FOR THE LOVE OF COUNTRY

            GT'S SUMMER NEIGHBORHOOD         NEWSLETTER, 2026

Ian and I, parading after 9-11

    The heat is on for our country's 250th. When it reaches it's apex on July 4th, I will be quietly engaging in La Selva Beach's sand-castle  competition. These days, that's all the  patriotic spirit that I can muster. 

    It's hard to celebrate a country that's being torn apart. The United States is not so lovable now.

 

     How can you love a country led by a racist, deranged tyrant?  One that starts stupid wars? One with terrorizing ICE agents? A country that takes healthcare away from its citizens and makes it harder for them to vote?

     We all want to love our country again. To do so we will have to get rid of the current president along with the congressmen and government officials who suck up to him.

 

 

      The Big 250 comes up in two weeks.     Once again Gainesville will celebrate with fireworks on the wrong day, July 3d.  I am told this is so we can go to surrounding towns to celebrate on the real day. This makes no sense but neither does the current direction our country.              

  Hopefully the aging USA will head in a better direction after we vote this fall. Wouldn't it be grand if we could feel proud of our country once more?

 

A MUCH BETTER PRESIDENT

   The country would be much better off if Lars Anderson was our president. That occurred to us when the popular river guide came to the Limestone Stage last month to tell us what it was like growing up in our neighborhood decades ago. 

  

cover photo by John Moran

 Lars spent much of his youth exploring Paines Prairie.  A few years ago he wrote a book about it.  

 

 

 

 While he's happy enough leading us on river trips I also know he'd be a big improvement over the Orange Menace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wouldn't it be great to have someone like Lars sitting in the Oval Office.

IF WALMART HAS A GREETER SO CAN WE 

      Rattlesnake Woods is the secret place in the NW corner of Florida Park. Everyone who goes there is surrounded by nature at the confluence of two creeks. Last week, it even got its own greeter.

 

 

 

   AND YOU THOUGHT THE LINES IN CUBA WERE LONG...

Last year we spent ten marvelous days touring Cuba.  Lines for nine dollar-a-gallon gas were four blocks long. 

Last Wednesday I stopped by Trinity Methodist Church to play softball. They were giving away food to hungry people. The line was eight blocks long. 

MIAMI VISIT

 

We dropped down to Miami last weekend to help celebrate our granddaughter's fourth birthday. I knew where I was when -stuck in traffic- I noticed a Rolls Royce SUV in front of me. I later learned that it cost over $500,000. There's too much money down there.

   On a happier note we walked by a coral rock wall I built 50 years ago.

 

 ARCHITECTURAL

FUNERAL 

On a less happy note, across the street the former pride of Coconut Grove, the historic Coconut Grove Playhouse, was draped in black plastic, Cristo-style.

Miami politics continues to be so screwed up the leaders have been unable to figure out what to do with the government-owned site since the theater closed 20 years ago. 

To me it symbolizes one of the many reasons I left. 

 A couple of years from now it'll be another zillion-dollar condo, a good place to park a Rolls or two.

 

NO MOWING NEEDED

A neighbor invited me to tour his yard today. It looks like a wine wonderland as grapevines -resembling camouflage netting- covered the front and back yards. 

 

  

paw paw

Fruit trees sagging with pomelos, paw paws, and persimmons pop up here and there.  

   Bees buzz in their boxes and catfish fill the swimming pool. 

   

 

 

Like everything else, its covered with grape vines!

 

 

 The big feature is a nine-level tree house built around a  35-foot oak tree. The wooden steps were still slippery this morning so I only climbed up part way.  

   What fun it is to discover another wild corner of our unique North Florida city.

 

LET'S LIGHT UP THE NIGHT!

     You know Florida Park has a marvelous little Halloween Parade. 

 

   We're going to start another one, a "lantern parade", this fall. We'll fill up the night with volumes of light!

    We had our first workshop two weeks ago to learn how to make them. If you'd like to create your own -and be in our parade- let me know and you can come to the next lantern-making gathering in August.

   Here are photos of some we've already made. 

 

 

IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?

  Six weeks ago I saw some fool had dumped a 150-pound tractor tire into Hogtown Creek.  I alerted the neighbors and asked, "How're we gonna get rid of that sucker?".

   The next morning we found it standing in our front yard flower bed. Someone had added "86 47" to one side and the other, "Tired of Trump?".  Tired of it myself, I called the city -and a few neighbors- for suggestions.  

    A half-hour later it was gone.

 

NEW BLOOD FOR THE FLYING PIG

Mariah, Emily, Perrin, Caitlin, and the former Head Hog of the Flying Pig Parade

   A new group of neighbors is producing our next Flying Pig Parade. Co-producing will be Emily Robbins, Mariah Doran, Perrin Sullivan, and Caitlin Butler.

     I'll stick around a bit to help as needed.

We at Parade Central love pigs.  The are very intelligent and have strong personalities.

In a related note, Congress is trying to pass a farm bill this year that will make it legal to keep pregnant sows in cages so small they can not turn around. This blatant act of animal cruelty will allow the pork industry to make more money by making bacon cheaper. 

    The moral costs in incalculable. Pigs are animals not factory machines.

     This could lead to my rant about AI (a CEO was recently quoted as saying, "Of course we're replacing people with robots. They don't take bathroom breaks, complain, or unionize") but I'll save that for another time. We've got a 250 year-old country to consider.

     Each of us can figure out what that means and devise ways to heal a divided country.  Have a meaningful Fourth of July.

        _____________________________