Tag Archives: Florida

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and the Fiddia Family

Leonard Fiddia

The Yearling movie, and more importantly, the novel, may never have happened if it hadn’t been for Leonard Fiddia. Marjorie Rawlings met Leonard Fiddia in either 1929 or 1930 while on a hunting trip with a mutual friend. It was Leonard Fiddia who introduced her to Calvin Long in the “Big Scrub.” Calvin Long shared with Marjorie the story about his brother Melvin, who had a pet deer. From there the classic story was born.

Sydney and Paul Laxton

Leonard Fiddia lived off of Hog Valley Road by the Ocklawaha River. I recently had the chance to sit down with Leonard Fiddia’s grandson Paul Laxton and his wife Sydney who live on the same property that Piety and Leonard lived on when Marjorie visited back in the 1930s to gather material for her books.

Fiddia Homestead

“It’s a property that’s been in our family since about 1890,” said Paul. “The actual house that they lived in is right here where this house is. It’s kind of like right here in front of our house.”

Like many folks in the 1930s, Paul says his grandfather, Leonard Fiddia, did whatever he could to support and feed his family.

“He would night hunt. It was stuff that was illegal, but they were just trying to survive, you know,” said Paul, who is a retired Marion County Sheriff’s deputy. “So he had fish traps, he kept fish traps out there in the river where he would go and collect fish and eat fish. They had venison. They raised hogs and then there was the garden….They lived pretty much off the land. My mom talks about how some of it was illegal, but they were just trying to survive. It may have been somewhat of a simple life, but I think it was a good life for them.”

Paul says Leonard was also a skilled carpenter and electrician. Like many other folks in the “Big Scrub,” he made moonshine. Marjorie not only bought moonshine from Leonard, but helped him make it, spending several weeks with him and his mother Piety Fiddia to gather material for her first major novel, South Moon Under.

James, Piety and Leonard Fiddia

Sydney Laxton says she loves Marjorie’s novel, South Moon Under. “Once I got into it I could not put it down, especially because it was where we live. Our home that we built in 1992, this is where it happened, the South Moon Under story took place.”

Leonard, Piety and Marjorie became good friends to the point that when Leonard and his wife Margaret faced a family tragedy, Marjorie or “Marge” as Leonard called her, was even willing to donate her blood to try and save their youngest daughter.

Grace, Carol and Elmer Fiddia

The year was 1949. Leonard and Margaret had three living children. An infant had died shortly after birth. There was Carol, who was 15, seven year old Elmer, and a five year old daughter Grace. In the fall of 1949, Grace became seriously ill and was taken to Dr. J. L. Strange’s medical clinic in McIntosh.  She talked about visiting with little Grace in a letter she wrote to her husband Norton Baskin dated December 12th, 1949: 

“I went to Dr. Strange’s hospital Monday afternoon, and Leonard and Margaret and Jean were all there, Margaret worn to the bone, Leonard in tears. St. Vincent’s had confirmed the leukemia, and sent the child back where her family could be with her all the time. The great horror of it is her suffering. Aside from an almost constant fever of 105, she has begun to swell, and since the bone-marrow is affected, she is in utter agony…..She has to have a blood transfusion almost every day, to keep her alive, and Leonard said he had almost given out of donors.” (Rodger L. Tarr, ed. The Private Marjorie : the Love Letters of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings to Norton S. Baskin. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004)

Though she was willing to donate, Marjorie’s blood type wasn’t suitable for little Grace. A local hardware store donated a new red wagon for the little girl, something Grace had wanted, but sadly she died one week before Christmas.

Margaret and Grace Fiddia, Dec., 1949

Paul and Sydney shared family photos and mementos with me, including a video recorded of Paul’s mother Carol (Leonard’s oldest daughter) talking about Marjorie at a talk in Fort McCoy a few years before Carol passed away. Little Grace’s death remained a difficult subject even decades later.

“She died exactly a week before Christmas,” said Carol Fiddia. “That was a sad Christmas.”

Marjorie attended the funeral service at the Fort McCoy Cemetery on December 21, 1949. The memorial book shows that she contributed a vase with white flowers for the service. In a letter to her friend and publisher representative, Norman Berg dated December 29th, 1949, she described sitting at the gravesite in the Fort McCoy Cemetery:

“Leonard’s little girl died a week before Christmas. The funeral services were in the little Fort McCoy cemetery where Leonard’s people back to his great-grandfather are buried, and were simple and sweet, if such a thing is possible, with the wind in the pines, and a nearby saw-mill chug-chugging away. Leonard’s little boy, aged seven, the dreadful Elmer, wrestled with another little boy at the very edge of the grave–. Leonard insisted that I sit in the front row with the family, and Elmer sat next to me, chewing gum, and fascinated by his new shoes, which he kept rubbing together with a great squeaking, most satisfactory to Elmer.” (Laura Virginia Monti and Gordon E. Bigelow, eds. Selected Letters of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1983)

Marjorie went on in that letter to Norman Berg to describe travelling to the Fiddia homestead to bring Christmas dinner.

“I promised Leonard and Miss Piety that I’d come to the Scrub this week, and I was sure they would have had some of the east coast rain on their deep sand road, so yesterday afternoon I set out with a turkey and all the fixings in time to cook dinner there. They had not a drop of rain, the place is 8 miles from anywhere, and I had to dig out twice. But we had as fine an afternoon and evening as possible under the circumstances of their sadness, and the turkey dinner cooked in the old wood-range was delicious, and Mis’ Piety put her thin old arms around me and said, ‘This is like old times,’” wrote Marjorie.

Carol Fiddia Laxton

Leonard Fiddia’s daughter Carol remembers that Christmas dinner well. “All I remember about that meal is the turkey. Now we had eaten turkey because my dad killed wild turkeys occasionally. But they were always cut up before they were cooked. But she had this great big bought roasted turkey there on the table. Now that was impressive,” said Carol.

“My mom talked about it being a rough Christmas ‘cuz Grace had passed away just prior to Christmas and one thing she talked about was how Marjorie showed up at the house Christmas morning with all the fixings to make ‘em a Christmas dinner meal for them,” said Paul.

“It really touched Carol because she would still choke up you know, telling the story,” said Sydney.

The Fiddias remained close friends throughout Marjorie’s life. Leonard continued to do work to help maintain Marjorie’s home and serviced Marjorie’s Kohler plant which provided her electricity. The family says he even helped with carpentry work on the set of The Yearling movie in the mid-1940s. Both Piety Fiddia and Marjorie died in the same year…Piety in April of 1953 and Marjorie in December of 1953. Leonard Fiddia died in 1958.

From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida

To see the full 58-minute documentary online click here: PBS.org

The documentary is also available on the PBS app by typing in the word Yearling in the search box. You can also view the documentary on the WUFT-TV passport. PBS stations can download the broadcast version from NETA.

From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida is also being distributed to more than 350 PBS stations via NETA, The National Educational Telecommunications Association. Check local listings in your area for availability. DVDs of the program may soon be made available for purchase. Check this site for updates.

From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida takes an inside look at a classic movie as well as the award-winning classic novel which inspired the film with the people who lived the story. The documentary shares oral histories from some of the actors and stand-ins who were featured in the Oscar-nominated MGM Classic, The Yearling, the coming of age story about a post-Civil War backwoods Florida family who raised an orphaned deer which leads to heartbreaking conflict.

Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman, Jr. and Gregory Peck

2022 marked the 75th Anniversary of when the film was honored at the Academy Awards with seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor nominations for Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman. The Yearling took home Oscars for Cinematography and Art Direction and Claude Jarman, Jr. received a Juvenile Acting Oscar for his role as young “Jody Baxter” in the movie.

The Yearling, directed by Clarence Brown, was based on the 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.  The documentary, From Novel to Movie:  The Yearling in Florida features many unique home movie clips recorded by actor Gregory Peck during the time he was working on the film in the Ocala National Forest in Florida in 1945.

The documentary also includes extensive interview segments with Oscar winner Claude Jarman, Jr. who played young Jody Baxter in the MGM film.  Memories from Florida residents who served as stand-ins for Peck and Jarman as well as some of the people who worked on the movie set in Florida’s scrub country are also featured.

We are so thankful to Claude Jarman, Jr. for providing photos and most of all his insight on the making of the classic film. We are also appreciative of The Gregory Peck Foundation for providing home movie clips recorded by Gregory Peck while he was filming in Florida and California in 1945.

Click on the video below to see the first five minutes of the 58 minute documentary.

To see the full 58-minute documentary online click here: PBS.org

The documentary is also available on the PBS app by typing in the word Yearling in the search box. You can also view the documentary on the WUFT-TV passport. PBS stations can download the broadcast version from NETA.

Meet the people behind the documentary below

The producer of the documentary is award-winning journalist Donna Green-Townsend. She has more than 45 years of radio and television experience and is the recipient of a National Edward R. Murrow Award for documentary production. In December of 2021 she interviewed Claude Jarman, Jr. on stage at the Marion Theatre in Ocala, FL before a showing of the original movie The Yearling.

The co-producer is Kathlyne Walkup Sheppard whose knowledge, relatives and acquaintances from the “Big Scrub” were invaluable to the project. A big thank you goes to members of the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm Board for ongoing support on this project.

In 1939, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, The Yearling. Her inspiration for the novel came from time spent with people who lived in the “Big Scrub.” Marjorie’s friend Leonard Fiddia, who did work for her, lived along the Ocklawaha River. He sold and taught her how to make moonshine. She stayed with the Fiddia family to gather material for her book South Moon Under, her first novel. Leonard Fiddia introduced her to Calvin Long in the forest. It was his brother Melvin Long who had a pet deer. That’s where The Yearling story began. Melvin’s experience with his pet deer became the story of Jody Baxter. Marjorie’s inspiration for her character Fodderwing in the novel came from meeting Rodney Slater, the handicapped son of her friend “Widow” Slater in Cross Creek.

