By the time I met Will McLean he had already penned most of the hundreds of songs and poems he has become famous for. He’d already performed at Carnegie Hall and made friends with the late Pete Seeger. His glory days performing on the “Old Marble Stage” at the Florida Folk Festival were long since past. The truth is, the day I met him I didn’t even really know him by name. But I think therein lies the reason we became fast friends. Will McLean was one of the most humble men I’d ever met.
It was in mid-November in 1985. I was working in the WUFT-FM newsroom in Weimer Hall at the University of Florida when a tall man dressed all in black (that’s how I remember it) walked into my office and kindly, almost demurely, asked if he could post some fliers on the bulletin boards in the hallway to promote his concert that was to take place that following Sunday night November 17th in the Thomas Center in downtown Gainesville. Just having someone come in and ask to post something was rare. Thinking back on it, I’m surprised I didn’t just say yes or no. I remember being intrigued by this man because of the soft-spoken way in which he asked me. Maybe it was the way he was dressed and his stature that caused me to begin asking him questions, questions that today I’m a bit embarrassed that I asked, but so glad I did.
I remember questioning him about what kind of songs he’d written. Instead of being surprised and offended that I didn’t know who he was he began to softly tell me some of the song titles and what they were about. That’s where my friendship with Will McLean really began. When he got to the song, “Hold Back the Waters,” my heart actually fluttered. I had no idea how popular that song really was or the true history behind the song of the 1928 hurricane in Florida over Lake Okeechobee. Geez, people in Florida had been singing this song like an anthem for more than 20 years. But in 1985 I had only been living in Florida for a little more than two years and was just getting to know Florida history and area musicians. But, I knew that song. I fell in love with “Hold Back The Waters” when I was helping produce a national music series while out in the state of Kansas called, “The Walnut Valley Festival.” The public radio station I was working for as news director, KHCC-FM, had produced 26 one-hour programs for national distribution.
My job was to interview all the musicians and produce features for the series. It was my first real introduction to a genre of music you just don’t come across on the radio every day. One of the groups performing in 1982 was Red and Murphy Henry, a bluegrass family band from Florida (now Virginia). I can distinctly remember Murphy Henry introducing the song, Hold Back The Waters, saying it was about a hurricane. Of all the songs I heard at the Walnut Valley Festival those two years in the early 1980s, this was the one song I sat down and wrote out the lyrics to and learned to sing. Listening back to the original tape I can hear Murphy Henry mentioning Will McLean’s name, but at the time I learned it I wasn’t as interested in the artist who wrote it as much as in the story of this devastating storm that pushed Lake Okeechobee’s waters over its banks and drowned between 3,000 to 4,000 people.
The 1928 storm was before television and the weather channel and before hurricanes even had names. It intrigued me that the Seminoles living in Florida may have warned the storm was coming but people didn’t pay attention. This storm is the reason there is now a dike all around Lake Okeechobee in South Florida. There are many accounts from people recalling the storm describing how they were tied to trees by their families so they wouldn’t be swept away. There are stories about the mass graves following the storm….some marked and some unmarked. Yes, this was an intriguing song about history and my first introduction to what hurricanes could really do.
I loved “Hold Back The Waters.” As soon as Will McLean mentioned it I remember blurting out, “I know that song.” When I told him where I first heard it his eyes just lit up. I wasn’t prepared for him to then ask, “Why don’t you come to my concert and sing it with me.” He had just met me. He didn’t know if I could sing or not. I’m sure I thanked him kindly for asking, but he surely didn’t need me to come and sing. It was his concert after all. He insisted.
Before he left the station I introduced him to our operations manager and our chief engineer and it was decided that WUFT would send its remote recording truck to the concert. I remember sitting in a little room at the Thomas Center that night in November of 1985 practicing the song with Will. I was so afraid I’d forget the words or forget how to play it on my guitar. My fears were relieved when I saw Murphy Henry walk into the Thomas Center, the person I first heard sing the song out in Kansas. It turned out that I didn’t have to worry about playing the guitar, I only had to sing the song with Will and Murphy. My fears about forgetting the words disappeared. Here is the introduction to the song that night in 1985
and here’s the recording of Will McLean, Murphy Henry and me singing “Hold Back The Waters.”
In 1985 I was engaged to be married to Lee Townsend from Cross Creek. He was with me at the Thomas Center. As it turns out, Lee knew Will for a different reason. When he was working as a mechanic in Gainesville he often worked on Will’s old vehicles, doing his best to keep them running, many long after they should have been abandoned. That night Will dedicated a poem to us. It was a poem so appropriate for a couple who lived in the woods in Cross Creek.
I will only say that following that November concert, for whatever reason, that professional recording got stashed away on a shelf and misplaced for nearly 12 years….a whole different story in itself. Eventually, it resurfaced at just the right time because the new program director at WUFT-FM, Bill Beckett, had an appreciation for what this recording meant to history. Working together with the Executive Director of the Will McLean Foundation, Margaret Longhill, we turned the recording into the CD, “Will McLean and Friends, Live at the Thomas Center.” I met Margaret Longhill the same week I met Will in 1985. She truly understood how rare this professional recording of Will McLean was. We’ve been friends now for nearly 32 years.
