by Patrick D. Smith, , author of A Land Remembered

What is a Florida Cracker? Well, it’s difficult to say, because the term “Cracker” conjures up different images for different people. But when you get to know a Cracker - that is, IF you get to know a Cracker - you just might say, “They’re my kind of folks.” And maybe not. As the old saying goes, “Different strokes for different folks.”

Some people know how the term “Cracker” originated, and some don’t. It came from the cracking sound of the rawhide whips used by pioneer cattlemen. Thus the original Crackers were men who herded cows. The sound of the whips could be heard for miles, so the whips were also used for communication purposes. One crack meant come to dinner, two cracks something else, and so on. It was pioneer Florida’s first wireless telegraph system.

The whips were lethal, capable of popping the head off a rattlesnake at ten paces. During hard times, when gun powder and bullets were in short supply, men used the whips to kill small animals for food. [To be perfectly proper, the term is a “cow whip.”]

Today, when the term “Florida Cracker” is applied to someone, it usually means that the person is native born. But to me, it goes far beyond that. In my book [A Land Remembered], not all “Crackers” are really “Crackers.”

In doing research for Florida novels and traveling on the literary lecture circuit, I have often been knee-deep in Crackers of all kinds - both those who drive pickup trucks and those who drive BMW’s. I personally prefer the pickup truck variety, although I have many dear friends who have joined the latter group.

What really makes a person a true Florida Cracker (besides being born in the state)? Several things: A love of the land and nature, growing things in soil, close family ties, and a deep sense of religion. It also means cracklin’ bread and grits and periwinkle soup and swamp cabbage and okra gumbo and ham hocks with collard greens and chicken fried in a cast iron skillet and guava jelly and homemade blackberry cobbler.

A Cracker’s word is his bond. If he looks you in the eye and says, “Yes, I will do this for you,” then he will - and that’s that. They have no pretense, never put on airs, never try to appear to be something other than what they are, and they never “blow smoke” over you. They either like you or they don’t, and it’s as simple as that.

Cracker kids say “Yes, Mam” and “Yes, Sir” - and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a Mohawk hairdo. Most of them can scale a fish, skin a squirrel, plant potatoes, change a tire, and sweep a room.

You can spot a true Cracker woman a mile away. she looks both tough and gentle at the same time, and she smiles a lot. Her head is crammed with passed-down recipes, and she can still make lye soap if she has to. She is as fiercely protective of her children as a mother panther - and you best take note of this. When tragedy strikes a neighbor’s family, she is there in an instant with food and moral support.

Most Crackers prefer “homemade” to “store-bought stuff.” They bake scratch biscuits and chocolate cakes and sweet-tater pies and have even been known to churn their own buttermilk. Look in a Cracker’s freezer and you won’t find TV dinners. It’s crammed with pork chops and stew meat and dressed chickens and fish and corn on the cob and okra and butter beans and blackeyed peas. You might even spot a shank of venison.

Crackers often do strange things that might seem archaic to others. They salute the American flag when it passes by, and they stand at attention when the National Anthem is played. They join such mundane things as P.T.A. and Band Boosters and Friends of the Library. They love church socials and ice cold lemonade and football games and the smell of horses. When emergency blood is needed, they are the first in line to donate. They have even been known to give money to total strangers who are temporarily down on their luck.

Some Crackers can also be downright ornery on occasion. When they are riled up over something, they can be as cantankerous as a bobcat with a thorn stuck in its paw. When you come across one in this kind of a mood, tread lightly, and cut a wide path.

And make no mistake - not all Crackers are “Pore folks.” Some own land as far as the eye can see and further. A dusty pickup truck and a shiny Cadillac might sit side by side in a double garage. But spend an hour in a room full of Crackers and you can’t tell which ones “have it” and which ones don’t. They all act alike.

So you see, it takes a lot of ingredients to make a true Florida Cracker. A little of this and a pinch of that, and the portions must be right. Shake well, and what comes out is what I said in the beginning: “My kind of folks.”

Questions

Directions:  Write the following questions down.  Answer each question in a complete sentence.

1.  Where did the term "Cracker" originate from?

2.  How and why did Crackers use their whips?

3.  If a Cracker "cow whipped" an animal what did he do and why did he do it?

4.  What does this mean "A Cracker's word is his bond"?

5.  Explain in a paragaph the character of a true Cracker.

 

Writing Assignment

Directions:  Write a one page expository story about Cracker life.  Discuss who they were, what they did, and what they were like as people.

