Thinking About How We Got Here and Hoping For a Strong Future

Well, if you’re new to this little piece of paradise and you thought it was busy prior to this week that we’ve just entered, you are in for a little bit of a surprise! Although we say that season begins around Thanksgiving and continues to around Easter, that is only somewhat correct, and perhaps during the last two years we have begun a new “seasonal cycle.”

Regardless, I will look forward to catching up with some of our seasonal friends who have already arrived or who will arrive across the bridge to the place they like to call home for a few months. 

I’ve been here long enough (36 years) to have many friends who can proudly say that their children were born here. They can also say with pride that they are “Native Marco Islanders.”

Folks such as Rich and Paul Reisinger, a couple of great guys who married sisters and have since brought up wonderful families here. Chris Quinton, who has two young boys that were born here. He and his wife Kristina moved here before they started their family, when Chris mustered out of the Army after serving his nation proudly in uniform. 

Sean Shea and his wife Jamie LaCava Shea both grew up here and have two terrific kids who were born here. My good friend Tony Smith and his wife Martina also put permanent roots down here after Smith met his wife. You would think that Smith was a native, except for his noticeable British accent. Smith proudly served as a Grenadier Guardsman in the British Army, but in the 1980’s fell in love with his second home in America (as well as his beautiful wife!). The couple raised their Marco-born children right here.

Oh, there are so many others like these families, repopulating the island with “Native Marcoites.” You can’t help but smile when you hear about them and have the privilege to get to know them as your neighbors and friends. Unfortunately, I’ll probably lose a few friends when they see that I inadvertently omitted their names, but it would take another two pages of writing to name them all.

I sort of cringe when I hear someone who has been here a long time complain about the island’s growth. Unfortunately, growth is a natural phenomenon, whether from those who migrate here or those who were born here then returned to raise their families because of the quality of life which all of us living on Marco have discovered. Like me, they could have made that discovery almost 40 years ago. Or, like many others, their discovery came just a year ago when they visited on vacation or attended a conference at one of our fabulous resorts on the island.

To be honest with you, I discovered Marco Island when my boss invited me to join him for a trip to East Naples where his parents had retired to almost 50 years ago from the Detroit area. They had a beautiful little mobile home at the Hitching Post Mobile Home Park on East Tamiami Trail. It sits right behind the Race Trac gas station which is across from the new Donna Fiala Park on 41.

His dad took us to his favorite little bar where he said they had the best hamburgers and coldest beer. I thought we were traveling into the Amazon jungle on this small two-lane road. In fact, I-75 ended at the exit we know as 101. To go further toward Fort Lauderdale, you would gamble with your life to cross Alligator Alley. 

After traveling about eight miles, we crossed the Judge Jolley Bridge onto what today many of us call home. Of course, that was the first time I had ever seen Marco Island. On that trip I fell in love with the Snook Inn and its laid-back atmosphere. I was hooked! Upon flying back to New Hampshire, I couldn’t get Marco Island out of my mind. The rest is history. That was in 1986 and here we are today, all of us thinking about the first time we came here. Some of you may even be busy trying to figure out how you will make the transition here in the future.

No, this is not the same place I found in 1986, but I don’t know anyplace that is the same. It is unfortunate that we can’t freeze time and keep everything as it was, but if we were to do that think about everything that we would have missed. We can’t turn back time, but what we can do is ensure that as we move forward, we do it in a reasoned and intelligent manner while protecting what we have.

Yes, there are mistakes that have been made, not on purpose and not with malice in mind. If mistakes are made it is because we are imperfect as human beings. However, should we only look for fault and not solutions we will bear an equal amount of responsibility if the issues never improve. 

I remember an older gentleman who used to hang around my dad’s barber shop. He was a grey haired distinguished looking man who always seemed to offer some reasonable comments. At 12 or 13 years of age while sweeping the floor before my dad closed the shop for the day, I had many opportunities to listen to those “older men” who debated the day’s issues at my dad’s barber shop. 

One day, Ken Jones, the man I mentioned earlier, said something that has always stuck with me. “It wouldn’t be smart to throw the baby out with the bathwater, guys.” Oh, these weren’t his words, but the fact he had the presence of mind to say them may have directed the conversation in a more productive direction. 

No point is more salient today than the need for more creative and positive discussions that are aimed at solving problems and not just casting blame, no matter where you are. Let’s hope future generations have the foresight to understand that simple rule.