“Honey,” I said to the wife over a delicious coconut shrimp dinner at a favorite restaurant, “did you ever wonder who decided it was a good idea to eat these super creepy, bug-like creatures with the twenty spindly legs, the black bulging eyes, and the whip-like antennae?”

“Well,” the wife said, “I was enjoying my dinner until you turned it into an anthropodal abomination. Waiter, could you take this away and bring me a plate of nachos, please?”

Weeks later the wife and I took a trip to Amelia Island off the coast of Florida with a couple of dear lady friends. We learned how shrimp, the cute little crustacean, became a popular food item on the plates of Americans and throughout the world. It all started on Amelia Island.

The waters off the island were teeming with shrimp. However, in the late 1800s before refrigeration, the only people to eat shrimp were the locals. Turns out without refrigeration, shrimp gets stinky rancid real fast.

We will pause here for an 1800s re-enactment…

Theodore: Good Lord! What’s that, stinky rancid smell, Martha?

Martha: Well, Theo, I put a baggy of shrimp in our suitcase as a souvenir for your mother.

Theodore: (gagging enthusiastically) Get rid of it before I hurl.

Martha: I will. I told you, I was giving it to your mother.

End Scene

When refrigeration became popular, so did shrimp. It could be fast frozen and shipped anywhere in the world. Today, shrimp is a seafood favorite and it all started on the little island called Amelia.

“Hey,” I said to the wife and our travel companions, “what do you say we head down to St. Augustine? It’s only two hours south of us. I heard there is amazing history there as it is the oldest city in the United States, founded by the Spanish in 1565.

The wife and our traveling companions huddled in whispered conference to consider my proposal.

Sensing some hesitation in their sidebar about my suggestion to go to St. Augustine, I threw another factoid in to help them decide.

“Did you ladies also know that the Spanish explorer Ponce de León discovered the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine?”

The murmur in the huddle of ladies became quite pronounced. Then in unison they announced, “Let’s go to St. Augustine!”

The city is a beautiful representation of Spanish architecture. Henry Flagler, a wealthy entrepreneur in the oil business, arrived in 1880 and turned the old Spanish town into a resort for the wealthy and fashionable (which is clearly why we went there). His hotels and development of the railroad industry on Florida’s east coast made St. Augustine the tourist destination to this day.

After touring much of the historic sites of St. Augustine and learning of the rich history of the area, I heard another huddle of the ladies convening in the car. When the murmur rose to a loud din, I asked, “What is it ladies? Is there something else you would like to see before we head home?”

I was passed a note from the back seat. It said, “Where is the fountain of youth? Asking for a friend …”

It was a great trip. We learned a lot. I started out the trip with three 69 year-olds and drove home with three 25 year-olds.

Raul Ascunce is a freelance columnist for the Sentinel-Tribune. He may be contacted at [email protected].