A Generous Slice of Navy Life in the 1940s, 50s and 60s

On December 7, 1941, the United States suffered a devastating attack on U.S. Military forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan. A wave of patriotism swelled enlistment in the armed forces as young people sought to do their patriotic duty.

The Greatest Generation

February 8, 1942, Byron Moore and two high school classmates, E.C. Powell and Bobby Futch took the bus from Valdosta, Georgia to a military recruiting station in Macon where they enlisted.

At 17 years,10 months old, Byron was underweight according to Navy regulations. At the recruiting station, he filled his pockets with rocks to add a couple of pounds.₂

Shortly after returning home, the trio received their official letters to report for duty. They boarded the Southern Railroad to Portsmouth VA and took the ferry to Norfolk the world's largest Naval Base operating out of the original Jamestown Exposition site.

During the first two weeks of training, the new recruits of Platoon Unit 842 were administered shots, given dental and physical exams had their clothes stenciled and began a rigorous calisthenics program to prepare them for battle.

After Boot Camp, the enlisted men received a three-day leave. Byron traveled to Washington, D.C. to visit his sister, Leila Moore Cartwright, who worked at the Anchor Room in The Annapolis Hotel, a favorite service man's hangout.

As an active duty Apprentice Seaman, he earned $21.00 per month.

He received new orders for Tampa, Florida to serve aboard the Auxiliary Mine Sweeper, the USS Augury when the ship was put into commission after sea trials, making him a plank owner.₁ His next assignment as Temporary Prison Chaser Guard included orders for New Orleans with 22 other Military Guards to escort prisoners to Portsmouth NH.

When his new orders assigned him to a ship that had already left port, he hitched a ride on board another ship, a WWI Destroyer heading toward Russia. They traveled to New Jersey to pick up ammunition, then, headed toward Key West and his duty station as “Sound Man.” He completed a five-week course with the last ten days of class practicing their new skills at sea.

As an SoM3c, Sonar Man 3rd class, he earned $78.00 per month. Reenlistment in 1945 for 4 years in the Regular Navy earned him a raise to $119.70 per month.

Family traditions -

Byron's older brother, Harold, enlisted in the Army during World War I. His other older brother, Ervin, also served in the Navy. After a tour of duty overseas, Ervin developed tuberculosis and was not expected to live. After losing a lung to the disease, his brother went on to become a lawyer and later, a judge in Marianna, Florida.

USS Augury AM-149 Minesweeper

Admirable Class Minesweeper, one of the largest and most successful classes of minesweepers ordered by the US Navy during World War II.

They were designed to locate and remove naval mines before the rest of the fleet arrived, thereby ensuring safe passage.

• Built: at the Tampa Shipbuilding Company Inc. December 1942
• Launched: February 23, 1943 and commissioned March 17 1943.
• Displacement: 650 tons
• Length: 184' 6"
• Beam: 33'
• Draft: 9' 9"
• Speed: 14.8 knots
• Complement: 104 (officers, non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel)
• Armament: one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two twin 40 mm gun mounts, one depth charge thrower (hedgehogs), two depth charge tracks
• Propulsion: two 1,710 shp ALCO 539 diesel engines, Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.

The Augury’s shake-down cruise took them from Tampa to Norfolk VA, afterward, to the Panama Canal, then San Francisco, then to Hawaii. Nearing the Philippines, a new set of orders changed their destination to Kodiak Alaska for convoy duty. Their job was to escort Merchant ships back and forth from Alaska to Attu in the Aleutian Islands. Between escorts they sailed Picket Duty or steaming in a Picket Square traveling north, east, south, then west, patrolling in each direction for an hour.

He was also on the USS Augury for his 21st birthday, and served aboard until its decommissioning in July of 1945.

After two years on the USS Augury, he served on the USS Sierra (AD18), the USS Rich (DD820), NROTC Unit, Duke University (as an instructor), NTS Norfolk, Virginia, Sound School, Key West, Florida, Naval Pre-Flight Training, Natchitoches, Louisiana, Minecraft Training Center, Little Creek, Virginia before reenlisting in the Regular Navy.

