Florida Authors

This past weekend St.Augustine hosted the 3^rd Annual Florida Heritage Book Festival. Although I was unable to attend Saturday’s event, I was able to attend the Writers Workshop held on Friday at the historic Casa Monica Hotel. It was here that I picked up great nuggets of wisdom from some of Florida’s greatest writers.

• Robert N. Macomber, a prolific writer and speaker, is the master of historical fiction.  His Honor series of naval novels has garnished many awards, including the Outstanding Achievement Award of Florida and the Patrick Smith Literary Award for Best Historical Novel of Florida. The eighth novel in his series was released just this past March.
• William McKeen, former professor and chairman of the Department of Journalism at the University of Florida, now at Boston University, is the author of several nonfiction works. His latest book, Outlaw Journalist, is about the life and times of Hunter S. Thompson.  Other works include books on Tom Wolfe and Bob Dylan.
• Karen Brown, Ph.D, who teaches creative writing at the University of South Florida, is a champion of short story writing and has already received the O. Henry Prize not once, but twice. She has an award winning book out entitled Pins and Needles.
• Larry Baker, a former St. Augustine resident who now teaches at the University of Iowa, has set two of his fictional stories in the St. Augustine area. His book, The Flamingo Rising, became a Hallmark movie. His newest book, A Good Man, is, as he puts it, “about an African-American preacher who arrives in St. Augustine during a hurricane.”

There were plenty of other writers in the audience and I felt privileged to be sitting among them.  Steven Kerry Brown, a private investigator out of Ponte Vedra, is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating.  Rik Feeney, a former gymnast, is the author of two books on gymnastics and numerous books on writing.

Then there was the 82 year old lady sitting next to me, who is often questioned as to why she is writing now at her age.  My response to this was, why not write at age 82?  She firmly agreed and a short while later handed me a copy of her poem, or as she referred to it, her rhyme, about an old stocking at Christmas time.  One quick read and I knew it should be in print. 

Beginning in October I will be posting only once a week so that I can have more time to pursue other projects.  I will continue to wander the great state of Florida and report in every Wednesday.

Autumn in Florida?

Fall has begun.  

But how would we know that here in Florida?  Perhaps by seeking out a few fall festivals, or a sprinkling of fall colors?

FALL FESTIVALS

Usually when I think of Fall Festivals, I think of the John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. It takes place in October at a time when the school is surrounded by breathtaking hues of red, orange and yellow. But now that I’m in Florida, I want to find a festival that can signal my favorite season, Florida-style.

One choice is the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival (October 9 & 10). Over one hundred of Florida’s finest artists will present their art at this classy event.  Music, food and activities for children will also be featured.

Or, I could choose the Micanopy Fall Harvest Festival (October 30-31) with its art displays, entertainment, food and auction.  The location of this festival may just soothe my autumn-seeking soul. With its quaint antique shops, beautiful bed & breakfasts, and other historical landmarks, I might just be persuaded that autumn really does occur in Florida.

DISTINCIVELY FLORIDA

According to the experts at the University of Florida, seasonal changes are noticeable here in the Sunshine State. You just have to know what to look for. For example, the most notable seasonal signal is when the leaves of the sweetgum tree change to red, orange, and yellow. Its fruit, prickly and ball-shaped, drops from the tree during this time of the year also.  Now I just have to figure out where to find a sweetgum tree to observe.  

Want to see yellow? Find the hickory ash or Chinese tallow. Red? Check out the shinning sumac.  Yellows and purples? Look closer to the ground and see the beauty of goldenrods and blazing stars.

At least now I know what to look for.

The FloridaGardener knows my plight and suggests surrounding oneself with Chrysanthemums, potted or planted.  This I can easily do.  A few by the front door, a few on the patio…

Highway Tragedy

My cell phone rang around noon yesterday. It was Matt, driving south on I-95 from Jacksonville. He had just passed the aftermath of a wreck on the opposite side of the interstate. A silver truck, heading north on I-95, lay on its roof, luggage and truck parts strewn along the path the doomed truck and its passengers had traveled during those last terrifying moments. A short time later the radio and online news reported that one of the truck’s back tires shredded and the driver lost control, hitting a guard rail and a car before flipping onto its roof. The female driver was thrown from the truck, dying instantly. She was eight months pregnant.

