|
Written by Administrator
|
|
Sunday, 24 August 2008 18:01 |
 Vortex Springs
(Part one)
When I was young, I got to spend a special day with my Uncle Glen. As best I remember, Uncle Glen was going to try and purchase Vortex Springs. The Springs are located in Ponce De Leon Springs, Florida and is a popular attraction for scuba divers and such. Diving there is sometimes deadly.
E. W. Carswell's book "Homesteading" has the following passage about Vortex and Morrison Springs:
" Vortex Springs three or four miles north of town, and Morrison Springs just inside Walton County to the south, have proved to be deadly for some divers. Twenty deaths had been reported by 1982 in Vortex and 25 in Morrison.
The divers usually suffocate or drown after they become disoriented or exhaust their air supply in the alluring limestone caverns formed by the springs. most of the deaths have been attributed to the diver's own mistakes or misjudgments, with improper training often being a contributing factor.
The Vortex and Morrison springs and caverns, however, attract scores of diving classes from around the nation and numerous divers who have diving courses. For Safety's sake, the lower and largest of the Morrison springs caves has been closed, and a steel plate has been placed across the corridor of Vortex to permanently close the deeper section of that cave to divers. "
Uncle Glen was working on this new plan for wealth when he stopped by to discuss it with Mom. Before he left, he asked Mom if I could go with him. He said I could be his secretary that day. Asked what I thought about the idea, I said “Heck yeah!”. Was he kidding? Not even a real teenager yet and I was already going to be an executive assistant!
For those that didn’t know my Uncle Glen, he had a grand way about him. It was a Riddle way for sure. I don't know exactly how to describe it. Maybe charisma, he surely had that. He also projected a self-confidence that almost bordered on aristocracy. But, it was the way he dreamed and schemed that appealed to me most. He dreamed very large, had he only found the means to fund all of his ideas there is no telling how successful he might have become at an early age. He is one of those people oft referred to as "ahead of his times."
So when Glen asked if I could go with him, of course I was more than eager. I knew there was a definite possibility of some sort of adventure happening! This was always true if you hung around Glen long enough. Mom was a little hesitant, but outflanked by my begging an Uncle Glen’s persuasiveness; it wasn't long before she told me to go ahead. "You boy’s have a good time" she said. It was a phrase she used a lot.
So we were off! Uncle Glen driving, and me looking very serious with my new yellow legal pad and a pen from Uncle Glen's shirt pocket. I was official looking, that's for sure. As we drove down the highway, Glen would tell me what all he planned to do to the springs once he acquired them.
Every once in awhile he would look really serious and say "Now, write this down" and he would dictate a little and then he would tell me why he wanted me to record it. I was feeling pretty important by this time, but soon found out dictation is no easy task! Especially, if you are a pre teen with the handwriting skills of an under achieving 5th or 6th grader. This handicap, plus fact that my Uncle Glen could say a whole lot in a short amount of time! Well, you begin to get the picture.
Try as I might, I couldn't keep up. Every once in a while Glen would say "Now, read that back to me." I couldn't read all I had hastily written, it was just a lot of disjointed fragments. Fortunately, I had a pretty good memory.
So what I could do was reconstruct the gist of what he was saying. Sometimes he would catch me ad libbing. Uncle Glen would give me that look. His head tilted back looking at me down his nose, one eye squinted shut a little more than the other with piercing steady eyes. Then he would break out in a laugh or a grin and say “Well now, I don‘t believe that‘s entirely accurate” and I would be directed to make the needed corrections to the record. He would make a light hearted attempt to explain to me the seriousness of business and how I needed to be more attentive, but it was no use. I just wasn't steno material. Uncle Glen was amusing though. It was though he was on stage the whole time. He was very animated.
Our trip seemed to mostly consist of stopping at what seemed to me, every house and store between Pensacola and Ponce De Leon. At each new stop, he would tell me of his relationship to the residents. More often than not, they were kin to us in some way. Glen would be amused that I did not know any of them. “What? Son, you don’t even know your relatives? A man ought to know who his kin are. " he said. So from then on after we left a place, Glen would give me a thorough history of who the strangers were. He explained the Sheriff of Holmes county was a also a relative and things like that could be important in the right circumstances.
By the time we reached Vortex Springs, I was certain of two things. Glen knew most everybody that lived in Walton and Holmes County and, in some degree or another we were related to most of them .
(to be continued) |
|
Last Updated on Sunday, 24 August 2008 18:10 |
Copyright © 2012 rpnewspaper.com. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
The Perfect Job
Perfect Job! Fantastic pay! Free housing!Tax breaks, Travel!
www.rntoday.com
Articles
|
Quick Note here. We are back up and running. I will try to update the site and put some new things on here. If you did not know, we were hacked. Just the price |
|
(NAPSI)-Postmenopausal breast cancer patients treated with five years of tamoxifen immediately following surgery may reduce their risk of their cancer |
|
A video tutorial for how to submit articles to the newspaper. This is for you family members who need to know exactly how to submit an article. I will take it |
|
I decided I better give everyone a status of what I know for hurricane damage. My sister Judy lives in Kentucky – and she might as well can Cincinnati since |
|
I really believe this lady will be John McCain's Running mate. Links for information on Gov. Sara Palin Gov. Of Alaska. Wikipedia, State Page. Really bold |
|
Hey there Terry, I guess I forgot to tell you about the circumstances involved with the Eurasian Wild Boar which is pictured here.I had purchased him last year |
|