Crew of the USS Augury AM 149

Moore is on the 2nd row from the bottom, 4th from the left of the photo.

Wartime Romance

Mid 1945, Moore received orders for Okinawa. Taking a troop transport from Seattle WA to Denver, the young Moore boarded a commercial flight to Dallas on a Braniff PBO Hudson with one pilot and one stewardess.

During his thirty-day leave in Texas, he met the woman who would later become my mother. They were married 9 days later in a private ceremony at the bride's family home in Fort Worth, July 15, 1945. Shortly after the marriage, he was deployed overseas.

Mr. Moore set out on a determined program of schooling and enrolled in every class he could get. After completing a five-week Sound Course, he was selected to take a ten-week Sound Maintenance Course detailing how to repair, tune and maintain sonar equipment.

Later he enrolled in Flight School in Dallas, Texas. While he was learning to fly Piper Cubs and N3N Navy Peril craft at this sixteen-week course, the war was raging overseas. When a surprise navigation test caught the student pilots off guard, he washed out of flight school along with 49 of 60 classmates. Soon afterward, he headed back to the danger zone.

USS Rich DDE-820 Gearing Class Destroyer 

https://www.hullnumber.com/DD-820

U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships photo 19-NN - DD-820 Rich - 137766, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

"The second Rich (DD-820) was laid down on 16 May 1944 by the Consolidated Steel Corp. Orange Tex. launched 5 October 1945 and commissioned on 3 July 1946 Comdr. R. C. Houston in command.

After shakedown in the Caribbean, Rich departed Norfolk in late October for a Mediterranean tour most of which December 1946 to March 1947 was spent on patrol in the Atlantic. Returning to the United States in March she was converted to a specialized antisubmarine ship at the New York Naval Shipyard; and in the fall she resumed operations with the 2d Fleet."

• Launched: October 5, 1945
• Commissioned: July 3, 1946
• Length: 391 feet
• Beam: 41 feet
• Draft: 18.7 feet
• Speed: 34 knots
• Moore, Byron O SO1 1946-1947 Plank Owner USS Rich

Officer Candidate School 1954

Byron Moore is at the far right side of the photo.

Commissioned Ensign USN August 1954

Next duty station.

USS John S. McCain (DL-3)

Reclassified in 1951 as a Destroyer Leader, it was the second Mitscher Class Destroyer in the U S Navy.

Photo: USN; Original uploader, ScottyBoy900Q at English Wikipedia.; 2005-10-09 Public Domain

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_John_S._McCain_(DL-3)_underway_in_the_early_1960s.jpg

• Class: Mitscher Class Destroyer
• Named for: John S. McCain
• Complement: 403 Officers and Enlisted
• Displacement: 3,675 tons
• Length: 493 feet
• Beam: 50 feet
• Flank Speed: 30 plus knots
• Final Disposition: Sold for scrap January 1980

"John S. McCain spent the first year of her commissioned service undergoing sea trials and shakedown training in the Atlantic and Caribbean. One of the new Mitscher class of large and fast destroyer leaders she carried the latest in armament and embodied new ideas in hull design and construction. The ship arrived Norfolk 19 May 1955 to begin service with the Operational Development Force in testing new equipment and tactics. She operated out of Norfolk until 5 November 1956 when she steamed from Hampton Roads bound for the Panama Canal and San Diego. After her arrival 4 December 1956 she spent 5 months on maneuvers in California waters."₃

USS Thrush MSC-204 

Redwing Class Motor Minesweeper

• Laid down: May 7, 1954 as AMS-204 by the Tampa Marine Co., Tampa, FL
• Launched: Jan 5, 1955
• Reclassified: as a Coastal Minesweeper MSC-204, Feb 7,1955
• Commissioned: USS Thrush (MSC 204), November 8, 1955
• Displacement: 320 tons
• Length: 144 feet
• Beam: 28 feet
• Draft: 9 feet
• Speed: 13 knots
• Complement: 39 Officers and Enlisted
• Armament: Two 20 mm Mounts

_{USS Allegheny ATA-179}

_{US Navy photo (http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/38/38179.htm) [Public domain], via Wikimedia}

Specifications (As Built)

Displacement 835 t.(lt) 1360 t (fl)

Length 143'

Beam 33' 10"

Draft 13' 2" (limiting)

Speed 12 kts.

