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Perlman Family Leaves Tybee Island After Many Years

Doesn't Miss Moore Avenue At All 

I had already lived on Tybee Island for 7 years when Elizabeth entered my life.  Before I became a property owner on Tybee I liked the freedom proudly exhibited by so many.  "It's my property and I'm doing what the hell I want to do, screw everyone else".  A total disregard for everyone else in the world.  Tybee attitude.  That is why you could have a falling down beach shack next to a nicely restored or newly built house.  For the sake of others that come to Tybee now or in the future, you can only hope that the POS house with the junked cars in that backyard becomes worth so much money that they will eventually sell it, move to Effingham County and the new owners will clean it up.  We spent another year on Jones Avenue and then 4 years in our little house on Moore Ave.  It was mid-May 2002 when the movers loaded up the truck and by 10pm that night we were gone.  Although all of our stuff from Tybee got to move out to the new river house that day, we didn't.  We would be homeless for the next three weeks, staying at my Dad's house until the Pohl's moved to Germany.  I spent the last 12 years on Tybee beginning in 1990 and have a lot of fond memories of that great little Island.  I will not miss the mud holes on Moore Avenue that will swallow up your car when it rains or a City Government that says "too bad, you own the street, fix it yourself".  Who the hell ever heard of that!!  And I sure won't miss the inconsiderate neighbors that let their dogs bark at all hours of the night.  I don't miss living next door to or across the street from a house that looks like Fred Sanford's junkyard.  I do miss the Breakfast Club, and the Lighthouse and believe it or not, I miss the nice folks at the post office.  Yes, it was a lot of fun living on Tybee all those years and Tybee was VERY GOOD to us.  But miss living on today's Tybee with summer traffic that makes Atlanta or LA look tame, or miss living on Moore Avenue.  NO, I don't think so.  Goodbye Tybee and all the nice people we knew out there.  Good riddance to your eccentrics, particularly the ones in government. 

Dad makes being homeless more than fun - Who says you can't go home again

As most of you know, we camped out at my Dad's house during the 3 weeks we were between houses.  We just wanted everyone to know that we had a great time there, and that he is the very best host and Innkeeper there is.  He put up with my odd hours and the occasional disagreement with just a smile, and didn't killed our little devil kittens although they rearranged his house more than we did.  He was truly great and we love him very much.  We are glad to have spent the time there that we did.  Who says you can never go home again? 

The Perlman Cats - Past and Present

There were a lot of changes in the membership ranks of the cat part of our family leading up to our departure from Tybee and it didn't stop once we moved.  On November 13th of 2001 my Stubby cat didn't come home.  For several months he would wander up as I was getting out of my car in the driveway, having been out catting around the neighborhood.  There was the weirdest event that night with the Tybee cops shooting a raccoon at about 3am within just feet of our house, complete with 4 shots from a 9mm handgun.  Probably just a coincidence, right?   Other gunfire was heard from time to time, as was the sound of cat fighting.  No doubt that some of that scrapin' he was involved in.  Wanted posters offering a reward never drew any leads.  Sometime around just after the first of the year, Sophia White, an eccentric but very reliable neighbor, told us that another neighbor blew Stubby away and had boasted to her about it.  He said Stubby was beating up his cat, which was entirely possible.  We'll never really know, I guess.  But that was it for ole Stubby, he never came home again and no one ever saw him again.  Hugo had been sick with the FAIDs (feline Aids) and was really showing it now.  His health was declining daily.  Some days were good days and many days were bad days.  Elizabeth was cooking chicken meat for him daily and trying to get him to eat.  Around the first of February we decided we had seen Hugo suffer enough, but Dr. Lester said that considering all we had done to keep Hugo alive over the years, there was still more fight in him and he wasn't ready to go.  He put him on some heavy duty drugs and Hugo the Cat had 5 more pretty good weeks.  Cancer in his mouth prevented him from eating and we finally did have him put out of his misery on the morning of Wednesday, March 6th, 2002.  Hugo is buried at the end of the driveway on Moore Avenue on Tybee Island in a spot that he used to sit in where  the sunshine hits.  We got the kittens on the evening of may 9th.  We thought we weren't going to get any more cats until we got in the new house, but the ad was so alluring and and the cats so darling when we saw them, and that was that.  We had 2 new tail-less kittens to bring to my Dad's house for 3 weeks.  But he was thrilled too.  Lois loved them and so did he.  We played a real name game with the kittens searching for the right names for months after they moved in with us.  We settled on Sissy and Cindy until one of them broke her leg mysteriously on Saturday, August 20th.  She was put in a cast and walked around like a "Peg-Legged Sailor".  This cat was to become "Peg" from the on.  The other cat was for a short time "OC" for "The Other Cat", how original, but after repeated demonstrations that she WAS our Stubby Cat reincarnated, we settled on "Stubby Girl" for her around November 2002.  Sassy started showing signs of failing health just before Thanksgiving 2002 and it was discovered that she had cancer.  Sassy waited for Elizabeth to arrive at home on Thursday evening, December 5th, 2002.  She got in her arms and quietly faded away about 8:30pm.  Sassy is buried on the riverbank here at our house in Bryan County. We wish our 3 ole kitty's would have all made it to our house on the Ogeechee, but only Sassy did.  Peg and Stubby Girl have sure turned out to be great cats, certainly helping to take the place of our other babies that we miss so much.  And we have plans to get them a male companion some time soon.  Say tuned to this space for more information as it develops.

