Florida Crackers

If you've read this book, you'll know what, (rather - who,) they are!

During the Christmas season, it's nice to lighten our homeschool load.  It makes our lives a whole lot easier...  There are just so many great things to do - I don't Alexis to miss out on anything, and I don't want to stress out during a typically hectic time of year.  So, this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, one of the things Alexis worked on was a Florida unit study.

I lived in South Florida for almost 20 years before we moved to the middle of the state.  Until we did, I had never heard of "Florida Crackers."  Little did I know then, but just a couple of hundred miles to the north west, there once lived a group of colorful mostly Scot-Irish pioneers who came from the deep south to try their hand at making something out of the seemingly un-farmable sandy soil.  Historically speaking, it was not all that long ago either.  The last of what are called "Cracker Houses"  were built somewhere in the 1930′s.  Now that we live in the middle of the state, my daughter and I have a great opportunity to learn about the Crackers.

Part of Alexis’ Florida unit study included reading Strawberry Girl, by Lois Lenski.  It is an amusing historical fiction book that is slightly hard to read at times because of the Cracker’s dialect, but it is truly enjoyable.   As we were wrapping up the final chapters, I noticed in the newspaper that Ft. Christmas was having their annual Cracker Christmas celebration.  I love when things like that happen.  How could we resist this field trip?  Well we couldn’t!  As it was a spur of the moment thing, we went by ourselves. 

Below are photos from the field trip.  Alexis took most of them.  As she was taking them, she was trying to capture things that "felt" familiar from the book.  Very cool!   I thought she did a great job! 

So… if you’ve read the book, (and you have a good memory) you’ll understand what some of these pictures are all about.

 

When Birdie went to church, we somehow didn't picture it being one this small!

Do you suppose the wood buring stove that Ma aquired looked something like this?

Remember when Mr. Slater branded Birdie's brother's heifer?

Images of Branding Symbols

This whip is at least 20' long.  When the gentleman "cracked" it, the sound made was similar to a gunshot.  The cracking sound of the whip is what gives Florida "Crackers" their name.  Many were ranchers who horse drove their cattle from Central Florida to Tampa to sell the cattle.

This is a Cracker house that was just recently brought to Ft. Christmas.  They will restore it, and add period furniture.  Obviously this house is not ready to be toured.

A guide who was giving tours in this home mentioned that a descendant of the original owner had been there the day before, as a tourist.  She was actually born in this home!  This was her Grandmother's bedroom.  Most or all of the furniture in the room was original to this house.  Alexis and I toured parts of Ft. Christmas before, but this time we went with new eyes looking for the many details that Lois Lenski described in Strawberry Girl.  In addition to the tours of historical homes and Pioneer demonstrations, the event included a craft show.  Normally the craft show would be the highlight of a visit to anywhere for both Alexis and me - anytime, hands down.  We both love crafts, and we both love to shop.  This trip was different though... History was the highlight!  Yes!!!  I encourage anyone who reads this to buy or borrow a local historical fiction book and go take a field trip~ 

This is the rear of one of the smaller Cracker homes in the background.  Most of these homes have breezeways right through the middle of the house.  The families would leave the doors in the front and rear of the house wide open to let whatever "breeze" that they'd be lucky enough to get pass through.  I can't imagine those pre-air-conditioner days.  :-P  This being the center of the state--- Ocean breezes just don't happen here...

With wide open doors on houses - comes - mosquito nets!

Alexis took this photo because we have one very similar in our home.  It belonged to David's Grandmother!

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This fireplace looked interesting to us.  It appears that it was built as an afterthought, with wood and mud.  If they were all built like this, I can't help but wonder how it wouldn't catch on fire?

How often would Crackers want to heat up their houses with stoves and fireplaces?  (Probably outdoors cooking was the better option.)  When we were here a few years ago, they actually let us use this kettle to make stew over an open fire.  It took a considerable amount of time to cook up, but the stew was pretty tasty.  We also cooked cornbread cakes that looked like pancakes.  We used a flat wood grill.  It's the most "pioneer" we suburban people have ever pretended to be!

This most likely was a local bear.  Florida bears are pretty small.  The coat doesn't seem as dark as I'd expect it to be...

Cracker's did not have many books available, or the means to buy them often.  This shows that they took extra care with their family Bible.

And last, a little Cracker House History