Quo Vadis, Where are we going?: From Betty to the Bubble Room

Monday, December 22, 2014

From Betty to the Bubble Room

New neighbors walked by the house this morning. New to us, anyway. It was red ant harvest time and we thank them for it.

We left home for the hour ride to Estero, Florida, where Nan Horn’s mother lives at the Life Care Center. Nan’s sister Sandy met us with Betty in the lobby. This February Betty Seibert will be 98 years old and while she is slowing down a bit she can still smile, and she knew who we were immediately. Betty likes to see the train set in the facility library. So did I.

We went north from Estero out to almost the water’s edge of Fort Myers Beach, where we met Mary and Marlin Zimmerman. They’ve been coming here for years each winter. First with their fifth wheel trailer, and now to their own manufactured home at Iona Ranch Park.

Mary is one of Doris Stauffer’s sisters. Doris has been a dear friend since we met her, and former husband Paul, when I went to work for Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill in Lititz, PA, in 1972. By the end of the day the four of us were good friends!

Mary drove us to a favorite restaurant of theirs across Sanibel and on up Captiva Islands, off the coast of Fort Myers. The Bubble Room has been around for 35 years and is a decidedly strange restaurant. Part museum, part flea market (nothing for sale, I think) and full time very good restaurant.

We had a wonderful meal.

And Rudolph, (with nose on low-light) and Chicken Man (from the forehead up) seated and served us. Did I say this is a strange restaurant?

There are three floors of stuff, memorabilia and more stuff. And at this time of year its all decorated for Christmas. The 1940s and 50s await you at the Bubble Room on Captiva Island.

We closed the place (for lunch) at 3 pm and drove out to several of the Captiva and Sanibel beaches just to look around.

At the southern tip of Sanibel Island we saw the lighthouse and fishing pier, with the Island Bridge to Fort Myers in the background.

What do four people who never sat down to have a conversation before, but who are connected well by a business and family named Stauffer, do besides eat and drink and drive around from 1 to 7 pm? They TALK.

Marlin had a debilitating stroke a couple of years ago but he told stories, or helped Mary tell them, too. Did you ever know…? Hear the one about…? Well let me tell you…! Not gossip; memories of SKH and the Paul and Doris Stauffer family in the 1970’s.

Johann hid a bunch of Robert’s toys and emergency food supplies in the back of the couch at the Kissel Hill Road House. When she was little I called Monique, Unique, because she was. Marlin once ran over Mary’s foot with a trailer wheel when leveling it while camping and she only got a bruise. Life can be hard but we choose to make of it what we will, TY Jesus!