Gulf County welcomes its snowbirds
It’s been as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin this week, with plenty of ice and snow on the ground.
On Cape San Blas it has been as high as 68 degrees, with lots of sand on the beach.
That difference is one big reason that Dewey Johnson and his wife Nina have been making their annual winter migration down to the Forgotten Cast for the past 27 years.
The Wisconsin couple had the most longevity among the 80 snowbirds who gathered Jan. 9 at the Gulf County welcome center in Port St. Joe for the annual winter welcome.
“Our little kids wanted to see the ocean,” said Johnson, who like his wife are both retired public school teachers, Nina of art and Dewey of middle school history.
The couple has always rented on the Cape, although one year they came for Scallop Fest but soon abandoned that time frame. “It was awful hot for me,” he said.
Their son Keyan was just 3 when they first began coming down; he’s now 30 and last year proposed to his girlfriend on the beach where he used to play as a boy. They’re marrying in August in Madison, Wisconsin.
Johnsons’ daughter Teal, and boyfriend Chris, will also be coming down in February to visit, and then on March 15, Dewey and Nina will be returning to Beaver Dam.
Before then, though, Dewey will continue to fish on the beach near their house, a pastime that he has kept careful records of since New Year’s Day when they arrived – 19 edible whiting, two undersize pompano and one undersize flounder.
“I’m off to a good start. The fishing has been way better this year so far,” he said.
Nina will be doing her thing as well, taking classes at The Joe. shopping at the Methodist Church’s Care Closet and taking regular walks on the beach.
Plus they’ll meet new friends, people who have been known to take them out on their boats.
Or even inviting them to visit them up north, such as Larry and Sheri Davis, who shared their home in Admiral’s Beach, Newfoundland for a weeklong summer visit a few years back.
“You meet the most wonderful people here,” said Dewey.
In addition to refreshments, raffle prizes and Gulf County swag, the snowbirds had an opportunity to learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Florida State Parks, or the Friends of St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge or with the Gulf County Humane Society.
The ‘birds got a first-hand look at the Tourist Development Council’s newest promotion, of pet-friendly vacationing, with its unveiling of its Paw of Fame, a bulletin board of pet photos. The Johnsons plan to post their dog Tatiana.
The pet promotion includes being part of the Adventure Pup Passport program, where bearers can get their passports stamped at area merchants and then qualify for prizes such as leashes, bandanas and collapsible water bowls.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.