I've always had a thing for old bricks and rocks from interesting places.
I have several bricks from the first lighthouse built on Cape San Blas. The lighthouse was built in 1849 but then destroyed by a storm in 1851. Brick chunks are uncovered often along the shore where the old lighthouse stood and over the years I've collected a bunch of those chunks.
I have a brick from the Flora-Bama Lounge. I grew up out on Perdido Key and the Flora-Bama was a favorite haunt. It was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan, and after the dust settled, the owners had a huge party on the beach and everyone watched as what was left standing was bulldozed to make way for the new building.
I was there and of course I got a brick.
I have a stone from the seawall at our favorite spot on the Choctawhatchee River.
I have a chunk of stone that my MIL brought me from the Fort San Felipe del Morro in Puerto Rico.
And on and on and on. I have a lot. I'm not a vandal, out prying bricks off historical sites but if there is a brick laying around or even to be bought I have to have it.
So when the Island King was shooting the Mattie Kelly property I found a couple of old bricks in the woods on the property.
And I took them. As a remembrance of the property the way it was before it was developed and because I have a lot of respect for the things Mattie Kelly did for Destin.
I put them next to the driftwood on my front porch.
Very bad idea.
We've had nothing but bad luck since the day I brought those 3 bricks home.
Business is beyond slow. The van has a mysterious ailment that only shows up when no one but me is around. My computer died. The lawn mower died. The list goes on for miles.
And it dawned on me the other day as I walked by the bricks that taking those bricks has brought some seriously bad Ju-Ju to our door and that we needed to return them - ASAP.
You can laugh if you want but I know my mother isn't laughing. She took some rocks from a grave in Hawaii and from then forward she was a walking disaster. She was standing in a parking lot when a coconut fell on her head, she tripped over something and twisted her ankle really bad, and couldn't have had more accidents if she tried.
She found out that taking rocks from graves is taboo so she made my dad take her back to the grave so she could return the rocks.
She didn't have another incident for the rest of the trip.
Bad Ju-Ju is a real thing and I'd brought some to my home.
So I told the Island King that the bricks had to be returned to the Kelly property and that we needed to apologize for taking them.
I don't think he actually believes in "bad Ju-Ju" but he humors me and agreed to return the bricks with me.
The mausoleum is in a quiet corner of the property
and as we stood there looking at it we wondered what to do with the bricks. Should we return them to the exact spots we found them?
We thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that we should leave them at the mausoleum so Ms. Mattie would be sure to note that we'd returned them.
And then because it's such a beautiful place we took one last walk around the property. They've started building a house on one of the lots and I'm sure it won't be long before the gates at the entrance are locked. The Island King has finished the photography on the property so we really don't have a reason to be here anymore.
The view from here is beautiful.
The oak trees here are spectacular. The moss is so thick in some places that you would literally need a machete to get through it.
This is the house that's being built. This man bought 2 lots together so even though the house will be large, he's preserved a lot of the natural trees and fauna on the road side.
The water side takes up pretty much both lots.
Once the bricks were safely returned
we went home.
And when I got in my van to go to the store, it wouldn't crank.
"When is the bad Ju-Ju supposed to start wearing off?" the Island King asked.
Soon.
I hope LOLLabels: Done