Armament

    one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount

    two single 20mm AA gun mounts

Largest Boom Capacity 5 t.

Complement

    Officers 5

    Enlisted 40

Propulsion

    two GM 12-278A Diesel-electric engines

    single Fairbanks Morse Main Reduction Gear

    Ship's Service Generators

    two 60Kw 120V. D.C.

    single propeller, 1,200shp

https://www.hullnumber.com/ATA-179

USS Suribachi, AE 21 Ammunition Carrier 

Photo By USN (U.S. Defense imagery photo DN-ST-87-09067 [1]) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Suribachi Class Ammunition Carrier deployed in the Mediterranean where Lt. Cmdr. Moore served as Chief Executive Officer 1961 - 1963. The ship traveled from Bayonne NJ to Norfolk VA, to Key West to patrol the Atlantic during the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

• Launched: November 1955
• Commissioned: November 1956
• Displacement: 9,758 tons
• Length: 512 feet
• Beam: 72 feet
• Complement: 20 Officers, 324 Enlisted
• Cargo booms to load fully equipped trucks, carried a full war load to outfit an Aircraft Carrier or 3 - 4 Destroyers.
• Armament: 4 twin 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts

Set in the center of the 6th Fleet in a 50-mile square, it was surrounded by 3 Carriers, 21 Destroyers, 3 Cruisers, 3 Oilers and a second Ammunition Ship, the Yosemite AD-19.

Lt. Commander Byron Moore's life was a collection of roles played out over eighty-one years: brother; student; instructor; fisherman; mariner; beloved father; husband; carpenter; and devoted Christian. He could at times be stern, rigid, disciplined and aloof, yet, there were times his tender side came through.

He lived the motto, "a place for everything and everything in its place." He drew a penciled outline around each tool on the pegboard at his workbench. We learned not to borrow tools without asking and to return them clean and to their designated place.

He was an avid reader and shared the value of books and the importance of good reading skills. He impressed on his children and others the value of discipline and hard work. He stressed the importance of honesty and loyalty and was an example of kindness and compassion to all living creatures.

Duty Stations and Ships

• 1942-Mar 1945, USS Augury AM-149, Plank Owner
• 1945 USS Sierra AD-18 as a Senior Sonarman
• 1946, USS Rich DD-820, Gearing Class Destroyer, Plank Owner
• 1949 NROTC at Duke University, Sonar Instructor
• 1949 Sound School, Key West FL
• 1949 March - Nav Pre Flight Training, Natchitoches, LA
• 1949 March - Minecraft Training Center, Little Creek, VA
• 1950 May - Jan 1951, Fleet Sonar School, Key West, FL, Chief Sonarman
• 1953 Mar 17,  Assigned Secondary NJC 3423 "Qualified Instructor"
• 1953 June 27 - Mar 1954, USS Wilkinson DL-5 1947, Ensign, Plank Owner
• 1954 Mar 17- Aug, to Naval Schools Command, Officer Candidate School, Newport, RI
• 1954 Aug - Graduated and Commissioned ENSIGN, USN 4-Jun-1954
• 1954, Aug to Aug 1956, USS John S. McCain DL-3
• 1956, Aug to Mar 1958, USS Thrush MSC-204
• 1958 Apr to Oct 1959, USS Allegheny ATA-179, as Commanding Officer
• 1959 Nov to Jun 1961, Fleet Sonar School Instructor
• 1961 Oct - July 1963 USS Suribachi AE-21 as Chief Executive Officer
• 1963 July to Aug 1964, Fleet Sonar School, Director of Training
• He served separate assignments at the Fleet Sonar School in Key West, FL as Instructor, Assistant Director of Enlisted Training, where he reviewed the training plans of officers who were instructors and later was promoted to Director of Enlisted Training. He worked there until his retirement in 1964.

