Columnists

Great Group of Columnists

Written by Chuck Spicer | 03 May 2013

MAY 2013

COASTLINE COLUMNISTS

I Also Enjoy Reading Them

You know what I really look forward to each and every month –receiving new columns from members of our band of talented and clever columnists. It gives me an opportunity to sit back and relax with a good read. I certainly hope you enjoy their offerings as much as I do.

Betsy James has provided a folksy “Sandspurs & Sawgrass” column for eons and never fails to entertain. I only wish that I could come close to entertaining readers as much as she does. Now if she could only master the computer! A second and relatively new column out of Apalach is provided by the Apalachicola Maritime Museum and is penned by either AMM Board Chairman George Kirvin Floyd or his brilliant bride Augusta West. They have so darn much going on at the AMM that I am going to have to set their most comprehensive columns in smaller type so they will fit.

Ron Childs, an avid outdoorsman and driving force behind the Mexico Beach Artificial Reef Association (MBARA), provides us with “Childs’ Play” each month. I certainly can’t be everywhere at once and Ron keeps our readers up the date on the latest happenings in the MB area. Another relatively new column is being provided by Gulf County Tourist Development Council staff member Michelle Perrin. She is going to be keeping us abreast of all that is in the works in that county.

And over in Wakulla County we have a great pair of talented writers that never fail to entertain. Bonnie Holub (“Wakulla Ways”) has been a “mover & shaker” in the community for years and never fails to provide unique subjects and knowledgeable explanations of those subjects. I just am never certain from which part of the country her column will be coming from. Especially when I learn she has traveled to a part of the country with no internet service.

“Wakulla Green” is written monthly by Cynthia Paulson, who is truly greener than Kermit the Frog. She eats, drinks, lives and writes “green.” That’s a good thing folks! She’s the columnist that best portrays the wonderful outdoor nature of the Forgotten Coast in words and pictures. Be it cruising up a colorful creek with a group of fellow “green guides” or taking a leisurely guided tour on the St. Marks River. I always set Cynthia’s deadline three days earlier than all others so that when she asks for a couple days to get this month’s column completed she will be right on time.

Often you will also see a fishing column by Kathy Robinson of Robinson Guide Service of Apalachicola. The Robinson family came to the Apalachicola Bay area from Key West in the early 90’s and certainly helped put this area’s inshore fishing (especially “skinny water”) on the map. To clarify, Kathy is a local and married Tommy Robinson and basically runs the business.

Is that all of the columnists? Wow, that’s a pretty comprehensive list of talented folks. Oops, I almost forgot – there’s me plus Winn Placheaux and Rhett Greggory. None of us as talented as the above list. Hope you enjoy this issue.

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Swim Lessons for My Putter

Written by Chuck Spicer | 03 May 2013

MAY 2013

For Golfing (duffing) Fans Only...

Many thanks from regular readers who love to phone or email comments about my columns regarding my lackluster golf game. Boy are you gluttons for punishment.

Well, I’m here this month to tell you that my game is about to improve dramatically. As some of you know I took a lesson from Wildwood Golf Resort pro Greg Seidel. And that helped me significantly. Mainly because he took a video of my swing and proved to me that the swing isn’t a total embarrassment. For an old man with two “frozen shoulders” in his past it simply wasn’t that bad. And that gave me confidence.

Another thing that will improve my game is that I just sent away for a new putter. Actually it is identical to my former putter which, rest its soul, drowned in the lake near the 18^th hole at Wildwood. How did it drown you ask?

I putt whenever possible. Be it on the green or thirty yards out, I pull out the putter and put my deft touch on display.

On this particular day I was just 20 yards short of the 18^TH green in two and about to record a personal best round. A quacking duck or fluttering butterfly distracted me in the middle of my “putt” and that ball dribbled just five yards up the fairway. Calm, cool and collected I grabbed that putter by the neck and tried to teach it a lesson by swirling it above my head.

It chose this particular moment to make an escape from its brutal owner and flew into the exact and inaccessible center of that lake. I have tried a half- dozen different putters since then but none seem to want to follow my instructions.

A friend has suggested that I give this new putter swimming lessons before my next round.

By the way no critters were injured in the writing of this adventure.

Which reminds me that golf columns can be dangerous to the health. Upon taking over my new assignment (back in the early 60’s) as sport editor of an Air Force newspaper, I asked where the former editor had been assigned.

“He’s a lifeguard in Alaska,” was the reply.

