We take them for granted. They have been around for more than 5,000 years. Depending on your perspective, they gave civilization leisure or simply more time to work. Days were no longer sun-up to sun-down. The earliest candles, fire on a stick, allowed exploration and dispelled fear of the dark. Used nearly universally in religious…
Well, y’all, it’s November in Florida, and the air’s cooled off just enough to make you ditch the AC for a screen door breeze. The palm trees are swayin’ like they’re hummin’ a Jimmy Buffett tune, and the mosquitoes are still plannin’ their attack. Down here where the peninsula dangles like a mullet haircut, we’re…
I just couldn’t send the paper to print this month without speaking of the American Tragedy that occurred on September 10th, 2025. Mr. Charles James Kirk (Charlie) was assassinated for sharing his voice. Today as I write this, only one week has passed since they took this great man from our country. I have cried…
P.J. Braley retired and turned her lifelong attention to detail to creating a new world. Circumstances brought her back to her home state with thoughts in her head and the time to do something about them. Citrus Writers was fortunate to catch her unaware and capitalize on her organizational skills, imagination, and drive. As president,…
Well now, listen here. October in Florida is like a good, old-fashioned ghost story told by your great-aunt. You know it’s not entirely true, but it’s got just enough spooky charm to make you shiver. Down here, the calendar says it’s autumn, but the sky’s still sweating like a sinner in church. The sun just…
September in Florida is a heat-hazed handshake with football season, where the air is thick enough to fry a flounder. Now, folks, this is just as likely to spark a good old argument about who owns the fall. Somehow, we all end up on the same porch, sipping sweet tea and cheering on Saturdays together….
Y’all ever notice that summer in Florida ain’t just a season? It’s a test of endurance. When the thermometer hits 90 before breakfast and the humidity wraps around you like a wet towel that’s been used to mop the floors of Hell, you realize Florida summer is less about the weather and more about how…
Have you ever curled up in the bed of your truck with a blanket, a cooler of snacks, warm, red wine, and settled back to fall asleep before the meteor shower? I have. Then there was the year I camped out on the back porch in a sleeping bag. Nope. Another year I was rained…
Over the weekend I went to visit the place where I grew up in Tampa, the Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park. I have visited this place many times since moving away when I was 13, but I have never had the nerve to get out of the car. I guess I have always been too…
A Ministry of Red Level Baptist Church Unless you were raised in Florida on one of the properties that raise cattle and make up nearly half of all the agricultural land in the state, you probably don’t know that cattle were first introduced to North America in the 1500s by Ponce De Leon. Settlers quickly…
