I sent a version of this Chris a few days ago. Maybe others are interested. I live near Graceville in Jackson Co. Fl and have for many periods in my life. My father was restless and moved around Florida throughout his life, often between Jackson Co. and Hillsborugh Co. Fl(Plant City). Many of my earliest memories are of life here in Jackson Co. and I still have lots of family here. To give the place some flavor, I can relate some early memories of life here. For example, during the mid fifties(1956, etc.) some of my uncles were farmers here and were still plowing and cultivating with mules. I can remember going to the farm on weekends and playing around the barnyard in which the mules were kept. The grown sons & daughters(my 1st cousins) would arrive by mule and wagon or pickup truck from nearby farms or houses. I was talking to one of the cousins the other day and he remembered his father buying the farm(100 acres with house and well) for $2700 in either the late forties or early fifties. The deal was struck between my uncle and another local farmer while riding back from an inspection of the place on a mule drawn wagon. My cousin said that my uncle paid half of the money up front in cash and promised to pay the rest as soon as possible. A hand shake sealed the deal. The remainder of the money was paid within two years. The farm had a large frame house that consisted of two huge rooms with a double fireplace between the rooms and a long shed roof kitchen/living/dining room that ran along the entire length of the house. The entire family of up to nine persons lived and worked from these three basic rooms in the rear. The front had a full length porch where most socializing took place. The facilities were a dug well for water in the front yard and an outhouse behind the corn crib. A large ramshackle hay barn with stalls for the mules and general storage space took up most of the yard on one side of the house. On the other side of the main house was a smoke house for home cured meats and sausages. Hog killing time in early winter was a big social occasion as it has been in this part of the country for many decades. Later on my uncle swapped the 100 acre farm and $1000.00 for another farm of 80 acres nearer to town and with more cultivated land. This deal was with the same person that had sold the first farm. Some time later after the swap, my father, sisters and I spent a year, including the winter, in the old three room house. Hot in summer and impossible to heat in winter. Most home life prior to bedtime was conducted in the kitchen around a wood burning stove. That was a bad year for us economically, with a good portion of our protein diet consisting of rabbits and squirrels my father hunted on the property and fish from nearby Holmes Creek. Another of my uncles gave us the use of a log cabin that was even further back in the woods for the next years winter season. That place was really primitive and my father almost died that winter from pleurisy. Regardless, I have fond memories of both places. I guess I was too young to realize that we were in dire economic straits most of the time and just enjoyed the country life. In those days, not so long ago, there was still a livery barn just off the main street of Graceville for farmers still coming for weekend shopping by mule and wagon. As a matter of fact my aunt, father's oldest sister, was killed by getting thrown from a wagon with a runaway mule while on the way to town. The incident occurred in the twenties I think. In my early teens we moved to Plant City for all of my high school years. After high school I went in the Navy in 1964 and stayed twenty years. I made a trip back to Graceville in the late sixties, met and married a local girl. After the Navy we decided to come back here for the peace and quiet. All through the fifties and sixties this area was a strange hybrid of the old and new. Now, with TV and instant communications anywhere, Graceville has more or less joined the mainstream. However, the population of the main cemetery in town is probably larger than the living population within the city limits. It is a nice place to live. Frank Sloan Graceville, Fl