It’s impossible to come to Naples and not think of water: the Gulf, Wiggins Pass, Gordon Pass, Naples Bay, Gordon River, Haldeman Creek — the list goes on. These waters were the very life source of sustainability and safety for early inhabitants, and today these same waters are essential to the city’s identity and quality of life.

“Few counties in modern times have been created with a smaller population and less developed resources in so large an area (as Collier County).” That’s according to Charles Tebeau in “Florida’s Last Frontier: The History of Collier County.”

At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, the world will once again be joined in a universal commonality when we all begin to sing “Auld Lang Syne,” the poem by Robert Burns that is widely regarded as “one of the world’s most popular songs that no one knows the lyrics to.” The tune can stop (well, you never really stop a Scotsman) even the wildest of ye’ Highlanders for a moment of reflection to honor a time long, long gone.

’Twas the night before Christmas when all through Naples’ town
It was silently eerie as the sun settled down
When all of a sudden, in a moment of flash
Came a sound of loud creaking — as this spirit did dash
“What was that?” I asked to an old man who happened by