Jerry  

We got 2 new kittens on May 9th 2002.  There really made the lose of Hugo and Stubby much easier to get through.  They are little darlings and Elizabeth and I are in love with them.  They grew up so fast it was astonishing.  Notice the lack of tails?  4 months later names still hadn't stuck.  We went through at least 3 before one of them broke her leg on Saturday the 20th of August, scaring us to death.  She had a cast on it for a month and walked around like a peg legged sailor.  That's how she got the name peg.  The other one is Stubby Girl, cause she is Stubby reincarnated.  I have no doubt about that.

Sassy was the only one of the 3 original cats to make it to the new house.  On the left, Sassy on the deck of the house on the Ogeechee.  Right photo, Sassy in the bathroom sink of the house on Tybee

Stubby Girl at about 9 months on back deck Ogeechee River house

Peg at 9 months of age Back door of kitchen

Sassy and Peg (with cast on leg) don't hate each other any more

New Cat Joins Family

A new boy kitty presently named Morris, join us on April 21st 2003.  His mother was the same as Peg and Stubby Girl's, so they are brothers and sisters in a sense.  His birthday is about the same time of year as theirs.  He's already a lot of fun and the girls don't show any sign of wanting to kill him.

In Memory of our Sweet Girl, SASSY 

She departed this world on December 5th, 2002 at the age of 14.  Sassy died in the arms of her devoted owner, Elizabeth about 8:30pm on that Thursday evening.  She had waited for Elizabeth to arrive home from work and then climbed in to her arms and took her last breaths.  She sure was a sweet kitty and we miss her very much.

In Memory of our HUGO

September 1989 - March 6, 2002

After a long fight against feline AIDS, Hugo the Cat died at 9:55am on Wednesday March 6th 2002.  Hugo was as devoted to his owner, Elizabeth, as a cat could possibly be.  He loved her as much as she loved him, not leaving her side for most of the last 5 years.  He will be missed very much by all of us.   

In Memory of Good Ole Stubby the Cat - He disappeared on November 13th, 2001.  He had been with me for almost 6 years and Liz and I loved him very much.  A reliable source told us he had been murdered by a disturbed individual that lives on Solomon about 300 feet from our house on Moore Ave.  Sure would like to really know what happened to ole Stubby.  

Our Kitty boys and girl eating dinner together in 1998 including Hugo when he was a fat boy

It was a beautifully dreary day Sunday, February 28th 1999.  Windy and cold, but sunny and clear.  It would have to get a lot worse to shut this event down.  People had been walking by our house since morning, and I saw a horse carriage pass the end of our street.  Early afternoon the coast guard helicopter buzzed the house a few times.  But it was getting to be dark when the real crowd began to gather at the Lighthouse on Tybee for the relighting ceremony.

Tybee Island Lighthouse before and after the restoration.  For all the details on The Tybee Island Lighthouse and the renovation process and a whole bunch of pictures.  Read more here. 

On just about every navigable waterway there is a lighthouse.  You can see most of them and visit many. Check out what we've seen and learned traveling  from Florida to Delaware, California to Hawaii.  My favorite pictures and the story of our trips.   Extensive history of local and nearby lighthouses. Updated as we make more visits.

1999 Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Trip 

It was a fluke and should probably never have happened in Savannah Georgia, but it did.  The AOR radio show on WTOC-AM aired for about a year.  I was there as John Doe along with radio legends Bill Blab (AKA - Dan Von Jenef) and Barr Nobels.  It was pure free form progressive radio at it's best.  It was the catalyst for album rock music on the air in the Savannah market and things we did would be copied all over the country for years to come.   Read on ...