As It Should Be

Tales of Old Florida

By: Lance Edwards

Narrated by: Lance Edwards

Comprised of vignettes from his own experiences of growing up in Central Florida, this native Floridian reveals "Old Florida" through its land, its people and their relationship to the times. This is not the Florida of the travel brochures or the concrete and glass glitz of the developers but rather the real Florida as known only by those who are proud to call themselves (or declare themselves) native Floridians. Laugh and cry with the exploits of these tough and proud people.

©2019 Lance Edwards (P)2019 Lance Edwards

great stories about lives in old florida

wow, what a great book. thank you for your great history. a great collection of real life in old Florida.

Surprisingly enjoyable

A nice mix of stories, Facts and life lessons about old Florida and today. Enjoy

Connections

Overall a great story about old Florida. I loved all the different connections about made about old Florida and where we are today. It’s totally worth the listen.

A perspective of truth.

I found this book to be very interesting and full of the very reasons Florida amongst other states are dying due to greed in politics.

Crackers

As a Florida Cracker myself I have a lot in common with Lance. My family has a beach house on the north end of Little Gasparilla island. Lance is absolutely right about how bad the red tide was. it was the worse smell of rotting sea life I have ever experienced. I'm now 70 and I have tried to change the land we have back to the way God made it so my grandchildren and their children can enjoy the time's I had growing up in south east Polk county Florida. I was fortunate to have bought 11 acres of Swamp with a creek running through it for my grandchildren and future generations. I also found some wild native Florida orchids on the property which gave me the idea to repopulate the Swamp with more Native Florida orchids for future generations to see and enjoy. I've now finished the orchid project and sit back and watch how each variety grows and flowers. Like Lance I love Florida and it's history and yes my 3rd Great grandfather fought for the Confederacy !!!

Lots of boasting for a bit of History

I picked that book thinking the author would help me understand and love Florida better. Maybe it will, once I digest the content and forget the format.. I have to say that the "Southern red neck boasting" is a bit too much for me, but past that annoying "formality", i discovered a deep respect for the natural Floridian environment that helps me forgive the brutality ot it.

Great Florida Story

Out of all the Florida books that I’ve read, this one feels a unique niche. I can relate to so many things growing up here in Punta Gorda Florida. It reminded me of family and those that are gone. Thank you for taking the time to share your life story and other particulars about this great state in our history..

Self destruction.

Being a native of South Florida. I understand how we destroyed it all sad. Perhaps not everyone can live in South Florida.

Started off well

As a fifth-generation Floridian, I really looked forward to listening to this. It started off well, and I especially enjoyed reminiscing with him about the orange groves, Silver Springs, and the amazing ecology of Florida. It was interesting learning about various businesses and how they got their start in Florida, as well.
Unfortunately he veered off into rants about gun rights (I’m not anti-guns, it just felt angry and political and out-of-place) and the Confederacy, how stupid it is to remove Confederate statues from the public square, and how “all of us from Old Florida” love the Confederate flag. Please, sir, do not lump all of us longtime Floridians in with your political viewpoints. Just because you feel that way does not mean we all do, believe me.
Perhaps a separate book on politics could’ve been written so we all could have kept hearing the enjoyable stories. I stopped listening when he kept going on about these issues.

I expected something different

I have a love for Florida and the wildlife and ecology that I cannot compare to anywhere else. Probably every third book I read is about Florida. This book gave me nothing. A couple of cool stories, but not enough to carry the book.

I felt like I was a date to a families family reunion party, and I had to listen to a bunch of stories that were important to them but only mildly interesting to me.