Commander Moore served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Korea and the beginning of the Vietnam era. He was awarded the Good Conduct Medal (3*), American Theater, European Theater, Pacific Theater (2*), Victory Medal, European Occupation, China Service and United Nations medals. He worked his way up the ranks from Apprentice Seaman to retire as a Lieutenant Commander. He was awarded a post-retirement commission to Commander.

_{Notes/Sources:}

The bulk of research came from the information packet from the National Personnel Records Center along with notes taken during Mr. Moore's lifetime. 

To begin your own research, see this article, How to Find Military Service Records for your relative who served in the Military.

1. Plank owner, also called a plank holder, is an individual who was a member of a crew of a US Navy ship or US Coast Guard Cutter when it was put into commission
2. NCBI, WWII Height-Weight Standards at 67 inches was 140 pounds with a minimum weight of 125.
3. www.Hullnumber.com
4. National WWI Museum
5. USS Rich DDE-820, Plank Owner
6. NavSource online

My Former Life as a Flight Attendant - Braniff International

Sometimes one phone can turn your life completely around.

For months, I'd been working the late shift as receptionist in a hair salon and attending school in the  morning. My cosmetology training was nearly complete when I decided to take a short vacation. I had a job lined up as a hairstylist once I graduated beauty school and passed the State Bar Exam. 

One of my regular beauty school customers found out I was headed to Texas for a few days. She asked me to call her daughter while I was there. Long-distance calls used to be expensive while local calls were free. She gave me her daughter's business card with the phone number. Little did I know that phone call would change my life.

Once I settled in with the family in Texas, I gave the daughter a call. She was happy to hear news about her mother in Florida. We had a nice conversation. She was an executive in Flight Attendant services for a major airline. I mentioned that I'd always wanted to work as a flight attendant.

"Well, we're currently recruiting flight attendants." My heart skipped a beat. "But I'm not allowed to interview you."

"I understand," I told her somewhat disappointed.

"I'll ask someone to give you a call, but I can't promise anything."

I figured that was the end of it when the phone rang at my mom's house.

"This is Flight Attendant staffing," the caller announced. "Are you available for an interview tomorrow?"

Of course, I said yes. My mom and I immediately went shopping for an appropriate outfit to wear. All I had with me were vacation clothes. We had a great day shopping in downtown Fort Worth where she grew up.

The next day, I borrowed their car and headed to the airport. I weaved my way through a twisting maze at the huge airport, located the right building and found a good parking spot. Walking across the asphalt in the summer Texas heat, I could feel my hair and makeup withering.

The Interview

She asked about my work history and the reasons I wanted to be a flight attendant. I'd been a hostess and stand-in bartender at a couple of expensive restaurants and shared that experience. I'd also worked at banks and my cosmetology training was almost finished.

She also asked questions to evaluate my personality and suitability for the job like, "What would make you make a better flight attendant than someone else?"

 Despite my nervousness, I thought the interview went okay.

Once I got home, the phone rang again.

"Would you be available tomorrow for a group interview.?" There would be a panel of pilots, senior flight attendants, and training instructors that would interview several applicants at the same time. If we made it to the finals, we'd have individual interviews after the group session. Yes!

There was an advantage to not being the first to answer a question. We learned from the reactions of the panel what they didn't want to hear like, "I want to be a flight attendant because I just love people." They were sick of hearing that.

The challenge was to come up with something original after several others already answered the same question. When the group session finished, I was chosen for an individual interview.

Afterward, I resumed my vacation. That's when the phone rang again.

This call changed all my plans going forward. The friendly voice on the phone said I'd been selected to attend Flight Attendant Training starting in one month. A couple of days later, I flew home to Florida. I could hardly believe this happened, until the official offer letter arrived with the date to report for training. I was still in denial.

Over the next few weeks, I finished beauty school, quit my job at the salon, sold most of my belongings, and packed my car for the trip to Texas. Driving through Florida, my roommate and I stopped in Pensacola to take my State Board Exam for my cosmetology license. She'd come with me to be my hair model for the practical exam and flew back to Tampa after that was over. I continued the twelve-hundred-mile drive to Dallas alone.