Seems he wrote a golf article in which he wanted to say, “The commander’s wife was about to ‘putt out’ on the 18^th green.”

Only a typo had him proclaiming she was about to “put out.”

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THE MEDALLION

Written by Betsy James | 03 May 2013

MAY 2013

SAWGRASS & SANDSPURS

with Betsy james

THE MEDALLION

“This here is an old creekbed.” explained Joshua in his serious voice. “Sometimes you’ll find stone tools or arrowheads after a good rain.” he went on. You could see where the ground was low and soft; dirt as black as can be. I tried to imagine flowing water with animals bending down to drink. Fish swimming by. Maybe a canoe floating on the current.

Way up in the trees, squirrels were fussing at us, indignant that we should invade their space. “What happened to the creek?” I asked. “I think it gradually dried up or moved underground.” he replied. I’d seen rivers that dried up sometimes, then came back when the rain was good. I’d found pieces of limestone rock that had ancient snails imprinted on them or other small unidentified creatures in the dry river beds.

He poked around in the underbrush like he was really looking for something. “You better watch it. The snakes are moving again.” I warned. “It was somewhere in here.” he murmured. “You’re rambling, Joshua.” I laughed. He was 87 or something years old, but still spry. Sometimes he would launch into a story that happened a long time ago that was hard to follow. His memories were vivid at times and vague at others. And sometimes he’d forget what he was talking about altogether, only to pick up the thread several days later.

He was the last of his generation still living, the uncle of my late husband. He had lived a simple life, fishing and oystering. Hunting in the Fall. Always a lush garden in back of his house. Greens in the Winter and peas and tomatoes in Summer. After his wife had passed on, he just lived by himself in his ramshackle cracker house. His only son lived in Montana and had only come back to visit once. “Couldn’t wait to get out of here.” explained Joshua.

“What in the heck are you looking for?” I asked in concern. He was back amongst the palmettos now – a good spot for rattlers. “Just looking.” he replied as he strode out of the bushes. “My Moma used to sit by this creek and throw out a line when the water was up.” he reminisced. I could almost hear the ripple of the current when a breeze blew by. Or the splash of a frog jumping from shallow banks. That was the first time we went there. After several afternoon walks that always ended up in the same place, I began to suspect that Joshua had a reason to revisit the old creek bed again and again.

Then there were the stories, a new one every time. Swimming in the creek after a good rainy season and the water was deep enough. Almost stepping on a water moccasin. Making boats out of wax paper and setting them out to sail on down to the bay. Summer days that never seemed to end, bringing sunburned noses and poison ivy rashes that kept you up all night.

He continued to poke around in the dirt, shuffling it around with his shoes or digging in it with a stick or shell. “If you’d tell me what you’re looking for, I could help.” I offered one day. “Just looking.” he replied with a shrug. An answer that I didn’t believe for even one minute.

Then about a week later, he found it. It was encrusted over with dirt, but you could still tell what it was, and it still had a piece of a chain attached to it. Looked like an image of the sun imprinted on a small round piece of metal. Must have been someone’s necklace at one time. “Margaret.” he whispered, “I’m sorry.” “Okay, Joshua,” I started, “Let’s hear it.”

“It was one summer back when I was young and the creek was still here. Me and Margaret were down here splashing around, trying to get cool. I was just joking around. Wanted to hold Margret’s medallion. It was pretty.” he reminisced. “Then she called me a bucktooth dummy and I threw it in the creek.” “That was mean.” I commented. “Mean of her or mean of me?” he asked. “Did you really have buckteeth?” I inquired, since he’d been toothless ever since I could remember. “Big ones.” he grinned. “So what happened then?” I urged. “I dove under and searched and searched for that dern necklace. She sat up there and called me everything bad in the book, then she started crying.” “Bet you felt really awful.” I put in.

“Came back the next day and looked for it. Never did find it, though.” he continued. “She moved to Georgia that year. Before she left I told her I’d keep looking.” “Well Joshua,” I laughed, “guess that stubborn streak of yours finally paid off!” “Guess so.” he agreed as he held it up in the light. At that point, I could swear that old medallion shone as brightly as it did the day he threw it in the creek.-30-

Gretchen Evans- An Adventurer

Written by Bonnie Holub | 03 May 2013

MAY 2013

WAKULLA WAYS with Bonnie Holub

Gretchen Evans- An Adventurer

When I first met Gretchen Evans, I knew she was an adventurer. I knew she was, even before I met her.

