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

DR. DICKSAND CORN FLAKES

My daddy had a first cousin, who was the son of my great uncle Tom Dicks, and the half brother of
Denver Dicks, whom I have talked about elsewhere in this book, by the name of R.E. Dicks. Everybody
called him Reed Dicks. When Reed Dicks got to be a young adult, he and another young man in the
community, Josie Kerce, decided to go to Medical School and become Doctors. Josie Kerce did not
make the grade, and he was the great grandfather of my good friend and distant cousin Daniel Harris,
who did the piano for my CD’s.

Josie Kerce did not make it too far in Medical School, but Reed Dicks stuck it out until he got his MD
Degree, and began to practice medicine in the 1920’s at a little saw-mill town in western Hamilton
County, with a population at that time of about 1500 people.
The name of the town was West Lake, and if there is any town there anymore at all it is just more or less
a spot in the road. I never knew this until a few minutes ago in a phone conversation with my former
business partner, Kermit Home. He learned about it during a conversation about 50 years ago between
him, Dr. Dicks, and Kermit’s father-in-law, Pink Kerce.

After Dr. Dicks left West Lake, he moved his medical practice to the place where, prior to today, J had
always thought he had started out, namely Dowling Park on the Suwannee River west of Live Oak.

After he had practiced for awhile at Dowling Park, he moved his medical practice to St. Petersburg,
where he had a successful medical practice for many, many years thereafter, and was Chief of Staff at
the Pinellas County Memorial Hospital during the last days of his medical career.

As far as I know, Reed Dicks, is the only descendant of Joseph and Sara Dicks that ever became a
Medical Doctor.

When 1 was about 3 or 4 years old, which would have been about 1931 or 1932, the Florida Baptist
Convention was held in St. Petersburg, and my dad and a Minister friend of his by the name of
Raymond Roberts, together with my mother, my sister Opal, and my sister Fay, and myself went to St.
Petersburg, and the whole family was the house guests of Dr. Dicks and his wife, Dolly.

I don’t think Dr. Reed Dicks ever found out what my real name was, because to the day of his death he
referred to me as “Cornflakes”. How this came about was that when we sat down to breakfast at the
Reed Dicks’ home on the first morning we were in St. Petersburg, they put something in front of me to
eat that I thought was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. It turned out to be cornflakes.

Since we did not have the ability to raise cornflakes on the fam, I had never had any cornflakes before,
and I gobbled up the whole box full, with milk, sugar and bananas.

Even though I was only 3 or 4 years old, I distinctly remember at lunch that day as Aunt Dolly, (as we
called her) put some fried steak and rice on my plate for lunch, and I told her in no uncertain terms that
“I don’t want that old rice. I want cornflakes.” Dr. Dicks was sitting at the table, and of course he heard
this and he said “Dolly, get the boy some com flakes”. She said, “Reed, he ate up all we had at
breakfast”. Dr. Dicks had one of the girls go down to the corner store, which was only about a half block
away, and buy a box of com flakes and bring them back.

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