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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

In connection with planning for properties at Interstate Interchange Areas, on my own I had picked up a
piece of property west of St. Augustine, on Interstate 95, at the point where Slate Road 16 crosses and
goes on into St. Augustine. I was able to sell part of that property to a group that built a large Holiday
Inn on it, and today there is a Denny’s Restaurant at the same location, right beside the Holiday Inn, and
the Denny’s Restaurant is on the rest of the property that I owned after I sold out to the Holiday Inn
Group.

R.A. was born and raised in McAlpin, in Suwannee County, and after living in Lake City for many,
many years, he has moved back to McAlpin and lives in a nice home right in downtown McAlpin.
Incidentally, R.A. was Best Man at my wedding when Beadie and I got married, and Beadie’s sister,
Katie, was a Bride’s Maid in the wedding, and Katie and R.A. met and ended up marrying each other.
R.A. and Katie of course are very, very close to Beadie and me, and they visit us in Lake City quite
often, and we go over to their place in McAlpin whenever we find out they’re going to have something
particularly good to eat.

Kermit married my distant cousin Ann Kerce, who was the great granddaughter of my great Uncle Joe
Dicks, so I guess that makes Kermit and me distant cousins by marriage. He and Ann live in Polk
County, near Winter Haven, and we have been known to go and visit them, although that is more than
just a 30 minute journey. They both maintain their ties in Lake City, and family connections, and I think
Kermit still has relatives living near Jasper where he was raised, out in the boon-docks.

During the time that Kermit and R.A. and I were partners, from time-to-time we would find it necessary
to take a trip to some other part of the United States, to look at a tract of land which we had heard about
and considered to be a bargain, and although we looked at a lot of land, we never bought any out-of-
state land. We had some awfully good times though traveling for long distances, with the traveling
expenses being tax deductible. We actually really did have some interest in land in other states on two or
three occasions, but something always seemed to get in the way ofclosing on purchasing any of it.

Insofar as which of the three of us, that is to say R.A., Kermit, or myself, will live the longest, there is
no way to know. However, whoever goes first will result in people having a chance to watch two grown
men cry.

From time-to-time old memories pop into my mind of things that happened during the days we were
together, and as I sit here trying to get these things on paper I recall that years ago, on a cold winter
afternoon, Kermit and I drove over into Suwannee County to visit a man and his wife by the name of
Grant, with a view toward listing their farm for sale. I don’t know why I remember this particular
incident, but Mrs. Grant was an extremely obese woman. I am sure she would have weighed 450 pounds
by a conservative estimate, and while we were there talking with them, we noticed a platter piled high
with pork chops, which had apparently been fried earlier in the day, and there must have been 15 — 20
pork chops in that pile, and due to the chilly weather in the Grant’s kitchen the grease on the pork chops
had congealed into lard, and it was not a very appetizing sight to behold. However, after awhile Mrs.
Grant picked up one of those pork chops and started nibbling on it, and soon demolished it, and within
the next 30 — 40 minutes she had eaten every pork chop on that platter, and 1 do not recall ever in my life
seeing a person eat as much as she did there that afternoon, and as much as I love pork chops, I did not
want any of the ones she was eating. Incidentally, we failed to get a listing on their farm, but we got to
see a real demolishing of a big platter of pork chops.

Elsewhere in this book I have talked about recording a couple of CD’s, playing trumpet to the Piano
Accompaniment of Daniel Harris, who is really an accomplished Pianist. What brings Daniel to mind at
this point in my narrative, is the fact that he is the son of one of Ann Horne’s sisters, and would
therefore be Ann’s nephew.

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