Afternoon at Bald Point

My trip to Bald Point State Park a couple weeks ago brought me back to the conventional Florida storyline...vacation at the beach, getting your toes stuck in the sand, and never going back to Cincinnati or New Jersey or Chicago or wherever they came from.

But drive out of the State Park, and you're back in Old Florida, Forgotten Florida--whatever label you choose. You're back on the Walkin' Lawton Chiles trail, but without the signposts to guide you. It's obvious as you drive through the small coastal towns South of Tallahassee in Franklin and Wakulla Counties that you're far from Disney. You're sharing highway 98 with raccoons, deer, turkey and maybe even gators; the Gulf on one side and a struggling rural economy on the other. I saw crumbling, graffiti-stained seafood-picking houses in Panacea; peanut and watermelon stands on the side of the road, the farmers sitting quietly in their chairs because there were no customers; and the occasional collapsed wooden shack. Carrabelle reminded me of Bayside towns on Maryland's Eastern Shore--places like Rock Hall and Vienna and even Cambridge that have never lost their connection to the sea but can't make a dime on it anymore. And mostly, even if folks remember voting for Kennedy and Johnson or even Carter, they're voting Republican now in Wakulla and Franklin Counties unless it's for county commissioner.

I remember on the O'Malley for Governor campaign, seeing campaign signs stapled to all those abandoned shacks on the rural roadside. Some had every level of sign, from county commissioner to governor. I'm sure that happens in Panacea, too. You have to wonder what kind of statement that makes.

Carrabelle at least has some good news to enjoy. Bud Chiles--Lawton Chiles III--has begun a business venture to produce hurricane-rated, steel reinforced, affordable homes for the Gulf coast--made right there in Carrabelle. Check it out.

More on Carrabelle later.