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Or so they say they did at the festival at Homosassa Springs state park, where pioneers tell of living off the land.
By JORGE SANCHEZ
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 19, 2001
HOMOSASSA SPRINGS -- If you were willing to overlook the mosquitoes, heat and lack of roads, Florida was a pretty nice place to call home 60 years ago.
An oral history of the Citrus County gulf coast was presented Saturday at the third annual Old Timers Day at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. The event featured local folklorists and former park workers reminiscing about days gone by.
A small gathering of former park employees heard tales from Dessie Smith Prescott, 95, a Crystal River native, and her friend, Peggy Bolech, 76 of Homosassa. The two, friends for about 50 years, enthralled the audience with their stories.
Among them was Bolech's statement that any worthwhile Floridian could easily live off the land in the old days.
"If you had a fishing pole and a hoe, you'd get by just fine," Bolech said. "I've never heard of anyone starving to death in Florida."
Prescott echoed her sentiments.
"You could right near live off the land with the swamp cabbage, hogs, squirrel and mullet," she said.
Many people are familiar with Prescott as being the mentor of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of Cross Creek, and her husband, Charles. Prescott taught the Rawlingses how to live off the Florida land.
On Saturday, Prescott shared other aspects of her life story, which shows her a Florida pioneer with an indomitable spirit. Prescott was a business owner, Army officer and an avid sportswoman. She owned a hunting lodge, served as a guide and outlived six husbands.
One of her major hunting accomplishments was killing two turkeys with one shot. Prescott and Bolech would act as guides for hunting parties composed mostly of men.
"We'd roost the turkeys the night before and build the blinds for the hunters. And in the morning, we'd hunker down behind the blind and call the turkeys in," Prescott said.
All this for $35 a day, which included lodging and meals.
Former and present park employees shared their memories of the Homosassa Springs state park.
Irene Ivory showed a photo album containing rare photographs of old schools and other historic sites. Ivory was born on an island in the Homosassa River in 1941. A doctor came from Crystal River to assist in the delivery, she said.
One photo showed Ivory posed outside an old school, which had a fence around it. The fence was constructed not to keep the students in but to keep out the cows that wandered freely.
Another picture showed her grandfather, George Shiver, at a long-gone site known as Hell's Gate. It was a dam, probably used to corral and trap mullet, built in the gulf about a mile off the mouth of the river. The famous photo is often duplicated without her permission on T-shirts and logos.
Also on display was a photo by Times photographer Bob Moreland, showing a huge alligator gnawing on a sign that reads "No Swimming." The photo has been used in countless ads and collectibles at the park.
Park ranger and information officer Susan Dougherty, who has worked there since 1978, compiled a history of the park's ownership dating to 1930.
The first recorded owner of the site was the West Coast Development Co., which bought the area around the lagoon and other large land parcels in 1930. The plan to develop Homosassa was stymied by the Great Depression.
In 1937 the park was purchased by C.L. Hinson, who obtained the property by buying the tax deed.
The site changed hands numerous times, until Elmo Reed bought it in 1950 and developed it into an attraction called Nature's Giant Fishbowl.
He sold it to the Norris entertainment company, which renamed it the Homosassa Springs Attraction. The park was then purchased by the county in 1984 and then by the state in 1988.
Among the interesting facts about the park's history was the property value, whose rise would put any of today's tech stocks to shame.
Hinson bought the property for about $150 in 1937, and the state paid $3.8-million for it 50 years later.