MGM bought the film rights and began production on the movie version in 1941 in the “Big Scrub” of the Ocala National Forest in Florida. A variety of East Marion County residents were hired to work on the set in the forest, including Richard Mills. That first effort to make the film was scrapped when actor Spencer Tracy decided to head back to California. Near the end of WWII, a new cast and crew headed back to the forest in 1945. That crew included Gregory Peck as Penny Baxter and Claude Jarman, Jr. as Jody Baxter. Once again, many East Marion County residents found work as either stand-ins for the key actors or took jobs working on the set. Alva Kinsey, Sr. was Gregory Peck’s double and Bobby Randall was Claude Jarman, Jr.’s stand-in. Lawrence Kinsey and Freeman Godwin were hired to work on the film set while others like Jack Owen helped catch fawns for use in the movie getting paid $25 by MGM for each fawn they used during the filming. Here are photos of some of those East Marion County residents.

Fawn (photo by Marian Crawford)

Thanks to the folks who helped tell the story of From Novel to Movie: The Yearling in Florida. Here are photos of the key people who shared their knowledge for the documentary.

Ellie Townsend

And last but not least, thanks to Ellie Townsend for her editorial assistance.

Music Selections in the Documentary:

I am especially thankful to the Florida musicians who provided the music we featured in the program. Most of these music pieces are original works created for the documentary . Listen to the music below:

Mickey Abraham- two original mandolin solos

Sue Cunningham and Frank Serio who wrote “Restless Wind”/Shiloh Rising Music ASCAP

performed by Lis and Lon Williamson, Gabe Valla and Christian Ward

David Dean- River Rolls

Scott Jackson– Marjorie

Scott Jackson- Hollywood in the Forest

Scott Jackson- Flag

Scott Jackson- Jody and Penny

Chuck Levy- “Rock the Cradle, Joe”

Gene Page- Pretty Saro

Mark SmithBear Hunt

Mark Smith- Fodderwing

Mark Smith- Lost Echoes

Lee Townsend- Fluttermill

Lee Townsend- Guitar solo

Lee Townsend- Reflections on Life in the Scrub

James “Tuck” Tucker- River Styx

Gatorbone Trio– Gabe Valla and Lis and Lon Williamson- Land of Flowers

Lis and Lon Williamson and Gabe Valla- Dearest Dear

Lis and Lon Williamson and Gabe Valla- Cracker Girl

Lis and Lon Williamson and Gabe Valla- Sweet Sunny South



Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: Video Highlights of Events at the MKR Historic State Park

The late Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is best known for her novel The Yearling which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 and was made into a major motion picture. She penned many other books including Cross CreekSouth Moon UnderGolden ApplesThe Sojourner and Blood of My Blood. Rawlings died on December 14th, 1953 but her legacy lives on and continues to inspire writers around the world. The farm is now a Florida State Park where thousands of people continue to visit the farm and community that inspired Rawlings’ literary works. The community service organization, “Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm,” works to support the needs of the park. For more information on the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm go to MarjorieKinnanRawlings.org or follow the organization’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofMKR. You can view and listen to many of the organization’s activities below:

On December 12, 2021 The Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm sponsored the showing of the 1946 classic film, The Yearling, at the Marion Theatre in Ocala. It was the 75th anniversary of the premiere of the MGM award-winning film. Prior to the movie the audience was treated to an onstage interview with Claude Jarman, Jr. who played young “Jody” Baxter in the film.

Claude Jarman, Jr. interviewed by Donna Green-Townsend

On April 6th, 2021 documentary film producer Donna Green-Townsend talked with Claude Jarman, Jr. who played young “Jody” Baxter in the 1946 MGM film, The Yearling. The movie was based on Marjorie Rawlings’ Pulitzer Prize winning book. Jarman was a special guest on December 11th and 12th, 2021 in Cross Creek and Ocala, Florida as the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm organization celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the Premiere of The Yearling.

The Yearling movie told the story of a pioneer family in the Florida Scrub of Marion County, Florida and starred actors Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman and young first-time actor, Claude Jarman, Jr.

The Yearling depicts the coming of age story of a young boy and his orphaned pet deer and the tough decisions his family had to make to survive. The movie received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, taking home Oscars for Best Cinematography and Art Direction. Young actor Claude Jarman, Jr. won an Academy Juvenile Award.

Friends of the MKR Farm featured on WUFT’s Greater Good program

On March 26th, 2021 the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Park was featured on WUFT-TV on the program, “Greater Good.” Here’s a link to the feature that aired.

In December of 2020 the park wasn’t able to have the usual holiday open house because of the pandemic. Instead, park staff and volunteers offered a virtual tour of Marjorie’s home all decked out for the holidays, just as Marjorie would have done when she lived there.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Cross Creek Christmas 2020

Marjorie and Me: Ron Haase Discusses Cracker Architecture and His Inspiration From Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Ron Haase is Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida where he taught design and historic preservation. He is a specialist in the area of Florida vernacular architecture. Ron is also the author of the book, “Classic Cracker: Florida’s Wood-Frame Vernacular Architecture.” In this video he pays a visit to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park and shares his personal inspiration from Rawlings writings. He tours MKR’s barn and home with Park Manager Scott Spaulding and shares his knowledge of “Classic Cracker Architecture.”

On August 8th, 2020 The Friends of the MKR Farm decided to have a virtual birthday party for Marjorie because of the pandemic. Below is a special video presentation offered online about the friends and neighbors of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek. DVDs of the video are available to purchase for $15.00 plus $4.00 for postage and handling.  All proceeds will benefit projects on the farm.  Please make your check payable to Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm., and mail to PO Box 337, Micanopy, FL  32667-0337.

Life and Times in Cross Creek: Memories and Reflections

Celebrating MKR’s 123rd birthday (August, 2019)

The Pound Party Play

On May 4th, 2019 a variety of children participated in a play based on Chapter 4 of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ book, “Cross Creek.” The play was written by James M. Stephens. A variety of audience members took video of the play and this video is taken from what those audience members captured.

The event was sponsored by the Friends of the MKR Farm and the MKR Historic State Park in Cross Creek, FL. To learn about other future events check out the facebook page: The Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm. Cast members: Director- Scott Spaulding Cast Members: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings- Samantha Briscoe Samuel Townsend – Lee Townsend Leila Townsend- Donna Green-Townsend Dorsey Townsend – Ty Briscoe Ella May Townsend – Abby Briscoe Floyd Townsend – Jaylen Riley Glenwood Townsend – Carter Cutter Preston Townsend- Lucas Wunner Beatrice Townsend – Emeline Floyd Baby Christine Townsend – Emery Swilley

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Antiochers

Many of the Cross Creek, Florida friends Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote about in her book “Cross Creek” are buried in the Antioch Cemetery near Island Grove, FL just east of Cross Creek. James M. Stephens has written what he thinks many of those friends would say about themselves and their relationship with the late Pulitzer-Prize-winning author. He shares those narratives in this unique walking tour of the Antioch Cemetery.

The Artistic Ties Between MKR and Robert E. Carson

Robert E. Carson was a professor of Humanities at the University of Florida from 1946-1971. Professor Carson, or “Doc” as many called him, was a self-taught artist who began in watercolors at the age of 35. In 1966 author Gordon E. Bigelow asked Carson to provide sketches for his book, Frontier Eden, The Literary Career of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Following the publication of Bigelow’s book, the University of Florida asked Carson if he would be willing to provide tours of the late Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home in Cross Creek. From 1968 to 1970 Carson and his wife Estelle stayed at the historic MKR home on weekends and served as the first hosts. Sadly, he died following a car accident leaving Cross Creek in 1971. Carson’s daughter, Elaine Carson Spencer shares how she is keeping her father’s legacy alive in this video about the artistic ties between her father and MKR.

Celebrating Marjorie’s 122nd Birthday at the MKR Historic State Park in August of 2018

Visitors who attended the 122nd Birthday Celebration for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek, FL in August of 2018 were treated to recipes from her Cross Creek Cookery book, music and tours of the farm. Volunteers with the Friends of the MKR Farm and staff from the MKR Historic State Park served up watermelon sherbet, mango ice cream and black bottom pie as well as birthday cake. Music was provided by Eli Tragash and Virginia Carr.

MKR friend Carol Fiddia Laxton Tours Historic Cross Creek Home

On March 3, 2018 Carol Fiddia Laxton toured the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Home in Cross Creek, FL. She had last visited the home when she was 18 years old many decades before. Her father wanted her to talk to Marjorie about what she was going to do after high school. Marjorie encouraged Carol to go to college for at least two years.

After touring Marjorie’s home, Carol Fiddia Laxton shared her memories of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Her talk was sponsored by the Friends of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Farm organization and the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. Carol’s father and grandmother were good friends of Rawlings. The late author lived with the family for a time to gather information for the books she was writing, including, “South Moon Under” and “The Yearling.”

Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of MKR’s Cross Creek and Cross Creek Cookery

Hotel Thomas Porch Party September 16th, 2017

Musicians, singers and dancers gathered at the Thomas Center in Gainesville, FL for the Hotel Thomas Porch Party on Saturday, September 16th, 2017. It was a part of the year-long 75th anniversary celebration of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings publications, “Cross Creek,” and “Cross Creek Cookery.” The family-friendly event treated guests to traditional music and dance—and some unconventional entertainment. Guests enjoyed music by Sam & Eden, as well as musical guests (and descendants of Cross Creek characters) Jessie & Lee Townsend, Andy Garfield and young performers from We the People Theatre, dancing, percussive dance demonstrations, crankie theatre, and an old-time music jam. And there were plenty of homemade pie by the Pie Gals.

