Another Truman Home in Another Seaside

February 20

This endless white ribbon of sand that stretches along this Gulf coast continues to draw our interest and attention again and again. It is so beautiful and now peaceful, lying next to the turquoise sea. One never gets tired of being in its presence.

Today Barb and I drove the Jeep west along busy highway (30A) bordering the beaches. Communities west of Panama City varied from older high-rises with T shirt shops, Ripley’s Believe It or Not stores, wax museums and the other beach resort type trappings, to communities of stately and classy condos, homes, hotels, restaurants, and boutiques. The common thread in all the communities was the pristine beach and turquoise water. Located 300 miles from Atlanta, this area is the home of the proverbial, spring break. It is “off season” now and I would guess that occupancy is less than 10%.

The developments continued on for the entire 40 miles to our destination, Seaside. We had read about this unique spot and it more than met our expectations. Our Lonely Planet Guide writes, “Remember the squeakily clean-cut township of Seahaven in Peter Weir’s 1998 movie The Truman Show? Doll-like, sorbet-colored cottages clustered around a model town square, and people were unnervingly neighborly…except everything was indeed too contrived to be true. In the movie, the town was a fabricated set for a reality show, in which all the chirpy residents, but the show’s unwitting star, Truman, were actors. Well, they didn’t have to build that town in Hollywood. They found it.”

It is a planned community started in 1981 but it has no walls, gates, or security codes. Driving east along 30A, you simply drive into it and your mouth drops open. We stopped and parked in the square and boarded our bikes to explore the shops and neighborhoods. It was as if we were in an amusement park, it was so surreal. But it is real. Real people live and work in these homes. I still found myself searching for hidden cameras. Except for 30A, there was little traffic and they stopped or pulled over to let our bikes pass. Cheerful waves and greetings were frequent. As we rode down the road behind the shops and the square, we ran on to a charter middle school of 200 students. A class played soccer on the green, beautiful perfect kids, fitting the stereotype of the perfect made for TV community. For lunch, we entered a deli and purchased pasta and sandwiches. We ate sitting in a gazebo on the dunes above the sea. Not a natural wood gazebo. It was painted white reinforcing the surreal atmosphere. As we visited the small shops I noticed some small walkways leading to back of the shops. I walked down a few, half expecting to find television cameras, but instead found an access to the beach.


Then at around 8:45 PM, the lunar eclipse began.

As I reflect, it was as if a dream.