Having grown up along the Gulf Coast, I have early impressions of the communities that make up the Scenic 98 Coastal area. Mobile was home, but fishing trips with my family out of Dauphin Island were a weekly occurrence in warm weather. We logged many days at my cousins’ summer home on the Little Lagoon down Ft. Morgan road, and spent time on Cotton Bayou with friends in Orange Beach. Eventually, my folks bought a home in Pt. Clear where we spent summers from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

This year’s Labor Day weekend was also the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The almost 1400 lives that were lost, reduced from the original 1800 estimated in Mississippi and Louisiana, are a reminder that Mother Nature is undefeatable. Realizing that Labor Day is in the middle of prime storm season, it is hard not to recall the hurricanes that have been part of my life since childhood.

If you’ve ever attended a civic function on the Eastern Shore, you’ve probably run into Skip Jones. He may be the most civic-minded man I know. His interests run wide and deep. He is also an ‘Old Salt’, an endearing term for someone who knows their way around the waterfront.‍

When we started this venture called Scenic98Coastal.com, I talked it out with lots of people I know and respect. The best advice I received was from a friend’s son visiting Fairhope from New York during the pandemic. We were having lunch at Sunset Pointe at Fly Creek when I told him about our idea to launch a newsletter for the area between Mobile and Pensacola. 

For the first half of my life, I was Jim, and then, increasingly, I was Jimmy Lee. It's a nickname I gave myself in 1993, and I encouraged it to stick. It's been confusing at times, but looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.

Something that even some of my friends don't know about me is I'm into birds, and have been for over 30 years. The preferred term is "birding" for people who are seriously into it, but I've never quite put myself in that category, even though I do own a handful of reference books, some nice binoculars and even a high-powered spotting scope. 

Reading the obituaries every day is something I do. In the old days they would print, ‘she died of natural causes’ meaning, she got old and up and died. Not anymore, they say nothing about the cause of death. The best I can do to figure out what happened is to read between the lines of the suggested ‘in lieu of’ donation.

Scenic 98 Coastal was officially launched on April 14, 2022, when our first newsletter was emailed to 142 subscribers made up of family and friends. Over the last two years, we have enjoyed telling stories and sharing experiences with our readers, now over 5,000 strong. Telling stories is what we are all about! With everything going on in the world right now, we hope to be a positive voice that celebrates this community and all it has to offer.