THE ZACH STORY

I spend too much time in bars. The hours I have spent in bars over the years has brought me and those around me both great blessings and great heartache.

There’s the one in New York City I’d run to mid days to escape my baby daughter and her nanny to write set lists where the barely-understandable Irish staff brogues kept me encouraged as a young singer.

There’s the one in Washington, DC, where I would go to hide when I had a panic attacks whilst working in that unbearable (to me) city.

There’s the one in London where I would go to eat and settle late night after gigs, of which I would do two or three shows a night. Wearing a big silk Sulka scarf around my neck like Pavarotti or Sinatra.

There’s the one in (redacted) where I threw silverware at a DJ and am properly banned for life.

There’s Taiwan. There’s Nicaragua. On and on. But this really isn’t about bars.

Nowadays I find myself in an entirely new and different world. Norfolk, Virginia. Home of the even-numbered SEAL teams (reportedly — and yes, SIX is an even number) and of half of our nation’s carrier-based strike force. It is the home of NATO in the United States.

As a result, It’s an area jam packed with some of the finest and most quietly distinguished human beings one would ever want to know.

I’ve always at heart been an animal person. I grew up as a 4-H member showing sheep and riding around on donkeys. I can’t eat lamb (or Donkey, not that it’s ever been offered, thank God) as a result.

So living here on the beach, I don’t have a Donkey (at the moment — but stand by, because you never know), but I do have an extra appreciation every day for the extreme beauty of this world we have been given. From the Herons that from time to time nip my heels to the Dolphins that blast out of the Chesapeake Bay every morning whilst I gasp. And of course our Bay itself.

And the Gullies. Our beautiful seashore mascots. I used to give them Froot Loops but now I just give them sunflower seeds. I mean, healthy eating is not much on the mind of a Gull, but still…they were getting a little nuts on the Froot Loops.

Anyway, this morning, of course, I was in a bar. After what I call morning office hours at the beach. The same one I was in yesterday. Which was the time I noticed that our little marina area at Little Creek was beginning to become repopulated with beautiful post-molt Mallards.

I also noticed yesterday how violated the little marina was by litter. I remember thinking that maybe we could get one of those pool nets or something and do something about it if not just for beauty, for the beloved wildlife I previously referred to. I made a mental note to look into it.

Lo and behold this morning there’s a dude in the water with waders and gloves carefully removing the foulage from the marshes. I thought maybe he was sent from the city or hired by someone to do what looked like some rather nasty work.

Nope.

He was Zach McMahill. From, funnily enough, Ocean View Hawaii (our broader neighborhood here is commonly referred to as Ocean View). Zach works at the bar, Longboard’s, saw the same sight I did in the Marina that surrounds it, and came out on his day off and at no one’s request to get that litter out of the water.

I asked what brought him to do this once I realized what was going on.

“I’m from Hawaii,” he said whilst looking me earnestly in the eye. “This stuff matters.”

Amen, my brother.

What makes this story really matter to me is the selflessness of the actions of people like Zach. I had made a mental note to ‘try to do something about it,’ but Zach just went and did something about it, on his own, without pause, and that is a truly beautiful act. For the bar, for keeping the neighborhood aesthetically pristine, and most importantly, for those Herons, Dolphins, Gullies and so on whom we are so blessed to have among us.

Hell yes this stuff matters. Let us all try to be a little more like Zach.

Oh, one more thing. Go to Longboard’s when you find yourself in the Little Creek area. It’s pretty fun.