MY FLORIDA nestles somewhere between science and folklore and breeds a reality that is both transcendent and preposterous. Its great meaning comes from the fact that it rarely makes sense to its largely transient population. Spanish explorers came, astronauts used to leave, but Florida's game will always be about "Location, Location, Location." The vast majority of its players come here to retire and die; relax and vacation; set up a scam; or, seek some kind of tax shelter. For those of us who have a generational history on the peninsula and no real underlying motive for being here, well, we sometimes seem as off as the very landscape that has shaped us. So here's my story on my Florida. And I'm sticking to it.
“If it was up to me, you should not be able to call it a hunting plantation if you didn’t use traditional mule-drawn wagons,” one of the Red Hills mule men told me last fall. “They can go places a four-wheel drive can’t, you’ll see more wildlife, and you’re just gonna get way better thoughts …
Are we losing our iconic branding? All I wanted to know was why Spanish moss seems so much thicker and expansive in Central Florida. I can’t keep my camera away from it there. I’ve been asking scientists, gardeners, Crackers, and artists the question, and everyone but the scientists have their own way of chuckling a …
Why Environmental History Celebrates Human Nature. My big-brained family doesn’t argue the small stuff like toilet seat lids, movie rentals or the Florida Gators versus the FSU Seminoles. Instead we argue, passionately and prolifically, about things like the current usage of the Manatee Trust Fund, whether “Big Joe” the stuffed alligator at Wakulla Springs was …