Third-Rate Romance, Low-Rent Rendezvous

For more than 40 years, visitors to the Gulf Coast's "Redneck Riviera" have wandered into a "charming dive" called the Flora-Bama. The bar's property literally straddles the Alabama-Florida line, hence the name. It's far from ritzy, but still probably the kind of place the Amazing Rhythm Aces had in mind while writing this song.

When Hurricane Ivan blew through last September, the Flora-Bama's structure survived. But the storm surge filled the building "bar-high" with sand, and the damage was too great for repair.

Never fear, however, as the owners promise to rebuild -- but not before sending the Flora-Bama out in style.

Hold your glasses high, lads and lasses, and drink a wee toast to the demise of an old friend, the Flora-Bama Lounge & Package. A real American beach dive is getting a real Irish wake, planned for April 16 at the Flora-Bama Lounge on Perdido Key. Then the building, which has survived many nonpaying, brawling hurricanes since it opened in 1962 at the state line, will get its last call from a wrecking ball and a bulldozer.

But don't panic. There will be a new, bigger 'Bama, which owners Joe Gilchrist and Pat McClellan promise will be "just as low-rent." The 20th annual Interstate Mullet Toss remains scheduled for April 22. "We thought it would be best to hold a wake so we can properly say goodbye," Gilchrist said Friday. "We're expecting quite a crowd."

We are a cultured and religious bunch ...