Every news station in the country did a piece this past week about iguanas falling from the trees in Florida. It was a very odd thing to see.
It was very cold here. Then again, we are used to the cold: It’s winter! But, Floridians are not used to the cold. It was 29 degrees in Orlando for a couple days. And the rest of Florida did not fare much better.
Temperatures that are below freezing are something Floridians rarely, if ever, see, and they are not in the least prepared.
I lived in Florida for seven years, and I remember being “cold.” It’s all relative, you know. We’d be shivering around the house, wearing long pants – if we had them – and trying to buy sweatshirts. The coldest I remember it being was 56 degrees. But that was COLD for us.
Our homes had no heat source. No furnace. No fireplace. And no insulation.
Shoot – we didn’t even have socks! Or “real” shoes – only a collection of fabulous flip-flops. I recall I finally did find a pair of socks in some store. They had toes defined in different, bright colors. So: I could wear them with my flip-flops.
A few years back, I flew to Anna Maria Island on the Gulf coast in December, with two dear friends. I packed all sorts of great Florida clothes. And several bathing suits. Those are things you need in Florida. Thank heavens, our plane flew out of Richmond in cold weather, so I was suitably dressed for the plane.
Turns out, I never got to put on even one of those fab Florida outfits. Much less the bathing suits. I had to wear the clothes I’d flown down in every single day.
“I’ve got to buy some sweatpants,” I told my friends. So, we drove to a K-Mart. Can you believe, there were none in the store? A clerk gave me a quizzical look when I asked about sweatpants. She did not understand what they were! I left empty-handed. And still chilly.
But, back to the iguanas. I had quite a few in and around my yard, as did everyone. We’d look at them, and wonder at how very ugly they are, but we left them alone and they returned the favor. However, never once did an iguana fall out of the trees because it was “frozen.” I guess that’s another advantage of living on an island at the southernmost tip of the country: It never was truly freezing. I noticed last week, that Key West was not in the frozen zone like much of the rest of the state.
All this talk of iguanas – who come back “alive” once they warm up – made me think of “Johnny the Iguana Man.” Johnny was a very old geezer, his skin as tanned as a new Ferragamo. He rode everywhere on an aging, over-decorated bicycle. He always had two iguanas in the bike basket, and one on either shoulder. They wore little leashes, and he’d walk the four of them around.
The Iguana Man would be at the sunset celebration every evening, entertaining tourists who had never seen such a thing. If you asked, Johnny would let you pet the creatures. I never asked.
I also am transported back to Key West whenever I see the Geico commercials. We were rife with geckos. They were everywhere, inside the house and out. They never bothered us. We never bothered them.
One thought that grips me every time I see iguanas falling out of trees is this: Thank heavens I’m not spending money for a vacation in sunny Florida right now! I’d rather shovel snow than iguanas any day.
Life … you gotta love it!