Photo credit Esthr/Flickr
“In Florida, we eat
gator on Thanksgiving...and we put
Tabasco on everything. Well now, we've got the pit dug out behind the
FSU English building, in prep to roast this year's gator catch. On Tuesday, all the orange grove children get a pocket knife, and whoever comes home first with a full grown alligator wins, and that's the gator we roast. Whoever doesn't come back, doesn't win! Sometimes the other children get eaten by the alligators, but that's okay, it's just nature's way. We have very tough children in Florida, and plenty more where that came from.”
The folks at the
Southeast Review got jokes. I think…?
Florida is one of those states – like Texas, Kentucky and even Virginia – that folks will get into a knock down drag out battle about whether or not it’s “The South.” But, makes no difference. It’s like what Jimmy Lerner wrote in his prison memoir
You Got Nothing Coming: “I don’t care if he’s telling me the truth or not as long a he can bring a colorful narrative to the table.”
So with Thanksgiving fast approaching, a little Florida flava’s been stirred into the Southernist pot. Eat up!
The Southeast Review, established in 1979 as Sundog, is a national literary magazine housed in the English department at Florida State University and is edited and managed by its graduate students and a faculty consulting editor. The mission of The Southeast Review is to present emerging writers on the same stage as well-established ones. In each semi-annual issue, they publish literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, interviews, book reviews, and art. With nearly sixty members on its editorial staff who hail from throughout the country and the world, SER strives to publish work that is representative of its staff’s diverse interests and aesthetics, and it celebrates the eclectic mix this produces.
In 1960 Florida, Ruthie and Bo, two young newlyweds, enter their honeymoon suite in the sky, a tree house. A romantic gesture from the young groom to his wife. Yet Bo’s expectations of living happily ever after in the sky are soon grounded by Ruthie’s realization that marriage comes with many unforeseen — and frightening — challenges. The two lovers struggle to fortify themselves against forces both inside and outside the tree house. (source)