Happy 121st Birthday Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: August 5, 2017 Fish Fry Birthday Celebration

Two versions of a video produced by Dorsey Lee Townsend III for a class project while in Santa Fe College:

Longer Version

MKR and the Invasion of Privacy Trial

Alachua-County-Courthouse
The old Alachua County Courthouse in Gainesville, FL

The 1946 “Invasion of Privacy Trial” of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings vs. Zelma Cason has captivated lawyers and literary experts alike.  On June 18th thru June 20th, 2015 the public got a flavor of the famous trial  when the award-winning play by Larry Parr, “Invasion of Privacy,” took to the stage of the Fine Arts Hall at Santa Fe College.

It was after Marjorie Rawlings won the Pulitizer Prize for “The Yearling” that she continued her success with her book, “Cross Creek,” a book which captured what her life was like as well as her neighbors in the small fishing community.  But one friend of Rawlings, Zelma Cason, didn’t take “too kindly” to the way Rawlings described her in her book and decided to sue the famous author.  Click here to read more about this famous legal case.

Park Ranger Lee Townsend being interviewed on November 13th, 2009 at the MKR home about Marjorie’s life at the “Creek.”

Shelley-Fraser-MickleA True “Mother’s Day” Story About Romance in Cross Creek by Shelley Fraser Mickle

I have a friend who lives at Cross Creek. She moved there over a decade ago from up North, and she would have left probably any number of times except that she fell in love with a man from the Creek. And that made all the difference. Apparently men at the Creek take the romancing of a woman very seriously.

For instance, a first date might be only a midnight fishing trip under a full moon on Orange Lake. It might be a frog gigging, or a beer shared out on a wooden bench near the Creek until it is dark and quiet, so that then you can listen to the alligators bellow in Lochloosa.

 Click here to read more…

Cross Creek Summer

MKR on her porch

The first  weekend in August of 1997 kicked off the first annual Cross Creek Summer, Arts and Culture in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Florida.  Organizers hoped the week-long event would introduce people to the Florida Rawlings loved and attract those ecotourists looking for the real Florida. To hear the report produced by Donna Green-Townsend  Click here

50th Anniversary of “The Yearling” Celebration on the MKR farm in Cross Creek in April of 1988

In 1988 the community of Cross Creek, FL came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Pulitizer Prize Winning novel, “The Yearling,” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Not only did the event bring out a diverse group of Creek folks, but also noted entertainers and storytellers such as Cousin Thelma Boltin, and Florida Artists Hall of Fame winners Will McLean and Gamble Rogers. The video was captured on a VHS recorder by volunteers at the festival.

Meet the Inventor- David Norman reflects on his grandfather, silent film producer Richard E. Norman

David Norman, the grandson of the late silent film producer Richard Norman, giving a talk at the Cade Museum in Gainesville, FL

From June 14 through August 18, 2019, the Norman Studios presented an exhibit entitled, Norman Studios Presents The Flying Ace, at the Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention in Gainesville, Florida.

Visitors touring the Flying Ace Exhibit at the Cade Museum in Gainesville, FL

The exhibition highlighted the early days of silent films in Jacksonville, Florida, and in addition to The Flying Ace (1926) , the only Norman Studios film existing in its entirety, featured vintage movie posters and other vintage items.

Poster for the silent film, The Flying Ace

The exhibit dovetailed with the Cade’s museum-wide themes of aviation and optics, film & photography. The exhibit was the result of an exciting collaboration envisioned by Phoebe Cade Miles of the Cade Museum and Barbara Wingo of Norman Studios.

As Barbara Wingo, Norman Studios Board Member and Curator of the Exhibit, remarked: “The Norman Studios exhibit highlights the early motion picture industry in Jacksonville and Richard Norman’s career as a producer in the silent era. The Cade Museum is a particularly appropriate venue for this exhibit because Norman’s work epitomized creativity and invention as well as entrepreneurship, just as did the work of Dr. Robert Cade, the namesake for the museum.”

In addition to silent films, Richard Norman was also known for his early work on the camera-phone

In addition to producing, directing and writing “race films,” motion pictures that portrayed African Americans in non-stereotypical and aspirational ways, Norman was an inventor. Early in his career he developed “Passi-Cola,” and at the close of the silent era he invented the Camera-Phone to facilitate synchronization of film and sound.

On August 11 David Norman, a grandson of Richard Norman, participated in a “Meet the Inventor” conversation at the Cade Museum to explain his grandfather’s Camera-Phone. He also discussed his living at the Norman Studios property as a youngster, his grandfather’s legacy and his hopes for the future of the Studios.

About Norman Studios: Founded in 1916 as Eagle Film City and purchased by Richard E. Norman in the 1920’s, Norman Studios was among the nation’s first to produce “race films” with African-American characters in positive, non—stereotypical roles. Norman’s five-building complex, now a National Historic Landmark, survives in Jacksonville’s Old Arlington neighborhood.

The original Eagle Film City building
The Norman Studios renovated main building

The mission of Norman Studios Silent Films Museum, Inc, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is to preserve, present and promote the history of silent motion pictures in Northeast Florida and the history of race films through the reunification and restoration of the Norman Studios complex as a museum, education, film and community center. Learn more at normanstudios.org

Apalachicola Doin’ Time documentary full script with photos and music

 

“APALACHICOLA DOIN’ TIME” documentary full written script with photos and music below.

(All photos by Donna Green-Townsend)

Documentary Exec. Producer Donna Green-Townsend

Editor’s Note:  Despite the fact it’s been nearly 20 years since this documentary first aired nationally, the Tri-State-Water War has continued to make headlines as the issue works its way through the courts.  The key political players involved, including presidents, governors, lawmakers, judges and regulators, have changed many, many times. Nevertheless, the issues remain the same as the three states involved: Florida, Georgia and Alabama continue to fight over the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee River System they all share. 

In the documentary, which originally aired across the country on Public Radio in October of 1999 (and rebroadcast in 2002) we examined the potential impact of the water war on the seafood community of Apalachicola on Florida’s Gulf Coast in Florida’s Panhandle.  We looked at the history and culture of this historic seafood community and examined the water quality and water quantity issues being debated by water negotiators.

“Apalachicola Doin’ Time” was co-produced by Bill Beckett.  The associate producers were Joshua Azriel and Daniel Beasley.  The documentary received the prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Documentary in 2000 from the Radio and Television Digital News Association.

Listen to the radio documentary.  See additional updates and material related to the Tri-State Water War . Learn more about the artists performing in the documentary.

Full transcript of the documentary

Sound of river water flowing

Two hundred yards below the Appalachian Trail the waters of the Chattahoochee River begin a 500 mile journey south. The river flows each day through Atlanta, past Western Georgia cities like Columbus…and along the state boundary between Georgia and Alabama…past more than a dozen dams and locks on the way to the Gulf of Mexico. At the Florida-Georgia border the Chattahoochee meets up with Georgia’s Flint River and takes on a new name: The Apalachicola. Sixteen billion gallons of water flow down the Apalachicola into the Bay every day making it Florida’s largest waterway and it’s at the heart of a Tri-State Water War:

Apalachicola Doin’ Time song by Dale Crider up full

In this documentary we’ll take you on an audio journey to the community at the end of the drainpipe so to speak–Apalachicola, a Florida seafood community that worries about being at the mercy of it’s northern water using neighbors.

Also on this journey we’ll travel to the city’s famous waterfront. Hear about the history of this unique river town and find out how the community’s affected by the rapid development of ecotourism and growth .

We’ll also talk with the key negotiators involved in the current water war involving Alabama, Florida and Georgia as the clock ticks down on a deadline to resolve differences over shared river resources.

Apalachicola Doin’ Time Song by Dale Crider up full

Singer Songwriter Dale Crider

About three decades ago the Army Corps of Engineers began construction of more than a dozen dams and reservoirs on the Chattahoochee/Apalachicola River system. Its goal….to meet navigational and recreational needs of boaters. Georgia and Alabama also saw these structures as a way to store up water for industrial use, agricultural needs and for future drinking water. The projects worried retired wildlife biologist Dale Crider from the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission. Nearly 30 thirty years ago Crider began to put his concerns into music:

Dale Crider: “And we got concerned here in Florida that that would be destructive to the fish and wildlife values of the river. So I started writing stories and songs about that story of losing a river to navigational development. So um I came up with this notion that the river was just doing time for human beings, you know we had her like a prison with all these locks and dams and everything. That’s how the thread of the song came from.”

Song comes up full and under

There’s a lot at stake for all three southern states. Rapid growth in Atlanta creates a strong need to secure drinking water for the future. Farmers want to maintain the ability to irrigate their crops.  Alabama residents want to maintain peak hydropower and navigational use and in Florida.  At the end of the Apalachicola River the seafood industry worries about the future of its oysters, scallops, crabs and shrimp.

Montage of teaser bites about the water war

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Waterfront Sounds

The sign outside the waterfront restaurant “Boss Oyster” brags 50-thousand dozen served. Owners say that number refers to 1997.  Last year  (1998) they served more than 80-thousand dozen oysters steamed and raw. (Oyster Radio Sound) Even a local radio station proudly advertises itself as Oyster Radio. Apalachicola is truly the Oyster capitol of Florida. Franklin County harvests more than 90 per cent of the state’s oysters and 10 per cent of the national supply and during good harvest seasons that’s three to six-million pounds of oyster meat.

