Sea Salt Captain and Parrot

 A small memory from 80 Years ago:  When I was just in the first grade we had a neighbor in Oceanside CA. He was an old man. Perhaps the age I am today.

Across the street was a “Court”. In those years a Court was what we now call a Motel, with some variation. In the 1940s, the nation was just becoming motorized. People were starting to travel in automobiles. If you traveled by automobile, where could you put your car while you slept in the hotel? Most travelers in those days used trains or buses and the hotels were near the stations, so no need for large parking lots like we have today. Courts solved the problem, You rented a small cottage with an attached car port that was again attached to another cottage, and so on. You may still see them around today. These were often in vacation destinations. Oceanside was a vacation destination. The cottage included a living space with a fold away Murphy bed and a toilet and a kitchen.

The old man, a retired Sea Captain, owned the Court. He had spent his earlier days sailing “Square Riggers” 'round the Horn and was now retired.

Much of Oceanside, in those days, was retired sailors. There were homes built on the cliffs overlooking the ocean where an old sailor could retire and still enjoy the sea from a safe distance. The old man retired into a world that was not of his making, because the War changed things..

He built the Court so that it would supply him with a living...those

years were before Social Security and Medicare....   Around the Court was a concrete wall about a foot high into which he had 
embedded sea shells from his travels in the South Seas. The walls of the apartments were concrete embedded with pieces of Petrified Wood from the nearby desert.

He sat on the front steps of his apartment in his dark blue uniform with brass buttons and a Parrot on his shoulder.

Willing to talk to anyone that would stop. He had no family and was alone in this new world ashore. Few stopped as they hurried to their destination. Often, as we kids walked by, he would stop us and tell us tales of the sea that he had lived. As young children, we were in a hurry to some new adventure so didn't have the interest to truly listen to an old man telling stories. I wish now that I had cared more. Then I could have told you some of his amazing life stories. But now it's too late..

Today I realize it's about validating another person, and relieving their loneliness.