February 11, 2008 – Book: Stutterin’ Boy
by Rob Smith, Jr. on Feb.11, 2008, under Books, Florida History!
This was a great read! A very well constructed book of the life of Mel Tillis from his birth in Tampa in 1932 to when the book came out in 1984. Lots about growing up in east Hillsborough County and around Pahokee. Fun to learn the poor to middle class Tillis family had a bakery in both locations, too!
One of the neatest stories of Tillis growing up is that while down in Pahokee and entering his teen years, his friends would grab the top of a young pine tree and pull it back. Someone would then sit on the top pulled back. The top of the tree would be let go and the young person would take flight near Lake Okeechobee!
Something else was that at the end of the book he writes that he was attempting to get Richard Powell’s book, ‘I’ll Take This Land’, about Florida pioneers made into a film. I did some simple checking and can’t find any indication a film was made. I hadn’t read Powell’s book yet. I bumped it to the front and let’s see how it stands against ‘A Land Remembered’.
‘Stutterin’ Boy’ is out of print, but worth searching out! I just hope Tillis will write a follow-up from 1984 to present.
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