Bobby Kirvin: “Ain’t no one eats more than I do. I eat them on the average of twice a week and in the winter months I eat them four times a week.”

Lifelong Apalachicola fisherman and seafood operator, Bobby Kirvin:

Bobby Kirvin: “And when you eat a raw oyster, you’re eating him functional, he’s gut feathers and all. Uh, that’s a fact. If you think about it, you don’t eat’em, but they are delicious.”

Bobby Kirvin likes to talk about the good old days in the seafood business, before the Water Wars, before Florida’s constitutional ban on the use of gill nets which put many mullet fisherman out of business and before government regulations got tighter.

Bobby Kirvin: “I was in the oyster business for years. I was the largest oyster operator in the oyster business that was here. We had 100 and something stalls.  The day my daddy retired back in the late 70’s I shut it down. Too much aggravation, too many people involved in it.”

So Kirvin retired about eight years ago and left the oyster and shrimp business to his sons and many other young families in Apalachicola,  a fact he’s proud of.

Bobby Kirvin: “Mine was a 15-million dollar operation at that time. There’s nobody ever been in Apalachicola in the seafood business that’s made as much money as I made. None. And I helped more people get on their feet than anybody’s ever been in Apalachicola. The men that worked with me now they own fleets of shrimp boats and I financed their first boats for them.”

Sounds of the waterfront and docks

The oyster business isn’t the only industry bringing in big bucks to Apalachicola. Shrimp, scallops, crab and fin fish also impact Franklin County’s economy……to the tune of fourteen million dollars. Some retail figures for the areas seafood reach as high as one-hundred million by the time the product makes it to restaurant tables.

Singer Songwriter Mark Smith

Wisdom of the River song by Mark Smith

It’s a typical work day on Apalachicola’s waterfront. The “Tina Marie” is pulling into the dock.

Sound of dock up full

Waiting at the dock is Joey Ward, one of four brothers and a dad operating Buddy Ward & Sons Seafood. It’s a true family operation.

 

Joey Ward

Joey Ward: “It’s all of us, Dakie, Tommy, George and myself.  My father’s Buddy Ward. He’s the big wheel.”

There was another brother besides Dakie, Tommy, George and Joey who worked for the family business, but that was a long time ago:

Joey Ward: (There were five brothers.) “My oldest brother Olden, he froze to death out here in the Bay. They went over to little St. George hog hunting. And it got real rough on him. Hard northerns broke out and the boat capsized. Him and another fellar got killed.”  Donna: When was this? Joey: I was in the fifth grade when all this happened. Donna: That’s sad. Was he the oldest? Joey: Dackie’s the oldest now. Donna: “I bet that was hard on your dad, huh? Joey: “ya.”

Dock Sounds
The Ward boys work every aspect of the seafood business. They run processing boats on about 200 leased acres of oysters in Apalachicola Bay. They process shrimp. They own and operate four boats: the Captain T.J., the Donna J., Miss Martha and Buddy’s Boy. And they buy seafood from other fisherman. On this day workers prepare to handle calico scallops fresh from the Gulf. An average haul on one boat alone brings in about 300 gallons:

Snd of knuckle boom picking up and dropping scallops from a boat to a separator

A knuckleboom on the dock scoops up the days harvest from the “Tina Marie” and drops the fresh seafood into a hopper to separate out what Joey calls seafood garbage from the scallops.

Donna: “What kind of garbage? Joey: “skinks, conchs, sand dollars. We’ll put it back on the boat and they’ll be dumped back over. You can’t eat none of it, you can’t eat none of it. What you can eat we’ll save. 90% of it scallops anyway.”

Sounds of waterfront up full and under

As in any family, different members have different skills. While Joey handles the dock, George operates the scallop and shrimp plant. Tommy runs the oyster operation and 42 year old Dakie keeps track of the numbers. He’s the one most vocal about his worries regarding the future of his family’s seafood business. Dakie points to other parts of Florida, where seafood reigned and then disappeared. He’s afraid the same thing will happen to Apalachicola.

Dakie Ward: “Have you been to Tarpon Springs? I’ve been there years ago when there wasn’t nothing but shrimp, snapper houses, unloading houses, stuff all down through there. Key West was the same way. Look at it now. They just kind of weeded the industry out. Go back and look at Tampa Bay years ago. Plenty of oysters, plenty of shrimp, plenty of seafood. Pollution killed the Bay. You can’t get nothing out of Tampa Bay, you can’t get an oyster out of there.”

Retired Seafood operator and fisherman Bobby Kirvin shares Dakie’s concerns. He says the problem’s not just in Florida, it’s a national issue:

Bobby Kirvin: “Pollution and development is what’s destroying it all. Uh, you can take the Chesapeake Bay area. They totally destroyed the Chesapeake Bay before they started trying to clean it up about 20 years ago. Totally destroyed it. They had a big Menhaden industry up there, oysters, it was the oyster capitol of the world, croakers, all kinds of fish and they just about totally polluted the area from industry. And then they have started cleaning the thing up. Boston Harbor, up until a few years ago, they had dumped every bit of their sewage into the water. Nobody says nothing about that. They’re startin’ to do something in the past few years you know trying to clean the mess up.”

Both Bobby Kirvin and Dakie Ward follow closely the news reports about sewage problems in Atlanta, Georgia affecting the Chattahooche/Apalachicola River system and they’re angry.

Dakie Ward: “You got the city of Atlanta dumps tons and tons of waste in the Flint River coming down the Apalachicola River. But you’ve got the City of Atlanta, that would rather pay a fine to the government, but what good is that doing people? I mean, you know, I just don’t understand it.  Water runs down hill, we’re right here at the Gulf. It has nowhere else to go, so it filters out right here in the Apalachicola Bay.”

Bobbie Kirvin: “But pollution, all that junk they’re dumping in Atlanta and they’re paying a fine of so much a day, uh, money ain’t gonna replace it. When it’s destroyed, it’s gonna be gone.”

Apalachicola Bay has already suffered a number of setbacks for shellfish harvests. Recent hurricanes and other heavy downpours have also affected salinity levels in the Bay which hurts the oyster’s ability to spawn. Too much rain also taxes the community’s local sewage facilities causing toxic waste to flow into the water. This causes harvest shutdowns.

During the past five years aquaculture agents for Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services have had to close portions if not all of Apalachicola Bay for as many as 467 days. Reasons included red tide, illness outbreaks and hurricanes Allison, Opal and Josephine. Last winter alone, officials closed portions of the Bay for 88 days straight because of heavy rains from El Nino which carried pollution from the river to the bay. Shellfish authorities say they close the Bay most often over problems with elevated fecal Coliform levels in water samples.  That’s why Dakie Ward says additional pollution concerns mean bad news for Apalachicola.

Dakie Ward: “You’ve still got your closures for your oysters, because of the pollution, the rainfall, the run off and it’s going to get worse. The more rainfall you get, the more water that comes down from Atlanta, the less your bay is going to produce. Your white shrimp and your brown shrimp breed in the marshes, and after a while the marshes, after the pollution gets there, you aren’t going to have any more breeding area for your shrimp, the juvenile fish. That’s the only complaint I’ve really got–the city of Atlanta. And the government needs to do something about it.”

In fact water quality is one of the two key issues facing government representatives from all three southeastern states—Alabama, Florida and Georgia– as they hammer out an agreement called the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin Compact. It’s been nicknamed the Tri-State Water War and there are a lot of players in the negotiations with a lot at stake for all three states.

Musician Ken Skeens

Old Florida River song by Ken Skeens

Any seafood lover in America should take an interest in the health of the Apalachicola River and Bay. That’s how Woody Miley views the issue. Miley’s the Director of the Apalachicola National Marine Estuary. Among his usual duties, he advises Florida’s water negotiators about the pollution status in the river and bay and its effect on seafood production in the Gulf of Mexico. Miley says this should be a national concern.

Bay Sounds

Woody Miley: “42 percent of all seafood harvested in U.S. waters comes from the Gulf of Mexico, that’s more than either the Atlantic or the Pacific. And within the Gulf 95 percent of all species harvested commercially and 85 percent of all species harvested recreationally have to spend a portion of their life cycle in an estuarine system.”

Pollution worries Apalachicola fishermen like Dakie Ward and Bobbie Kirvin. They want Florida’s negotiators to do something about their northern water using neighbors. Sally Bethea is the executive director of Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper, a non-profit organization whose goal is to preserve the Chattahoochee.

Sally Bethea:  “Well the Chattahoochee is a very polluted river, we’ve been named one of ten most endangered rivers in the country. For decades Atlanta has dumped raw sewage into the river, it has not met its permits.  Of course when sewage, under treated sewage or raw sewage is dumped in a river like the Chattahoochee you have serious bacteria problems causing potential threats to drinking water supplies and recreation down stream. Our research indicates by and large that pollution extends maybe 100 or so miles down the stream.”

Bethea says her group organized a lawsuit in 1995 against the city of Atlanta concerning its sewage problems.

Sally Bethea: “The problem is primarily associated with the city of Atlanta’s old and decrepit and under-maintained sewage system, 100 year old pipes, the money has just not been spent to upgrade these systems.”

The Riverkeeper group won the case in 1998. The city of Atlanta has until 2007 to upgrade its sewage system. Robert Kerr is the Director of the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division with Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources. He’s also Georgia’s water negotiator in the Tri-State Water War. Kerr says since the lawsuit, sewage system improvements have already begun on Atlanta’s end of the “drain pipe.

