What is “My Florida”? As a college student I thought my Florida was the Panhandle. It didn’t snow, there were white sand beaches and when I asked at the first gun shop if they needed to see my permit to handle a shotgun; The women behind the counter laughed and said “honey you can keep a loaded pistol in your glove box with no permit here”. What money I had left after text books, rent, and bushwhackers I spent chasing redfish in pensacola pass and kingfish from the pier. There were bears, and alligators, and old stone forts that predated our nation. This would certainly be my Florida. Moving to…
-
-
My Florida: Josh Wynne
In September of 1620, Christopher Martin and his young wife, Marie Prower, arrived on the shores of Plymouth, Massachusetts on a ship known as The Mayflower. The ship left port in Essex, England and had been at sea for 66 days on this, the third attempt at crossing the Atlantic to reach The New World. Of the 102 passengers that arrived, only 53 of them survived the first winter. Only five among them were women. These survivors had grit. Christopher Martin would sign the Mayflower Compact and move to Salem, where he started his family. Over the next 160 years, the Martin’s became the Bishop’s, and the Bishop’s became the…
You May Also Like
Conversations #2.18: Adam Steele
#107: The Halloween Draft
#203: Emily, After Dark
-
My Florida: Elizabeth Bland
When asked to finish the sentence, “My Florida is _____.” I initially struggled. Is it an actual location? Is it an area? Am I restricted from claiming a certain place as “My Florida” because I was not originally born there? Can I only claim the Jacksonville area because that is my birthplace? Clearly the ending to that statement did not come as easy to me as I thought it would. I have thought about an answer to this question for a several weeks now. My Florida is not white, sandy, freshly raked beaches with well-groomed palm trees. It is dirt roads, river swamps, old oak hammocks, and coastlines that have…
