Outdoors

Free magazine offers peek at our great state

By TERRY TOMALIN
Published February 27, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - With prices always going up, it's good to find a bargain. Even better, it's great to find something that's free.

Recently, I stumbled across a copy of Forum, a magazine published by the Florida Humanities Council. I must admit, most of the magazines to which I subscribe have big fish or waves on the cover. This slick, 36-page publication had a haunting photograph of the Santa Fe River out front, making me want to learn more.

The theme of the winter issue (Forum is published quarterly) is Florida's rivers. Inside were stories by some of the state's best nature and scholastic writers.

"We try to help Floridians learn more about their state," said Janine Farver, interim director of the Humanities Council headquartered in St. Petersburg. "Every issue focuses on a different subject ... history, culture or nature."

The lead story, Noble Waters, by nature writer Bill Belleville with photographs by Jeff Ripple, points out, "We have more than 50,000 non-linear miles of rivers in Florida, which are more or less divided into 1,400 named bodies of flowing water."

Belleville has paddled the entire 280 miles of the St. Johns River, an adventure recalled with much detail in his 2001 book River of Lakes.

"Rivers have a mystic quality to them," Belleville wrote, "a way of helping us remember something we thought we had forgotten."

The same issue of Forum includes a wonderful account of one man's passion for fishing where a river meets the sea.

I've surfed Sebastian Inlet but never bothered to look upstream. University of South Florida professor Mark Jerome Walters' account of his father's love for the spot where the Indian River empties into the Atlantic Ocean is a must read.

The following is an excerpt from Creation Unfolding:

"May the moon forever shine and the stars forever fall above Sebastian. May the waters flow for children to fish where manta rays move mystical light and sea cows float like giant sausages in sea grass. May my children know what I remember of what my father remembered, and his father before him. Then, may a great storm close Sebastian Inlet's mouth for good. Make it shut its trap forever. Make it stop calling to me."

I felt the same way after reading Thomas Hallock's story about the Hillsborough River.

As a student at USF's Tampa campus from 1980 to 1983, I had no money. My roommate, Dave Sumpter, and I lived off of grits and eggs for years, and our only entertainment (besides taking tours of the Schlitz Brewery) was paddling the Hillsborough in my 17-foot aluminum canoe.

Reading about my first Florida river, I started to get a little nostalgic about those good ol' days when I'd get excited about something as simple as catching panfish on popping corks on a summer afternoon.

So Forum, thanks for helping me remember that life's greatest treasures are always free.

For more information of the Florida Humanities Council, call 727 553-3800 or go to www.flahum.org

[Last modified February 27, 2005, 00:13:19]