Bob Kerr: “The City of Atlanta has been fined as everybody knows. They’ve made major efforts to invest a lot of money into cleaning up the combined storm sewer overflow facilities. I think the water quality is improving, not degrading. And we have committed in the compacts themselves that all the water quality laws will be met. So we will have to meet and do that.”

Estuary director Miley points out the dams and reservoirs along the Chattahoochee River act like a filter.

Woody Miley: “The reservoirs that are in Georgia act as a sump. The pollution basically stays in the reservoir system and once it gets into Florida our flood plains and our marshes are relatively intact. They filter pollution that would otherwise end up in our bay. ”

Sound of rainwater flowing

Riverkeeper’s Bethea says contrary to popular belief there is very little outright toxic dumping into the Chattahoochee River. She points out most of the pollution is an indirect consequence from industrial and residential development in Atlanta.

Sally Bethea: ” When a developer comes in to build a subdivision, a large commercial development, typically they come in and scrape off that carpet, that natural vegetative carpet. And so when it rains and you have that hard rainfall on that Georgia red clay, you end up with the mud and dirt flowing down to the lowest level into small streams, larger ones, and then into the river. And most people don’t think of sediment and eroded soil as a pollutant but it very much is. It destroys the life in our rivers. It causes the pesticides and chemicals and oils and greases that catches onto the particles as it flows over the land and all that ends up in our rivers.”

Estuary director Miley says right now the estuary system between the river and the bay is relatively healthy and he points to the variety of species of fish utilizing the rich waters.

Woody Miley: “Blue crabs, for example, migrate as much as 300 miles to spawn in Apalachicola Bay. They send their larval and juvenile stages in our marshes and then they scatter out all over the Gulf. So do shrimp and so do fin fish. So the productivity of the Gulf of Mexico is almost totally dependent on coastal productivity, estuarine productivity and Apalachicola is among the best.”

Miley says the waters of the river and bay serve as home to one of the most diverse ecosystems on the continent with more than 1300 species of plants including the recently discovered Apalachicola Daisy. In fact, the critically acclaimed 1997 movie “Ulee’s Gold,” filmed in the area, spotlights the Apalachicola River’s large and dense population of black Tupelo gum trees.

Movie clip from Ulee’s Gold

The trees grow in the swamps and yield blossoms used in harvesting the area’s famous Tupelo honey. Miley says only clean waters allow this kind of ecological diversity to thrive.

Woody Miley: “Species diversity here for amphibians and reptiles exceeds that of any place in North America north of Mexico. We are as productive from an estuarine harvest standpoint as anywhere else. In fact, Apalachicola’s estuary is one of, if not, the most productive estuarine systems in the northern hemisphere based on a production per acre basis. We’re even more productive than the Chesapeake,although that wasn’t always true.”

Bay sounds

So although sewage treatment facilities and urban runoff in northern Georgia around metro Atlanta cause river pollution for nearly 100 miles downstream scientific data from water managers apparently supports Miley’s theory that the dams and reservoirs hold back the pollution. The manager of the water protection branch of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division says when the water of the Chattahoochee crosses over the Florida state line, it meets current Georgia water quality standards which meets EPA criteria.

If the water is okay when it comes into Florida, why does fecal coliform or the bacteria from human and animal waste show up in Apalachicola Bay? Florida’s water managers say the state needs to look in its own backyard. Some of the bacteria shows up when water naturally drains off the flood plain. They say there are too many septic tanks along the coast and water managers say Apalachicola’s own sewage facilities need upgrading.

To help with the situation Florida lawmakers recently made it mandatory for all commercial fishing boats to carry port-o-lets on board. Differences of opinion about pollution reflect the temper of the current water negotiations over water quantity. This arena of the water wars causes most of the debate among the players involved. Not only are they debating water quality, but how much water flows through each state. We’ll take a look at the water quantity debate later in this program.

Singer Songwriter Harvey Reid

Harvey Reid’s song Circles up full and fades under

Throughout history, folks who’ve lived along the Apalachicola have faced adversities. Industries have come and gone many times.

Frank Miller (tourist) bite: This town has lived and died about three or four different times, and you don’t see many towns that do that.

Circles up full and under

 

Some may say Apalachicola has come full circle in the past 178 years. In the early 1800’s the South recognized the panhandle community as the third largest cotton port on the Gulf Coast, ranking only after New Orleans and Mobile. The town’s first unofficial name was Cotton Town. But, Florida’s first railroad drew away most of the cotton trade. Devastating hurricanes blew through gulf coast communities in the 1830’s and 40’s not to mention yellow fever epidemics and the Civil War.

Circles up full and under

In the 1880’s the town hit another economic boom with the beginning of cypress milling. Lifelong resident, 96 year old Homer Marks, remembers where many of the old sawmills used to stand.

Homer Marks

Homer Marks: “The Cypress Lumber company come down here from I think Baltimore or somewhere up in there in ’84 and then there’s a big city out there you turn off just before you get, before you get to my place out there, and just beyond me was Coombs Mill. It burnt I think in 1910. And then there was the Loxley Mill, the Coombs Mill and the Cypress Lumber Company and the Kimber Mill was right here in town, but it was gone. It went with the fire of 1900.”

 

The new pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Apalachicola, Reverend Brian Fowler, has heard a lot about that turn of the century blaze.

Fowler: “In 1900 the pastor’s wife had left a pan of grease on the stove evidently and had forgotten about it and started the fire and the wind blew it across the street to the Methodist Church and it went to the rest of the town from there.”

The congregation of the First United Methodist Church rebuilt.

Music from a church service in Apalachicola

99 years after the fire about 200 people belong to the church. It’s one of about 15 churches in this town of three thousand residents and Fowler says allegiance is strong.

Fowler: “I’d say probably about half my congregation has been here for generations. For example, the mayor of the town is a member here and his family is one of the founding families, the church is 160 years old and he told me just the other night that he sat with six generations of his family in this church and how many people can say that.”

That mayor is Bobby Howell.

Bobby Howell: “I retired from the military in 28 feb. 89. I spent a year having cancer operations and then I was elected to mayor in the September of 91. And then I was re-elected in September of 95 and there’s not going to be a third time. My wife said she was leaving me if I ran again.”

In a small community like Apalachicola, everyone seems to know everyone else, especially a person’s history, good times and bad times. So it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that the current mayor, Bobby Howell, has a tie to one of the town’s oldest residents, Homer Marks. Howell is actually a descendant of the family that affects Homer’s life every day. It’s the kind of story that transcends time. It’s a love story really.

Homer Marks by his garden

You see everybody knows Homer Marks for the many businesses he’s run through the years. He’s been in the wholesale grocery business, the ice business that catered to the seafood operators. He’s been a bee keeper in the Tupelo honey business. He had an outboard marine business.

But when locals see him drive down the streets of Apalachicola (he has a license until 2001) they all usually know where he’s going. That’s the way it is in a small town with one blinking light. Homer Marks is usually headed to one of his two favorite spots. One is his garden on the edge of town.

Fade up Homer talking about his garden crops

What touches most people is how Homer Marks drives almost daily to one of the local cemeteries to tend to the grave stones of the people he’s loved in his life.

Homer Marks: “Yeah, I got my first girlfriend out there, my wife’s out there, my second girlfriend’s out there.”

He still finds it the most difficult to talk about his first girlfriend. Homer was 21 years old when Margaret Howell died in 1923 at the age of 17. He’s never quite gotten over Margaret’s death.

Margaret Howell’s gravesite

Homer Marks: “Yeah, that sort of still touches me. I can’t talk about it. There was a day school opened. A boy had one of those pickup things, one of those platforms and three girls and one boy went out this here road on the way to St. Joe. They weren’t going to St. Joe, but it’s called three mile turn, and he turned in that sand and it turned over and it hurt the other two girls but it killed her. Donna asks: Were you going to get married? Homer Marks: “As soon as we got enough to eat we were going to get married, yeah. It’s a real touchy subject with me. I just ain’t man enough to stand up on this.”

 

Musician Mike Jurgensen

Margaret song by Mike Jurgensen up full

Homer Marks spent most of his life only a few blocks from the house he was born in, close to the Methodist Church before the city put in that blinking light. He remembers the start up and demise of virtually every business venture in Apalachicola. In many ways he represents the paradox facing many old fishing communities like Apalachicola. He reflects the kind of old world gentility, history and color that tourists seek. Yet that creates another threat to the town’s culture and history, to the river, estuaries and Bay that the seafood industry relies on.

Bridge over the Apalachicola River

Ironically, Homer Marks’s father had a role in deciding where to build the key bridge that connects Apalachicola to it’s East Point neighbor across the Bay. The highway bridge construction in 1935 changed the community forever.

Car sounds with Bing Crosby song Apalachicola, FLA

 

Florida seafood towns like Miami, Key West, Tampa, and Tarpon Springs have historically attracted tourists. Apalachicola now attracts tourists, ironic since Franklin County officials still call it the “Forgotten Coast” People want to see a part of old Florida. Many credit eco-tourism for the new interest in the fishing town and the big money it brings to some of the old and new businesses.

The Witherspoon Inn

Many visitors came back to stay. Several have taken out loans from the local banks in the area to remodel historic homes. The Gibson, the Coombs and the Witherspoon all cater to the bed and breakfast crowd.  Feelings are mixed about this next economic phase the community faces.

 

Musician Steve Gillette

The River song by Steve Gillette with paddlewheel sounds up full

 

Phyllis Blake, tour operator: “Business has been good. of course, the seasons vary.”

