Tar Balls And Dropped Vowels

After the oil spill in the Gulf some 80+ days ago, I began thinking of my own childhood summers at Texas beaches.  Then, just a week or so ago, reports started coming in about tar balls showing up on Texas shores.  Suddenly, like a slap upside the head, I remembered tar on the beaches when I was little.  We always spent part of the summer at "The Coast" during my 17 years in Texas.  "The Coast" in this case being one of the barrier islands off the side of Texas like Port Aransas.  And after not thinking of it for years, I suddenly rushed back in time and remembered using tar wipes at the beach showers.  These wipes were just there, waiting by the showers to get tar off big and little feet alike.  I never thought much of it.  The beach came with seaweed and jellyfish and tar.  These problems can be taken care of with screaming like a dying seal when it brushes against you, meat tenderizer, and tar wipes respectively.  It never occurred to me that the oil rigs we could see way off on the horizon were responsible for the tar on our toes.  I suppose when something has always been there we don't ask questions.  Or at least I don't.  Like how when I was little I thought every city had a Sea World. 

Anyway, when talking about the oil spill recently I mentioned the tar phenomenon and people don't believe me.  Like this is what I would choose to lie about.  Look, I live with my parents, I have bigger lies to keep up with.  So I need the help of my fellow Texans to convince The Internet that this is real.  Just leave a comment saing how lovely and right I am.  I will bribe you with some cute photos of me at the beach when I was little.

{As a side note, I hope that we don't let drilling go so far that every beach has rigs in the distance and every child washes tar off their tiny hot feet.  Can we agree it isn't healthy for anyone?

Oh, and yes, like a good Southerner pronounce "oil" as "ol", one syllable no "i".  This drives my Midwestern mother crazy.  Just like when I pronounce "milk" as "melk".  Are you reading mom?  Melk, melk melk...Ol, Ol, Ol}