The Five-year Phenomenon

The Five-year Phenomenon is a trend that many believe to be real. Although palm trees and paradise are synonymous with dreams come true, and Hollywood has always wonderfully portrayed the sultry images of sunsets in the South Seas and the unique flamboyance of Florida, a stubborn longing for greener grass in different pastures, Never Neverland, or home-sweet-home is never truly out of sight.

One couple, not too many seasons ago, made the move to Marco and gave up everything in the Big Apple. Tony was a retired cop with twenty-five years on the force of New York City’s finest, and his wife Diana was a former “Rockette.” Diana later worked in the theater on Broadway while her husband was a detective in Little Italy and Chinatown.

After being born and raised in the big city and working until the minimum age of retirement, Diana and Tony found Marco, fell in love with the palm trees and sunsets, and made the move to paradise. The move was full of big changes that were not expected. After the first few weeks turned into months, and the change of seasons never really happened, and hot and muggy was a new way of life for summer, the couple who always wore versions of black and leather began to miss everything about the change of the seasons and life in The City. After only a year, Tony and Diana said goodbye to their new friends on Marco and moved back to the action-packed hustle and bustle of New York City.

As with many stories, The Five-year Phenomenon also has another side of the tale and another point of view. For any who hear the call of the wild and move away from home and truly fall in love with palm trees and sunsets and stay more than five years, an old Florida rhyme certainly rings true: “Watch out! If you come to Florida and get sand in your shoes, you can never get it out!” Meaning: if anyone stays longer than five years, “the sand in the shoes” is irreversible, and Florida will always be just like Peter Pan and Wendy in Never Neverland.

For a particular beach boy who, in fact, did get sand in his shoes and fell in love hard with the palm trees, sunsets and island life, and stayed past The Five-year Phenomenon with no intention of ever leaving Never Neverland, one tiny aspect of northern adventure and life in colder climes did persistently beckon.

Snow for the Beach Boy was always a faraway and elusive fantasy and held in mystical high regard. Snow and a brisk winter chill were truly the opposite of hot and muggy.

Throughout the many years of working and playing outdoors, snow for the Beach Boy was exciting and elusive, and after many more than five years, the Marco Beach Boy was ready for a snowy adventure.

April was late for snow, but not in Minnesota. When the opportunity came, and a chance to fly to Minneapolis came into fruition, the beach boy was ecstatic. The Great Plains were, hopefully, waiting under a beautiful blanket of snow.

Seasonal friends from Marco needed a favor. A sudden calamity had left a dairy farm shorthanded with an elderly relative waiting in need. The mission was to fly up and then drive an SUV all the way into the northern borders to the remote farm in the woods. The beach boy begged for time off after Spring break and excitedly climbed aboard a northern-bound airliner.

When the airplane landed and the winter bite of April in Minnesota came snapping out of a blustery northern zephyr that had nothing to do with the balmy tropics, the Marco Beach Boy took in a delightful draught of fresh, frosty air before climbing into the four-wheel drive that was waiting in the long-term parking.

The chill of winter and the icy air was exotic, but the Great Plains reaching out with vast fields and bare trees, was as intimidating as any ocean. The air was indeed refreshing, and it was fun to drive with the windows down until frostbite became a consideration, but the snow was elusive. Discarded patches of white litter along the roadways were the only suggestion of excitement, but a low woolly sky was clearly offering the promise of snowflakes and a drive through a winter wonderland.

The interstate highways the beach boy knew were usually winter-free and clear for driving, but the back roads on the GPS were offering a much more adventurous and rural route.

After two hours, a major highway became a lonely two lane, and rolling hills began to replace the ocean of plains, snow began abruptly and began to batter the windshield. Almost at once, the snow began to gather and cover the surrounding hills and the roadway. The wind picked up soon after the snow was making the road disappear, and when the headlights and the windshield wipers began having trouble coping with the snow that was no longer elusive, the Marco Beach Boy turned on the radio and began to hear an urgent weather forecast and the warning of a fast approaching winter storm.

When the radio announcer warned of widespread blizzard conditions, the beach boy realized he was in a dangerous situation, and the allure of the exotic that had brought Tony and Diana from the Big Apple to Marco was the same attraction that was waiting ahead on the snow-covered road that was no longer visible.

After several hours of nerve-wracking driving, on the mere suggestion of a highway and a winter wonderland that was actually happening in spring, a small town appeared along with the realization that The Five-year Phenomenon is a true test of where to find home-sweet-home and possibly Never Neverland.

Tom Williams is a Marco Islander and the author of two books: “Lost and Found” and “Surrounded by Thunder - The Story of Darrell Loan and the Rocket Men.” Both books are available on Kindle and Nook.