THE LIST

Matt and I both drive on either I-4 or I-95 every day. And, according to a recent study by the Daily Beast website, these are two of the deadliest highways IN THE COUNTRY.

• #1: Interstate 95 in Florida
In-state miles: 382.15
Fatal accidents: 662
Fatal accidents per mile: 1.73
Total fatalities: 765

• #3: Interstate 4 in Florida
In-state miles: 132.39
Fatal accidents: 209
Fatal accidents per mile: 1.58
Total fatalities: 234

I see accidents on I-95 quite often, but I-4 has it beat hands-down. Driving East on I-4 one afternoon I came upon an accident where a light green Nissan Altima had taken an exit ramp and ran smack into a concrete wall at full speed. Another time I was driving west on I-4 at night and narrowly missed a car that had hit the guard rail while traveling at a very high rate of speed. This is only two of the many. 

Is it lack of safety legislation? A deficit in State Troopers and police officers patrolling the interstate? Or could it be that the drivers here have no regard for anyone else’s safety. I’m leaning towards that last one.

I don’t know what went on during those last moments in that silver truck yesterday. All I know is a woman lost her life and a family will be grieving for a long time to come. As far as I know, this was not careless driving, but a true accident. Those happen too unfortunately. The only thing good to come out of this is it will hopefully remind others to slow down, and choose to be safe. I know it has reminded me.

Cuba Blues

I rarely think of Florida as having its own international policies, laws, issues or restrictions. But it does. And recently one of those caught my attention.

The 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2006 Florida law banning state university-funded travel to countries classified as “terrorist” nations by the federal government. Presently there are four countries on that list:  Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba. With this decision, scholars from Florida state universities can no longer use university funding as a means for travel and research in Cuba. 

This affects Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute in Miami, and the University of South Florida’s planned student exchange programs between its Institute of Research in Art  and Cuba.  The scholars are up in arms about the ruling.  They claim it will “complicate existing research efforts, encourage top scholars to leave Florida, and deter others from studying or working at the state’s public universities.”

Cuba is a small island. How much research is really necessary? Cuban art?  Go to the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona and study their large exhibit of it.  One day the travel ban to Cuba will disappear for everyone, including non-scholars, and the place won’t be such a mystery any more. 

But Cuba, a terrorist nation?  Although I find it hard to catagorize it as such, I have seen things that cause me to pause before rallying with the disappointed scholars.

THE RAFT

My only experience with Cubans, outside of Florida, has been when we were vacationing on Cayman Brac a few years ago. Returning from two morning dives, our boat came around the corner of the island and discovered a raft floating near shore. It was unprotected from the sun and crowded with human bodies, including a small child.  Cubans, we were told.

The Cayman locals informed us that the rafters were most likely making their way over to the mainland, possibly Honduras, then would try to make their way up into Mexico and eventually cross the border into the United States. They could not step foot on the island because as soon as they did, they would be held, processed and sent back to Cuba. (The Cubans apparently knew this and did not attempt to land.)  We were also told that no food could be brought to them, or assistance provided in any way.  It would only lead to their return to the place they were so desperate to get away from. 

Trust me; you have never seen anything like this until you have seen something like this. It makes you examine your own life and put it all into perspective. 

The raft remained there all day.  As I sat on the beach, I stared out at them, wondering what could be so bad that they would risk their lives in this way.  The afternoon dive boat returned, and Matt and the others who were on- board tossed fruit over to the raft. The next morning I looked out, searching for the raft everywhere, but it was gone.  We never saw them again.

I don’t claim to know much about the history and politics of Cuba. But to be fair, I will do a little research of my own, maybe read a good book or two on the Cuba of yesterday and today. There has to be more to Cuba than the Bay of Pigs and the Elian Gonzalez drama if so many Americans want to go there, and so many Cubans want to leave.

