By Tom Clifford
There are images that remain etched in the corners of your mind. They can be of momentous or deeply personal events. People just a bit older than this writer can still easily recall where they were when they heard that JFK had been shot in Dallas. I do remember when his brother Bobby was shot. One of my most abiding recollections was with the third member of the trinity. Ted Kennedy, often considered the best politician in terms of grasping issues, but forever condemned to haunt and not occupy the White House because of Chappaquiddick, granted me an interview just before he was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor before his death in 2009.
I am of an age where I don’t expect to be surprised. Saddened, yes, bemused, maybe, but surprised? Nah.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
My attitude, prior to this morning when I opened the curtains was best summed up by this quote, often attributed to Shakespeare, who admittedly knew a thing or two about the language. That is wrong. In fact those wise words comes from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament.
But there it was this morning, this vision. My first sighting of the season.
Like some exotic creature it seemed to herald a new era, a change of circumstance.
The source of my wide-eyed astonishment? That modern wander of detailed, precise engineering, a cruise ship. A multi-deck cruise ship. Its grey hulk seemed to sneer at the waves, almost treat them with contempt, as it imperiously sliced through the water.
Its looming presence, never menacing but certainly demanding respect, heralded the earlier than normal onset of ‘the season’.
I have been here less than a week, been embraced by the people’s hospitality, but everywhere I go people talk of the looming ‘season’. It is as reliable as any natural cycle. It occurs normally, I have been told, in November.
But maybe because of global warming, the tourist season is earlier. There should be five not four seasons here. Winter, spring, summer, autumn and visitor.
As welcome as their financial input is to the island, there are, I have been reliably informed, one or two drawbacks. It seems almost churlish to mention considering the shot in the financial arm their spending will deliver. But traffic can be, how shall we say, slightly congested. This may lead to drivers muttering under their breath something akin to ‘golly gosh’ or ‘forsooth’.
Camera in hand I am on a trek to find the next approaching cruise ship, the defining image of the tornacense (tourist) age.
Finally, eventually, I knew my school Latin would come in handy one day!
###
Related column:
Traffic Jam
Submit a request for a cruise ship vacation online here>>>
###
ADVERTISEMENT
