It's Fourth of July Eve and the town is full of white trash. You see them everywhere: carrying the ubiquitous coolers of beer and wearing the most atrocious resort wear Walmart can import from China. Most people have a four day holiday weekend and the summer rates make a visit to Sodom-by-the-Sea very attractive. The locals take off to The Keys or the Northeast.

The visitors stare inside the windows of tattoo shops like this one and marvel at the beauty parlor type line-up of customers in chairs getting "done". South Beach can be a little pricey so they wander cautiously and are careful to look at the menu boards of restaurants before entering.

Still, they are a harmless bunch and there certainly won't be the number of arrests experienced on Hip Hop weekend. They get to see all the wonderful crazies, too: Pink Lady, Bat Bum, the ballet star on his bicycle, drag queens, the guy who teaches the History of Disco (complete with dance steps) on Lincoln Rd., and on and on. All that and fireworks from the barges right off Gay Beach. How many times I've heard families coming from that beach saying, "What a great beach; but there were so many guys." "Yeah, Mom, and they were all so beautiful. You'd think they'd all have a girlfriend."