22
Rant: That wild week I met a retired fisherman at 3am in a Walmart parking lot
I was in Biloxi last April for a work trip and my car broke down at 2 in the morning. I walked to the nearest Walmart which was still open and sat outside waiting for a tow truck. This older guy named Sal pulled up in a rusted pickup and asked if I needed help. He ended up giving me a jump start and then we talked for two hours about hurricanes and shrimp boats. Turns out he used to run a charter out of Gulfport for 40 years and had stories about catching 800 pound tuna. I still text him every few months and he sends me photos of his grandkids. Has anyone else had a random encounter while stranded that turned into a real friendship?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
the_alice1d ago
That's just wild to read because my dad had a similar thing happen years ago, but it was in a Denny's parking lot at 4am with a guy who claimed he used to fix pinball machines for a living. Turns out he actually did and taught my dad how to restore old arcade cabinets. Have you ever asked Sal about if there's one specific hurricane or storm that made him stop running the charter out of Gulfport for good?
2
mary_martin2220h ago
Huh, I never even thought about that. Maybe it wasn't one specific storm but the whole pattern of them getting worse and more unpredictable over time. Like maybe one hit that was just the final straw after years of close calls and he just quietly decided he was done.
6