Starlight Peppermints

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There are candy dishes with peppermints in every room of her house. She believes that a Starlight Peppermint can heal most everything from bad breath to HIV…and even if it can’t, it sure won’t hurt whatever is ailin’ you. She passes a candy dish to all who walk through her door.

 
“Peppermint?” She asks sweetly. 

A history lesson is sure to be learned by all who decide to sit a spell with her. 

Her stories of her father will give you faith in humanity. A humble fisherman, who, along with feeding his eleven children and step-children, often fed the hungry in the community. She remembers when he, and some of his fisherman buddies, would have to wear lipstick to protect their lips from the sun…long before chapstick or sunscreen was around.

She can tell you what she grew up hearing about what happened in Rosewood. Or the night the Cedar Key Jail burnt to the ground, as three Greek men were inside, and the international news it created.

She can tell you about the old broom factory that she started her working career at. Also, about the night that she, and three others, had their car break down on the railroad tracks, and had a train plow into it moments after they ran to safety. 

She can tell you about her mother being born on the Silver Springs Reservation, and how they were forced off when her Father died. 

At mention of World War II, she will likely tell you its effects on the young men of Cedar Key. How her brother was on one of the ships delivering boys who would storm the Beaches of Normandy. How she and her husband got together upon his return from the War. 

She can tell you about the color red. How her daddy didn’t think it was a suitable color for a girl; and how her color-blind husband always bought her red instead of white.

She can tell you about her husband writing notes in her Bible, while they were just dating. Or how different it was when she, a born and raised Cedar Key native, moved to Detroit for a year or so.

Raising a family. Working for years as a bus driver. Watching her husband battle cancer. Cedar Key history. All topics up for discussion.

She has witnessed so very much in her 89 years. If you’re willing to sit a spell, listen awhile, and take a Starlight Peppermint, she’ll fill your ears with tales from long ago.