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In the dreary heat he waits and watches the beach, semi-crowded with tourists and those locals dodging the Sunday afternoon crowd at Siesta. You may have seen the lifeguard towers at Lido, known someone is there, but never seen his face. Jon’s face is a serene one, tanned, happy with wrinkles, a short gray beard and eyes … well, blue like the sea.

Just after his family moved to Sarasota back in ‘73, when Jon was in high school, he made friends with some lifeguards out on Siesta. After graduating college he “floundered for a couple years,” before finding his own place on the beach.

His full-time lifeguard schedule requires a 9 to 7 shift with three days off; his enthusiasm for the job comes through the minute he starts to describe it.

“Thirty years kinda slipped away. I love it. I’m sitting right in nature,” he says. “I get to meet people from all over the world.” Families that vacation each summer or winter, random beach-goers looking for conversation — curious interns for Creative Loafing.

For the time we talked I could experience a glimpse of this life spent staring the ocean in the face, caring for people and their safety. It’s a job suited only for certain individuals.

It was coming up on 6 p.m., the beach still shining and prime. We talked on about literature, Jerry Garcia and his daughter. And a few times a young straggler managed to escape his nearby parents and hobbled up the steps — he couldn’t seem to stay away from Jon. Perhaps we were witnessing the birth of a future lifeguard.

He confessed to “devouring Creative Loafing each week”; his daughter loves the astrology section the most. His predictions for Sarasota? He thinks we’re witnessing the start of a more youth-oriented cycle. He appreciates Sarasota’s young folks, even rents out rooms to New College students.

But talking to people, scooping up drifing toddlers — that’s what Jon loves. Even if most people on the beach never look back.

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