Father of NYT best-selling author Bruce Feiler dead at 86 savannahnow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from savannahnow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jane Fishman is a contributing lifestyles columnist for the Savannah Morning News.
The Silver Meteor pulls away quietly from the modest Savannah depot, just as it always did, before the isolation, before the pandemic. This is Amtrak’s southbound 97. Savannah is the approximate midpoint between Boston and Miami. The tag on my bike headed for baggage reads MIA. I’m hoping that means Miami and not “missing in action.” We’re heading to Hollywood, Florida. During the ride I find out from a very congenial car conductor, Mr. Appleman, that bikes cannot be unloaded in Hollywood. Someone goofed when we made the ticket. We make an adjustment. I text my friend to meet us in Ft. Lauderdale.
Jane Fishman is a contributing lifestyles columnist for the Savannah Morning News. Gordon S. Varnedoe died April 24.
Oh, Gordon. No, no no. This can’t be true. You’re too young (82), you have too many jokes left to tell (not that I always understood them), too many weddings to officiate, too many Georgia Days to celebrate, too many Batman costumes to wear. You take up too much space in a room – in a good way – for you not to be here.
You have too many stories to tell, like the time you won the $200,000 Quik Pik Powerball ticket at a Parker’s gas station on Victory Drive. Who wins that much money? Before that it was the $10,000 you snagged in the Mega Millions category. Was there some lucky sequence you chose?