Florida Stories: Real Life Experiences & Adventures in the Sunshine State | Travel Inspiration & Local Culture

If you are a curious person Florida is one helluva a curiosity shop and the author of thisbook, Ronald W. Kenyon, will happily show you its wares. Not a tourist trap, Floridians,Real Stories from the Sunshine State, is a breezy, easy to read yet intelligent, historicallyaccurate and informative, and witty look at the state, its institutions, and inhabitants pastand present. And if variety whets curiosity then Florida, as one of the nation’s mostpopulous and rapidly growing states, is on the way to becoming a virtual warehouse of thestrange, funny, tragic, and even inspiring. The variety of species here is not only ofplants, birds, and reptiles, but also of humans.It can be argued that the United States is historically made up of three distinct groups: theindigenous, the enslaved, and the immigrant. The indigenous were mostly overcome,overlooked and forgotten. The enslaved, after emancipation, were largely left to fend forthemselves. The immigrant, leaving or fleeing from places of fear, famine or persecution,found a land both hospitable and hostile, filled with endless opportunities and fearsomechallenges. For all these groups’ survival and success resourcefulness has been all.Kenyon profiles this resourcefulness in a number of Floridians he has either met inperson or whose history he has found and researched, and in them he provides his readerwith the flavor and taste of this unique state. There is a “half breed” Seminole womanwho despite being an outcast in the community in which she was forced to live eventuallybecame a tribal councilwoman and an author whose writings brought to life the historyand legends of her people. A native people who, by the way, now not only own a stringof gambling casinos, but also the Hard Rock Café international chain of venues. Thenthere are the African American laborers who formed a school of artists,The Highwaymen,who began by selling their paintings of Florida scenes literally from the trunks of their carsalong the state’s highways and roads to locals and travelers, and lastly to govenors andpresidents. Their works now hang in the governor’s house in Tallahassee and in the WhiteHouse in Washington, D.C. Next is the Guatemalan housemaid who left her nativecountry wearing only one shoe. A Christian Arab who runs a very successful and homeyFlorida style BBQ restaurant. From the historical and political sphere Florida’s first twoJewish senators, whose Sephardic families first emigrated from the North Africca and Spain,and made it to Florida by way of the Virgin Islands (shades of Hamilton here), and endedup both serving the Confederacy and later surviving its fall.Of course any book about Florida must have its scoundrels (someone has to make a livingselling swamp!), and their representatives find their way here.Ronald Kenyon is a very curious man. He has returned to the Florida he regularly visitedand grew to love while his parents vacationed here looking for a place to retire from theirnative Kentucky. The Everglades not being enough he worked for the government as acongressional aide in that other swamp we all know about. Restlessness and, againcuriosity, took him to live as an American expatiate in Europe and the Middle East. Hehas recounted his travels and findings there in other fascinating books including Statuesof Liberty: Real Stores from France, On the Trail in France, and A Winter in the Middleof Two Seas: Real Stories from Bahrain.There are a lot of stories to be told in this world, and if you let him, he will tell you quitea few. Enjoy!