Related Articles

• Cuba offers small steps for softening U.S. embargo on travel, trade (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Fairy Berries

Ripe elderberries (Image via Wikipedia)

Why is it we never hear much about the elderberry?  When strawberries, blueberries and blackberries are in season, all we hear about is how good they are for you, and how best to add them to recipes. Are elderberries rare?  Are they good for us also?

We happened upon an elderberry plant in the hydric hammock adjacent to the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach recently.  Matt immediately knew what the dark clusters of berries were and picked a few for us to try.  I hesitated, remembering all those reminders not to eat berries in the wild.  Matt was so sure of them, however, that I popped a few in my mouth.  One of his favorite desserts growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania was elderberry pie, made by his mom and grandmother. That makes him close enough to an expert to convince me.

Once elderberries ripen, they can be collected to make not just pies, but jellies, syrups and wine as well.  Sambuca, the Italian liqueur, is made from this mysterious berry.   Looking through my pantry I didn’t come across any Sambuca, but I did find a jar of elderberry jam made by my mom just last year.  It seems everybody else already knows about this stepchild of the berry family.

A rampant growing shrub, the elderberry produces clusters of black or purple berries in late summer and early fall.  The berries are full of antioxidants, and contain more Vitamin C than our Florida oranges.  And apparently, they have three times the amount of protein of blueberries. 

According to one source online, elderberries are part of herbal lore.  Their magical and mystical past attributes to them the power to calm babies, to grant the ability to see fairies, and even divine the future.

Another source, interestingly enough, claims the elderberry contains a cyanide, which the human digestive system can break down.  Dogs, however, do not have this ability. If they eat the berries, or any part of the shrub, they can become nauseous, have diarrhea, or go into a coma. Yikes!

Whatever may be true, I think I’ll just open my mom’s jam, and even pick up a bottle of Sambuca and give it a try.  It’s the time of year to celebrate these mysterious berries, and enjoy the many things they have to offer. 

Maybe I’ll even see a fairy or two.

A Floridian in Texas

Instead of staying in Florida this past Labor Day Weekend, we decided to wander around the great state of Texas.  

Of course you can’t see all of Texas in just four days, so we chose the area west of San Antonio.  We based ourselves in Del Rio, on the Mexican border, and started wandering.  The title lyrics to the song Wide Open Spaces by the Dixie Chicks kept playing in my head, over and over again, as we drove through wide open land full of cacti, blooming sagebrush, longhorn cattle, horses, and goats.  We explored breathtaking caverns and canyons, and hiked mysterious trails.  We even recovered from a u-turning vulture that slammed into our rental car.  And we sat in the hot sun, eating ice cream, taking in the scenery that is Texas. 

Did I think of my home state of Florida during those wanderings?  Absolutely.  For example, as we enjoyed the views on our drive to Sonora Caverns, we ended up on I-10 for a few miles. Oddly enough, I never equated our I-10 with the rest of the country.  The Interstate that starts in Jacksonville does not end in the Florida Panhandle.  Instead it continues across 8 states before ending at the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California.  The difference here in Texas, however, is a lawful speed limit of 80 miles per hour.  

The Lone Star Flag of Texas

I also thought of Florida after seeing several Texas State Flags flying high -at ranches, banks, homes, restaurants and just about anywhere else you can think of. This was the case throughout our wanderings.  Texans are proud of their flag, proud of being Texans.  Matt and I sat dumbfounded one day, trying to recall exactly what the Florida State Flag looks like.  We blamed it on the fact that we rarely see it hanging at residences in our neighborhood or beyond.  Are the Texans more proud of being Texans than Floridians are of being Floridians? 

State Flag of Florida

I also thought of the Sunshine State on Monday night after we clicked on our hotel television set for the first time and saw the wrath of Tropical Storm Hermine which came ashore around Brownsville, Texas.  Trackers had it heading straight for San Antonio on Tuesday, the day we were to fly back to Florida. Fortunately we had no problems getting out of Texas.  But it did remind me that Texas and Florida do share the seasonal threat of tropical storms and hurricanes just the same. 

