Think about Florida, what comes to your mind, swamps, bugs, snakes and tourist traps? Or perhaps, beautiful sandy beaches and sub-tropical weather? While all that is true, the Florida I know and love is so much more than that. However, it is a place that few will ever know or appreciate the beauty of. The parts that are left of the natural state, are fading fast behind the dredges and the bulldoziers, that leave a vast community in thier wake.

My Florida is the simple one. The one you find when you find nature. I love to grab a sleeping bag and head out to a river or lake somewhere and kick back and listen to the sounds. Bring along the fishing pole and catch ya some supper. Then cook up the fish with a mess of swamp cabbage and maybe some corn bread. Life just don't get much better than that! Oh and forget the tent, unless it is gonna rain, which in Florida could be anytime. So ya just might wanna go ahead and pitch the thing up just in case. Myself, I just like to find me a big ol oak somewhere and lay down under it and watch the stars.

Of all the things I know and love here, the Everglades I would have to say is at the top of my list. One of the most peaceful times I can remember in my life has been sitting in the middle of a swamp, listening to the sounds of nature. The frogs croaking, the gators gruntin and the birds chirping. To some this might be refered to as "silence" and if that be so, then silence is truley golden.

Just imagine, if you can, a place miles from nowhere, no cars or sirens, nor telephone ringing, or even a power pole in sight! But what you might hear is the roar of an airboat or a swamp buggy from time to time. If you are in the glades, that is the only way you will get around. Oh, and ya might hear the sound of a generator through the silence at night, because FPL (Florida Power and Light) has not ventured this far yet. Most of the cooking is done on gas stoves in the camps and light comes from a lantern.

Once in awhile when you come into camp you might find the signs of a bear that has plundered through also, but don't worry, they are like gators, as afraid of you as you are of them. Don't get me wrong here, a bit of advice, NEVER feed a gator! Belive me, they will bite the hand that feeds them. Stay clear of a moma gator if she has some little ones around, that is her territory and she has little patience or respect for anyone or anything that invades her turf.

As for snakes?...Wellll, they are just something that won't go away. You learn to just watch where you put your feet, and listen for that infamous rattle of the diamondback. Now if you do find yourself out in the woods, and hap upon one of those rattlers, just try to maintain an image of calm. Move slowly away from them. If the dreaded snake bite ever does happen, which is very rare, don't panic please! Keep this in mind, when a rattler bites that does not mean he has injected venom, most of the time they do not! So don't go doing no cross cuts and take a chance on cuttin an important little thing called an artery, in which case the snake bite will be the least of your worries. Don't tie nothing so tight that it cuts off your blood flow and you have to end up having a limb amputated. Now, with that in mind, make darn sure you know what kind of snake bit you and get to medical care as soon as possible! Let me squash one other ol tale here also befor we leave this little subject...a snake does NOT have to be coiled to strike, and a water moccasin is very aggressive and twice as deadly as any rattler you will run upon.

While I am on this subject of what is my Florida, let me get something off my chest here please. One thing my Florida is NOT, is a chemical factory! My husband and I took a trip up to the Fort Lonesome area just recently and I got to say, it just goes right through me to see all those big drag lines up there, diggin up the state, and the awful mess they leave behind. Phosphate mines! That is what I am talking about! Ugly, just plain UGLY! They strip the earth and leave nothing but great big holes in their wake. Here man goes again, it seems they never learn. If you take from Nature you have to give back. What they give back is "reclaimed land"..now that is a joke if I ever heard one! And that is about all I better say about that for now.

I guess that My Florida is something that not all would see the beauty in, but I love it, and it is my heritage, and I hope to never have to leave it. The sad thing is, this is one heritage that our children might only be able to enjoy in stories and tales. With every town that goes up, a part of this land dies, and takes away something that we will never be able to reclaim. Beauty lies in the simple things of life. Those things seem to have no place in our modern society.

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