I'd wanted to become a flight attendant for years. At twenty-one, I applied with Eastern Airlines. They didn't hire married applicants and I got a letter of rejection.

Once I became single again I applied again. This time, they sent a round-trip ticket to Miami for an interview. It took a couple of weeks before another rejection letter came in the mail.

At twenty-five, I applied with Northwest Orient Airlines and went for an interview in Minneapolis, Minnesota in winter time. There were only thirty positions available and they had 800 applicants. We were rushed through the process and told they would let us know the results. A few weeks later, another rejection letter came.

Training in Dallas at the Royal Coach

During the five-week training course, we lived in The Royal Dunfey's Hotel in Dallas. After breakfast, we were bused to the training facility on Lemon Avenue for classroom training and to practice emergency drills and CPR. 

We jumped out of second-story windows onto scorching hot evacuation slides, learned to use fire extinguishers on real fires and fumbled our way through dark airplanes to locate safety equipment. We trained to open exit window hatches. One test required us to open the door of a 747 which was five stories above the ground.

"Again!" the emergency procedures instructor would yell as we practiced pulling the emergency hatch off the mock-up airplane.

"Now toss that hatch on the seat and move those passengers along."

We spent hours practicing airline announcements, reading them from our manuals as required by the FAA. We worked in galley mock-ups learning how to use convection ovens and coffee makers. We served seven-course dinners on real dishes with glassware. We trained for a week on bartending skills learning cocktails and how to serve wine and make Cappuccino.

At night we studied our training manuals and memorized configurations for the fleet of Braniff jets. We formed groups and quizzed each other on airport codes and their abbreviations. We practiced and role-played for hours, but it was nothing like serving onboard a flight with real passengers.

After Graduation

Our travel assignments were based on seniority, the length of time we had with the airline, or within our class, our date of birth. Each month we bid on different flight schedules and those with fifteen years plus with the company got the better schedules like five trips to Hawaii during the month. I longed for that kind of route.

Newbies like us had little seniority and usually flew reserve. That meant nine days off during the month with the rest of the time being on twenty-four-hour call. At a moments notice, scheduling could assign us a trip with a one-hour notice. Usually, we filled in for absent employees or those delayed elsewhere by mechanical difficulties on a previous flight. We had to keep a packed suitcase ready, like an expectant mother.

Despite the unusual hours, the waiting by the phone, the meal service on back-to-back commuter flights, and the rigors of standing for up to fourteen hours at a time, the job was a lot of fun.

I'll always remember those days as some of the best of my life.

Coming of Age in the 1960s

Key West was the ideal place to grow up in the 60s. It's a small island at the southernmost tip of Florida where the temperature averages 65 to 89 degrees year round.

Saturday mornings started around 5 am for us kids. We'd load the cooler with sodas and food while Dad would hitch our 14 foot boat to the station wagon. Then we'd make the drive to our favorite launch ramp at Sugarloaf or Big Pine Key, sometimes Tavernier.

Photo: Diego Pitt via Unsplash

He'd back the boat down the ramp while we watched the car inch close to the point of no return. Once the boat was afloat, my brother would move the car and trailer and we'd head out for a day of fishing. We'd use shrimp and mullet to catch snapper, grouper and grunts. The fish fry was always a feast with fresh fillets of snapper, hush puppies made with cornmeal and coleslaw.

Back then, we walked to school or rode our bikes. On the way home, we'd keep an eye out for empty soda bottles tossed on the side of the road. Recovered ones jostled in our wire bicycle baskets, clinking out a merry tune as we rode home.

After our homework was done, we'd head outside to scrub the bottles clean using the garden hose and ride to the corner store to cash them in for two cents each. A little work paid for a ten cent comic book or a candy bar. If business was really good, we'd splurge on a Coke from the machine at the back of the store.