That’s Phyllis Blake talking from the stern of the Jubilee. It’s a paddle-boat she uses to guide visitors around Apalachicola Bay and the mouth of the Apalachicola River.

 

The River song up full and under

Her husband Danny built the boat – a hobby of his that he’s made into a career. The two moved to Apalachicola about eight years ago in true maritime fashion – They came by sea from Vicksburg, Mississippi – on a sailboat Danny had made them – The area was love at first sight.

Phyllis Blake: “It was like a part of the world you thought didn’t exist anymore. And that’s why people want to be here I think. I mean there’s almost a magic in the town. It’s something you long for. Something maybe you read about or saw in a movie.”

Her tour is one of history – of Native Americans that once held the land – and of a blooming cotton industry that fed the town making it grow into a major southern port. And of course, there’s the fishing industry.

Phyllis Blake: “They love to see the shrimp boats and the fishing boats and the oyster boats and they just think it’s marvelous that people are able to do that and quite colorful and wonderful.”

Just up the waterfront – another tour. this one offered by Gibby Conrad. He’s also new to the area. He and his wife moved here from New Orleans about two years ago.

Gibby Conrad: “Well, i do kind of a combination eco-tour and history tour. We get a lot of people from up north, so-called snowbirds and those actually the type of people interested in my trip. They’re bird watchers, and they’re interested in nature and that kind of thing.”

And so it goes all along the Apalachicola water-front. Eco-tours are popping up all over the place. There’s one for fishing and another for snorkeling… and now tourists can even take a sail on a piece of history.

Sound of Danny Blake talking about the Governor’s Stone sailboat

When he’s not doing paddlewheel tours, Danny Blake spends his time fixing up an all wood sailing vessel. It’s a Mississippi ship called the Governor stone and it dates back to 1877. The city’s maritime museum board commissioned the boat’s repair. Kristen Anderson sits on the museum board. She says While the Governor’s Stone once carried cargo, now it hauls tourists.

Kristen Anderson: “Her new job is carrying passengers as cargo basically and teaching people about the history of the Gulf Coast in particular, maritime history.”

Apalachicola officials are banking on all the water ventures bring in more tourism dollars. So, is this isolated town on Florida’s gulf coast still a real fishing village or simply the next major Florida tourist trap? one thing everybody does notice – Apalachicola is changing.

Musician Jeanie Fitchen

Changes in the Wind song by Jeanie Fitchen fades up


Phyllis Blake: “I understand their feeling. It is changing. The way of life will change.”

Steve Davis, tourist: “It used to be almost totally sand dunes, you know. Now it’s all condos and houses and so forth.”

Phyllis Blake:  “I know it’s happening all over America in small towns – especially along the coast.”

Billy Cooke, resident: “Back in the mid-eighties, the Gibson Hotel was just a flop house, and nothing was downtown hardly at all.”

Music cross fades with sound from  Gibson Inn

The Gibson Inn. People in town can’t seem to stop talking about it and tourists can’t miss it.

 

?

Michael Koun, Gibson manager: “The hotel was a Victorian hotel. It was built in 1907 with the fine woods and the construction of the hotel, what we’ve tried to bring back was the way it was in 1907.”

Michael Koun manages the Gibson and owns it along with his brother and another business partner. The Gibson is the first hotel motorists see coming off the Highway 98 bridge leading into Apalachicola.

Michael Koun: It was about a dollar and a quarter when it first opened, and I think it was two or three dollars in the twenties. ..and it was a bit more formal back then.”

The Gibson was built as a hotel more than ninety years ago. Fifteen years later two sisters,  Annie and Sunshine Gibson, bought the hotel passing along a namesake. In 1983 Koun went in on the purchase leaving his life in Williamsburg, Virginia far behind. The Gibson then only operated as storefronts on the ground floor.

Koun refurbished the top two stories and cleared out the businesses below making way for a lobby, a bar and a restaurant that now serves three meals a day.

Sound of Gibson Inn up full and fade under

Apalachicola Mayor – Bobby Howell.

Bobby Howell, Mayor: “The Gibson Hotel might have been the beginning of the restoration in the community… well, I would give them more credit than anybody when they opened that. Yes, I would, personally.”

The risk paid off. The Gibson is now one of the most thriving inns in Apalachicola. And a block away Pamela Barnes is booked solid for the weekend at the Coombs Inn.

Pamela Barnes, Coombs Manager: “So we have 17 bedrooms. We have a carriage house apartment. We have meeting space, banquet space.”

Coombs Inn

In 1911 Mr. Coombs moved among the rich and famous in Apalachicola’s silk stocking district. He owned a lumber mill down on the waterfront. He built his home from the wood he milled. A black cypress lentil crowns the grand entrance.

Pamela Barnes: “When we first moved here a year ago, on Fridays it used to be a walk-in town. And now you’ve gotta make reservations to come here.”

The town does seem to be booming with renovation projects on each block. The population’s up, especially over the summer…60-thousand people crammed into and around an area that’s used to only about 10-thousand during the slow months. The tourist interest concerns some of the city’s long-time residents, including retired fisherman Bobby Kirvin.

Bobby Kirvin: “That’s the problem. If they can show me a place that has developed and kept the seafood industry. Key West? Viable seafood industry? You can’t even carry a damn commercial boat into Key West now. You have to go to Stock Island. Tourists took it all over.”

The seafood industry, of course, is the primary concern. Gibby Conrad:

Gibby Conrad: “Unfortunately, money is what drives things and other than the seafood industry, there isn’t very much here and so tourism is definitely the up-and-coming thing and it’s a real delicate balance of keeping things the way that people who come here originally like them and still, um, still have a viable industry in tourism.”

Cliff Butler is President of Gulf State Bank. This locally owned bank made several start-up loans to tourism ventures, including the Gibson Inn, in an effort to spark economic growth in Apalachicola. Butler’s philosophy smacks of pragmatism.

Cliff Butler: “The seafood industry is not what it was, what with all the new rules.  Also, adverse publicity on, let’s say oysters, has hurt the demand from time to time, and the tourist industry has allowed an alternative benefit where family members could work and incomes could be supplemented during the times when the seafood industry was not thriving.”

The new tourism twist in the economy has brought on some traffic headaches in this small town.

Oyster Radio Station sound plus traffic sounds

Michael Allen heads up the news department at Oyster Radio.

Michael Allen, Oyster Radio: “Here, three cars in a row is a traffic jam.”

Traffic is tighter on the bridge out to Saint George Island as well. Many people who make their living in Apalachicola make their beds on Saint George Island. It’s the barrier island that forms the fertile seafood nursery known as Apalachicola Bay. Michael Allen spent his childhood on the island.

Michael Allen: “When I was growing up, there were no houses. There were  maybe 10, 15, 20  houses. You go over there, I mean you’ve seen it. There are no lots left open anymore. You have these things we call “skinny-minis,” these little houses by the public beach. You can’t even see the water from the road anymore. I think it’s a travesty.”

The edge of Saint George Island is lined with thin waterfront condominiums. Each is three stories high and only the width of a two-car garage. Every bungalow has a name. It’s all time share. And there’s no room between any of them.

Bobby Kirvin: “And when you stack houses side by side down that whole dang island, which will eventually happen, you can forget any kind of commercial oyster industry or anything else in Franklin county.

Bobby Kirvin’s worried about the environmental impact.

Bobby Kirvin, retired fisherman: “The development of St. George Island will destroy Apalachicola Bay eventually. It’s all on septic tanks.  And you can’t tell me if you put enough septic tanks in the ground, it won’t eventually pollute the bay.”

So, the city’s put a three-story limit on new development and issued a comprehensive plan for the area. But there’s still no way to put a cap on the growing tourism market.

Phyllis Blake: “This is America. You can’t change where people. If people want to move somewhere, you can’t do anything about it.”

But Bobby Kirvin’s memories are shaded by a sad history, the way Florida’s last great seaports have been shattered by tourism.

Musician Nick Blake

The song Southwind played by Nick Blake down under

Bobby Kirvin: “Tarpon Springs was just like Apalachicola. When I was a kid, I went to Tarpon several times. A little, laid-back community. And now, what are the commercial people doing now – the sponge divers and all? They’re putting on exhibits for the tourists! And that’s it.”

 

 

The manager of the Gibson Inn saw much the same thing happen to his hometown.

Michael Koun:  “I don’t want this town to be another Williamsburg. One of the things people like about this town is the town itself has character and there’s characters in the town, including the new ones and the old ones. But it has character and has sort of a working relationship. The new people move in and don’t always understand where the old people are coming from and the old people don’t always understand where the new ones are coming from. But there’s sort of an understanding with the people who have moved in, I feel, that the waterfront is going to stay the waterfront and let’s keep it the waterfront. But part of the character of the town are those shrimp boats out there and the men that work them, and the families that work them. And that adds character to the town.”

And out on the water the feeling is shared by tour boat operators. They too say they want to see the town preserved. They say they’re on a mission to educate tourists – not lure them in.

Gibby Conrad: “I do think the two things can exist, and I think one of the ways they can co-exist is by informing the tourists about what goes on in a working seafood port, what those guys, what those fishermen go through and what the results of what some of the laws in the name of ecology wind up doing to the people who have to use them day to day.”

