28-01-2025
Snow forced postponement of Perdido snowbird shindig. And yes, that is funny.
They had to postpone the big Perdido Key "Snowbird Beach Bum Hootenanny" last week, rescheduling it for Thursday because of, and yes, it is ironic, heavy snow.
But aren't all those northern snowbirds used to living, and even driving, in steady snow? Aren't we Florida folk always getting grief from our Yankee neighbors whenever we start putting on jackets when it gets below 70 degrees? They could have made it down the road from the condo to the event.
"Yes, they're used to driving in snow,'' said Tammy Thurow, president of the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce, which hosts the event at the iconic Flora-Bama Lounge on the Florida-Alabama border. "But the people who run the thing aren't."
Thurow herself moved to sunny Northwest Florida about six years from Arkansas. She feels much like the snowbirds who migrate back and forth between northern states such as Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana and all the rest to our gorgeous, snowless and warmer Northwest Florida.
"I did not move here for this,'' she said of the snow. "It was kind of a shock. But it was pretty."
Lynne and Dennis Fox, both 76, of Adrian, Michigan, have been coming to the Perdido and Gulf Shores, Alabama, area on the other side of the Flora-Bama, for six years now.
Lynne Fox said the couple is at the point in their lives where they are on a quest.
"We want to see things, try things that we have never tried or seen before,'' she said. "We checked snow on the beach off of the list. It was absolutely beautiful. We loved it. It was great."
"Not that great,'' joked her husband, Dennis Fox, adding that all of us southerners gone giddy over the snow haven't had to shovel it on a regular basis.
Still, he did give in to the snow shenanigans, posing shirtless at the couple's beach condo with a snowball, and a snowy Florida landscape behind him.
"That was still early in the snow,'' Lynne Fox said, adding that she posted the photo and "it started trending on social media."
This Thursday's "Beach Bum" party is the second of four "snowbird hootenanny" events scheduled for 2025. Attendees are asked to dress the part, which is easy when you're doing to hang at the Flora-Bama anyway, and be prepared to do the clambake to classics by the Beach Boys, and, if you're lucky, some awesome surf tunes by Dick Dale, the Marketts, the Tornadoes and all the classics.
The remaining Hootenanny events include a "Sweetheart Saloon" on Feb. 6 and the "Mardi Gras Mambo" on Feb. 20.
Thurow said the "Sweetheart Saloon," falling a week or so before Valentine's Day, will be a romance-based event where an instructor will teach couples to line dance.
The most popular event each year is the annual "Mardi Gras Mambo,'' where folks from Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and the rest of the wintery states get to participate in a Gulf Coast tradition, complete with red beans & rice, king cake, masks and beads.
The first 2025 snowbird hootenanny was a "Rock Your Decade" event on Jan. 9. All of the events are sold out.
"Oh my gosh, their impact is huge,'' Thurow said of the snowbirds who flock south each winter. "They eat at our restaurants and shop at our stores. They have a huge impact on the economy, which is nice when other areas might be down for the winter. We love having them, they become part of our community, and we develop friendships with them through the years."
Folks at local businesses agree.
"They're very important to us in the off-season,'' said Lisa Carstens, owner of the Salty Pearl Raw Bar on Perdido Key. "They help us keep going during the slower months."
Her manager, Brittany Wallizer, agreed.
"I look forward to seeing them in the wintertime,'' Wallizer said. "They're always super nice, super friendly and they really do become a part of our community."
She joked with her snowbird customers in the aftermath of what to us locals seemed like a blizzard.
"I told them they brought it with them,'' Wallizer said.
Lynne Fox admitted that what Northwest Florida and Lower Alabama received was a "lot of snow,'' noting their Michigan home only had about 3 inches of snow compared to the double-digits that hit the Gulf Coast. But unlike in Michigan, the snow and the cold melt away much quicker here.
"We spent the entire day (Sunday) at the beach,'' she said. "We're getting warmer grey skies, and anytime it starts to get a little colder I look at my phone (to check weather back home) and it's always colder there."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Perdido snowbird event postponed because of snow on for Thursday.
