Category Archives: St. Augustine

St. Augustine–Bumper Stickers

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Actual:

St. Augustine: A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.

Question Gender

COEXIST

Surfrider Foundation

I Dig 1565

Watch for Motorcycles

I Brake For Turtles

Music Matters

Pink Slip Rick

 

Potential:

St. Augustine: A quaint little philosophical village with a libertarian problem

St. Augustine–Founded by UFOs

St. Augustine: Love Your Local Vortex

I Brake For Lesbians

My Dog is a Vegetarian

Come Back Great Cosmic Happy Ass!

My Prius is Better Than Your Insight

Governor Rick–My Favorite Martian


If you live in Florida you understand the Rick thing. If you live in St. Augustine, you probably get the rest. There was a New Age book store in town in the 1990s called Dream Street whose owner moved to Asheville, North Carolina and started a business called the Great Cosmic Happy Ass. (What a great book store it was).

 

St. Augustine–Timeless Part II

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Of the many famous visitors to Florida and St. Augustine, one particularly famous one was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

“The aspect of St. Augustine is quaint and strange, in harmony with its romantic history. It has no pretensions to architectural richness or beauty; and yet it is impressive from its unlikeness to any thing else in America. It is as if some little, old, dead-and-alive Spanish town, with its fort and gateway and Moorish bell towers, had broken loose, floated over here, and got stranded on a sand-bank. Here you see the shovel-hats and black gowns of priests; the convent, with gliding figures of nuns; and in the narrow, crooked streets meet dark-browed people with great Spanish eyes and coal-black hair. The current of life here has the indolent, dreamy stillness that characterizes life in Old Spain. In Spain, when you ask a man to do any thing, instead of answering as we do, “In a minute,” the invariable reply is, ” In an hour;” and the growth and progress of St. Augustine have been according. There it stands, alone, isolated, connected by no good roads or navigation with the busy, living world.”

Some things never change.

 

St. Augustine–A Timeless Place

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A tropical paradise. A quaint little village. A Bohemian crossroads. A writer's convention. The oldest European settlement in the United States, therefore “the oldest city” in America.

Musicians in the woodwork. Orchestra, choral, organ, opera, festivals. Bluegrass jazz. Folkies who never left. Rockers old, new, famous, infamous. No more hippies playing guitars on the street.

Archaeology. The city has its own archaeologist. An ancient Spanish fort. Indian burial grounds. Colonial quarters. French vs. Spanish vs. English.

Yoga-Yogis-Yoginis. You have to wade chest deep in them to cross the street there are so many.

Sailors. Sailors who are poets. Sailors who are drunkards. Sailors without ships, but still sailors. Sailors who sail around the world and still end up here.

LGBT: Not South Beach, not Liberace. PPP-people public and private living ther their lives. Like moths attracted to a tropical light. “Not your average barrista.”

Negative vibes, man: small, inbred, lot of cronies, politcally, financially. Bubba trucks bad for bicycles.

Tourists. Bikers, Daytonna 500. Mostly naked young people on the beach. Redskins downtown. T-shirt shops. Cigar bar, martini bar, wine bar, brew pub, French bistro.

Key West. St. Augustine. Artists, writers, musicians, healers, free thinkers, sailors, chefs, and…not as much drinking as Key West.

Quirks? Estuaries, scientists, dolphins, astronomy, astrology, ghosts, psychics, bridge, sunsets, water, actors, chiropractic, river, newspaper, peppers, breakfast, pizza.

Old Florida. Old tourism. Fried shrimp. In the 1990s a bit like Northern Exposure tv show. A balmy breeze, palm trees, sandals, a crescent moon, azure sky, a Spanish minaret.