Tea For Who and Who For Tea?

I did not relish having to go out into the cold and rainy afternoon but I had made the commitment a couple of months prior and was looking forward to the event.

One of my DAR sisters (Buffy) asked if I wanted to join her and another DAR sister (Debi) at a fundraiser tea on January 27th. The funds were being raised for the 'Friends of the Library' group at one of the local libraries. The cost of the tea was only $10. I will always part with my money when books are involved. I always have a book I am currently reading.

This tea was a fun one. Those who attended could come dressed as a literary figure...Buffy told me I had to dress up when she invited me and I did not know I had a choice...please, of course I was going to dress up!

As soon as Buffy asked me to join her at the tea, I began working on my costume. I already had some costume parts in my closet and just needed to buy or make additional pieces. The first thing I worked on was a scarlet letter A (now you know which literary character I portrayed...I hope). I attached a white doily to a thin sheet of black foam. I then placed my scarlet A on the doily. Next I placed small pearls around the edge of the A. Finally, I glued two frog style pins to the back of my creation so that I could attach it to the front of my dress.

The next items I needed were a bonnet, apron, collar and baby doll. I shopped on Amazon.com and found pilgrim costume accessories at a reasonable price. I looked for a baby doll on line but did not see any I liked nor did I like the prices. I decided to give Wal-Mart a try. I found the perfect baby doll for $10. I "shopped" in the back of my closet and found a shawl that would do very nicely as a blanket in which to wrap the doll.

My Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Letter costume was complete (I know what my Halloween costume will be this year).

I dodged raindrops as I ran to my car and made my way to the library. The tea was held inside the library proper. There were seven tables set up and each table had six chairs around it.

We were served hot tea of course, as well as dainty sandwiches, scones and cakes. There were also little chocolate mint patties for the taking.

Once everyone was done eating, it was time for those of us in costume to go from table to table, where people could ask questions of us and try to guess who we were.

Correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't most everyone (at least a certain age...I was the youngest female in attendance) heard of or had to read Nathaniel Hawthorne's book, The Scarlet Letter, in school? I was surprised and somewhat appalled by the some of the questions asked of me. I mean, this was a literary tea attended by people who supposedly read books.

One table full of ladies asked me if I was a nurse or a midwife. One asked if I was a character from Margaret Atwood's, A Handmaid's Tale. I had to goad them along by asking them what color my letter A was and when they said red, I asked what is another name for red and what was Miss O'Hara's name from Gone with the Wind? Finally they got it but did not know my character's name. Fair enough but at least the scarlet letter A and me carrying a baby should have been clue enough to at least guess the book title. Other tables had trouble guessing who my character was too. In the above photograph you see a young gentleman in a leather, military jacket, he was the only person there who knew I was portraying Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter. Most everyone liked my baby doll and thought it looked real.

All of us who dressed up then had to parade around the tables as a group so that we could be viewed one more time. Everyone (including those of us who dressed up) got to vote for the person who they thought had the best costume.

My costume did not win. Some lady who was portraying Mable Ringling (the wife of one of the Ringling Brothers) won. I guess there is a new book about her but please, she is not a literary figure, she was a real person. I think my costume was the best and I am not just saying that because it was mine. Oh well, I had fun anyway. It was a nice time with Buffy and Debi my DAR sisters.

Mad Hatter (Debi), Daisy Buchanan (Buffy) and Hester Prynne (Bird)

As I said earlier, I am going as Hester Prynne for Halloween this year (unless I think of something else between now and then) and I am sure there will be just a handful of people who know who I am supposed to be. It will be interesting to see how many do know and what their age groups will be.

Fun at Fort Center

The Colonel and I have been wanting to hike the trails at the site of Fort Center in the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA). On Saturday, January 5th, we finally did just that. We were joined by my newly retired sister Jennifer and her husband Jim.

The weather that day was perfect for a 5-mile hike. It was sunny and there was just enough of a breeze to keep us comfortable and bug-free.

The first mile and a half of the hike is a long, straight trail with some covered information stations along the way.

The trail cuts through wet prairie and floodplain that is open to cattle grazing. We passed by a truck that was pulling a trailer that had wild pigs in cages. Roughly 500 wild pigs are captured in the WMA each year.

Thankfully we did not see any non-caged wild pigs as we hiked. We did see free-range cows though.

After the 1.5 mile walk, we entered the hardwood hammock and interpretive trail loop. The Spanish moss draped live oak trees and cabbage palms were plentiful. Interspersed among them were wild citrus trees.

We encountered wild grapefruit, tangerine, orange and lemon trees along the trail. These trees are thought to be remainders of the first citrus brought to the New World by the Spanish in the 1500's and are the oldest in Florida. We picked some fruit from a sample of each tree.