I recall our disappointment when they put a canned drink vending machine in front of the store. Our return-bottle business faltered with each purchase. Worse, the aluminum canned drinks were fifteen cents. It was our first encounter with inflation.

Miss Jordan's 4th Grade Elementary School Class

After school on the side street by our house, we played "Four Square" with a plastic bouncing ball. We'd draw four boxes in a larger square on the asphalt and write numbers in each square. Whenever a car came along, we'd holler "CAR!" and move out of the way while they drove through.

At the local A&W, we drank root beer brought to us by car hops on roller skates. They'd hang a tray from the driver's side window and skate around delivering orders wearing metal change-makers on their belts.

There was only one Burger King in the small town, and one Dairy Queen. They served the best soft-serve cones. There was a Royal Castle with their famous Birch Beer in a frosted mug for a nickel.

Families enjoyed dollar-a-carload night at the drive-in movies. Cartoons always played before the main feature. We saw mostly Westerns or a comedy like The Three Stooges.

The Conch Train, took tourists around the city on connected cars behind an engine car with a tour guide announcing all the historical data.

When relatives came to town, our family went to the A & B Lobster House near the docks with the best lobster salad and Key Lime pie in town.

Our school day began with the Pledge of Allegiance with our hands over our hearts. Afterward, we sang, "My Country 'Tis of Thee." Then, the teacher, Mrs. Price, would pick someone to read a short passage from the Bible. Yes, it was a public school and we exercised this religious freedom.

When Cape Canaveral, now Cape Kennedy, had a scheduled launch, our Principal, Mr. Carey, would roll an AV cart into the cafeteria/auditorium for the students to watch it live. Other times, we watched the launch from outside. On a clear day, we could see the trail of the rocket's arc from miles away.

21 Feb 1961 NASA Public Domain

In one of his last appearances in the Florida Keys, President Kennedy, traveling down A1A in his white Lincoln Continental convertible, turned to wave to our group beside the road. Soon after that visit, the announcement came over the school PA that JFK had been shot. Classmates cried and sadness prevailed, before we were dismissed from school early that day.

My Dad drove straight from the Navy Base to pick me up from school. Our family spent the evening in a state of shock watching Chet Huntley and David Brinkley recap the bad news.

We drove to Perrine to be with relatives for Thanksgiving and watched the funeral on their TV.

In 1964, Dad retired from the Navy and our family moved to South Miami and bought a house on Franjo Road. The model home, a 3 bedrooms was featured as a close-out for the subdivision with a sale price of $17,300.00. There was a swimming pool with a cabana and a separate bathroom which my brother, a Junior in High School, moved into. We lived in that house for 5 years.

My first car in high school was a 1959 Chevrolet Impala convertible. At lunch time, we'd pile in as many kids that would fit in the car, put the convertible top down and with the radio blaring, we'd cruise to 7-Eleven. An order of French fries cost a quarter and were made to order. Or we'd head to Arby's for hand-sliced roast beef cut on their slicing machine at the counter and a Jamocha shake. chocolate ice cream, milk and a dash of coffee. At Burger King, we'd order a whopper with no onions, just in case of a close encounter.

Senior year, the mixed concert chorus  took a train trip to Washington, D.C. from Miami, Florida along with the high school band and parents serving as chaperones. It was a twenty-five-hour ride jostling along in standard cars with no sleeping berths. Not that we did much sleeping on the trip.

We performed the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the Rotunda with its magnificent acoustics and our young A Capella voices. Later, we took a tour bus to the National Archives and saw original documents like the Declaration of Independence.

In Arlington, Virginia we competed in the Cherry Blossom Festival of Performing Concert Choirs. Afterward, we headed home on a much-subdued train ride home.

For our final performance of the year, the Mixed Concert Chorus performed Lerner and Lowe's 1954 musical "Brigadoon" for which we rehearsed endlessly. Tickets were sold to raise money to buy a new recording system for our music room.

That last year of the nineteen sixties, graduation day sneaked upon us far too soon, setting off major changes in our lives and the way things had always been. It was the end of an era and the commencement of a new one: the seventies.

