A Great Turtle Day!

A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days in my hometown visiting my grandmother. My Aunt Sue started to recall stories that I had never heard before and me, being the frustrated family scribe, had to write it down..

Occasionally, after particularly rainy weather in Blountstown, my grandfather would declare to the children that that day was a good turtle day! They would all load up in the truck and go to some property that he owned, Aunt Sue said it was called Starvation Plantation. They would be in the back and would holler out to their daddy to stop so they could pick up the many box turtles that were in the ditches. Aunt Sue said it was so much fun and they would fill up the back with turtles. After the day of fun they would unload the turtles before they headed back home, muddy, cheeks bright and full of tales to tell their mama. Aunt Sue said that on this piece of property was a building that was called the Flying House. She said it was out in the middle of the pasture and had a exaggerated sloping roofline and from a distance it looked like the house was about to take off flying, like it had wings. She said that they had camped there one night and had hosted her twelth birthday party with a hayride and cook out. It was so much fun to watch her recall these precious memories of her childhood with her sweet daddy. I almost felt like I was there too, picking up box turtles, laughing the day away, and just glad to be alive on a good turtle day!     Suz



Eastern Box Turtle

 P.S. I was interested in finding more about this "Starvation Plantation"which I had never heard of before, but remembered my grandfather taking us to his property that was near some Indian mounds. The information that I found said that there was a Mrs.Jones in 1840, that befriended a group of Creek or Seminole Indians on a trip to Ecofina. She brought them to her home near Blountstown and fed them dinner. She served them some peppered eggs at this meal and the spicy food upset the Indians so much they thought she was trying to poison them. They returned ten days later and killed Mrs.Jones. It seems this area was the scene of much fighting between the Indians and the settlers.

Riches Upon Riches

My daughter. She is something else, she is her own person wrapped up in leopard skin, hippie beads and she always smells like mint and sweet soap. Where she got her spunk is beyond me, where she got her brilliant mind is even more beyond me. She was only two when I gathered up my courage to divorce and move back toTallahassee.  I was trying my best working full time and going to design school and little Lu was the most bright spot in my life. We were so poor and lived in a small apartment in Frenchtown, later when I would tell her I was sorry that we were so lacking she would tell me ," Mama,  I thought we were rich, we always had what we needed and we had each other". I love this girl, now woman and treasure her quick wit, naughty sense of humor and her warmth that radiates. We should all be so rich with the things that count......    Suz

Lindsey Anders Ortolano