By Georgia Osten
I get some doozy questions. My co-worker and I have considered writing a journal. Today, a lady came in with her husband and twin grands, a boy and a girl, identical. Well, as identical as you can be, being of the opposite sex. They were inquiring where to go crabbing, but the questions stemmed from what to use for bait to how to clean them. I had to draw a picture for her regarding the underneath of the crab, the little lever on their abdomen you remove first so you clean out all the gunk.

The “ladies” are at the Faggard this week due to voting, they love it when people come in with questions. The “ladies” are all locals and they go way back, if you know what I mean! Crab details: Minnie likes to boil hers alive, I like to put mine in an ice coma and clean the heck out of them before I boil them. We both surmised that calling Joe and ordering two to three dozen is the easiest and most economical in the long run. We figured it would even be fun for the “twins” (see above), Joe’s Animal Farm is the coolest!

Getting back to how I started off this story, these are few of the questions we get:

• Do you have tides? This was one of those where I almost lost it – “We are the Gulf of Mexico.” OMG
• Is the ferry safe?
• Can I camp on the beach, and how long?
• How far is Beaumont, can you walk there? What’s the population of Beaumont? (This was the one that almost got me reported to the BBB …)
• Do we have a bus line over here on the peninsula?
• Do we have hotels? (How would you answer that one?)
• A lady standing in my office today asked where Crystal Beach is? Hmmmmmmmmmmm
• A guy called me the other day about something he left at the life guard stand, could I please go to life guard stand #18 to find it? After several attempts, I finally convinced him we do not have life guard stands, “perhaps you’re talking about Galveston.” Turns out he was talking about Crystal Beach, Florida.

The most important lesson I’ve learned since working at the Chamber is there is no stupid question. It’s especially difficult on Mondays, but it’s very important to put on a kind, cheerful voice when picking up the phone. You have to love people, my co-worker loves people, she’s a cheerleader for goodness sakes! She loves talking to everyone.

If George is in the office, he’ll take on any tourist with a booming quality, quite the authority on just about every subject. He won’t ever stay long though, Clinton waits impatiently in the car, sometimes honking on the horn.

All the characters in my story are real and this weirdness really goes on each and every day. I love my job!

GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you. Email: [email protected]

[10-23-2017]