May 30 – “Livin’ on Galveston Island … in the Summer”

Many things vary according to the seasons.  They say romantic love is like that.  Wildly passionate one moment and tragically cool the next.  And the seasons of man were the source of the most famous riddle known to man, the Riddle of the Sphinx.  But not much can compare to the vastly different seasons experienced by those of us who live on Galveston Island.    Some say they can be narrowed down to two, rainy and dry.  But honestly, unless there is a hurricane in the Gulf, it really doesn't rain all that much here.  And speaking of hurricanes, that is one season we prefer not to dwell on.  It begins in June and doesn't end until November, so we live under that cloud of uncertainty for half the year.  I would certainly agree with those who list Mosquito Season as one of the big ones.  When it does finally rain, those little tiny eggs are just waiting in the grass to hatch and attack.  There are local legends about small dogs being carried away by Galveston mosquitoes.    This is Memorial Day weekend, and for Galveston Island, it is the "official" start of the Summer Tourist Season.  I know that weather people say summer doesn't begin until sometime after June is half over, but that just doesn't make sense here.  The beach is free, so as soon as people can work up an excuse - and Memorial Day Weekend is the first and best one - then they start the yearly inundation that doesn't really stop until school starts back in August or September.  And Galveston as a whole is thankful that they come.  We don't really have any industry here, unless you can count American National Insurance Company or maybe the "new" University of Texas Medical Branch.  The island survives on tourism.  So if most locals were honest, they would have to say, "Bring 'em on."  And so I stand with the locals.  Bring 'em on.  But does everyone have to be here all at once?    Today we had to go to Tiki Island, which is a little subdivision just on the Texas side of the causeway.  My niece just graduated from college and is getting ready to head to Virginia for her new job with the justice department (whatever that really means).  So her parents threw her an open house.  So thoughtful.  But right in the middle of Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day Weekend.  As we drove off the island we looked over at the incoming traffic and gasped.  It hasn't looked so packed since several years ago when that fraternity had a national party here.  The difference, though was that people today seemed to be a lot more patient than they were back then.  And cleaner.  Cars trying to take the exit to the beach via 61st Street were stacked up all the way back over the causeway and beyond somewhere into Texas.  My brother said that a friend of theirs had already called from South Houston and said they had been sitting in traffic for 45 minutes, and they were still in South Houston.  So they were not coming.  We could look out the window of my brother's house and see cars for miles and miles.  Welcome to Galveston.  Bring 'em on.  Glad I'm inside and not in my car.    We stayed until around five, and when we left the traffic seemed to have gotten a lot better.  Until we actually got close to the exit.  It was better, but still not great.  Not an easy enough path for a local who just wanted to get home.  We decided to pull an old native Galvestonian trick and bypass the first exit.  Then we crisscrossed through some neighborhoods until we go back on the road to our house.  We managed to miss virtually all of the 61st Street traffic.  But when we got to our neighborhood and flicked on our blinker to turn left, the traffic was backed up probably to Schlitterbahn.  Thankfully, though a few kind souls kept their brakes on until we could pull through the two lanes of traffic and get home.  Ah, adventure.  Come see us any time.  But try to come when you're not in a hurry.  It's Summer on the Island.   In Genesis 8:22, God told Noah, "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."   Father, thank you for summer time in Galveston.  Send us some folks who need you, and let us have the privilege of bumping into them to show them the next step in their journey toward you.  Amen.