Cranks My Tractor

The Manistique Miracle

Some folks include skydiving, backpacking across Europe and taking exotic cruises on their bucket lists. Others want to ride in a hot air balloon, see the Northern Lights or experience New Year’s Eve at Times Square in New York City.

You may not think it’s exciting, but I wanted a teapot just like Ms. Fannie Lou’s in Vernon, Florida. Ms. Fannie Lou is the woman who invited me into her house in Vernon when I originally went back to see if Vernon still held the magic it did when my Papa and I used to visit when I was a little boy.

Papa would say, “Let’s go to Vernon,” and we would go. We would get there to the sleepy little town on the Florida Panhandle and get out of the car with my Papa’s little dog. He would say, “We’re in Vernon now.”

Lost & Found in 2012

We look back into the past and try to remember the year that things happened. Some dates are easy to remember. You remember the year you graduated from high school or college. You remember the year you started work. Most of the time you remember the years your children were born.

As you get older, dates and times seem to blur and all run together.

2012 will definitely be a year that I will always remember.

We all have our priorities, likes, dislikes, fears and loves. Things that are important to me are not necessarily important to others; I understand that. We seem to be drawn to people who have similar interests or those who make an attempt to understand those little things that make us who we are.

Standing in the road with Stephen G. Pierce

A friend and I traveled just outside of Vernon, it required a little dirt road driving, but we found what we were looking for - the “Washington Church,” also known as the “Hard Labor Church.” The gentleman I needed to see was just across the dirt road in the cemetery. He’s been there for almost 150 years.

His name was Stephen Green Pierce; he lived in the small community of Vernon, Florida, with his wife and children. The best I can tell, Stephen was born in Georgia or the Carolinas in 1818. He married Jane Eliza Lanier in Bulloch County, Georgia in 1848. Stephen was 30, Jane was 18.

Before leaving Georgia, Jane gave birth to their first child, Virginia, in 1849. Around 1850, Stephen and Jane headed southwest to Vernon, Florida. I figure, Stephen looked at his wife and said the same thing my Papa used to say to me, “Let’s go to Vernon.”

A tortoise in the offering plate

The Moss Hill Church is actually in an area that is about three miles southeast of Vernon, Florida. So you might say that it is in a suburb of Vernon, a suburb once known for its Indian population.

The Holmes Valley Methodist Mission was responsible for the church and its actual origination was somewhere between 1821 and 1825. The actual building standing today was built in 1857. The Moss Hill Methodist Church has been refurbished over the years, but still has a rustic feel. It is truly beautiful and a site that is worth going out of your way to see.

The sign out front notes that services are held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month at 2:00 PM. The time of the service seems to corroborate what my Grandmama said about “those Methodists.” She said they like to stay out late on Saturday night and to watch out not to let children take communion because the grape juice they dole out is the “real stuff.”

A Time For Us

Vernon, the little city in Florida, where my Papa (grandfather) took me on many a childhood trip, welcomed me home for the holidays this year. This time, I really “came home” to Vernon. In August, the Vernon City Council made me an “Honorary Citizen” and in November asked me if I would be the Grand Marshal of the 2012 Vernon Christmas Parade.

They didn’t have to ask me twice.

I booked a flight and planned to get there on the Thursday before the parade on the second Saturday of December. I wanted to have enough time to see some more of the sights. Often, I am asked what the sights are. My response is usually, “I’m glad you asked.” For those of you who do not know, Vernon is a small town of around 700 folks in Washington County, Florida and bills itself as the “Heart of the Unspoiled Panhandle.”

Postcards from Vernon (Part 4)

My children stood and stared as I sat down at the table with Ms. Fannie Lou and the other women. I’m sure this house out back of the United Methodist Church in Vernon, Florida, was for these types of events (eating, socials, etc.). When I opened the door and went right in, I knew that.

Sometimes folks think I make up the people I write about. I don’t. People from in and around Vernon, Florida, know that Ms. Fannie Lou is real and is more wonderful than I could ever explain.

Ms. Fannie Lou would probably remind you of someone from your hometown or perhaps a relative, maybe even your grandmother.

Everyone in Vernon and I do mean “Everyone” knows Ms. Fannie Lou. As a matter of fact, folks in Vernon have usually seen her, talked to her or waved at her within the last couple of days.

Postcards from Vernon (Part 3)

After experiencing the heavenly water at Cypress Spring, we headed back into Vernon. It only took a few minutes to get back to the Circle H Service Station. The Circle H has fried chicken, boiled peanuts and good soda waters.

We took turns changing out of our bathing suits in the restroom, the folks there didn’t seem to mind.

My children and I are “cream soda connoisseurs.” The Circle H had a good selection. My son went with a clear cream soda with a nice aroma. The first thing you do when you open a cream soda is smell it. My daughter and I tried a Frostie Blue Cream Soda. We enjoyed it.

Postcards from Vernon (Part 2)

As we slowly made our way up Holmes Creek to the main spring, Scott, the magazine publisher’s husband told me a little more about the spring. He explained that Cypress Spring was actually on private property and the only way to it was by boat. Scott also explained that Nestle, you know the chocolate people, bought the rights or whatever you do with a spring, as far as pumping water out of it.

The Nestle Company pumps so much water out of the spring for their bottled water and seems to not mind folks playing in the water. I understand this. I’m pretty sure that there is something that says the land is private, the water is public and Nestle can only pump so much of it out per day or something.

I know that Nestle has their hands in a lot more than chocolate. They make coffee, tea, ice cream, cereal, baby food, candy, frozen foods, dog foods, energy foods, cosmetics and a lot of bottled water. This is America; I have no problem with that. Nestle is based in Switzerland, again, no problem with that.

Think about the water.

Postcards from Vernon (Part 1)

The following are not my words. They are the words used to describe the film “Vernon, Florida,” by director Errol Morris. This is what it notes about the film on the Wikipedia website.

“Vernon, Florida is a 1981 documentary film produced and directed by Errol Morris profiling various eccentric residents living within the town of Vernon, Florida. Originally titled Nub City, this follow-up to Gates of Heaven was initially focused on residents of the Southern town who cut off their own limbs as a way to collect insurance money. After Morris's life was threatened by the subjects of the film, he re-worked Nub City into Vernon, Florida.”

It makes me sick to read such things. The film basically makes fun of the eccentric folks in and around Vernon, Florida. Show me a town or city without such folks.

You can’t.

Ms. Fannie Lou's Pound Cake & Miracle Eggs

My trip to Vernon, Florida had been incredible. Stopping at the post office, library, cemetery, Dee’s Restaurant and Ms. Fannie Lou’s house had been checked off my list. I'm pretty sure I stood in the same spot my Papa and I stood over 40 years and said, “Here we are.” Papa and I were just referring to being in Vernon, being in a place we wanted to be, being a granddaddy and a grandson on an adventure.

To say my heart was full would be an understatement, however my stomach was growling a little. Ms. Fannie Lou had talked about her chicken and dumplings and her secret pound cake recipe while we were sitting in her sitting room. She had me dreaming about food.