Setting Sail for Mobile: Jimmy Buffett and a Night at the Museum

[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to Monument Matters, a podcast produced by the Monument Builders of North America for all things memorialization. Each episode is an extension of our monthly magazine, MB News. Monument Matters invites everyone to listen and share. You'll find all of the episodes on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. [00:00:26] Speaker B: I'm your host, Mike Johns, CM AICA from the Johns Ciaravelli Company Cimarano Monuments and Flowers in Cleveland, Ohio. I'm also a past president of the Monument Builders of North America. Today's episode is titled Setting Sail for Mobile Jimmy Buffett and A Night at the Museum. Joining me today is Karen Poth, who has served as the Executive Director of the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf in mobile, Alabama since 2024. Karen, welcome to our podcast. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Well, thank you for having me. [00:01:03] Speaker B: It's a pleasure to have you on the program. So I'm not sure if you're aware, but Back in episode 11 we spoke with Matthew McCloney from the USS Alabama. Battleship Memorial park, another must see destination in historic Mobile. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:01:22] Speaker B: So anyway, as I understand it, the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf is the only museum in the world dedicated to the rich history, culture and traditions of the Gulf of America. With more than 80 immersive exhibits and interactives, the museum offers something for maritime lovers of every age. So MBA will be holding its closing reception of the 2027 Monument Industry show at the Muse Museum. For listeners who haven't visited, please introduce us to the museum and the stories it tells. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Absolutely. So we are about 98,000 square foot museum. We are, we sit right on the Mobile river, which is a very, it's an active river, it's very industrial. We sit between the two ports and right across this, the way from a lot of shipbuilding that's happening. We have been here for about 10 years, 10 and a half years. And our entire museum is shaped like a container ship, which is pretty cool. And so inside we have eight floors of exhibits and our museum is dedicated to telling the stories, the stories, the history, the economy and the ecology of the Gulf. And so we have a wide variety of exhibits. We just installed a two floor Jimmy Buffett exhibit which, you know, people will argue what does that have to do with the history of the Gulf of Mexico? But it has a lot to do with it, as you'll find out when you get here. But we also, there's a simulator up on the top deck of the museum where people can drive their own container ship or their own tugboat or their own fast boat through the, through the river or up into the Gulf. We've had people actually get seasick on it. So it's the real life thing that ship captains train on. We also have a lot of other exhibits that talk about shipbuilding history here. Very rich history of shipbuilding. And, of course, containerization was invented here in Mobile, which sounds kind of dull, maybe, but before containerization, you know, there was no Walmart. So you can thank Mobile for Walmart. [00:03:37] Speaker B: Wow, that's fascinating. Seriously. So the museum recently opened this new exhibit titled Son of a Son of a Sailor. So tell us about Jimmy Buffett's Mobile roots and how his family's maritime history helps to explain the person and songwriter that he became. [00:03:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, so Jimmy Buffett. And really, it's. The exhibit's about the entire Gulf, um, because we talk about the whole Gulf, and Jimmy spent a lot of his life and certainly a lot of his songwriting talking about the Gulf. The Gulf of Mexico for him. And, you know. So Jimmy was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, which is just right up. Right up the shoreline from us. He moved here to Mobile when he was 18 months old and lived here through high school. So his parents moved here because his father got a job at Alabama Dry Docks and Shipbuilding, which was one of the largest shipbuilders on the Gulf at the time. They built Liberty ships through World War II. A lot of great history there. Eventually, his mother, Peets Buffett, also got a job there, and she was actually the first female executive at Alabama Dry Docks and Shipbuilding, which is kind of cool. And then Jimmy's grandfather, which the name of the exhibit is Son of a Son of a Sailor. And it's a very popular song that Jimmy wrote. His grandfather was the sailor that that song was about. And he was a master, master sailor, which means in that time, he mastered sail, steam, and motor ships. He served as a merchant marine in World War II. Very decorated Merchant Marine in World War II. And when he would come home from months at sea, Jimmy's mother would take Jimmy and his sisters and they'd go meet him at the docks, and Jimmy would climb up on his grandfather's knee. All those things are true that are in his stories. And he would hear about, you know, what was out there and what. What. What was past the horizon. And Jimmy very often credited his grandfather for his. His yearning to. To it. To be an adventurer and eventually write music about all those adventures. So a lot of great maritime history. [00:05:57] Speaker B: So did he do any actual adventuring himself as far as the sea goes? Jimmy. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Jimmy. Oh, my goodness. So half of the exhibit is dedicated to music, probably the rest of it is dedicated to, really. And his family would say who Jimmy was. Jimmy, his job was singing. His job was his music. And the rest was all about adventure. I will, you know, try to tell you all of his adventures, but he was actually shot down in a plane. He. He was a pilot, as most people know. He had several planes. He was shot at. Not shot down, but shot at. Coming into Jamaica one time with Bono on board. And that's a storied, you know, sounds like. