. Well, Brittany also brought
her 7-year old son Patch which was still just fine (he’s
a great kid).
Two days after they have all moved in, settled their clothes and
lives into my guest suite, and seemingly filled the house, I met
Jordan. Many people met Jordan over the month and a half that
he graced our island and lives. Jordan hails from Oregon, lost
the use of his legs in a skiing accident at 18 and decided at
27 to drive from Oregon to Key West with his 1-year old Lab, Nora.
He outfitted a Jeep van, put he, his wheelchair and Nora in it
and off they went.
Somewhere around Clearwater, his Jeep gave out and Jordan had
to move all his stuff into a storage shed. He was offered a small
room to sleep in until he could sell enough of his photographs,
with or without frames, to buy another van. So Jordan, undaunted
by wheelchair and dog, started catching the public bus to Pass-a-Grille
(or St. Petersburg, depending on the day) and selling his photos
where Paradise Grille is. Rita and Mike were very kind to him
and he prospered, a little.
 I
met Jordan one day when I saw his photos on the ground. At first
I thought he was a vagrant but once I saw his photos I realized
he knew his stuff. We talked, I bought ten photos for Christmas
presents, and went on my way.
Two days later I passed him again in the same place. This time,
however, his left foot was barefoot and resting on the knee of
his right leg. When I looked down I saw the ugliest, infected,
open wound about the size of a 50 cent piece on the top of his
foot. The tongue in his shoe had rubbed it raw but since he had
no feeling, he didn’t know it happened.
I asked him if he could take care of such a bad wound where he
was staying and he said, “Well, not really.” I quickly
took an inventory of my house, realized I already had a 23- and
24-year old and that this 27-year old would just add to the “family”
for the holidays. Jordan and Nora were old timers at settling
in and within a day we had all relaxed and were starting to really
enjoy the holidays.
 I
had him soak his foot in salt water several times a day and then
cover the open sore with the raw side of a piece of Aloe plant…not
bottled Aloe, but the fresh Aloe plant out of my garden. Within
seven days the wound healed over and was good to go.
After the holidays the girls moved back to their house, Jordan
and Nora went on to Key West in the used van he had bought with
his photo sales, and my dog, Rhino, and I settled in to our usual
routine again. Best holidays I’ve had in years and least
anyone make the mistake of saying I was such a good person, believe
me the real gift was how they made my holiday!
Read Nature Articles for the month of January to see all that
you can see in this very busy, important month of the year. (Click
here to read the article.)
And continue to have a happy New Year.
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