Florida Pine Barrens
- Thread starter Ben Ruset
- Start date
FL Pine Barrens
The first card mentions "Crescent City", a small town (pop. approx 1800) whose moniker is "Bass Capital of the World"--and despite this label this area is not tourist season albeit "snow-bird"country--it is right on Rt. 17, a 2 laner, nice topography and "old Florida" feel, lots of lakes, no sub-divisions or Walmarts---I can imagine you could still duplicate this post-card somewhere around this area, believe it or not! There are definitely places like this in Florida , and excluding the palms and palmettos, you would swear you were in NJ.
The first card mentions "Crescent City", a small town (pop. approx 1800) whose moniker is "Bass Capital of the World"--and despite this label this area is not tourist season albeit "snow-bird"country--it is right on Rt. 17, a 2 laner, nice topography and "old Florida" feel, lots of lakes, no sub-divisions or Walmarts---I can imagine you could still duplicate this post-card somewhere around this area, believe it or not! There are definitely places like this in Florida , and excluding the palms and palmettos, you would swear you were in NJ.
bruset said:
In '52 while on a family vacation we stayed at a motel ("Lazy Pines" sounds like the name) somewhere near Stark, Florida. We stayed there because my Dad thought the area reminded him of the Pine Barrens. As soon as we unloaded I took off with my snake stick and bags to explore the extensive woods behind the motel. There certainly were pines in abundance, but the understory was almost all palmetto. I saw, but coudn't catch a racer of some sort. As I got deeper into the woods I started to smell a strange odor. As I began to "follow my nose", I heard a car start up and then then drive away - its sound faded. In a few minutes I came upon a clearing with two buildings of weathered grey wood. One a low shed in which there were big metal drums filled with the most gawd-awful looking and smelling stuff (looked to me like vomit...) and a two-strory building with a door at ground level and another half-way up its side at the top of a set of steps. I poked around the debris on the ground, caught some anoles and fence swifts, and slowly made my way back to the motel.
That night we were watching TV with the proprietor of the motel and I mentioned what I'd found back in the woods. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened before he started laughing. "Well, I guess the .......(so-and-so) brothers are out and back in business." He turned serious and told my Dad " I'd suggest you keep the boy close to here 'til you leave." Later that night my Dad educated me about "moonshiners" and the distinct inadviseability of visiting them unexpected.
Dave
how 'bout that. In '52 I wonder how strongly laws were enforced. Do you think they would have given a kid a hard time? Probably would have just chased you off.
woodjin said:
Beats me, but that incident was my Dad's entre to telling me about his days as a reporter on the Toms River paper during prohobition accompanying the feds and other "authorities" on still busts in the pines. I think I have related his story about the still in the central building at Pinewald? Yes, I guess I did. That thread elicited some pictures of the place. There were several more stories in the central building than I'd remembered from herping in the area back in the late 50s or early 60s.
It has warmed up considerably here in SD. Just a degree or two above freezing for a couple of days and the snow's most all gone. The glorious browns and tans of an incipient Dakota Spring are everywhere to be admired... Damn; I wish we'd get more snow!
Dave