Carol McClain

The Real Swamp Monkeys of Nassau County

     The Florida of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings still exists. In the little hamlets of northeastern Florida only a few miles from the famed Okefenokee lay dirt roads leading to dirt roads wending their way through tupelo plantations, long pine and palmetto.
     It’s here my niece and her family make their home. And here these “swamp monkeys” (so dubbed from my previous posts) live much like Jody and Penny and Ma of Rawlings famed book The Yearling.
     Every morning Kaitlin rises, grooms Joules, her pony, and rides her. And should Kaitlin be thrown from the horse, she climbs back up and keeps on going. Will and Zach lead me down the dirt roads where we scare up deer and armadillos, see no snakes or alligators even though they live around here.
     And two-year-old Callen? He comes along whenever he can.

This is me. I’m NOT one of the Swamp Monkeys

     What a world of “forts” off overgrown paths–isolated homes of neighbors who know their neighbors–of ponds of crystal water and the whitest sand where one can swim or fish or hunt.
     Of course these swamp monkeys love video games–Zach delighted in completing too many levels of my “Angry Birds.” They enjoy TV, love to cuddle. But they still relish the lost culture of the outdoors–of reveling in the glory created, not by man, but by God.
     It’s a delightful wilderness filled with lakes and fresh air and adventures. Both fortunately and unfortunately a part of Florida no tourist sees.