Cleo's Corner (3.8.10)

By: Cleo Robertson

During very bad weather, I often forget to ring the bell. Are you wondering what bell? If you go to 10th Avenue in Pass-a-Grille and drive over to the Gulf side, you will find Paradise Grille. You can park and walk around a small building and viola! There’s the bell! Where on earth did it come from, you might ask?

The idea for a bell came from a visit I made to Austin, Texas. There, on top of a mountain, a Mexican restaurant carries on the tradition of ringing a bell every night at sunset. How wonderful, I thought, as I enjoyed my meal and the crowd that was enjoying the bell-ringing ritual.

Fast forward a few months and I’m back in Pass-a-Grille sitting at a sunset with not a person around. I realized that people are most likely inside watching TV and I decided that I wanted to create a place for people to join together each evening.. I drove to St. Petersburg, went in every antique shop I could find and finally found a man who said that he had an old school bell. I asked if I could see it and he promptly called someone in from outside to take care of the shop while he drove me to see the bell he had stored for 30 years.

It was a great bell all right. I drove right back to the Seaside Grille (the name at the time) and asked Bernie, who was the operator/manager, if he would put the bell up. Sure enough, some local men came together and all put up our first bell. Now in the evening when I went to the Grille, people would be hanging around to ring the bell. It reminded me of the 1940’s when the Pass-A-Grille hotel was located on the current Paradise Grille location. Back then, locals would gather each night to celebrate the setting of the sun.

Today the tradition continues and each person who signed the “Sunset Bell Book” can see their name and the thoughts they wrote at the time of their visit. We have been continuing the tradition since March 27, 1997 and it is with the help of many that it will continue for years to come. A special thanks goes to Jim Meyers who has been diligent in seeing to it that the bell is rung. Come join us any evening and ring the bell in memory of someone or something important to you.

Here are a few words of wisdom to guide us on our way:
- As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

- You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time.

- You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

- You'll fight with your best friend.

- You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

- You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back. Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
~anonymous~

Making Pearls

I was curious one day about how pearls are formed so I looked up “oyster” on Google and sure enough I got my answer. As they toss around on a sandy bed, sand sometimes enters the oyster’s shell. Because this sand was not requested, invited, nor wanted by the oyster, the oyster does all it can to get “rid” of the sand. In this process, which can take some time, a beautiful, shiny pearl is created.
When I read this information it occurred to me that oysters aren’t much different from life. We all try to avoid getting “something” under our skin—an annoying boss, a pushy friend, a thoughtless teacher, a bothersome husband or wife. We don’t like to have crises or “bad” things happen to us either. And yet, it is this very “something” that is like sand, making us work to handle the pain, the anger or the despair we may be feeling.

Think about it. How often have you had the experience of having something rather unpleasant happen to you, but a month, a year or many years later, you see why it was good that it had happened? Ever heard someone tell their story about being laid off of a job and being devastated only to find themselves sometime after involved in something that was far more satisfying and rewarding? I have, many times. Even as I was trying to find food and someone to talk to as a child, I learned lessons that have served me well in my adult years.
My mom was like so many other residents back in the 1940’s and 1950’s in Pass-a-Grille; after work they went to one of the many local bars and had a beer or drink, swapped stories of their day and generally relaxed. This meant that there was no one at home when we returned from school or playing. This means that I started taking care of myself at a very young age.

I would walk to the beach and play in the sand (yes, at 3 years of age but often my 5-year old sister was with me). Sometimes we’d walk to the pier and see what people had caught that day. When the tarpon boats came in we always were there watching them put the huge fish on hooks for weighing (you can see pictures of these catches at the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum located on 10th Avenue in Pass-a-Grille). The point, however, is that my sister Nancy and I learned to fend for ourselves at a very early age. In later years I can see how that translated into my life. I was able to survive when totally broke at 42 years of age, able to invent software because I never had any limits put on my thinking and able to travel all over the world alone because I learned at an early age how to deal with strangers.

As you go about your day in paradise, see if you can’t let the sand that’s flying around in your life get rubbed just enough to turn into a glorious pearl.

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At the top right-hand side of the stpetebeachtoday.com website there is a white space for you to enter your email address. Wondering why you would want to do that? If you enter your email address we can email you a summary of the top stories in St. Pete beach. You can click on an article, read it and return directly to your email. You can also save it until you have more time. If you don’t want to receive the updates after you get your first one, you can simply unsubscribe at the bottom of the email and you are off the list.

Now, if you have been receiving the update and love them, why don’t you FORWARD them to everyone on your list? Don’t you want all your friends to have the same access to local information at their fingertips? I heard from one woman in Michigan who loves her ability to read about Nature each month in order to decide what month she wants to visit. Another local told me that they check our weather map daily because the links are so accurate. Whatever part of the website that helps you the most will probably help someone else, so pass on the good news.

Here are blessings for your day and hopes that you see one thing today that you have never had the pleasure of seeing before.

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