As a kid, we spent a lot of the summers at a small cabin on the edge of the Ocala National Forest in Florida. There was another kid that would spend the summers there at a cabin near ours. One of the things I used to love
to do there was when his Grandfather would take us
deep into the woods of the Ocala National Forest in his jeep. I have
no idea what his first name is. We always called him Mr. Handcock.
He
would throw in a freshly picked watermelon and some drinks and off we
would go. Before most trips, he usually had some rock candy to give
us. I have no idea what that stuff really was. It looked like clear,
rock crystals, and felt about the same. I think only kids can, or
would want to, eat it. Like the name says, it is as hard as a rock
and tastes sweet. You had to have very good, or replaceable, teeth to
eat the stuff. As I recall, it was rather tough on the roof of your
mouth too. But we loved the stuff and it was always a treat to get
some prior to one of our excursions.
The
excursions usually started out with Mr. Handcock driving slowly on
the side of the main road. The jeep had a soft top over the front
seat and kind of a mini pick up truck bed behind that. The three of
us kids would stand in the back and scour the side of the road for
returnable bottles that people threw out of their cars. Whenever we
saw a bottle, we would tap on the roof and he would stop while one of
us jumped out and picked up the bottle.
We
would do this until he got to where he would pull off the main road
and head back into the woods on sandy trails. The trails led back
into the Ocala National Forest. I have no idea what part of the
forest we where in but we would always see herds of deer. We would
ride standing up, dodging overhanging limbs and moss, and keeping a
keen eye in the woods for wild life. When we saw the deer, we would
tap lightly on the roof of the jeep and Mr. Handcock would stop. We
would watch them until they sauntered away. Sometimes we could get
pretty close before they took off.
One
time we came upon a closed gate and all three of us kids got out to
open it so the jeep could pass through. What we didn’t notice was
the big bee nest on the hinged side of the gate. We heard the creak
of the gate and slight popping sound, followed by an increasingly
louder, and angry sounding buzz. I was ready to high tail it to the
next county when I heard Mr. Handcock say “Every body freeze,
Nobody move”.
Against
my better judgment, and
fighting the urge to run until my little legs could carry me to the
next county, or possible the next country, I
stood shock still for what seemed like an eternity while angry bees
filled the air. Somehow we managed to get out of there without a
single sting. We decided to go down a different trail that day.
After
we had been out searching for the wild life awhile we would always
stop and take a little break. We would slice up the watermelon into
big, equal slices. Then we would sit around munching the juicy fruit,
taking in the warm air, enjoying the blue sky overhead, listening to
the quiet of the forest, wiping our mouths on our sleeves and
spitting seeds at each other.
During
one of these breaks a large group of wild boar came out of the woods
into the open field we were sitting in. There must have been about 20
or 30 of them. Now, I don’t know that much about boar, then or now,
except they are very ugly and scary looking with those big tusks.
They started moving towards us. Mr. Handcock saw we were getting a
little nervous and said. “Don’t worry boys, they are as afraid of
you as you are of them.”
I
wasn’t so sure. They continued to get closer. I knew I was close
enough already. I suddenly remembered a scene from a movie (Called
“Daktari!”, I think. One of the few movies I had ever seen on the
big screen at the time). In the movie a rhinoceros attacked a jeep
and stuck his horn clean through the door and the leg of the driver.
Ouch. To me those boars horns appeared to be getting bigger as they
got closer.
I
remembered Mr. Handcock had been right about the bees, but, hey, no
point in pushing his knowledge much further. I climbed into the back
of the jeep. Followed shortly thereafter by the other two boys. Most
of the boar kept their distance, about thirty yards away or so. But a
few really nosy ones surrounded the jeep and snorted around. We
watched them for awhile, nervously in my case, and then Mr, Handcock
started the jeep and slowly went on our way.
On
the way back from these excursions, we would stop by the local
general store. At that time, it consisted of a small, one room shack
with a wooden floor, one chest type cooler, two shelves of junk food,
some fishing and hunting stuff hanging on the walls, and two gas
pumps outside. The driveway was soft white sand. It was heaven.
We
would turn in the bottles we picked up and trade them for candy or
pop, depending on how many bottles we found.
I
would usually get a “Chocola”, a rather watery chocolate drink
that I can’t stand today. I don’t even know if it is still being
made. These days, I am more like; “Give me Pepsi or give me death!”
Other favorites of the time were chocolate moon pies (no banana ones,
please!), and those little wax bottles with some kind of drink in
them.
If
I remember right, if you had a lot of money, maybe ten or fifteen
cents, you could buy a small carton of six wax bottles. The whole
carton would fit in the palm of your hand and there was no way there
was enough drink in those silly things to satisfy an ant. But I loved
biting into the wax and having the fluid squirt down my throat. I
would then chew the wax until it self destructed in my mouth and
became nothing more than a thousand minute wax dust particles in my
mouth. Mmmmm!
It’s
amazing what kids will eat. Remember Fizzies, Pixie sticks, and
Fireballs? Oh! And vanilla taffy! I loved that stuff. It’s a wonder
I still have teeth!
Any
way, in later years, that one room shack of a general store would
grow to have four gas pumps, a wall of coolers, several pop machines,
and yes, even rent videos. We used to call it Counts, after the guy
that owned it, I guess.
