“Pre-You” (Jimmy Buffett)
Updated: Dec 22, 2024
Walking the beach on Hilton Head Island on my next to last day there set my mind meandering and going off on a number of tangents. One of those tangents led me to think about this song.
The better part of my childhood was spent living on Pleasure Island in Southeastern North Carolina. I have visited Hilton Head Island a handful of times as an adult after I moved away from the coast. I never lived there and with the exception of some former ice hockey teammates that vacation there, I don't know anyone with a connection to the area. However, I really like the South Carolina Lowcountry and Hilton Head Island.
Walking the beaches of Hilton Head on my next to last day in South Carolina, I was once again struck by the feeling that I was at home. I got that feeling shortly after I arrived. I was struck by the feeling that I was displaced. A refugee from the coast. I reflected upon how much it turns out that I missed the coast. And I reflected upon how in some ways being a coastal resident had defined me when I was younger. I was now a tourist in an environment that seemed so familiar to me, even though I had never been a resident of that particular community. It felt a little strange.
In addition to those thoughts and other thoughts that I had during my walk along the shore, I had one wildly random thought pop into my head out of the blue. I had this sudden thought that I hoped not to run into someone "...that I once knew." I am not entirely sure why this thought popped into my head with such an accompanying strong feeling of trepidation. I think that it was seeing someone that reminded me a little of someone "...that I once knew" that I triggered it, but this overwhelming feeling of dread surprised me. I don't have a lot of people that I don't care to see again. And my apprehension wasn't motivated by hatred or animosity. I just fervently hoped not to encounter anyone from my past that I would rather not encounter.
I once encountered a client in a distant out-of-state airport (California, I think it was) when I was living in the Triangle region of North Carolina. I once ran into a coworker one hot summer day at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. I even ran into a coworker on the streets of distant Bainbridge Island, Washington. So obviously the possibility exists that even in a location outside of my old stomping grounds in North Carolina, I could run into someone that I know. And while it's certainly possible that I could encounter someone from my past here in the Midwest or some other location where I might travel for business or pleasure, I figure that it is more likely to happen in the Southeast. Particularly since I currently live in a rural part of the Midwest.
I suppose that I knew that traveling back to the Southeastern United States for the first time since I moved to rural Northern Illinois in 2017 would put me in closer proximity to people from my past. However, it wasn't like I was returning to the Triangle for a visit, to the Wilmington area for a visit, or to Greenville where I completed the requirements for my undergraduate degree to attend a football game. And while it was possible that someone from my past could be living or vacationing on Hilton Head Island or in Savannah, Georgia where I flew in and out of for my vacation, I figured that it was a less likely scenario than if I was returning to one of the North Carolina beaches or the Myrtle Beach area. Yet during my walk, I had this thought spring into my mind. I suppose that I didn't want my coastal escape to be tarnished by an unwelcome encounter.
Truth be told, I don't believe such an encounter would have done much to mar my vacation. The past is the past and I really enjoyed being there on the coast. And arguably a bad day at the beach, even with a chance meeting with someone that I would have rather avoided at the moment, is probably better than a good day at work. And perhaps such a chance meeting wouldn't be all that traumatic. I doubt that it would. But I guess that I just didn't want it to happen at that particular moment. Thinking about it later in the day, I remembered this song and smiled.
My understanding is that this song was inspired by a conversation overheard between two U.S. Navy sailors discussing just such a "reunion" that took place while one of the sailors was with his new significant other. So click the link below and give this song a listen, particularly if you haven't heard it before now. After all, we all have a past and it is a small world indeed. You never know who you will bump into today or tomorrow. 😎
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