Sound of waterfront and music up full and under

Hurricanes , water quality issues, ecotourism, development – all challenges this small but growing community faces. Yet, for now, the seafood industry continues as the backbone of Apalachicola’s economy. Oysters flourish because of what many consider to be a “magical” balance between fresh water and salt water in the Bay as the Apalachicola River converges with the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists say maintaining this balance is the key to preserving the oyster industry. As their deadline nears tri-state water negotiators are trying to invent a water quantity formula agreeable to Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

How did this water war begin? 10 years ago the Army Corps of Engineers proposed reallocating water from Lake Lanier, just north of Atlanta, to supply the metro area’s growing water needs. The state of Georgia intended to build a reservoir on the Tallapoosa River in West Georgia. Alabama officials worried this would reduce their supply of water needed for hydro power. They filed a lawsuit against Georgia and Florida joined in. The three states decided to try and solve this issue on their own, resulting in the tri-state water compact negotiations.

The three states have four broad goals in mind. Metro Atlanta’s thirst demands more drinking water. South Georgia farmers insist on irrigating their peanuts, cotton, and corn. Alabama needs hydropower and navigational use down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. And if these demands weren’t complicated enough, Apalachicola’s seafood industry requires fresh water flow for a diverse and healthy bay.

Steve Leitman is the environmental scientist for the N.W. Florida Water Management District. Leitman says the nutrients which help the aquatic life flourish in the Apalachicola River and Bay come from a variety of sources.

Steve Leitman: “…its water shed extends far up into Georgia that it gets its biotic influences from the Appalachian mountains from the Piedmont and from the coastal plain.“

Lindsey Thomas represents the federal government in these negotiations. Thomas worries Alabama, Georgia, and Florida may not meet their December 31st deadline.

Lindsey Thomas: “I would say right now things are not moving like I would like to see them move if we are going to get an agreement. And I think right now time is running out.”

They couldn’t agree last year, so they extended the talks through this year. Federal representative Lindsey says negotiations have slowed partly because each state has a new governor. Matthew Kales is the program director for the non-profit Upper Chattahoochee River Keeper organization. Though he differs with state officials, he describes Georgia’s philosophical approach to the compact.

Matthew Kales: “Georgia’s idea is to manage the reservoirs in the system as a whole as if drought were imminent, keep as much water as possible behind the dam while meeting the needs of downstream neighbors.”

Robert Kerr is Georgia’s representative in the negotiations.

Robert Kerr: “Can we get an agreement? We hope so because what we are looking at is what we consider to be a reasonable use and a reasonable return of the waters that we use some 200 plus miles north of Apalachicola Bay. And we don’t anticipate that the activities in the metro Atlanta area are going to have that material effect down there.”

Not everyone agrees. For the last five years parties from all three states have jointly developed databases in order to analyze each others statistics and ideas. Florida’s Environmental Scientist Steve Leitman says everyone’s trying to look at this issue from the point of view of what is good for the entire river basin system.

Steve Leitman: “And so what this five year period did was it allowed this development of a mentality or a consciousness in the basin where people could start seeing it more as a whole system.”

Georgia negotiator Kerr says Alabama and Florida shouldn’t worry so much about how much water’s coming down the river.

Robert Kerr: “The states of Alabama and Florida do not need an agreement in the sense that if they don’t get an agreement their not going to get any water. We’re going to be providing water downstream, we have obligations within our own state.”

But lifelong Apalachicola businessman and seafood operator Bobby Kirvin doesn’t share negotiator Kerr’s opinion and says look what happened in the water wars out West:

Bobby Kirvin: “How much water comes out the Colorado at the end of it now, none. You can walk across it dry footed because they utilize every drop of it somewhere along the way.”

As already mentioned, one of the sticking points in these talks is metro Atlanta’s growth. It takes in up to 20 counties. Urban sprawl characterizes Atlanta. The current population of about 3.7 million people is expected to balloon to nearly 5-million residents within 50 years.

Matthew Kales: “What we’re seeing here is a metro area that is writing natural resources checks, it’s writing growth checks that it can’t cash. We’ve exceeded our carrying capacity and the tri-state water war is very much a wake up call to that affect.”

Kales predicts in any future agreement metro Atlanta’s needs may outweigh those of the farmers in southern Georgia. Lake Lanier is a man made lake located just north of the city. It holds about two thirds of the water storage for the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. Steve Leitman of the Northwest Florida Water Management District says any compact agreement may have to include releasing more water from Lake Lanier for downstream needs. Another bone of contention.

Steve Leitman: “Lake Lanier is set up to be managed to fluctuate 35 feet. If it changes four feet the people around it are screaming saying you can’t lower it anymore. And so a lot of this management capability that was paid for by tax payer money really has turned around to become lake front property for the residents of the area.”

Georgia negotiator Robert Kerr claims his state needs flexibility in water planning and this puts Georgia at odds with Florida in the current talks.

Robert Kerr: ” Florida simply wants us to agree to an ongoing evaluation for about 10 years and a growth out to 2010 and then if we can’t reach agreement we cut off any additional growth out of the system, well obviously 10 years of certainty is not sufficient, so that’s the major problem there.”

In other words, adaptive management. It’s a new concept. River Keeper’s Matthew Kales:

Matthew Kales: “Adaptive management is a very basic ecosystem management tool or concept whereby you monitor a system after a management plan has been implemented. You see what the feedback from that system is chemically, biologically, economically, and then you adjust accordingly so that that management plan is ecologically sound in the best interests of the water dependent entities.”

Apalachicola estuary director Miley points out how other nations suffered when they ignored such techniques.

Woody Miley: “With the demise of the Soviet Union and our access to their scientific literature and their scientists, and uh, the Aerial Sea lost a 1.2 billion dollar a year seafood industry. Same horror story for the Azov, the Caspian, the vast Volga delta and the number one culprit in their research was changing the fresh water flow into those systems.”

In the end it is still the oyster industry which supports the livelihood of so many of Apalachicola’s residents. Miley says balance between the Gulf of Mexico’s salt water and the river’s fresh water is vital to this industry’s survival.

Woody Miley: “But if we lose fresh water and the bay goes more salty, then all the parasites, predators, and diseases in the Gulf move in and devastate the oyster bars.

With Florida, Georgia, and Alabama drawing off this resource, any future agreed upon compact will be the first of its kind in the United States. Federal Commissioner Thomas.

Lindsey Thomas: “It gives the three states the opportunity to make their own determinations about these waters here to a great extent, as how to manage them, how to steward them keeping it within the confines of existing federal law, clean water act, clean drinking act, and those kinds of things.”

Thomas along with nine federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will have to give the final stamp of approval within 255 days of any final agreement. If Florida, Georgia, and Alabama cannot reach an agreement, the issue could go before the U.S. Supreme Court and drag out another ten years. Estuary Director Miley.

Woody Miley: “This is a regional resource, its going to take all three states and if we’re going to manage this system in a way that all the user groups can continue to use it, and everyone needs to realize that a fish fillet does not originate at Publix.”

Miley stresses if Americans want to continue buying fresh seafood at their local market, they must take an interest in what’s happening in this Tri-State Water War before a major resource disappears.

One of the biggest unknown factors in Apalachicola’s future surrounds the question of what will happen to the more than 70-thousand acres in Franklin County owned by one of Florida’s biggest real estate development companies. St. Joe Company has more than one million acres of land in the state. Most of that acreage sits in the Florida Panhandle. A company spokesman, says most of it will remain timberland. St. Joe does have a variety of projects in planning stages or underway including: beach clubs, hotels, condos and a marina.

What worries environmentalists is what St. Joe plans to do with a 7 ½ mile stretch of beach front it owns on the Gulf in Franklin and neighboring Wakulla Counties. For now the area remains undeveloped, but Franklin County’s planning director says it’s just a matter of time. He says until the community upgrades its already over-capacity sewage treatment facility, the community’s not ready for any major projects. St. Joe Company’s spokesman says assisting the community with their sewage treatment problems is something they’d be willing to take a look at. Meanwhile, no one disputes the fact that like the outcome of the current Tri-State Water War, St. Joe Company has the power to reshape the future of this historic, seafood community.

Music Drifts Along This River song by Mike Jurgensen up full

 

Listen to the radio documentary.  See additional updates and material related to the Tri-State Water War . Learn more about the artists performing in the documentary.

CREDITS:
This program was co-produced by Donna Green-Townsend and Bill Beckett. Associate producers were Joshua Azriel and Daniel Beasley. Jim Bickerstaff and Gravity Productions provided additional recording services. For more information about the Tri-State Water War negotiations or  this program click here.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from George Floyd in memory of Jim Floyd and George Kirvin, two of the earliest heralds of the rivers and bays and their value as an undisturbed natural resource.

Archival videos of the Father of Florida Folk Will McLean

Will McLean performing
Will McLean performing

The Father of Florida Folk, the late Will McLean, loved to entertain and share songs, poems and stories of the lore and legends of Florida.  Unfortunately, most of those performances were not captured on video or audio tape.  When those performances were recorded, it was special indeed.

Here are five such videos.

