A word from the editor

We started this paper in April of 1979 in the back room of a print shop on Howard Avenue in Biloxi, with a light table we did not own and a list of every bar between Bay St. Louis and Pascagoula that had a band on Saturday night. There were thirty-one. The first issue was eight pages and one tide.

Ten years on, we go from Corpus Christi to Jacksonville. We print five tides. We are still free.

We print on Tuesday because the boats come in over the weekend, the prices are set by Monday, and the bands are booked by Wednesday. Tuesday is the day all of that is true at once.

Here is what we cover: who is playing, where, and when. What the tide is doing this weekend. What the shrimp are bringing at the dock and what the bait is costing at the shop. Where the boil is. Your letters, if you send them; we print most of them. Your classifieds, twenty words for three dollars.

Here is what we do not do. We do not print anything unkind about a band. If a band was good we say so. If a band was not, we leave it out, and if it was a Tuesday we say how many came. We do not guess at the tide. We correct the tide table the following week, in a box, with an apology. We correct everything else when asked.

We go into the racks Tuesday morning at bait shops, oyster bars, gas stations and laundromats along the coast. If your rack is empty by Thursday, call us and we will bring more.

We are free because the people who advertise in these pages pay for it. When you buy your ice, tell them where you saw them.

Take one. Take two if you need one for the boat.