A Land Remembered - Book Review

A Land Remembered is a fictional story that captures the true spirit of Florida's early settlers. 

Award-winning author, Patrick D. Smith brings to life  a story of dirt-poor Florida farmers in early pioneer days. Theirs is a tale of determination, hard work, and sacrifice, fraught with peril and danger.

Modern-day Florida is filled with luxury hotels, beach-front resorts, tourists, orange groves, and a collection of residents that usually come from other places. Few realize the raw nature of its existence before the railroad brought commerce to the area.

Rampant with alligators, snakes, marshy swamps, and mosquitoes, this land, in its original state, was home to the Seminole Indians. With razor-sharp saw-grass, devastating hurricanes, and treacherous flooding coupled with sudden crop-killing freezes, early settlers had a full-time job trying to stay alive.

During his research for this novel, Patrick D. Smith ran a trading post to learn about the lives of the native people of Florida. He describes the evolution of the state from its roots as a swamp and prairie to its explosive growth in population and major industry in a fictional story that captures the true spirit of early settlers.

Image from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain]

Most people have little idea of what it was like scratching out an existence living on roots, berries and raccoon stew. In his novel, A Land Remembered, Smith gives the reader plenty to think about.

Hardships after the Civil War included a serious shortage of even the most basic supplies. Groceries like flour, sugar, fabric for clothing, shoes, ammunition for hunting and cookware needed to prepare meals were hard to come by.

He tells of the "Cow Cavalry," a group commissioned by the state's governor to round up stray cattle. Their job was to drive the cows to Georgia to feed the remaining Federal troops. Along the way, they also collected and conscripted male settlers to run the cattle, whether willing or not, to travel through the harsh land with its collection of predators and diseases like malaria and dysentery. Federal troops were known to raid villages, taking "everything they could get their hands on" leaving settlers without their horses, mules and cows with no recourse. Buzzards would collect those who objected.

Confederate deserters, hiding out in the swamps to evade arrest, preyed on the families of isolated settlers, killing and devouring even their work animals.

Native Seminole Indians, that were also hunted and pursued, moved deeper into the swamps of the Everglades to avoid those who wished them harm.

Schooners traveled down the rivers carrying supplies for the local trading posts where settlers would bring animal furs to trade for their basic needs. There, they could occasionally get items they couldn't make or grow like coffee and flour.

Legal tender following the war was limited to Spanish gold doubloons carted around in wagons pulled by oxen. With the peril of extreme storms like hurricanes came the ever-present swamp creatures hungry and waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting.

As early cowhands pushed their herds towards the nearest marketplace, they crossed treacherous prairies and uncleared land filled with quick sand and hordes of mosquitoes. Often those dangers were enhanced by cutthroat cattle rustlers ready to kill for a profit and personal gain.

The story opens with a narrative by the elder Sol MacIvey who is at the end of his life. He has decided to defy his doctor's orders and return to his old home on the prairie of Southern Florida.

His earliest memories come flooding back as he reconnects with his Native American friend, Toby Cypress, who formed a lifetime bond with Sol's father through mutual need and respect. Sol's ancestors struggle to grow crops on their homestead while trying to keep their work oxen safe from deadly creatures that lurk in nearby woods.

They flourished despite the odds by capturing, branding and driving herds of cattle across the state to market.

A Seminole family of Cypress Tiger at their camp near Kendall, Florida in 1916. Photographer: Botanist John Kunkel Small, 1869-1938 - Image Public Domain

The text weaves its way past a series of events through three generations of MacIvey's trying to establish a homestead. The author introduces their hired hand, Frog, whose dedication and respect for the family convinces him to stick around for a lifetime. Others join the small establishment in the scrubs to become an integral part of the family and its endeavors.

A mixture of "Bonanza" with its Ponderosa, and an impoverished post-Civil War “Gone With the Wind” existence, this tale keeps the reader engaged as they grow to care for and understand the characters portrayed.

The story provides insight into the erosion of the hard work ethic that prompted patriarch Tobias MacIvey to leave his roots and seek out a new existence in the developing south as life becomes easier with the passage of time.