The first is the January 24, 1990 memorial service for Will at the Thomas Center in Gainesville. On that day in 1990 hundreds of people filled the Thomas Center in Gainesville, FL to capacity. They were all there to pay tribute to the Father of Florida Folk, Will McLean, who had just passed away from cancer a few days before. This archival video features many of his friends sharing not only their own precious stories about Will and how he touched their lives, but also sharing their versions of Will’s original songs. Some of those friends in attendance included Gamble Rogers, Don Grooms, Dale Crider, Jeanie Fitchen, Doug Gaus, Frank and Ann Thomas, Wayne Martin, Dennis Devine, Mary Ann DiNella, Barbara Sheen Todd, Margaret Longhill, Donna Green-Townsend and Bobby Hicks to name a few. There were not only tears, but laughter as many of the speakers shared personal memories demonstrating Will McLean’s sense of humor. Following the ceremony many friends travelled to McLean’s favorite camping spot, Gore’s Landing in Marion County to disperse his ashes into the Ocklawaha River. Will McLean’s desire to “save Florida through music” continues today through a music festival held in his honor. The festival is usually held the 2nd weekend of March at the Sertoma Youth Ranch, 7 miles west of Dade City and near Brooksville. For more information about the Will McLean Festival and Foundation go online to willmclean.com

 

The next four videos were made possible when his music buddy, the late Don Grooms, brought Will to a studio in Gainesville.  The first video is Will singing his most famous song, “Hold Back The Waters,” about the 1928 hurricane that drowned between  three and four thousand people around Lake Okeechobee. (You will see Will when he starts singing at about :24 seconds in)

 

 

Will McLean served during WWII
Will McLean served during WWII

It’s been said Will McLean wrote his song, “Florida Sand,” after returning home from WWII where he had been taken as a POW in the Philippines. When he landed in Florida he kissed the ground and said he would only write about his beloved Florida Sand. In this video his friend Lais provided dance interpretation of the song.

 

 

Early photo of Will McLean's grandparents
Early photo of Will McLean’s grandparents

Will McLean spent many of his early years with his grandfather who took him to a variety of places in Florida. Those travels influenced Will’s songwriting, poems and stories. Many of those writings bring attention to Will’s concern about Florida’s environment. That concern is very evident in his song, “Lament.” Lais also interprets this song through dance.

 

 

Will McLean, Tim DeMass and Don
Will McLean, Tim DeMass and Don Grooms

Today hundreds of singer songwriters have been inspired to write songs about Florida because of Will McLean’s passion for the state. Will’s dear music buddy, the late Don Grooms, wrote one of his most famous songs, “Vitachuko,” because of Will’s inspiration. It’s about the bloody skirmish between Native American Chief Vitachuko and Spanish Explorer Hernando de Soto. Grooms said when he played it for McLean Will said, “Grooms you have finally justified your existence.” In this recording Will accompanies Grooms by playing harmonica. The late Tim DeMass is playing bass. (You will see a closeup of Will on the harmonica at about two minutes into the video and at the end of the song.)

 

To go back to the page “Will McLean: The Father of Florida Folk” CLICK HERE:
To go to the official Will McLean website CLICK HERE

Don Grooms and Will McLean
Don Grooms and Will McLean

Will McLean resting beside his guitar
Will McLean resting beside his guitar

 

 

 

2014 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers

Here are the winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the 2014 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest:

Here’s a look back at the top 3 winners of the 2014 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest along with video clips of them performing their winning song on the main stage at the 2014 festival.

Jane Fallon Song Contest Winner 2014 A
1st place winner Jane Fallon

The 2014 first place winner was Jane Fallon from Brookline, NH.  Her song entitled “Before the Fire (Rosewood)”  captures the emotional story and resulting fear from the 1923 Rosewood tragedy in North Central Florida.   Jane has been a finalist in several songwriting competitions such as SolarFest , the Ossipee Music Festival and the prestigious Rose Garden Coffeehouse Competition. Her songs have placed 2nd and 3rd  respectively in the Neuse River MusicFest competition and the West Coast Songwriters Competition.

Larry Mangum
2nd place Larry Mangum

The 2014 second place finisher Larry Mangum is from Jacksonville.  His song entitled “Florida” describes the beauty of the Sunshine State and why he’s proud to call it home. Mangum has given nearly 3000 performances over 4 decades as a folk, rock, country and Americana artist. He’s released 8 albums of original music and 2 live albums since 1980.  In 2006 he won third place in the Will McLean Song contest with his tribute to Gamble Rogers, “The Last Troubadour.”  He is also host and co-founder of “The Songwriters’ Circle” in Jacksonville, a monthly program featuring many of the best regional and national touring acts.

Sealey Guitar colour
Third place Ray Sealey

The 2014 third place finisher was Ray Sealey from Harrington, QC.  His song “Kissimmee Prairie Dream” gives the flavor of Central Florida’s early years in the Kissimmee area. Ray was born in England and received a degree in English Literature after emigrating to Canada.  He was involved in folk music in his early years but then turned to classical guitar. He eventually taught music at the Universities of Western Ontario and Ottawa. He also worked in radio at the CBC and later in arts management being involved in music festivals, summer music centers and orchestras.  Now, later in life, he has returned to those early folk roots and spends summer in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal and winter in Florida.

Back to the list of winners by year
or
Click here to go to the Will McLean Festival website

willfestactivities500
Festival montage photo by Gail Carson

Jan Glidewell
The late Jan Glidewell

2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the Will McLean Folk Festival which ran from Friday, March 7th thru Sunday, March 9th. The 2014 festival honored Jan Glidewell, a longtime columnist for the Tampa Bay Times who died in 2013 from cancer. Glidewell was an avid supporter of the festival. The 26th year for the 3-day festival gets underway at the Sertoma Youth Ranch near Dade City on March 13th, 2015. The winner and 2nd and 3rd place finishers of this year’s song contest will be featured on Saturday, March 14th.

The Will McLean festival features four stages, including a young performers stage, a variety of music workshops, arts and crafts, food and more.  McLean, known as the “Black Hat Troubadour,”  is the first folk artist inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. In 2014 one of the newest folk musicians inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame, Frank Thomas,  also performed at the Will McLean Music Festival. In the clip below recorded on the Cypress Stage at last year’s festival you’ll see Frank singing one of his most popular songs, “Cracker Cowman.”

Frank Thomas was accompanied by members of the band Roadside Revue featuring Dawn DeWitt on bass, Bari Litschauer on banjo, Ron Litschauer on guitar and Stan Geberer on harmonica.

Back to the list of winners by year
Back to the Will McLean website

Cabbage Growers Race To Beat the Expected Hard Freeze

Cabbage pickers near Hastings quickly work to bring in the crop before the expected hard freeze on Monday.
Cabbage pickers quickly work to bring in the crop before the expected hard freeze on Monday.

With record-breaking temperatures expected in Florida, cabbage pickers between Hastings and Palatka were busy today trying to harvest the latest crop.

Today’s scene was very similar to 2011 when cabbage growers also faced the risk of losing their winter crop to a hard freeze. Click on my archive story below to watch the process of cutting the cabbage and packaging it up for transport across the country.

Vegetable growers in North Central Florida scramble to get their crops to market during a January, 2011 freeze.

Historic and Romantic St. Augustine

(Artistic video production)

I was inspired to make this short video, Historic and Romantic St. Augustine, because of three things:  My sister’s wedding in St. Augustine in one of the historic B & Bs, St. Augustine itself and the music and lyrics of Florida musicians and poets Clyde and Lorelei Walker and Mary Anna Evans.  Though I was only using a Nikon Coolpix camera with no tripod, I had a blast capturing the video seen here to make a wedding video gift for my sister and her husband.  Thanks to the artists who gave me permission to use their music.  See more about them below.

More about the music in my video above:

scan0064
Singer Songwriter and musician from St. Augustine, Clyde Walker

Musician and singer Clyde Walker and his wife, poet Lorelei Walker live in St. Augustine.  It’s a perfect team as Clyde often puts his musical touch to Lorelei’s poetry.  Such is the case in the song about St. Augustine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

scan0056In 2008 the couple worked on a DVD called, Romantic St. Augustine.  I found a copy to view while I stayed in one of the B & Bs in St. Augustine.  You may find one at the St. Augustine visitor center.  You can also send an email to Clyde and Lorelei at clydewkr@bellsouth.net or write to them at Clyde Walker, Ocean Sounds Media, P.O. Box 2059, St. Augustine, Fl. 32084

 

 

 

 

clydewalker Wind and Water CDThe song St. Augustine is also available at http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/ClydeWalker

 

 

 

 

Mary Anna Evans

 

 

The song Land of Flowers was written by David and Mary Anna Evans.  It was one of the top 3 songs a few years ago in the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest.  Mary Anna

Lyrics to Land of the Flowers 
The palm trees stand in silhouette Where Spaniards cast their bayonets. The soldiers are gone, but the trees stand yet, Towering over the land of the flowers.

The gray moss blew in fresh from Spain, Riding the crest of a wild hurricane. Our fine homes scatter but the moss remains. The moss drips forever, but never runs dry.

And the water springs clear from the sand and the stone, Quenching a wilderness no one can own. And the water springs cold from the stone and the sand. Nothing of value will rest in your hand. We pass sterile days, sharing the blame For colorless cities with old Spanish names. But God hides in places that no one can tame, Standing watch over the land of the flowers.

And the water springs clear from the sand and the stone, Quenching a wilderness no one can own. And the water springs cold from the stone and the sand. Nothing of value will rest in your hand.

The palm trees stand in silhouette Where Spaniards cast their bayonets. The soldiers are gone, but the trees stand yet, Towering over the land of the flowers.

Music and lyrics: by David and Mary Anna Evans Lead vocals and harmonies: Mary Anna Evans Guitar and harmonies: David Evans Guitar: David Reiser Fiddle: Annemieke Pronker-Coron Percussion: Bill Hutchinson

Mary Anna Evans has degrees in physics and engineering, but her heart is in the past.  Her works of fiction include: Artifacts, Relics, Effigies, Findings, Floodgates, Strangers, Plunder and, coming in November 2013, Rituals. Published by Poisoned Pen Press.

Mary Anna’s interests in music and writing collided when she was asked to contribute a story and an original song for a book/CD anthology called A Merry Band of Murderers.  She co-wrote and sang the song “Land of the Flowers” for that project.  For more information contact her at maryannaevans@yahoo.com