A Land Remembered

A large crowd of writers and environmentally concerned attendees heard speaker Rick Smith talk about his father, Patrick Smith, and the many historical books he wrote about Florida. The most famous is A Land Remembered, but it was his fist Florida book, Forever Island, which garnered a Pulitzer nomination. Angel City, about the plight of migrant workers, resulted in demands for reform for these oppressed employees. He passed away in January 2014.

Rick and his wife are from Cambria, California. Using videos of his father’s actual presentations over the years, Rick Smith created a multimedia program with “Florida sounds.”

Some of the stories told by Rick Smith originated from his father and some were actually presented by Patrick Smith through accompanying videos, a unique method of lecturing. According to Patrick Smith, “All good writing comes from a sense of place.”

When Forever Island was published, the Soviet Writers’ Union invited him to the Soviet Union. Smith also told about how a hippie somehow helped him break his writer’s block, arriving in his office with a story of a pond drying up and fish flopping around in the mud. A cottonmouth came began carrying fish one-by-one to another, deeper pond setting them free. Smith was sure that the hippie had actually seen this, and the tale inspired him to begin telling his environmental astute stories.

For Angel City, Smith went to a Goodwill store, bought an old outfit, and passed himself off as a migrant worker. He said he almost quit that research because of the pure physical torture of such a life. “No one can imagine what life is like for a migrant worker unless they live it.” The book led to editorials demanding that this tragic abuse of workers end. As a result, laws were passed to protect migrant workers.

Smith said that his father’s most famous book, A Land Remembered, required more than two years of research. Smith researched the Battle of Olustee, the birth of the cattle and citrus industry, the great freeze of 1895, the land boom in Miami in 1920s,  the 1926 hurricane, and the 1928 hurricane that drowned more than 2000 people in Okeechobee in 2 hours. What he wanted to know was, how did this affect people, how did they survive, why did they come to Florida in the first place? “What were their hopes, their dreams, … the sort of thing you cannot find in a history book.”

His book was so realistic he says people often called and thanked him for writing about their families. But what he wrote was a composite of all the families he had learned about. Over the years, many schools have used the book, now considered a classic of Florida literature. Patrick Smith was definitely ahead of his time.  As one of his characters said, “Progress ain’t reversible.”

Rick Smith refers to his style of presentation as “visual storytelling.”  From the enthusiasm of the crowd gathered at the WAG special event, it appears this style was a tremendous hit.

In his presentation, Smith defined where the term Florida cracker originated. It came from the cracking sound of whips used by Florida cowboys when they herded cattle. It was also used as a method of communication — crackers could let other cowboys know where they were or whether there was danger by the number of cracks. (If you do it just right, the tip of the whip exceeds the speed of sound.)

WAG’s own Art Crummer opened with some Florida folk songs. And thank you to our  program coordinator, Carol Ray Skipper, for setting up this great presentation. Also, a thank you to the Unitarian Universalist church for the use of their beautiful facility.