Coming out of Georgia in 1858 with a horse-drawn wagon, his wife and their small baby crossed into Florida with "a sack of corn and a sack of sweet potatoes," and the tools to clear the land and build a house.

His forty-acre farm in Georgia's red clay soil had failed. Seeking more nourishing soil and a new start, he sold the land in exchange for the goods to stock the wagon - "a few packets of seeds, a shotgun and a few shells, a frying pan and a cast-iron pot" which would have to serve the family for years to come.

He traded the wagon horses for a pair of oxen they named Tuck and Buck. As part of the trade, they got a guinea cow, a strangely diminutive animal which would provide milk for all of them.

Photo Attribution - University of Washington, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Their journey through the wilderness, finding and establishing their first isolated homestead, losing it to disaster, then moving farther south to again, seek out richer soil leads them into a whole new world of experiences and eventual enrichment as their family grows and adds members.

With each generation, existence grows easier with successful crops, acres of producing orange groves and ready-made housing for the offspring that come along. When they found a way to earn bushels of money, they finally had it made.

This story has all the appeal of a grandfather's tale, mixing pioneer adventure with a slice of history told by a seasoned storyteller.

This is a saga that will stay in your mind as a keen reminder of what the frontier held for our ancestors. It tells of hard work, sacrifice and reward that comes, but not without its share of loss and grief.

Patrick D. Smith Talks About the Book in this YouTube video

Crustless Butternut Squash Pie Recipe

Even if you've never baked a pie in your life this recipe is a great place to start. You can put this pie together in just a few minutes and have it baking in the oven. The best part is that no crust is needed.

You will need a nine-inch deep pie dish, measuring spoons and a few basic ingredients from the pantry to get started.

We just call it Squash Pie.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of canned, frozen, or fresh-cooked butternut squash
• 1 can of evaporated milk (13 oz.)
• 4 fresh eggs
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 stick of butter or margarine
• 1 Tablespoon of flour
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg
• a dash of salt
• 1 Tablespoon of vegetable shortening to grease the pie pan

How to make fresh butternut squash.

https://vespertinewriter.blogspot.com/2025/08/how-to-bake-butternut-squash.html

Or, canned squash works for this recipe, too. One 15 ounce can is enough.

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (f)
2. Grease a 9-inch pie dish with a thin coating of vegetable shortening or non-stick spray.
3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cut the butter into small pieces and let it soften to room temperature.
4. Mix the sugar and softened butter together until it's creamy.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg
6. Mix a tablespoon of flour with the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and blend these into the egg mixture.
7. Stir in the cooked squash using either canned, frozen (left in the refrigerator overnight to thaw) or 2 cups of cooled, baked squash.
8. Add the vanilla extract.
9. Slowly stir in the evaporated milk. The mixture will be watery with loose, floating bits of butter after it is poured into the baking dish.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

If you have an electric mixer, it saves time but the pie will come out fine if you use a whisk or a hand beater to mix the ingredients.

Frozen squash works fine as well. Allow the squash to defrost in the box for 24 hours in your refrigerator before adding it to the recipe.

Carefully remove the pie from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving. The pie starts out looking rather puffy, but as it cools, it settles down to look more like pumpkin pie.

Cut the cooled pie into eight (8) slices and add a dash of whipped cream or Cool Whip topping before serving.

The pie may be served either warm or cold.

Store any leftover pie in the refrigerator and use it within seven days.

Once you've made this easy no-crust pie recipe, you'll want to make it again and again. That spicy aroma of the pie while it bakes will bring family members into the kitchen to see what's cooking.

Come try this nutritious dessert that your kids will love. They won't even know it is a vegetable unless you tell them.

Topped with whipped cream it's delicious. It tastes like spicy custard.

My six-year-old asked me the same question during dinner until it became a ritual.

"Will you be passing out dessert tonight, Mommy?" My answer was always the same.

"Only if you eat your vegetables." He would laugh and shovel in whatever was left on his dinner plate. He loved this nutritious pie and always asked for seconds.