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.