This digital story was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
Frank Wilem: I'm Frank Wilem and I'm the CEO of The Wilem Group.
Jonathan Daniels: (0:29) We're the second largest green fruit import facility in the United States.
Frank Wilem: (0:41) I think the Gulf Coast, the option of riding down the beach, I mean, there's not many places say in California where you can ride for miles and miles along the beach, like you can in Mississippi. And I think, for most people, that close access to the ocean it's hard to describe, as I said earlier, I think either the sea is in you or it isn't. And I can go on a freshwater body of water and I can enjoy myself, but it's not the same, even if I'm on the Back Bay here, I know that's connected to the ocean and the possibilities for where you can travel are limitless. And to me, it just changes the whole dynamic.
Jonathan Daniels: (1:23) I worked in the commandant's office and worked with men and women that were pursuing careers in the maritime industry. Part of my responsibility was to serve as a watch officer, one of four watch officers going on the annual training crews. I was fairly young at the time, I'd only been out of school for a couple of years, but for me, it was absolutely incredible. So when we came to ashore, it was a very interesting experience, is that the very first time we docked and at the port of Gibraltar, the gangway went down and this gentleman walked onto the vessel, and that was the times when you didn't see many cell phones, but the gentlemen had a cell phone, it was a big kind of flip phone bag phone and he was making arrangements to get food, he was making arrangements to get fuel for the vessel. And he was a ship's agent, and from that point I kind of followed him around for a couple of days. And I've just thought was absolutely incredible what he was doing, that was my first introduction into the maritime industry. And then from that point, I was hooked. Once you go to sea, or once you do something like that, work in the port, it gets in your blood and ultimately is something that's difficult to get out.
Captain Bobby Barnett: (2:30) I'm an outdoors man. I really enjoy being on a water, commercially and recreational. We have two fishing boats and we have a recreational boat, a fun boat too, that we gather up at the islands and in the Back Bay. So there's a lot of fun that's to be had on the water.
Asset ID: 8601
For a complete transcript, please visit the Museum on Main Street website: www.museumonmainstreet.org