Many years ago, while walking through a parking lot on my way to a meeting, I noticed a most uncommon vehicle among the usual assortment of cars. It was an old red truck; dusty, weathered and sporting fenders ingeniously wired to the vehicle’s frame. A well-traveled truck, which looked as though it had been through a lifetime of adventure.

And when I entered the meeting room, I immediately knew who drove that truck. There are people with a certain look and demeanor that draw your attention. Gretchen was one of these extraordinary folks. Dressed in her out-of-doors work clothes, punctuated by a darkly tanned face, deeply etched character lines and mischievous eyes, I knew she had to be the master of the truck, and I suspected she lived a life filled with adventures.

According to her daughter, Jacki Evans Youngstrand, I was right. In fact, the act of settling her family in Wakulla County was both an adventure, and a wild venture, for herself and her children.

Gretchen founded TNT Hide-a-way, the canoe and kayak rental outpost on the Wakulla River, thirty-nine years ago. Just a short time before that, she was “trailblazing” (her word for taking the back roads instead of major highways) between Sarasota and Illinois to visit her mother in the early 1970s. Passing through Wakulla, she crossed the old Wakulla river bridge, where she noticed a “for sale” sign on a river lot. She jotted down the information and when she got to Illinois, she called the seller, borrowed money from her credit union and bought the lot. On her return to Florida she brought her children from Sarasota to see the newly acquired property. “We saw an overgrown piece of ground in the middle of nowhere and we thought, ‘What was SHE thinking?’” said Youngstrand.

As it turned out, what she was thinking worked well for her family and for Wakulla County. Moving her children to Wakulla, Gretchen and her late son, John Evans opened TNT Hide-a-way with six aluminum canoes, and the business has been growing ever since.

Gretchen passed away in 2005, but her daughter Jacki, grandson, Rob Baker and others continue running the business. And last month, the community celebrated a large expansion of TNT Hide-a-way with a new addition; the purchase of Wilderness Way outfitters, located at 3152 Shadeville Highway in Crawfordville. A ribbon cutting and open house was held at Wilderness Way on April 18 under a canopy of live oaks and lively conversation about rivers, wildlife, watercraft and Gretchen.

Wilderness Way, which offers the same rental and guide services as TNT Hide-a-way, also offers a showroom and shop for the purchase of watercraft and outdoor adventure accessories.

Stop by Wilderness Way and browse the newly equipped showroom, or plan a day of adventure on the Wakulla River, beginning at TNT Hide-a-way, on the very spot that Gretchen spotted, while trailblazing through Wakulla those many years ago.

And if you happen to talk to Rob or Jacki, ask about Gretchen, and you may hear some tales about her life on the river, why she was called the “manatee lady” and how the old Wakulla River bridge, the one she crossed on that now infamous trailblazing trip, was replaced with a new span, and officially christened the “Gretchen Evans Memorial Bridge.”

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Anne Rudloe – A Priceless Treasure

Written by Cynthia Paulson | 03 May 2013

MAY 2013

WAKULLA GREEN with Cynthia Paulson

Anne Rudloe – A Priceless Treasure

I first met Anne Rudloe on a balmy year-end evening on Alligator Point, a natural gulf-front paradise set against the quiet backdrop of vintage coastal north Florida. I had thumbed my nose at this unobtrusive Panhandle beach when I first moved to this area years ago from the award-winning, white sandy beaches of St. Petersburg. Now I know much better. Anne, a marine biologist and veteran queen of the coastal wilds had made her life and work here along this natural shore.

She adored these coastal marshes, seagrass meadows and miles and miles of wilderness coast. She and her husband, Jack, founded and ran a small aquarium and wrote books about the ocean. I knew their non-profit aquarium, Gulf Specimen Marine Lab, located north of the Ochlockonee Bay bridge in the little coastal village of Panacea. A dusky fog cloaked this particular New Year’s Eve and hung so thick it was hard to breathe as we stood in the toasty light of a beach bonfire. Anne emerged from out of the distorted shadows festively beautiful in a rich velvet dress of deep green. I stood there feeling small in damp jeans, wet hair with a big smile among a lot of people I did not know well. I had just heard she was diagnosed with cancer. Anne radiated such a calm happiness so real that I suddenly wanted to cry. It was the eve of many new chapters already being written.