We tasted each fruit. We found the tangerines to be a bit sour and bitter. The oranges were good but the lemons and grapefruit were the best tasting. I am not a huge fan of grapefruit (I think it tastes like earwax...don't ask me how I know...just trust me) and I think the Ruby Red grapefruit is superior in taste to the white fleshed grapefruit. The wild grapefruit was white fleshed. We (including me) found it to be sweet and delicious.

We continued along the trail and veered towards the Fisheating Creek. The Seminole name for this creek is Thlothlopopka-Hatchee which means river where fish are eaten. The creek is between 40-50 miles long.

It was nearing lunchtime and we wanted to picnic along the creek. We encountered some cows as we neared the creek (we encountered their droppings everywhere and Jennifer and I recalled something our maternal grandfather used to tell us...do not step on a cowpat or it will cut your foot). We had anticipated having to sit upon the ground to eat our lunches but were pleasantly surprised when we spotted a picnic table situated under a moss-strewn oak tree. The picnic table was placed there by the Lakeport Florida Airboat Club. There was another table further on down the creek.

After we ate our lunch, we walked along Fisheating Creek. We saw some cows across the creek and one large alligator in the creek, on the opposite bank.

Once we walked the banks of the creek, we headed back the way we came and continued along the trail within the hammock. We retraced our steps up a mound to get back onto the trail. Here are Jennifer and Jim standing on a mound.

The Fort Center site at Fisheating Creek WMA is documented as possibly the first place in the eastern part of our continent where people grew corn. The area around Fisheating Creek was occupied by people of the Belle Glade Culture from as early as 1,000 BCE.

Fort Center is a complex of earthwork mounds, linear embankments, middens and circular ditches, and an artificial pond. In the above photograph, Jennifer and Jim were standing on mound number ten. The photograph below is of the artificial pond.

Archaeologists believe the artificial pond was used in the Belle Glade society's cremation ceremonies. Below is a picture of what the Mortuary Temple may have looked like.

 Image from Internet

The Fort Center complex is named for a blockhouse that was located at the site during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) and named for U.S. Army Lt. J.P. Center. There are no longer any traces of the blockhouse. An interpretive panel showed what the fort may have looked like.

 

Dodging cowpats, we continued along the trail within the hardwood hammock until we once again joined the 1.5 mile trail we began our hike on.

The Colonel and I very much enjoyed finally making the hike at Fort Center. Sharing our hike with my sister and brother-in-law made it even more enjoyable! I just wish we could have filled a basket with  the tasty citrus and brought it back with us.

Iron and Rock

Gary, our neighbor, is still on this side of the grass (his words, not mine). He has cancer and the doctors did not think (nor did we) that he would live past September of 2018. He must weigh only 98 pounds now but is still out and about his yard and operating heavy machinery.

Six years ago, he and his wife Candy moved into the house next door. They are very nice people but little did we know that we would have the "Caucasian Fred Sandford" for a neighbor. Gary moved huge boats on huge trailers all across the country for a living. His yard began to fill up with boats, trucks, trailers, golf carts, sheds and RVs. It got so that you could not see the house for all of the items in the yard.

Before Gary was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago, Candy collapsed onto their bedroom floor. They thought she had a stroke, but through much long testing, discovered a brain tumor. She has come a long way. She can now walk and talk again but she is not completely 100 percent and may never be. Her sister Kim moved in with Candy and Gary to help out.

We think (and so does Candy) that getting Candy settled (they moved into a condo in town) and getting rid of all the things in the yard is what is keep Gary on this side of the grass.

Part of the getting rid of things included moving an old anchor and three rocks from Gary's yard to ours. About two months ago, Gary asked if we would like the anchor and rocks. We said sure.

Gary fired up his front end loader and began to move the anchor first. Once he had the anchor strapped to the loader, he drove down the road to our house and set it down in our yard. The Colonel unstrapped the anchor and then Gary returned to his yard for the first and largest rock.

The Colonel helped Gary unstrap the rock. Next, he and Gary artfully placed the anchor onto the rock.

There were two more rocks for Gary to move.

The moving of anchor and rocks was complete.

The Colonel and I will do a bit of landscaping around the anchor and rocks. I think I may even want to move the smaller rocks a bit closer to the anchor (should be doable without Gary's front end loader). 

The Colonel thinks that this old anchor is a kedge anchor (a small anchor used to re-position a ship or boat for mooring or towing) from George Brown's Cleveland Marine Steam Ways business in nearby Cleveland, Florida.

George Brown (1868-1951), was an African-American entrepreneur. He hired workers based upon their ability without regard to race. He paid fair and equal wages to all. Brown is said to be Florida's first equal opportunity employer. He opened his steam ways business in 1908, the largest shipyard in southwest Florida.

If the anchor is indeed one of George Brown's, The Colonel and I may contact the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture to see if they would like to add it to their collection. We will need to show credible provenance before we can do that.

For now, the anchor will stay in our yard as awesome looking lawn art.