South of the Mouth Café

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Read the “Stories off the Menu @ South of the Mouth Cafe”

Stories off the menu is a collection of short non-fiction stories about the people that have crossed the path of this new and unique business that sells food from her boat on the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida. A fun and encouraging read for anyone that has wanted to own and operate their own business. The reader will see how Athearn developed a customer base business from the passing of her mother. She meets her guiding light within “MY First Dollar” and a man named Sam Sapp. Friendships developed from such customers as “The Parents Club” that met at her business to eat and became a lengthy story swapping session about the raising of teenagers. Athearn goes on to share her adventures and escapades in “Guilty by Association” where she had an unexpected encounter with the law. She also found true love on the river with the meeting of her husband Marlin. Stories off the Menu @ South of the Mouth Café is a fun read crafted for an adult-oriented audience to encourage all to step out of their circle and take a chance on what they believe in.

Donna has lived on the Intracoastal Waterway of Florida for most all of her 43 years of life. She always loved the river. The people of that river have been so very much fun to be with and very entertaining to her. She did not think that they would become as close to her as they have over the years. She grew up in a small little town called New Smyrna Beach, just 15 miles south of Daytona Beach. This collection of stories from the ship’s log has come from the visitors of the first licensed food service vessel operating on the waterways in the state of Florida. The saying, “You never know who you will meet or who they will want to introduce you to” is true. From a chance encounter on a remote section of the river came a waterway catering job where she found herself in Rome in the story called The Naked Sailors Party. The groups of people in the Breakfast Club and the Parents Club gave her things to laugh about and shake her head thinking “I haven’t got it so bad”. She encountered people that she will know the rest of her life. But also met people that she hoped never to see again. Out of one frightening situation a rescue came from an unexpected direction. She never would have believed she would meet the love of her life on the Intracoastal Waterway, nor would she have believed that love would help her face a ghost from her past and endure one of the hardest losses in her world. She wanted the stories in this collection to reflect some good lessons from the school of hard knocks without the homework, and to encourage people to stick their head out of their comfort zone and try to venture into something you believe in for the good that may come out of it. If you put your heart into it and believe in yourself completely it will work and you will be rewarded in more ways than you think.