Johnny Bullard

“And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling, yeah, rolling. Rolling on the river.”

— Lyrics from “Proud Mary,” written by John Fogerty

Numerous individuals have given the above lyrics the “good old college try,” but that song, in my opinion, will forever belong to Tina Turner. Tina could tear “Proud Mary” up when she was with Ike Turner. What a song!! What a voice!! That gal could move more ways in a pair of high, high-heeled shoes, well, to watch her entertain was and, still is a marvel. What a river, our own beloved Suwannee River.

The title of my article is “Around the Banks of the Suwannee.” There are several Florida counties through which the 250-mile stream flows: Hamilton, Columbia, Suwannee, Madison, Lafayette, Gilchrist, Dixie before emptying in the Gulf of Mexico. The river, with its dark, tannic colored waters.

Now I am not writing this article to give you a history lesson nor a geography lesson, but I am writing it to let you know what the Suwannee means to some of our local citizens:

“When we were coming up, our vacation was going to the Suwannee River and swimming while Daddy and my Uncles went fishing. Usually they had good luck, and they would clean those Suwannee River catfish and bream, and Mama and my Aunts would fry them right there not ‘around’ but ‘on the banks of the Suwannee River.’ Our lives were simple, and we didn’t have a lot of money, but oh did we laugh and have a good time. I look back on those days now as some of the happiest ever. When it’s all said and done, there’s no substitute for feeling loved, and I sure felt that when I was with all my family, swimming, running, playing in the water, eating fish and grits and hushpuppies, good memories.”

“I guess the thing I remember most about the river is that I was baptized in it. I was about 12 or 13 years of age, and it was during the spring of the year. The river was not out of the banks, but I remember being dressed in a white robe and my head was ‘tied up’ in a white turban, and those members of the church including so many of my loved ones stood on the banks of the river and sang the old spiritual ‘Wade in the Water. Wade in the Water Children. Wade in the Water. God’s gonna trouble the water.’

“I can still hear those voices, and I can still remember how cool the water was, and how I felt when I came up after being baptized, and there was a shout of ‘Hallelujahs’ and ‘Amens.’ The river, to me, is not just a place of recreation. To me, the river is, well, almost sacred, I wonder, how many individuals just like me have had those cool waters engulf them, as their baptismal waters.”

“When I think about the river, I think about the hours and hours I have spent on the Suwannee River fishing. As much as I love to fish, I love the beauty of the river just that much. There’s always a sameness and a peacefulness to it, but there’s always something new.”

“NO matter where we were traveling as children. We would cross the Suwannee River, and our father would begin singing a very ‘off key’ version of ‘Way down upon the Suwannee River,’ and we would all join in. Daddy couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but I can still hear him singing it with everything he had, and we all got a kick out of it. GREAT memories.”

“There is nothing like the peace of being in a canoe or kayak on the Suwannee during the autumn and enjoying the beauty of the leaves. Everyone feels you must travel to the mountains to enjoy the fall foliage. I have seen some pretty breathtaking sites here on the Suwannee River during the fall of the year.”

“Years ago when we worked in tobacco, we couldn’t wait to get off and ‘bust the river’ wide open. Each day we’d go swimming, and whoop, holler, and oh, that cold water felt so good after a day of all that heat and sand. I wish I felt the way I felt then. Wonderful memories.”

“I remember having my sixth birthday party with a picnic down at Suwannee River State Park at Ellaville. We had a ball. My birthday is in the early fall, and that has been many years ago now. I can remember walking with cousins, aunt and uncle over to old Drew’s Mansion, and the stories they told. The old place was pretty dilapidated then.”

As an aside, I want to give Eric Musgrove a compliment on his article in the last week’s “Suwannee Democrat” about Governor Drew who built Drew’s Mansion. I learned a lot from that article, and it was very interesting. Another thing that always reminds me of the river is the title of the newspaper in Live Oak “Suwannee Democrat.”

Many years ago a New York journalist, James Craig who wrote for a newspaper, now defunct “The New York Telegram and Evening Mail” wrote the following, and I love it:

“The real Suwannee River does not rise in any part of Georgia. It rises in the highest mountains of the human soul and is fed by the deepest springs in the human heart. It does not empty into any material sea, but into the glorious ocean of unfulfilled dreams.”

Many thanks to so many of my readers for sharing their memories, and their thoughts. I appreciate this very much.

From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing you all a day filled with joy, peace, and, above all, lots of love and laughter.