More Tellable Cracker Tales

“The matriarch of Florida storytelling ought to be a woman who has had a hand in the organization of storytelling within the state, as in being one of the founders of the Florida Storytellers Association. She should be a campaigner, showing everyone that storytelling isn’t just for teachers and children but for everyone, that the art is more than just entertainment and fun; it’s a way to pass on our culture from generation to generation. She should be performing for audiences large and small all over the state. She should be an author, collecting and making available for publication fresh, new material. And, most of all, she should be a good listener. I know Annette Bruce to be all these things.” —Bob Patterson, artistic director, Gamble Rogers Folk Festival

“The grand dame of Florida storytelling has done it again. More Tellable Cracker Tales promises to be another milestone in the cannon of Florida Cracker culture. A true Southern lady who is at once as sweet as a citrus grove in bloom and as feisty as a fire ant, Annette Bruce, through her stories, speaks of a Florida that needs to be remembered—a Florida filled with humor, grit, and graciousness.” —David Matlack, founder and director, 1998–1999 Ocala Storytelling Festival

Drawn from Florida history, folklore, and fiction, this collection of stories tailor-made for telling will entertain, inspire, and astound readers and listeners of all ages.

Dell, crippled since birth, begs his father to let him nurse a broken-legged colt back to health. Against his better judgment, his father agrees. Soon Dell is no longer the little crippled boy whom people pity but the proud owner of Whirlwind, the fastest and finest horse in all of Marion County.

Cracker Jack is up to his old tricks: putting one over on his Yankee schoolteacher; confounding a census taker; and convincing a befuddled farmer that it’s not Saturday but Sunday (and if the preacher finds him working on a Sunday, well, there’ll be you-know-what to pay!).

Sheriff “Pogy” Bill Collins used to be the worst lawbreaker in Okeechobee City. Then he promised Judge Hancock that he’d walk the straight and narrow in return for his release from jail. Pogy Bill kept his promise to the judge . . . and then some.

During the Depression, Roy asks Bill, who’s looking for work on Roy’s farm, what he can do. “I can sleep through a storm,” Bill replies. It seems like an odd answer at the time, but eventually Roy wills his entire farm to Bill.

In a place called Dogbone, it’s really not that unusual to see a glow-in-the-dark man running naked after a driverless truck with two barking dogs in pursuit. It even made Ed Grady an honest-to-goodness churchgoer.