We’ve been down here vacationing at Tara for almost a week now, today is our last full day. Lee has had it in his heart to return to his truly southern roots and warm water.
When I tell y’all that his family is OLD Flow – ida, I’m not exaggerating. His Great grand father or maybe it was his great great? Anyways he came with his people from South Carolina, they were of Scottish decent.
When the Civil War broke out they got to steppin’, they didn’t want any part of that war and instead decided that digging their way through the unruly and wild – soon to be state of Florida was worth the adventure. The other side of his Daddy’s family came from Majorca Spain – Flow-ida was settled by the Spanish and the city of St. Augustine was the first town in Flow-ida the year was 1565, long before the English settled Roanoke, VA.
Lee’s distant people came here during this time period. His momma’s people found their way to Flow-ida years on, they were German in descent, originally settling in Alabama.
So you see his people are pioneers of the great state of sunshine, his father followed along in his ancestor’s line of construction and development building most of the roads and structure from some of the major highways to Sea World! Driving around Flow-ida with Lee is walking again in two worlds – one mixed with stories of the past and strip malls of the present. My mind wanders between these realms seeing what was and wondering why the humans have decided to cover every empty space with character less and style less housing developments and strip malls?
Lee loves to surf, and particularly in warm water. We’ve had thoughts for the past year to move down here; last fall we investigated southern Flow-ida from Miami up. On this trip our house hunting took us to St. Augustine, a town of eccentrics and mystical folks as it’s claim for being the most haunted town in the United States draws an interesting crowd of humans.
Lee likes this town for its history; you see it’s not so hard to see time. In St. Augustine. The streets are cobblestone and many of the homes are well over 100 years old, in fact 100 years is young in this town. There are still structures from the 1500’s! Lee hooked us up with a FABULOUS real estate person her name is FLO FRANLKIN, and she is from Georgia originally. When we met she wowed me with her FABULOUS southern way of speaking, introducing herself and adding on “I am from the Deep South.” I giggled with glee ‘cause fo’sho I knew I was in for an interesting house hunting day.
The first house we looked at sits right in the center of town, built in the 1800’s one just knew that inside it’s colorful exterior and Victorian style that a story was waiting to be read. The house has 7 bedrooms and 5 or 6 bathrooms, two kitchens. The walls were covered with beautiful wood paneling as it was done so long ago and done right along with wood floors to match, crown moldings, fireplaces and old lead glass windows filled most of the space.
Talk about walking in two worlds, the world of Lee’s great grand’s was alive and well here in this house, holding tight.
As I walked through the house I immediately felt as if I was greeted by a strong up right standing man. A thought whispered through my mind, this thought carried with it the sound of a male voice from this long ago time “Too many people have lived in my house, and you will not be one of them.” I found myself answering back “No I won’t, however I am gonna take a look.” 
The roaming of these halls was on, the girls immediately decided that the house had ghosts and were on a mission to see one. I climbed the beautiful stair case to arrive in a master bedroom, as we entered the room a “whoosh” moved through us all – with out saying anything Bella looked at me and said “WOW Momma this room is weird feeling.” She was right, that room that felt more crowded than the 7-11 on the corner, regardless of the fact that it was bare of even furniture. When I say this house was rambling it was and is. Back in it’s hey day the carriage house (now converted garage) was located towards the back, folks would arrive and then climb the stairs to the ballroom where there was also an orchestra room. The Orchestra room is now an apartment and the ballroom another apartment. As I stood in the back of the house in one of the rooms I had an over whelming thought “Dang, this house has has fo’sho had way too many people living in it!”
TO BE CONTINUED..
