A Fine Southern Town

I've been hanging out in Apalachicola Florida the past three days. It's a quiet old town in the Florida Panhandle. Like many cool Australian beach towns, Apalachicola is on the coast at the mouth of a significant river; so both salt-and freshwater activities abound. The town was founded around 1830 and has been a lumber and shipping center for most of that time. There are many neat old 19th century houses, many, like these two, with widows' walks on the top of the roof. The main architectural style is Victorian, but I've seen some Queenslanders...with wraparound porches. The main Catholic church is done in Spanish mission style.

The streets are lined with large, shady trees, primarily oaks draped with Spanish moss. The effect is one of lush tranquillity. Lots are large, giving an air of spaciousness. The pace is slow. I like this place!

Right in the middle of town is the cemetery. Graves date to the 1840s. Many Confederate veterans are buried here. An interesting family plot is the Coombs family. Husband and wife died only about three weeks apart in 1911, both in their 60s. Their mansion sits just across the street; it's now a bed and breakfast. A look at the website tells the story; there was a fire at the house in early 1911, and Mrs Coombs took to her bed shortly thereafter and died in a few days. Her husband, married to her for over 40 years, succumbed less than a month later. But, their home has been beautifully restored...google Coombs House for details. By the way, the Coombs were originally from Maine, and their son, who fought for the north, is also interred in the cemetery, alongside all the CSA men.

Some of the old graves tell a story. This 1860 marker has a poem as an elegy to a young bloke who died in a shipping accident; blow up the pic and I think you can read the headstone. As it turned out, the bloke died about a year before the Civil War broke out. Given that, his chances of living to a ripe old age would probably have been unfavorable.

There's a Piggly Wiggly in Apalachicola! This is a chain of supermarkets that are common in South Carolina; this is the first one I've seen in Florida. Piggly Wiggly used to extend all the way to the west coast. There was one across the street from the bowling alley in northeast Portland where I hung out in the 1960s, but by the early '70s it had either changed ownership or closed, I forget which. But the chain is still going strong in parts of the south.