A while back my boyfriend asked me the definition of the word "Cracker" as it applies to Floridians. I gave him some background but ended up saying:
I don't know.
I don't think anybody has the definitive answer to that question. In this morning's "Florida Flashback" column Joy Wallace gives it a try. So here are a couple of hers and a couple of mine.
DEFINITION OF THE PHRASE "FLORIDA CRACKER."
A person born in Florida.
A Florida cowboy.
A bigoted backwoods Southern white.
A self-reliant, independent, and tenacious settler.
A kind of Florida architecture.
A person who "cracked" rawhide whips.
My favorite definition is the one of the early settlers. Not the Northerners who came down for the winter and stayed in grand hotels - but the men and women who hacked their way through the jungle and tamed the land. And who stayed through the miserable, mosquito infested summers. For them, Florida was - and is - home.
Be careful who you call a cracker unless you mean it as a compliment.
***
I don't know.
I don't think anybody has the definitive answer to that question. In this morning's "Florida Flashback" column Joy Wallace gives it a try. So here are a couple of hers and a couple of mine.
DEFINITION OF THE PHRASE "FLORIDA CRACKER."
A person born in Florida.
A Florida cowboy.
A bigoted backwoods Southern white.
A self-reliant, independent, and tenacious settler.
A kind of Florida architecture.
A person who "cracked" rawhide whips.
My favorite definition is the one of the early settlers. Not the Northerners who came down for the winter and stayed in grand hotels - but the men and women who hacked their way through the jungle and tamed the land. And who stayed through the miserable, mosquito infested summers. For them, Florida was - and is - home.
Be careful who you call a cracker unless you mean it as a compliment.
***