It’s always wonderful to travel to a place different from your own, but it’s also wonderful to return home again.  And Florida is home.   But if I couldn’t live here, Texas would be a top contender for my weekly wanderings.

Hemingway’s Hurricane

This past holiday weekend marked the 75th anniversary of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.  The hurricane hit the Florida Keys with unprecedented intensity, destroying everything in its path and stealing the lives of over 400 residents, visitors and hardworking WWI veterans.  

On our trip to the Keys in early June, we passed a small sign alerting us to a memorial just up ahead at about Mile Marker 82, on the Matacumba Keys.  We stopped to check it out.  A red, white and blue ribboned wreath adorned the memorial, a fitting tribute for Memorial Day weekend.

The memorial, dedicated on November 14, 1937, pays tribute to the WWI veterans and civilians who died in the hurricane. The obelisk rises 18-feet, with a sculpture of a tidal wave and bending palms, symbolizing the high surge and forceful winds of the storm.  A simple bronze plaque sits below the structure, and it reads:

Dedicated to the Memory of the Civilians And The War Veterans Whose Lives Were Lost In The Hurricane of September Second 1935.

Entombed in the memorial is a crypt containing the cremated remains of as many as 190 victims of the storm, many of them WWI veterans.  These veterans had been sent to the Florida Keys to work on the U.S. 1 highway.  This was a government solution to the rise of protests by veterans who wanted to receive their benefits earlier than promised. Instead of granting the benefits early, the Roosevelt administration developed a work program specifically for the veterans.  And connecting the Keys by way of a highway was a prime project under that program.

In some circles, this storm became known as Hemingway’s Hurricane.  Ernest Hemingway did not hide his anger at the lack of adequate housing for the veterans and lack of proper warning and evacuation.  He even published an essay entitled “Who Murdered the Vets?”

The Memorial is easy to miss, and I’m sure many Key visitors drive right past it every day.  But it’s worth a visit, even if just for a few minutes, if not for a historical perspective, then at least for a moment of silence for those who now find it to be their final resting place. 

Labor Day Weekend, Florida Style

AAA is predicting that more Floridians will be traveling this Labor Day weekend.  Just where will all these Floridians be traveling to?  If they plan to stay in Florida, here a few best bets.

American Music Festival (Daytona Beach):  This four-day event features concerts by the likes of Tony Bennett, Usher, the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, Blake Shelton and Huey Lewis and the News.  Apparently Daytona is trying to revive its image to be something more than just NASCAR and Bike Week, and music seems to be its answer.

Surfing for a Cause (Cocoa Beach):  This is the 25th annual National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Pro Am Surf Festival.  Competitors will be male and female, amateur and pro.  In addition to the weekend long competition, there will be concerts, karate and surfing demonstrations, and lots of free stuff (from advice to surfboards).  There will also be mini-health clinics, and massages for a buck a minute. The festival is touted as the largest charity event in the world.  

Brewfest (Key West):  This three-day brewfest will provide attendees access to 60 beers and ales, including the likes of Holy Mackerel, Monk in the Trunk, Magic Hat and UFO White.  On Sunday, attendees can attend the six-course Samuel Adams Beer Dinner and have a little chilled lobster gazpacho and grilled swordfish with their complimentary ale, lager or stout.

Other events going on around the state:

St. Augustine is celebrating its 445th birthday with a reenactment of the landing, a large birthday cake, and music on the Plaza de la Constitution.  On Sunday, Toby Keith will be performing at the Ampitheater.

In Downtown Jacksonville you can learn to shag, enter your kids in a hula hoop competition, dig in the sand for Jaguar home game tickets, eat some famous gumbo and enjoy live music.

Amelia Island starts their celebration with a beach cleanup, followed by a surf competiiton, reggae music concert, sand castle contest and giveaways.