It was about this same time back in 2011 that I arrived in Brewster, Washington to begin my summer flying job drying cherries in ancient Sikorsky helicopters. I did not expect that it would last nine seasons, but it did. The people I met and got to know, and those I worked with were great, the actual work was easy and I had way too much fun. It kept me going back, summer after summer.
The trouble was that up until that time, I had a pretty fun life here in Pensacola, Florida, especially in the summer! My friends down here like hiking, camping, and canoeing/kayaking – you know, outdoor stuff. And the time to do that stuff is in the summer. Not to mention that I like to go on motorcycle trips. And it’s not that it’s too cold to ride in our “winter,” but the days are just too damn short and I don’t like riding at night anymore.
At first, I only went up to Washington for a couple of months. The cherry season only runs from about June through early August. But there is much to do to get the helicopters and equipment ready for the upcoming season, and then there’s a lot to do to de-mobilize everything and get it put away. The company consists of the owner and his adult son; they need help. So I started going up earlier and earlier, and staying later and later. It got to where I was spending just about half the year in Brewster, and half the year in Florida.
After my sixth season in Washington, I said that one would be my last. And I meant it, too! But come the next Spring, my boss in Brewster cajoled me into go back. And so I did. And he did that again another two seasons after that. Like I said, it was too much fun to resist.
But this year I did not go back up to Brewster. This year I officially quit. None of my friends believed me; they’d heard that story before, at least three times already. And they assumed that I’d cave and go back up again this season. But I held firm. This year, I’m staying home. And yeah, I'll miss Washington.
The plan is to do more of the outdoorsy things I used to do before getting roped-in to my summer flying job. We’ll see about that. I’m ten years older now, and from a physical stamina standpoint, there’s a difference between age 54 and 64. But if I do nothing more than just ride my motorcycle(s) around and go to the beach a lot…well…that’ll be okay too.
And of course, ironically, as soon as I made the decision to quit, I got two offers to go up to Washington and dry cherries for other operators. I’ve written before about how tough it is to quit aviation. But sooner or later you have to put your foot down and say enough is enough.
Who Am I?
- Bob Barbanes:
- A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?
6 comments:
There’s a term I learned a few years ago: “Necessary Endings.” I like that. It doesn’t mean a season of our life was bad or what we might have been doing in that season was non-productive. It was just time to end that season or an activity in that season. It could also be a pause - who knows, you might go back. But for now you’re putting that season behind you and I sense, for you, it’s what you needed to do. I will say I’ll miss the stories that came out of your times drying cherries — or not drying them — but for a storyteller such as yourself, I’m
sure there are more where those came from. Enjoy your summer!
I bought some cherries at Walmart this week and thought of you when I did. I hope you enjoy your summer in Florida!
Thank you, Bob and Kelly for your comments!
Bob, you're absolutely right - there is a season for everything. Put another way: To everything there is a season. Hey, that's catchy! And I did need a break. Flying was fun...but there is a lot of stuff I can't go into right now that caused me to hit the big Pause button this year. Yes, I might very well go back to Washington next, umm, season but if so, it'll be flying a more modern (i.e. turbine-powered) helicopter - maybe something that's younger than I am. I'll leave it at that for now.
To be honest, my annual pilgrimage to Washington was very disruptive to my life. As you can imagine, one can't exactly just throw a bag of clothes in the car and tell the house, "See ya in a couple of months, sucka!" Sometimes I had people living in my house that could take care of it while I was gone; sometimes not. But even when I did, you can't really expect house-sitters or roommates to mow the lawn and clean the gutters, much less take care of minor things that go wrong. One year, I arranged for someone to stay in the house who turned out to be a HUGE pot-head - who smoked *in* the house! Learned that lesson the hard way.
So there is a very real sense of relief in not having to stop what I'm doing here in Florida and decamp to Washington. Huge weight off my shoulders, so to speak. (Plus, if I'm being honest, I make just about the same amount of money if I stay here in Pensacola and play Uber driver for the summer.)
Hopefully, the coronavirus hysteria will abate and we'll soon get back to some sense of normalcy. I've got a theory as to why it will, which I'll spell out in a post soon ;-)
I like the phrase necessary endings. I've been through a couple of those myself.
I've been seeing that Florida is starting to spike again though it appears to be further south and not in your area. Closer to home my neighbor just died of Covid-19. But he was a prime candidate for dying from it according to the CDC so it may have only been a matter of time.
"Spike" may be one way to describe the number of new cases here in Florida, but it doesn't tell the whole story. On April 1st, we had 1,032 new cases. The state bounced along after that, reaching a high of 1,413 new cases on April 17th, to a low of 306 on April 25th. Most days it was somewhere in that range with no discernible trend. Now let's look at the new cases in June. I can't insert a chart or a picture in a comment, so we'll have to go with raw numbers.
June 1: 667
June 2: 617
June 3: 1,317
June 4: 1,419
June 5: 1,305
June 6: 1,270
June 7: 1,180
So we had a dip, then a spike and a sag. We reached a peak which was equal to the one we had on April 17th, and then had three days of decline - about how it's been all along: up and down, up and down. We'll have to see if this current decline in new cases continues or if it spikes back up. I sure don't seem to be able to predict what's going to happen.
However, I know that a lot of people were predicting that Florida would see a big spike or "surge" in new cases after our beaches and restaurants opened back up, but that may have been mere wishful thinking because it really hasn't happened. Same with our COVID19 deaths: up/down, up/down with no real apparent trend.
It is sad about your neighbor, Ed. But we've been told from the beginning that this virus affects certain members of the population more drastically than others (e.g. the elderly, people with pre-existing respiratory problems, etc.). I wish we had made a better effort to protect/quarantine those people than trying to lockdown the entire population.
I can see from those numbers, it is hard to say the work "spike" unless it continues up. On the evening news, they were mentioning states with increasing COVID-19 cases post stay-at-home relaxation of rules and Florida was one of about 20 or so states. Oddly enough, Iowa, which never had a stay at home order is not one of them. I'm kind of reminded of your thoughts on Sweden. Statewide, we are on the downward trend and people deemed recovered now out number new hospitalizations 2 to 1 which is a great thing. Even my county where officially we are at 2.7% of the population infected, our numbers are starting to trend downward with the exception of the death rate which is probably near the peak due to the lag. Also a credit to your earlier thoughts, our deaths only number 0.3% of the total number of infected cases. Definitely not as predicted by "those who knew" at the beginning of the pandemic.
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