Back Roads

About the Book

            Florida has been called “The State Without A Soul.”  The people that moved to Florida left their roots at the place they came from.

            This history of the long ago features people with their roots who were born here, walked the sands of time and will be buried here at the Cedars of Lebanon Cemetery.      Their headstones already mark the spot where their roots will remain for eternity.

            Dessie Smith Prescott, whose picture is in the “Women’s Hall of Fame” in Tallahassee said, “If you find yourself on a back road, get off and walk the main road.”

            Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is also in the Hall of Fame because Dessie helped her to survive long enough to write “The Yearling” and many other Florida books.

            Some of the history tells of the memories and roots that people brought to this area to build “The State With A Soul.”

            This book is written so that the old stories don’t get lost.  It links the threads together of the Soul or Spirit of Florida.

About the Author

            At age 89, Betty Berger has plans for another book after “Back Roads,” which was written to keep the old stories from getting lost.  It will not be a religious book, but a spiritual one to point out a path we will all travel one day.

            Betty tells of getting engaged with a pair of ice skates, getting married in black and it still lasted 57 years, when her husband, Red, passed into the “Great Unknown” more than 14 years ago.

            She was always interested in art and went one term to the Art Institute of Chicago.  She likes to paint what is written in history.  The picture is of her alongside of her painting of Port Inglis Island, which won first place at the Yankeetown, Florida Art, Craft and Seafood Festival in 2007.

            Her husband, Red, spent 22 years in the Coast Guard and she traveled with him.  They lived in a trailer during World War II.  She traveled alone when he went to a new assignment on the train and she had to pull the trailer and meet him there.  The Coast Guard sent him to Key West for the summer and Duluth, Minnesota for the winter.

            Red retired and they didn’t stop in Thomasville, Georgia as planned.  Red didn’t like the parking meters on the main street.  He didn’t find any parking meters in Inglis and only one stoplight.  Retirement here has lasted more than 50 years and still counting.