I often have wondered. What would have happened if the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, had happened a year earlier when Jim Crochet and I were visiting Manhattan? You see, Jim and and I had taken the elevators to the top of the World Trade Center only a year before the attacks happened. We had a … Continue reading Somewhere in that Airy Void
I am just now returned from a journey to the dark heart of the American dream. Las Vegas. Work life brought me here to talk about my specialty. – How we understand each other in the unwired world of instant communications. You see, I practice the art of perception. This job, my job, links people … Continue reading To the East of Garish Eden
It's a sin to kill a mockingbird. So said Atticus Finch in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Perhaps that's why I felt the presence of something large yesterday when a mockingbird greeted me with fussy curiosity in Monroeville, Alabama. I had taken time after a family funeral in nearby Brewton to … Continue reading It’s a Sin to Kill a Mockingbird
We are back in mudbug country. This is the welcome station in Iberville Parish, Louisiana. There's crawfish crawling in the bayou if you're looking for lunch. But there ain't no fish swimming in the fish tank. -- The baby gators ate them all. And if you're scratching your head over the name of this town, … Continue reading Grosse Tête Welcome Station
What separates the living from the dead? Come to Cassadaga, Florida, if you yearn for an answer. Because this is a place where some say the veil cloaking the afterlife is especially thin. There are dozens of psychics here who will give you answers. Seances are held at regular times. For a few dollars, spiritual … Continue reading Spirits of Cassadaga
December 15, 2018 There are those who contend Florida was the first cowboy state. After all, its cattle-driving business was well underway by the 1830s. Some historians also say barbecue was first given to Europeans by the Timucua tribes that lived in the state for eons. What else would a cowboy eat? But the Stetson? … Continue reading Florida’s Cowboy Mansion
One of the most unusual types of plants Jim and I saw yesterday at Bok Tower Gardens was the tropical carnivorous plant called Nepenthes. Several were hanging in pots in the garden shop at the visitors center. And a large metal sculpture of one was located on a small island in the tropical lily pond near the … Continue reading Nepenthes & Other Flesh-Eating Plants
The children's garden at Bok Tower is a fanciful place. In one of its play sites a giant stone replica of a Florida indigo snake coils around a children's sand box. In another, huge stone acorns lie scattered on the ground under real live oaks that shade several play stations. Instead of monkey bars, a … Continue reading Children’s Garden at Bok Tower
At its start, Bok Tower might have become just another 1930s Florida roadside attraction in Depression-era America. But it quickly became so much more than the other tourist stops nearby. No, it would not be like the pyramids of athletic youth on water skis waving from a lake or the squawky parrots in a make-believe … Continue reading Bok Tower Gardens
When I was a child in the South, places like Jefferson Davis' retirement home Beauvoir in Biloxi were everywhere. Only a few remain today. -- Shrines to the Lost Cause. Monuments to the Confederacy. Centers that explained why our people lost the Civil War and with it, the entire basis of our regional economy for … Continue reading A Monument to Denial
Robert Craig Waters 