Winter Park

A Saturday in town…

It was too late to drive back to the beach on Friday night, so I stayed in town and spent today with my sister. Maitland and Winter Park are interesting places to spend time, so finding things to do was no problem, and it provided the chance to knockabout with my sister, always a pleasure.

There was a farmer’s market in Winter Park, and a visit several years ago guaranteed there would be a lot to see. Even without the farmer’s market, Winter Park is a beautiful little ‘town’ to stroll through, window shop and maybe have a bite of lunch or a cool drink. No mistaking the fact that it is a posh area geared toward people who don’t mind spending a little money, but you don’t have to spend anything to enjoy an hour or two of walking around.

The farmer’s market is a dazzling array of fruit, vegetables, plants, flowers and herbs. There are places to have smoothies, coffee or tea, and a fairly wide selection of things like breads, bagels and other such, plus cheeses, honey, jams and jellies, and even a counter lined with exotic kinds of quiche. There was one vendor featuring homemade relishes and pickled vegetables that I couldn’t get past without sampling a bunch of different relishes. They were all knock out good and I ended up buying three jars—pickled red peppers, pickled corn relish and cabbage salad—all made with fresh ingredients, all pure, all chemical-free.

Later, at Barnes & Noble my sister bought the delightful book by Clyde Edgerton, Walking Across Egypt, and I got a copy of the just released Jonathan Frazen novel, Freedom.

Turning beachward in mid-afternoon, I filled up the gas tank, paying 21¢ a gallon LESS than what the same gas costs at the beach.

Back at the beach, I discovered it crawling-jumping-hopping with weekend visitors. And how I long for Tuesday, the return to a quiet beach empty of people.

Jesus Speaks in Red

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading Clyde Edgerton’s 1987 novel, Walking Across Egypt to an elderly friend. This morning we came to the final page, leaving Marianne completely charmed by the story and characters, eager for another of Mr Edgerton’s wonderful books. I felt some personal satisfaction about that, knowing I had chosen well in picking out a book for her.

Mattie Rigsbee is a church-going, independent and strong-minded little old lady of seventy-eight, who will feed anyone appearing at her back door, including birds and dogs. She lives her life pretty much according to the lines from Matthew 25:40, ‘…I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of the brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Mattie is determined to see good in other people.

A stray dog at Mattie’s back door is catalyst to an alternately funny and touching story of getting old, of caring for others and always searching out the good in others. The dog is Mattie’s first stray, but the little mutt leads her to an orphaned 16 year-old boy in the local juvenile correctional facility, who after meeting Mattie, soon comes to crave more of her pound cake, and who also convinces himself that she is his grandmother. On the other side of the fence, Mattie believes she might be able to help the boy turn his life around, and Wesley, the boy, believes she could be his ticket out of the hoosegow. This desire by one to help, and by the other to be helped has consequences approaching the hilarious.

One underlying issue the story illuminates is the honest and heartfelt charity of one Christian woman, and the reaction she faces from members of her church. It is a poke at those Sunday morning Christians who conveniently forget the teachings of the Bible when it threatens their complacency; people who read scripture with little idea of its meaning.

Along with the weightier questions of aging, helping others and neighborly goodness, the book tells a story of southern cooking and hospitality which will have your mouth watering.

The writer tells his story chiefly through dialogue and the thoughts of his characters, who speak in word and idiom straight from a southern grandmother’s kitchen. A southerner myself, I can vouch for the authenticity of details, as well as the dialogue. The story is simply written without pretense or reliance on clever literary fireworks, and throbs with down home charm from page one to page last. If you’re looking for a book about good people who live uninfluenced by the darker corners of human behavior, then pick up a copy of Walking Across Egypt.