Katrina at Island Mermaid
by Bill
(Long Island)
My first experience at Island Mermaid was very strange, almost surreal and is something I'll never forget. It was Friday night on a Labor Day weekend, the weather had just cleared up, and I was on vacation on Fire Island.
Perfect!
I was sitting at the bar alone. I was the only one in the place in fact. Pints of Stella were going down easily and the steaming plate of fried calamari in front of me was delicious and seemed endless. Behind the bar was a large opening to an outdoor dining area offering a view of the Great South Bay. Above that opening was a large flat screen TV.
The bay was calm and serene as it so often is at night and if you've never been on the bay at night it's hard to imagine something more peaceful. The images on that television however, were hard to comprehend.
In stark contrast to the perfect evening I was enjoying, hurricane Katrina was devastating Louisiana and I was seeing live coverage of the disaster on TV. I looked outside, the bay was calm. I looked up at the TV, the waters were raging. For an hour the bartender and I watched in amazement and shook our heads, grateful that it wasn't happening here.
That was 5 years ago and I still can't walk into Island Mermaid without recalling that night.
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