The High Tide license plate
That plate’s not on a truck. It’s on a cooler behind the bar at High Tide.
The owner is from Virginia, but the plate was actually a gift.
“It was given to me about six years ago when I first took over the business by friends of our family, Ken and Pat Lawrence, who have been coming to St. John for about 20 years,” High Tide owner Jason Bergner tells us.
And Ken has fond memories of the plate he gave to Jason all those years ago.
“I put that plate on my 1991 Trans Am. We wanted to be reminded of our favorite place every time we looked at the car,” says Ken. “ Lots of people agreed with us, as we were always getting beeps and friendly waves from people who recognized the message on the plate.”
Jason and his wife Yahira (below) spend most of their time on St. John and Puerto Rico, where she is from, these days, but he still manages to get back to see family and spend time in the Commonwealth he loves.
“I feel very much at home here, but I always miss the truly Virginia experiences I grew up with, like getting bushels of Chesapeake blue crabs off the boat in the summer and the convertible drives down the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall when the leaves are beginning to change,” he says.
“Having the plate behind the bar has started many conversations and given me the opportunity to have an extra connection with some of our guests and to meet fellow Virginians in their travels.”
July 24th, 2009 06:23
Nice photo of Jason and Yahira and a good story.
July 26th, 2009 08:11
There are literally thousands of Virginians who go to, live in and have lived in USVI. My little county alone has dozens of people who either own property on StJ, visit often or do business there. We even have a StJ real estate for sale sign on one of our major roads!
We should organize….platform: bring StJ beer to Virginia.