{"id":6332,"date":"2017-07-03T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T16:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=6332"},"modified":"2017-07-02T19:50:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T02:50:12","slug":"finding-margaritaville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=6332","title":{"rendered":"Finding Margaritaville in the ‘Hood"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Late best friend, Don Klapperich, introduced me to Jimmy Buffett’s\u00a0<\/strong>music in the late ’80s via cassette tapes from Saudi Arabia. I have since collected\u00a0all his music, videos, read all his books including the Margaritaville<\/strong>\u00a0Cook Book<\/strong>. My Sirius Radio in mostly on \u00a0the\u00a0‘Margaritaville’\u00a0<\/strong>channel, I\u2019ve seen him live in concert numerous times and recently went to San Diego to see the play, Escape to Margaritaville<\/strong>,<\/em> based on his music and lyrics, much like the play Mama Mia <\/em>is based on ABBA\u2019s music. The production is hilarious and is eventually headed to Broadway<\/strong>. I am clearly a big fan – a Parrothead<\/strong>. What is the appeal of a singer whose voice is more a kin to that of a carnival barker? \u00a0The vibe he creates!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marge, Jeanne, Diane, Julie, Reta, Linda, Althea<\/p><\/div>\n

Last weekend, we decided to celebrate the first weekend of summer Jimmy Buffett-style<\/strong>\u00a0by hosting a \u2018Finding Margaritaville\u2019<\/em> <\/strong>party for our neighborhood. How do you find Margaritaville? Where is it? Some people say it\u2019s in the Caribbean<\/strong>, other say it\u2019s in Key West<\/strong> somewhere around Kokomo<\/strong>. According to Mr. Buffett, \u201cMargaritaville is a state of mind where there is booze in the blender, good weather and colorful characters, just on the edge of paradise with a dash of reality thrown in to add flavor.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dianne, Pam, Kathy, Shelly<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, that comes very close to describing the neighborhood we\u2019ve lived in for the past 32 years<\/strong>, especially the part about the colorful characters. It was here I was going to start listing some of the characters and their accomplishments\/antics, but there are 20 some couples that live on the two streets that make up \u2018the \u2018Hood\u2019<\/strong> and there is not room here to do them all justice and I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out, so let\u2019s leave it at it\u2019s a neighborhood filled with interesting, giving people where you can always find booze in the blender.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Banana Dolphins<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marge, her monkey and parrot in her tree<\/p><\/div>\n

A good example of this giving neighborhood occurred when I asked if anyone in the \u2018hood wanted to donate money to help the guide we had in Nepal<\/strong> after his home was destroyed in the 2015 Kathmandu earthquake <\/strong>– I had $1,200<\/strong> on my doorstep that afternoon!\u00a0\u00a0 If someone is sick or housebound for any reason, neighbors will take turns preparing dinner for that family \u2013 and we have a number of outstanding chefs in the ‘hood (Rob<\/strong>\u00a0Warren\u00a0<\/strong>& Richard Wade\u00a0<\/strong>immediately come to mind). When our kids were growing up and playing at each other’s house, wherever they were at lunchtime the mom would fix lunch for the whole gang. No one ever worried about where their kids were or if they had eaten lunch. It is an amazing group of people with whom we are lucky to be associated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Phyllis & Starlet<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Captain Jack<\/p><\/div>\n

At 6:00 on Saturday, the house and yard were in their final stages of decoration; inside the \u2018food island\u2019<\/strong> highlight was the pineapple palm tree<\/strong>, thanks to Marge Dunn<\/strong> and the dolphin fruit plate<\/strong>, thanks to Linda<\/strong> and Starlet<\/strong>. The best decoration outside was the Margarita machine<\/strong>; the surrounding palms and pool complemented it nicely. Partygoers arrived in full ‘Parrotfanalia’<\/strong>. Aside from the 40 attendees who were within walking distance of our house, more importantly within crawling distance home, we had a few family members to add a bit of spice to our already colorful cast of characters; including Linda\u2019s 91 year old mom, Phyllis<\/strong>, who didn\u2019t miss a beat, Linda\u2019s sister, Starlet<\/strong> both in from Minnesota<\/strong> and my brother, Jack<\/strong>, who lent his deft bartending skills to the party, his wife Sharon<\/strong> and her son Brad<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

‘Creative’ winners, Dunns, Baldwins & Webbs<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marc Webb, the Pied Piper, started the ‘pool party’<\/p><\/div>\n

We had a contest to find out “Are You More Creative than Jimmy Buffett?”<\/strong> where couples had to change the titles of Buffett’s songs to something more original. \u00a0I can’t write all the answers we got here due to our PG rating, but needless to say the ‘hood is very creative. \u00a0So of course the party was a success, how could it not be with this group? As they say, a good time was had by all, especially those who jumped in the pool with their clothes on later in the evening \u2013 alcohol may have been a factor.<\/p>\n

I’ve probably forgotten a few things that happened that night, but I know this, the \u2018hood has been a great place to raise our little kids and a great place to raise a little hell. \u00a0 \u00a0Fins Up!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Phyllis bracing for the start of the party<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tanis, Stefanie, Lisa, Doug, Keren, Sandi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bob Sparrow Late best friend, Don Klapperich, introduced me to Jimmy Buffett’s\u00a0music in the late ’80s via cassette tapes from Saudi Arabia. I have since collected\u00a0all his music, videos, read all his books including the Margaritaville\u00a0Cook Book. My Sirius … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[2554,1512,2553,2551,2552,1987,2555,2550,2556],"class_list":["post-6332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holiday-observations","tag-escape-to-margaritaville","tag-jimmy-buffett","tag-kathmandu-earthquake","tag-key-wet","tag-kokomo","tag-margaritaville","tag-parrotfanalia","tag-parrothead","tag-sirius-radio"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-1E8","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Paradise-Found.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6332"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6372,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions\/6372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}