Because of the way Will McLean lived, he had very few possessions. After his wife Alice died of cancer Will spent most of his last years travelling around in an old beat up van and hanging out at campgrounds where he could fish or just plug in his extension cord at the homes of various friends. He pawned many of his guitars to obtain money to buy wine and he gave away cassette tapes of his recordings to just about everyone he met. I think he enjoyed revisiting the places around Florida where his grandpa had taken him as a boy. Those trips were the inspiration for many of his songs and poems.
Not all of the stories about Will McLean are pretty, but he was a unique individual….a treasure. About a month after the Thomas Center concert Will came to Cross Creek to help me celebrate my 28th birthday. I remember having a nice little music jam on my screened porch over Cross Creek. What I also remember is that Will chose to just sit back and listen to everyone else sing and play, not wanting to be in the spotlight. As much as I wanted him to play for us, I can now look back and appreciate how he didn’t want to be center stage the way some musicians do. I liked that quality in him.
The same thing happened on March 15, 1986 at my wedding reception in Cross Creek. Someone told me Will McLean had just arrived and was looking for me. He had a wedding present for my husband Lee and me. It was a cassette full of recordings he had made around the campfires at the Florida Folk Festival and other places. Not wanting to be the focus of my wedding reception he kindly gave us his “best wishes” and disappeared. After getting to know Will better over the coming months I invited him into the WUFT studios to do a long interview in 1987. You can hear my first interview with Will in 1985 when I was just getting to know him and the second interview where I knew Will a little better by clicking here. Let’s just say I’m really glad I have those recordings. There are stories in those interviews that needed to be preserved forever.
Will died in 1990 from cancer. Friends gathered for his memorial in the Thomas Center, the same venue where I sang with him less than five years before. Both floors of the Thomas Center were packed. Many of his friends performed Will’s songs and told stories of how they knew him including the late Gamble Rogers, Don Grooms, Bobby Hicks, Dale Crider, Seminole Chief James Billie, Jeanie Fitchen, Mary Ann Dinella, Doug Gauss, Dennis Devine and Wayne Martin. The list is long. There were tears and much laughter as well. I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard. He touched so many of us in so many ways. This is the first time I’ve ever really written my thoughts about it. Thank goodness someone actually video-taped the service. It is a real treasure to see.
Afterwards many of us went to Gore’s Landing by the Ocklawaha River to disperse Will’s ashes. Some of those in attendance were Margaret Longhill, Don Grooms, Dale Crider and family, Donna Green-Townsend and family, Wayne Martin, and Bobby Hicks to name a few. Gore’s Landing was one of Will’s favorite places to camp. I saw him there while my family was also camping not long before he got so sick.
Margaret Longhill chose the Ocklawaha River because before he died, McLean had told her that he had hoped to light a small campfire one last time at Gore’s Landing, his favorite campsite. In this brief recording, you will hear a small portion of that special ceremony at the river:
In 1996 because of his artistic contributions Will became the first folk artist inducted into the prestigious Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Friday, March 11th – Sunday, March 13th marks the 33rd anniversary of the Will McLean Music Festival.
One of the highlights of the festival is the hour when the winners of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest perform their winning songs. Will always wanted to “Save Florida Through Music.” It’s amazing how many songs there are now about his beloved “Florida Sand.”
If you’ve never been to the Will McLean Folk Festival you really should check it out. It’s truly a “songwriters festival.” It’s held at the Sertoma Youth Ranch just 7 miles west of Dade City. It’s small in comparison to many music festivals, but that’s why it’s so special. The performers and the people who attend are all in the same campground, playing music throughout the night.
My children have grown up there. In 2016 my son Lee and daughter Jessie Townsend performed on both Saturday and Sunday at the festival and honored many songwriters who have passed on in a special “Florida Set.”
I love sharing the legacy of Will McLean with the younger generation. That being said, I can’t tell you how sweet it is that my granddaughter literally fell in love with one of Will’s songs as an infant. If she was crying, it soothed her. When she began to talk, she asked for the song to be played. By the age of two she was singing the words with her Aunt Jessie and Uncle Lee. Here’s a version of them singing it together.
As the late singer-songwriter Pete Seeger said, “Will McLean’s songs will be sung as long as there is a Florida.” Rest in Peace Will McLean, my friend.
When I returned back to my job as News Director of KHCC-FM in Hutchinson, KS after my vacation, the local newspaper there wrote a little feature article on my experience. I still feel a little guilty that the headline they came up with gives the impression I didn’t enjoy being an extra in the movie.
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.
See highlights of the 121st and 122nd birthday celebrations for Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings at the MKR Historic State Park in Cross Creek, FL.
More than 120 people turned out to help celebrate Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 121st birthday in Cross Creek in August of 2017. Guests were treated to a fish fry with all the fixings including fried fish, grits, hush puppies, coleslaw, cake and sherbert made from tangerines and oranges from Marjorie’s grove on the farm.
Longhill, born October 16, 1921, was the oldest of seven children of John and Angela Longhill. Though born in Kentucky she grew up in Memphis, TN. After high school Longhill left home to become a Sister of Mercy at the novitiate in Dubuque, Iowa, where she took the name Sister Mary Amora. During her tenure as a nun, she taught various grade levels at St. Bernard Academy in Nashville and Immaculate Conception Academy in Memphis, eventually becoming the Dean of Students at Edgecliff College in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“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.
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:
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.
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.
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 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.
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:
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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. ”
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: “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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
The Gibson Inn. People in town can’t seem to stop talking about it and tourists can’t miss it.
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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, 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.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.