CRACKERESE

Words and phrases used by Crackers over the centuries.

Catchdogs — Cracker cattle-herding dogs trained to literally “catch” a cow and hold its ear or nose in its teeth until a cowman arrived.

Chittlins — Cracker version of chitterlings, or hog innards, cleaned and cooked.

Conchs — Key West Crackers.

Cooter — A freshwater soft-shell turtle eaten by Crackers.

Corn Pone — A “dressed-up” hoecake, made from the standard cornmeal, but with milk instead of water used in the batter. Cone pone differs from cornbread in that the former is fried and the latter is baked.

Cracklin — Fried hog fat used for food, sometimes mixed into meal to make cracklin cornbread.

Croker sack — Burlap gunny sack sometimes used for clothing.

Curlew — Pink spoonbills hunted for food and for their plumes.

Drag — A rawhide whip used by Crackers for driving cattle or wagon oxen.

Fatback — Called fatback because this is exactly where it comes from — off the back of a hog. It was cut in small squares and put in cooking pots to flavor beans and other vegetables. Sometimes, it was roasted until it became crunchy and eaten like popcorn for a snack. Lard was made by boiling the fatback and straining it through fine cloth.

Fetch — To get, as in to “fetch” some water.

Grits — A principal Cracker staple made from dried and coarsely ground corn, used in place of potatoes, never as a cereal. Hominy grits, not to be confused with hominy corn, is a Northern label for a coarser grain of ground corn.

Hoecake — Primitive bread cake made of cornmeal, salt and water and cooked in an iron griddle or skillet. It is said that these cakes were once baked on a hoe held over an open fire.

Hominy — Whole grains of white corn treated with lye and boiled for food.

Literd — A hot fire started with fat pine.

Low-bush lightning — Cracker term for moonshine–liquor made and smuggled during Prohibition.

Marshtackie — A small horse with a narrow chest, prized by cowmen for their smooth ride, durability and quick maneuverability. Descendants of the horses brought to Florida by the Spanish, they are adapted to the Florida wilderness.

Pilau — Any dish of meat and rice cooked together, like a chicken pilau. Pronounced “per-loo” by Crackers.

Piney-woods rooter — Wild hog and a regular part of the Cracker diet.

Poultices — Medicinal salves made with materials such as soap, fat meat, chewing tobacco, chopped onion, scraped Irish potato and wet baking soda.

Pull — To take a hard drink from a liquor jug.

Rot gut — Bad whiskey.

Sawmill chicken — Salt pork.

Scrub chicken — Gopher tortoise, once a Cracker delicacy, now illegal to take.

Scrub cows — Cracker cattle bred to withstand the tough conditions of the Florida range. They are descendants of original Spanish cattle introduced to Florida in 1521.

Swamp cabbage — The tender heart of Sabal palm, cut and boiled like cabbage.

Store-boughten — Cracker materials which could only be purchased from a store.

Truck garden — A plot garden which was grown to produce a surplus of vegetables for sale to local grocery stores, etc.

Varmit — The Cracker version of varmint, or any small animal, especially rodents.

 

Translations

Directions:  Write down the sentence and translate the meaning.

1.  Ma fixin' up o' mess o' chitlins, greens n' fatback, and a skillet full o' corn pone.

2.  Th' lil' ones fetch water for th' truck garden.

3.  Our catchdogs brung all kinds o' dead varmits on th' sittin' porch.

4.  Down at th' crick, you can catch a cooter wit a cane pole.

5.  Pa took a pull last night an' got th' rot gut so bad it put a literd in his throat.

Directions:  Create five different sentences using ten different Cracker terms.  A person in your group will translate your sentences.  Choose the best sentence to share with the class.

Test

Directions:  You will create a one page narrative story using a photo from the website http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/   Type in the year 1920 and search through the photos.  Find a photo of a person that you would like to be that lived in Florida during or around that period of time.  Photos should be in black and white.  Print out a copy of the photo by right clicking on the photo and clicking print.  You will pretend to be a person in the photo.  You will tell a story of what was happening at that moment, day, or what your life was like.

Include the following in your story:

1.  A description of you and/or your life

2.  Your job or role in the photo

3.  Must use Cracker sayings-5 terms minimum