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 friend 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.
What Is A Florida Cracker? by Patrick D. Smith
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