Florida and the Fourth of July

Sorry for the discombobulated nature of this blog lately. Things have been busy here.

I just returned from a week’s vacation in Florida. Yeah, I took a vacation from my retirement…what a concept. Now that I’m back I need a couple of days to rest up before I can get back to my regular retirement. I need to start pacing myself. This retirement life can wear a man down.

My two sons and I visited some very dear friends in Florida who have a house near the mouth of the Weeki Wachee. We spent several days scalloping and fishing. I had a great time being with my kids and my friends.

It was wonderful to be back in Florida and on the water. One of my favorite things when I lived in Florida was to be out on the Gulf in a boat as the sun rose in the east illuminating the offshore thunderheads in a ruddy glow. You can hear the distant rumble of thunder over the water and see the far off flashes of lightening deep within the clouds.

After a few days in Weeki Wachee we drove up to Tallahassee and spent a day fishing off Carabelle. Jake, my oldest son, knows the fishing in this area, and he put us on kingfish in the morning and redfish in the afternoon. In the process my other son, Mike, hooked onto a five foot long bull shark and wrestled it to the boat after an epic 45 minute struggle.

I don’t regret the decision to leave Florida and move to North Georgia. I’m making new friends and having new and different experiences here, and I guess that’s the objective of life. That being said, one of the things I miss about Florida is the fishing and the time spent on the water. I’m sorry bass fishermen, but there is nothing to compare with saltwater fishing.

Before heading off to Florida, I participated in the Blue Ridge Old Timer’s Fourth of July Parade. It was classic small town America. The streets were lined with families. The kids were waving small American flags. You could smell the motherhood and apple pie in the air.

I walked alongside the Feed Fannin float in my bib overalls and beat up straw hat. As you might have guessed, the Feed Fannin float was a large flatbed trailer decorated with bunting and hauled by a tractor.

I think anyone who wanted to was allowed to march or drive in the parade. I’m pretty sure every fire truck and ambulance in the county was in the parade. All the local politicians participated. The County Sheriff and the Town’s Police Chief rode in the parade. Quite a number of classic cars got in the act including an old Model A Ford pickup truck.

The Feed Fannin float was near the front of the parade. The town crier, dressed in colonial garb complete with a tricorner hat, walked behind us. I don’t know whether he is the official town crier but he’s done it for so many years that the position seems to be his by default.

Immediately ahead of our float there was a flatbed truck with a giant red, white and blue chicken on it. At least I think it was a chicken. If not, it was the worst bald eagle replica I have ever seen. I have no idea what the significance of the giant chicken is, but I understand that it is a hallmark of the parade. Its origins are probably lost in history.

The local contingent of civil war reenactors―all seven of then―showed up and marched in the parade. They were behind the town crier. They were dressed in old confederate clothing, and a few had scraggly beards. Every block or so they would fire a volley from their muskets startling the crowd and causing babies to burst into tears.

Some distance behind our float was the Democratic Party float. Until then I wasn’t sure there was an organized Democratic Party in Fannin County. Eighty percent of the county voted for Romney in the last election. As far as I know, no one threw eggs or rotten tomatoes at the Democrats so it was a peaceful affair and a tribute to the tolerance and good nature of rural folk.

I’m glad the Democrats’ float was a ways behind us. They had a loud tape player on the float that played endless variations by multiple artists of “This Land is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie. I know that because the Dems built their float in the same warehouse Feed Fannin used. By the eighteenth repetition of the song I was ready to go over and and do great violence to that tape player.

Even the local Tea Party participated in the parade. They weren’t that organized and did not have a float. If I had to guess I’d say the idea to march in the parade was a last minute idea for the Tea Party. They marched just in front of the civil war reenactors and every now and then the two groups would mingle together. It was hard to tell the reenactors from the Tea Party people when that happened.

I’m told the local Republican Party had a float, but it was located toward the rear of the parade, and I didn’t get a chance to see it.

Downtown Blue Ridge is about eight blocks long and located in a saddle of land with train tracks running down the middle. On the east side of the tracks is East Main Street, East First Street, and East Second Street. On the west side of the tracks is West Main Street, West First Street, and West Second Street. The town’s founding fathers were either unimaginative or liked simplicity I guess.

The parade route was down East First Street, two left turns and up West Main. (It’s not like the parade’s organizers had much choice given the configuration of the town.) The parade ended two blocks west of where it started. If we had wanted to we could have made a couple of turns and gone around the parade route again.

All in all, it was a great experience being in a small town Fourth of July parade. The nation’s founding fathers would have been happy.