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:49] Speaker A: And he actually wrote a song about that called Jamaica Mistake. He was flung off of an aircraft carrier, you know, on the catapult that sends you off at. He flew with the Blue Angels, which. That's a division of the Navy. And he spent a lot of time working with the Navy, going out to hospitals, doing free concerts on ships. He actually surfed behind a container ship out here in the Gulf. He spent a lot of time fishing. Fishing was near and dear to his heart. Fishing for bonefish all over the world, fly fishing and deep sea fishing. He was a surfer. Quite an accomplished surfer. Yeah, he was quite. He lived life to the fullest. Would be the best. [00:07:33] Speaker B: Sounds like I had. I had no idea. My sister. I probably could ask my sister. She's a big parrot head, so she probably knows most of that, but. But not me. So. [00:07:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:43] Speaker B: So where does the story of the museum begin and how does it unfold? [00:07:49] Speaker A: So we. We begin with a quote from his sister, Lucy Buffett, who still lives in our area some of the time. She has a huge restaurant over in Orange beach called Lulu's, which was her nickname given to her from Jimmy, I believe. But it starts with a quote from Lucy. And that quote is about how her mother used to take them to go and greet their grandfather when he came in. And then you walk through kind of an experience that you follow Jimmy's grandfather home from the West Indies back into the Gulf, and then we end up in Pascagoula, where Jimmy was born. Follow him all the way through his. His Catholic upbringing in Mobile. He went to Catholic private schools for elementary school and middle school and high school. He. One of the artifacts that we have is so precious. It's a project that Jimmy did when he was in eighth grade. It's his. The assignment was to do an autobiography for your entire life. And so it's very accurate to. To, you know, eighth grade. And then when it gets to high school, he's the quarterback on the football team and, you know, on the basketball team and. But anyway, eventually he ends up becoming a Catholic priest. So it's very telling, very well written, especially for an eighth grader. Yeah, but it's a, it's really cute, you know, piece that kind of gives a little, little insight into who Jimmy was as a child. [00:09:19] Speaker B: Fabulous. I can't wait to come and check it out. So the majority of our listeners are monument builders who create memorials that tell people stories. And in talking, in taking on the Buffett exhibit, the museum faced a similar challenge to ours, which is how do you represent a full life in a limited space? So in your case, how did you decide what to showcase in the exhibition? [00:09:45] Speaker A: That was probably the hardest part because of all of these different aspects of Jimmy's life. He was a very, a huge philanthropist. He helped people, you know, just. And then all of his adventures. He was a New York Times bestselling author. In fact, he, he, along with six other people in the history of the New York Times bestsellers list, has made the best sellers list for both fiction and nonfiction. He shares that honor with Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck and Dr. Seuss. So, you know, he also wrote some children's books with his daughter, wrote several, several plays. A Broadway musical called Escape to Margaritaville. And then, of course, you know, was quite an entrepreneur. He started Margaritaville after the song Margaritaville came out in 1971. He, he started a small store in Key West. Then eventually people were asking for cheeseburgers when they came in, so he started a cafe. And now it's a multi billion dollar, you know, property that has cruise ships and restaurants and hotels and retirement communities and, you know, so Jimmy was quite a, he was, he was quite a character and there was quite a big story to tell. [00:11:07] Speaker B: It sure sounds like it. And honestly, when I got the information about the podcast we were going to do today, I thought, okay, I wasn't all that, frankly, all that hyped, but I had no idea just, you know, who this guy really is. It's just amazing. Fabulous. [00:11:32] Speaker A: That's the thing, I think, you know, of course, Parrotheads and Parrotheads for your listeners who don't know, are his fans. And it's a, it's, it's literally a phenomenon, the parrot head phenomenon. But, you know, beyond that, I think it's an exhibit that, that appeals to everyone because, you know, in the end, you know, and we try to tell this story and it's linear and we go through, you know, the ups and downs. He was not successful right away and, but in the end, Jimmy was truly someone who just loved making people happy and. Wow, we can use a little More [00:12:12] Speaker B: of that these days we surely can. So how do you balance celebrating a public figure with revealing the person his family and friends knew? [00:12:25] Speaker A: That was, I think, the most rewarding part of, of this. We were able to interview a lot of his family, his, his band, his friends. He had this, this fishing group called the Flying Fishermen of the Apocalypse. And these men are, you know, Carl Hiason and people that, you know, have their. Are, are, are in their own rights, you know, celebrities. He, he just, he was an amazing person. And it just, it, it was our honor really to, to. It was my honor to learn who he was and to understand that and to be able to bring that to life for people. And the one thing that I'm, I'm telling everyone is this, this exhibit will never be finished, you know, because every time you talk to somebody else, there's another rabbit hole that you go down and, and all of a sudden there's another whole story that opens up. So we will continue to grow it and change it and. But we are honored to have been able to tell the story. [00:13:32] Speaker B: So this isn't just a short term special. This is a full fledged part of the museum now. [00:13:40] Speaker A: Yes, it is permanent. It's 6,000 square feet of our exhibit. Space is dedicated to it. There's a theater at the end. We worked with his longtime videographer and have worked, been given or been given the rights to use a lot of never before seen footage, never even edited together