Inside this issue, we have a story on page 9B about the founder of Navarre from a perspective which I’ve never heard before — and I have heard the story from a lot of people, some of which are no longer with us. I heard that Wyman’s wife, Noelle, who named Navarre, came on Wyman’s land to tend to the pet cemetery when she was shot. I had not heard that she had trespassed before. I had also not heard that she was carrying a gun when she was shot. I wonder if there are police reports around from the early 1930s. Regardless….marrying and divorcing that many women in the early 1900s was almost unheard of. Also, I heard that the Roberts brothers that killed his parents were hanged in Crestview, but then there is another account that their sentence was commuted to life in prison because they were young and brothers. Someone should write the real biography of Col. Guy Wyman – with the backup documentation. The story is interesting no matter how it is told. However, it is too bad that we have this sordid history to point back to as the founding of Navarre. Regardless, it isn’t where you have been, but where you are going. Navarre is going places — good places, and we aren’t going to let the past taint our future. However… there is the makings of at least a made for TV movie. Someone should start working on that script.
Reason #530 to be a subscriber…a recent subscriber from New York was visiting Navarre and left her wallet at a local store. The store saw her press pass card in her wallet and called us on Saturday to see if we had any contact information. We emailed the subscriber and the wallet was successfully recovered that day.
We live in a beautiful place and it is easy to take it for granted because we see it so often. I’m talking, of course about what it looks like when you cross the bridge over onto Navarre Beach. If we didn’t have that beach, we would just have a messy, dirty, littered, faded-sign stretch along Highway 98. You would think that having such a beautiful beach would inspire people to clean up their acts, but it is just taken for granted. Anyway…back to the beach. Deep sigh. We have a beautiful beach and water and it has been made even more beautiful by the efforts of the Marine Sanctuary Committee – which is the signature committee of the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Full disclosure: I sit on that board. However, the efforts of the Marine Sanctuary Committee were well into play before I was on the foundation board. Because of the sanctuary’s efforts, Navarre had artificial reefs placed in the Gulf in September and they are already showing phenomenal growth of biomass in less than a year. And, today, thanks to scuba diver and foundation board member, Mike Sandler, we have awesome video of an octopus on one of the artificial reefs. It is a “common octopus,” but it isn’t really all that common.
Colonel Bud Day passed away Saturday, and I’m going to borrow from Senator Don Gaetz’s release that he sent out on Tuesday because Gaetz said it perfectly. “Col. Day was a modern day war hero and was the nation’s most highly decorated veteran since General Douglas MacArthur, earning more than 70 medals during his service in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, including the Medal of Honor. After escaping his captors in Korea and again being held captive in Vietnam for more than five years as a cell mate to and lifeline for U.S. Senator John McCain, Colonel Day returned home, retiring in Fort Walton Beach where he continued to fight for his soldiers as a tireless advocate for Veterans’ benefits to ensure all those who served to protect our precious freedom receive the care and compensation they deserve.”
We like to support our local sports teams and the Blue Wahoos have added a lot of excitement to the baseball fans in the Panhandle of Florida. If you haven’t had the chance to go to a game, you should definitely try to attend a game, because after that – you will be hooked. A fun way to go to a game is with a group of people and it just so happens that the Navarre Beach Area Chamber of Commerce has a trip planned for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, August 27. I think they made it a Tuesday night on purpose so that I couldn’t go. They know that is our production night. Anyway, it would be great if you could go. They are taking a shuttle to and from the game and/or you can meet them on the special party deck. The tickets include entry to the game and the deck, with all you can eat food and non-alcoholic beverages for 90 minutes (1.5 hours) after the chamber groups arrival. Please call the Chamber at 939-3267 if you are interested. Of course, it would be great if you were a chamber member regardless – but if you say “I’m a prospective chamber member” then I’m sure they wouldn’t bat and eye and take your money on the spot. This would be a great way to meet new friends and catch up with some old ones.
I’m not a medical doctor and I do not advise more salt or less salt, but I do feel vindicated after a recent report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academes and the findings. In one study of 232 Italian patients who were being treated for moderate to severe congestive heart failure, the group that was consuming lower levels of sodium had more than three times the number of hospital readmissions and more than twice as many deaths. And, that as sodium levels plunge, triglyceride levels increase, insulin resistance increases and the activity of the nervous system increases which equals an increased risk of heart disease.
Former Navarre Press reporter, Christine O’Connor was recently named the editor of a Rhode Island newspaper, the Bristol Phoenix. She said working at Navarre Press is making things very easy for her at the Phoenix. I’m not sure how to take that, but I’m glad that she is working where her passion is. She did a good job here and a good job for Navarre as a community when she worked for Navarre Press. Rhode Island might not be big enough for her.
Special Note: We hope that you are looking at your paper on July 3, because that was our plan until press night when we received a phone call that we didn’t expect. We print our paper in Panama City and they were hit by lightning Friday night that disabled their printing press. They had been printing their own paper at an alternative location but didn’t make arrangements for us. I’m sure they thought they would be up and running by Monday night. Update: We just received the dreaded call. The press didn’t work when they turned it on. The words they used were, “It blew up.” We were told they would be looking for a place for us to print…which we would have done first thing Monday morning had we known.
Please make sure your car doors are locked at night because school is out and the incidents of unlocked car thefts are up – especially in Holley by the Sea. What these kids don’t realize is 1. Just because someone left the car door unlocked doesn’t mean they are asking for it and 2. When you steal anything over $500 it is a felony and you are in serious trouble with law enforcement.
