Thinking a swim in the gulf will be refreshing, but it's as warm as a bath tub.

Now I like Gulf beaches..they are the last of the non-invaded ones.

Donnah, no fair..you took all the good ones.

Going to the Islamorada Fish Market for the first time (where I first had fried alligator tail, yay!) and watching a guy hold a dead fish by the tail in his teeth and lean out off the pier and let a shark take the fish from his mouth. This struck me as so incredibly stupid on so many different levels (not the least of which was putting a dead fish in your mouth in the first place) that I have never forgotten it.

THE HUGE FLORIDA BUGS!!! *shudders, brushes at skin* And the fact that in Florida, most anybody can and does have roaches. Growing up in Oklahoma, I was raised to believe that only "nasty people" had to worry about roaches, that even poor folks like us didn't have them because we were CLean People who Took Care of Our Houses. It was very hard to come from that to a place where the roaches don't distinguish between Nice and Nasty.

Like Nancy, I remember the first time I waded into the Gulf and being surprised at how warm it was compared to the ocean. Also, being surprised by the apparent lack of real waves.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words...
Here is a novella for you:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e89/csason/Airboat1966.jpg

Use frequently as needed for memory anguish.

Orange fights...
and having a Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission
Wildlife Officer/Radio Operator for a Mama..

You better post my airboat picture..unless that's cheating.

Mango fights. Damn, those things are deadly missiles.

What airboat pic, Owen? E-mail me the link.

Starla, I started to tell a story about something else that begins with the word "palmetto" but I couldn't. *Shudder*

I wonder if in Hawaii they have pineapple fights as kids? Now, *those* would be deadly missiles!

An unwieldy pineapple? Au contraire, a fist-sized hard, huge-pitted Hayden will knock a fleeing enemy off his feet and force the air from his lungs if aimed between his shoulder blades.

FOFE also include nice things.
Everytime I take a trip down US 41 to Everglades City I hope to see the dark clouds to the east hovering like a ceiling over the sawgrass praire that is still reflecting the light from the west.
It happens like clockwork almost everyday at about 3:30 in the summer.
splendid

And, what is prettier than a tanic creek
flowing between overhanging trees.

On a trip back from N.C. the beloved was recounting the qualities of his home state, like nothing can be compared.
At that moment we passed a pasture that still had ancient oaks with boughs that said, "look at me".
:)

A green apple, even a small one, will do the same, and will leave a bruise too.
Still and all though, I'd rather be hit by any kind of produce rather than the missiles some of my cousins got to throwing one day.
We were sent into my uncle's big string bean filed to pick slugs off the plants. We were supposed to drop them in buckets of Clorox. After while somebody, I don't even remember who, threw a slug at somebody else and all hell broke loose. It was hilarious and awful at the same time. Slugs are horrible even to look at, let alone pick up, but getting hit with one is ... yuck!
So throw oranges, throw mangos, throw little green apples at me, but don't come near me witha slug, please.

Sitting *in* an orange tree eating fresh picked oranges. Catching chameleon lizards and watching them change colors while we held them. Chasing blue racer snakes and other slithery critters. Trying to catch baby gators on the edge of the pond, they were always faster. Making a 'boat' out of construction scraps and floating down the creek in the swamp to the gulf. Watching the daily afternoon sunshower and then 15 min later playing in the dry street. Going to Bayou Chico at 6 AM to water ski on glass.

It was a common sight to see a "neegra" families' car going down the road with cane poles hanging out the back window.

precious

Slugs.. were tobacco worms in Georgia..and yes, I never want to do that again.

The absolute best oranges to use depended on the battle. If it was a small local insurgent type
skirmish, like just two or three of us..well the little green ones were perfect for leaving little
damage, but getting the point home.

Now, for those all out holocaust type Full On Orange Wars..which meant there were cousins visiting at home, AND at the neighbor's..
Why, that's when we would break into teams..and have a 'stockpiling and body armor' period.

Some of us had football helmets..others used garbage can lids, cardboard boxes, etc..

I remember stacking pyramids of rancid, bug-riddled grapefruit in preparation for the assault.

Did you like my airboat picture, Donnah ??

Oh yeah..

Looks like FOFE beats the crap out of child rape, according to the comments...

shrimp for breakfast

the car getting stuck in sugar sand

Having all your elementary school arts & crafts projects revolve around the pine cones the teachers sent the kids out to the playground to gather. You knew every year at Thanksgiving you'd be making a pine cone turkey.

We did pine cone art too. Pine cone bird feeders were popular, spread peanut butter all over it and roll it in was it birdseed? Sunflower seeds? Whatever it was, it tasted good to us too. lol We also had pine cone wars, and those things hurt too. Sometimes drew blood.
We had mudball fights too. And one time, my team (me and two boy cousins) found an old electric frying pan in the shed and plugged it in and fried our mudballs. Which made them very hard and made the other team squall beautifully!

ps... I hate(d) sandspurs

Donnah, you just about win with the pine cone submission.. sheesh..I remember goin and getting
those things, and my wife reminded me of the Christmas tree pine cones..with glitter.

That one and Gmac's skiing on glass..

Since Gmac got away with chasing various reptiles for his first two or three, I have to say that
gator hunting in Lake Hancock would have to be one of mine...and crossing Fish Eating Creek in my Uncle's Bronco- on our way to fetch swamp cabbage
for supper...for real.
We used to camp there, and have huge fish fries
with other camping/fishing folks.

She's cute. Flashback to the 70s!

Wow.. I just went to check out Eau Gallie (because of some old FOFE I was thinking of..

Eau Gallie is gone.

Love it :)
Makes me happy just looking at it.
I got to smile too.

The guy that drove that boat was a FOVE (full on Vietnam Exp) person..He was one of the first to go and come back. We had go-carts, they were pretty much homemade, but his sons came over and would ride them. So when it came time to do some
real back woods stuff he took me and my brother and a duffle full of C-rations to the woods.

It was fair trade.

We had to huddle down at the foot of the seat stand and under the cowling.

The best part was Ed Zager had grenades..REAL ones. So I got to throw a real grenade when I was about this size.

Running to the beach at night to try to avoid being mosquito bait in order to watch a rocket blow up over the ocean!
Wearing your winter coat when it hits 55 degrees.

I can still hear the hiss of the ski as I cut across the water. I've got a b&w somewhere of that but its been years since I saw it. That was always my favorite FOFE.

Waiting till the eye of Hurricane Donna was directly
over the house, and getting to go outside for five minutes...then waiting for 35 years to do it again.

good one

noticing the direction a tree is tilted and remembering which hurricane made it so.

*&%$ing sandspurs.

Wait...what was so wrong with running behind the truck of DDT spray? I did it several time each summer-I lived near the 'glades-and it hasn't affected me. Well, I don't think so. Oh look, a squirrel! Now what was I saying?

Swimming with the gators in Lake Okeechobee. Always fun. And swimming with the gators and snakes in the canals that led away from the Lake. Memorable. Still have nightmares about being stuck on a airboat in the Glades that stopped working. And having to walk out of there for several miles in the late afternoon...and not being able to see anything for miles around and not being able to see anything under the water. Good times.