The Parrot Squawks section of our magazine is centered on those who want to let it out! What are you irritated about? What is your beef with anything & everything? People littering on the beach? Orange Crush? Whatever it may be, this is your place to say what you feel. You will be heard by many! We want to hear your rumble of what disturbs you. Could it be the building up on Tybee? Our infrastructure? Price of real-estate? Remain anonymous or put your name on the rant. We just want to hear you!! Please email to: squawks@tybeebreeze.com or send your rant to:
 

Tybee Breeze
Attn: Parrot Squawks
P.O. Box 2833
Tybee Island, GA 31328
 

THINGS TO DO
WHEN YOU'RE STUCK
IN TRAFFIC ON TYBEE ROAD
Judy O'Neill

The day comes to all of us Tybee residents sooner or later. You're heading home to Tybee and the traffic stops. The cause is usually DOT or tourist related. To make your wait more enjoyable, if not downright educational, may I offer the following things to do.
If you're lucky enough to be stopped just east of Bull River Bridge, you can look to your right at the hammock of land that my daughter, when she was around 10, christened "Bunny Island." Very early in the morning and very late in the afternoon, we could watch marsh bunnies hopping about looking for bunny food. They are the cutest little things. Come to think about it, I haven't seen much bunny hopping activity there in a while. Maybe they moved elsewhere.

Their move could be attributed to what you can see just past there on the left side of the road. The ill-planned entrance to the Rails to Trails Nature Walk. Here you can enjoy watching for accidents about to happen, deciding who has the most interesting trail walking attire, or figuring out how many pooper scoopers are needed for the many dogs brought along for an outing.

Further along on the right is the "David McCutheon Memorial Pine Tree," used most frequently as a
landmark to let someone know where exactly you are in your efforts to get home. "Honey, I just passed the big pine tree, and I'll be home soon." The tree is in honor of David because of a story a friend of mine once told me about how that big pine tree appeared amongst all those oleanders and palm trees along the road. Seems that many years ago, young David had to leave the school bus right at that very spot. The students had been given pine trees at school that day, and since David realized he might be stranded for a while, he planted the little tree right there ! David went on to become our Police Chief for a number of years, so I guess being put off the bus set him straight. {David, if your out there, and this is not a true story, I'm sorry !}

There are other little sights on the road like the place where you can see the tourists stop and turn around to go back toward the mainland because they figure someone gave them the wrong directions to Tybee, and close to that is the impromptu American Flag display that appeared after 9/11.

But here is the absolute best thing to do while you wait ! If you are at dead standstill {Don't try this if your moving at all because it can be overwhelming !!!!} , push every button you can find anywhere within reach in your car. I had a great time with this recently because my car is still fairly new for a Tybee Car, and I've been pretty satisfied with just knowing how to turn on the air conditioner, the radio or CD player and being able to adjust the seat so I can actually reach the steering wheel and gas pedal. I pushed one button and this thingee came up and covered part of the back window so that any small children, which I don't have , wouldn't get sun in their little eyes! I was impressed. Then I found these strange buttons around the "audio unit." Another push, and, lo and behold, I'm listening to NOAH weather radio for the area. Now, that's comforting because I know I don't have to worry about running into any unexpected hurricanes while I try to get home. I looked around the rearview mirror and found a whole group of temptations that I had never really noticed before
because I'm always keeping my eye on the road. I wish my house had the lighting choices I found among those little goodies! One of them even opened the sun roof which I had forgotten I had! And, guess what. If your really adventurous, you can actually manage to get up in the seat and stick your head out of the sunroof opening to try to see what the hold up is. Be really careful with this one and don't forget to put the car in park first. In fact, you may even want to use the parking brake...if you can find it ...which I couldn't ! And for goodness sakes, make sure you're agile enough to squeeze back into the driving position quickly so you aren't the cause of any further delay. You'll also need to be prepared for an onslaught of sand gnats and people gawking. A word of advise here...don't forget to have your owner's manual nearby so when you get home, you can figure out how to put everything back the way it should be.

Have fun, take a look around you and just enjoy the sights on the Tybee Road! You may even find a few of your own to share with the rest of us.