The next few years progressed along as they inevitably do. My relationship with Gulf Specimen Marine Lab grew as did my friendships with Anne’s son, Cypress, a fellow Certified Green Guide, and with Jack, her husband. But Anne never seemed to be around when I came to the aquarium. I saw her only infrequently when she spoke at seminars I happened to attend. I knew Anne was a writer. I treasured my copy of Priceless Florida, a compendium that covers every natural ecosystem and native species of Florida. I knew she was published in National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine and other scientific journals. But it was not until I stumbled upon one of her intensely personal writings that directly touched my soul, did I feel such a sense of awe and appreciation for this exceptional woman. Something I am certain her friends already knew.

LOSS FELT BY MANY

When I received a telephone call one night late last April with the sad news of Anne’s passing, I felt a deep sense of loss. It was a loss felt by many. She was a magnificent blazing star that gradually turned into embers during the short time I had the honor to know her. Embers that glowed with such radiant warmth that grew smaller and smaller over the many months, but simply refused to burn completely out. Until blip, all of a sudden that day last April the splendid star was gone. Into the vast universe disappeared, but not from all our hearts.

Anne Rudloe had touched many in her time along this natural coast. She co-founded the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab with her husband, Jack. Tucked away under the spreading oak trees along a back street in Panacea off the beaten path, you might never know such a renowned place existed if not for the eye-catching seahorse signs directing you here. The lab was founded in 1963 and has grown to support marine research and education programs both on-site and at universities, aquariums and museums across the country. Anne loved nature and she loved teaching nature. In 1990 this “hidden Florida gem” was opened to the public. The facility houses bright aquariums swimming with seahorse, jellyfish, octopus, stingray, small sharks and assorted saltwater fish. Both children and adults delight in the easily accessible touch tanks that abound with sea anemone, urchins, starfish, sea pansies, sand dollars, whelks and clams. Educational displays can be explored in several buildings with additional tanks outside. A colorful gift shop is filled with a myriad of items intended to amuse and educate, and with the many books authored by Anne and Jack Rudloe. Well worth your first or any return trip.

2013 SHARKS & CHABLIS

“A Celebration of Anne Rudloe” is how Jack describes the theme for the 2013 Sharks & Chablis Winetasting and Seafood Dinner scheduled for Sunday, May 19 from 2-7 p.m. This annual fundraising event now it its fourth year also celebrates our ocean and the marine life that abounds. The popular event was suspended last year so the Rudloe family could devote their time to be with Anne. Now a year later, plans are well underway for this highly regarded benefit that draws a large crowd and promises an enjoyable afternoon/evening at the aquarium. The event comes complete with a bounty of delicious appetizers and desserts of your choosing, a tremendous seafood dinner “catered by the Seineyard, one of the best seafood restaurants we have around this area” assures Cypress, and a wide assortment of beer and wine. Plenty of live entertainment will be on hand including performances by singer/songwriter master guitarist, Rick Ott, by jazz musician, Sammy Tedder featuring his smooth saxophone and river cane flute compositions, and by the world music sounds of a local didgeridoo band. Dance enthusiasts will particularly enjoy a special performance by dynamic flamenco and lively Irish folk dancers.

Community groups such as Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tall Timbers and Florida Green Guide Association will host educational and informational business displays. Chehaw Wild Animal Park will have a live display and Sentman Ssnakes & Reptiles will captivate audiences with their popular on-site exhibit of live snakes. Featured also will be an outstanding silent auction with a diverse assortment of items donated by area merchants and works by local artists. And of course, the aquarium will be open for exploration and guided tours will be provided all afternoon.

The gleaming highlight though of this year’s Sharks & Chablis will be the official dedication of the new renovated wing to Anne Rudloe. A large sign has already been installed in tribute to Anne. It reads with one of her insightful quotes, “Protecting the earth gives meaning and wholeness and a sense that you are contributing to a greater good. This earth should not be allowed to disappear. Now it is your turn. “

That was what Anne believed. Be who you are and do what you love. That will be your contribution to the greater good.

Thank you Anne Rudloe, for doing exactly that.

Make your contribution to the greater good of the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab. Plan to attend the 2013 Sharks & Chablis Winetasting and Seafood Dinner on Sunday, May 19, 2-7 p.m. Gulf Specimen Marine Lab is located at 222 Clark Drive, off Rock Landing Road in Panacea, FL. Tickets are $35 per person and may be purchased at the lab or by calling 850-984-5297.

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Columnists

Great Group of Columnists

Swim Lessons for My Putter

THE MEDALLION

Gretchen Evans- An Adventurer

Anne Rudloe – A Priceless Treasure

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