footage. So, you know, one of the challenges is coming up with something in this exhibit that all the parrot heads don't already know and so. Or haven't already seen and I think we've done that, but we have to keep adding to it or else they'll have seen it. All right, sure. [00:14:21] Speaker B: But I think that, you know, I mean, I imagine there's a lot of parrot heads out there, but there's probably a number of folks like me who have an interest in his music, but not quite to that extreme. And so to learn the depth of this man, the way you're presenting him in the museum, I think is, is an opportunity to, you know, on some level grow that parrot head base. For sure. And you know, if nothing else, it's kind of like Mobile's version of behind the Music. Jimmy Buffett, you know, tied to the Maritime Museum. That's incredible. [00:15:01] Speaker A: Yep, yep. [00:15:03] Speaker B: So to finish off on a personal note, unless there's some other stuff that you'd like to share that we haven't specifically covered because, you know, I know, I'm sure that the museum is much more than. Why don't we talk about that for a second? That Jimmy Buffett exhibit is a huge part of the museum, but I'm sure that there's an awful lot beyond Jimmy Buffett that we'll be able to go take a look at. Can you hit a couple of those high points for us? [00:15:29] Speaker A: Yep. So it's. It's two of the eight floors of exhibits that are here, and so the rest of the ex. One of our other floors is under construction now because we don't like to be bored. But it will be. It'll be opening about this time next year, and it will be an immersive walkthrough of the Mobile Tensaw Delta, which is less than a mile from our building. It is the most biodiverse area in North America. There are more turtles there, more turtle species there than anywhere else in the world, which is a, you know, big statement, if you like turtles. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Yes. [00:16:07] Speaker A: But also just, you know, talking about conservation and the importance of. Of this area to our industry and how industry and this area can survive side by side, if you will, because it's very close to our ports. And, you know, so that will be coming in 2027. And beyond that, we have a lot of great learning about, you know, especially right now with everything that's happening, understanding commerce and understanding, you know, the commerce that happens on the ocean. There's a huge map, it's two stories tall, where you can see all the trade routes that come into the port of Mobile. And so kids can stand there and push a button and realize, you know, these ships are coming in from Germany and China and all these places and start to understand the importance of the Panama Canal or the Strait of Hormuz or, you know, all these things that are in the news. There's also a lot of learning about shipbuilding and the importance of that throughout history, really, and how it has progressed. And then we sit right across the river from one of Austal's biggest shipbuilding facilities, and so people can watch military ships being built across the way. So a lot of really great things that are here. We have remote control boats that kids can drive and crash into each other, but we don't encourage that. But they do, right? [00:17:43] Speaker B: Sure. But, you know, kids will be kids. [00:17:46] Speaker A: That's right. [00:17:47] Speaker B: All right, so to finish on a personal note, which Jimmy Buffett song would you choose to set the mood for a visit to Mobile? [00:17:55] Speaker A: For a visit to Mobile, I think Mother. Mother Ocean. Okay, now you have to look that up, right? [00:18:03] Speaker B: I will. I was thinking changes in latitudes because, well, it'll be. [00:18:09] Speaker A: That's a good one too. [00:18:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:11] Speaker A: Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, our license to chill. We hope everybody comes here and just enjoys their stay. [00:18:19] Speaker B: I'm sure we will. I for one am definitely looking forward to it. I wouldn't before this have put Mobile on the list of places I needed to see, but that is certainly changing as we get closer to convention time next year. It sounds like there's an awful lot to discover. Donna Mobile, I had no idea. [00:18:43] Speaker A: So there is a lot of great food. Diners, Drive Ins and Dives has been here more than once. There's a lot of good stuff to do. [00:18:52] Speaker B: Fabulous. [00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:53] Speaker B: With that I'm going to thank our listeners for turning in for tuning in today to our installment of Monument Matters. And thank you Karen, for sharing a glimpse of the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf, be it Mexico or America. The October issue of MB News features more information about the museum and our upcoming Monument Industry show being held in Mobile February 25th to 28th, 2027. You'll find more details on www.monumentbuilders.org and if you have a topic you'd like to have covered in a future podcast, please leave a comment. Registration is also now open for the upcoming Monument Industry show in February. If you're not a member of mbna, we have a special invitation for you to take a first look at the show and at MBNA membership. And as I mentioned, the October 8d October issue of MBA News has more details about the convention. So I encourage you to read this issue. And if you have a topic you'd like to have covered in a future podcast, again, please leave us a comment. MB&A invites you to stay connected through Facebook and LinkedIn, or visit us at www.monumentbuilders.org for upcoming events and webinars. For MBA and monument matters, I'm Michael Johns. Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen. If you found today's content worthwhile, please share the link with a friend. Your comments and feedback are important to us. We'd love to hear from you, so please drop A note to infoonumentbuilders.org Again, Karen, thanks for taking time out of your day to share with our listeners and you listeners. Thank you so much and have a good day. All right. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:20:42] Speaker B: Sam.