A Magnolia Tribune columnist recalled 60 years of visits to the Florida Panhandle and said the trips began when a family quietly helped his mother and two boys after his father’s death, the columnist wrote.
The columnist said he was 6 when his father died after a brief battle with cancer and that Dr. J.P. Culpepper, a friend of his father, helped care for the family. He wrote that the Culpepper family brought his mother, brother and him to Florida several times and that, as children, they did not realize those trips were an act of charity.
He wrote that in the 1970s condo development drew more visitors to the Panhandle and that he moved there in 1983 to work in a restaurant. The columnist said he was 21, using alcohol and drugs, was fired, entered rehab in May 1983 and has been sober since that time.
The columnist wrote that he returned to the beach four years later, waited tables at Harbor Docks in Destin and later planned the Purple Parrot Café. He said he and his family have spent a week nearly every summer in the WaterColor area for decades, that he works most mornings while there and that he plans meals as part of his vacation routine. He added that his daughter married last year and is now pregnant, and he wrote that he expects to be a grandfather next summer.
The columnist told Magnolia Tribune that the memory of the Culpeppers quietly making room for his family has remained important to him. The column also included a recipe for “Breakfast Casserole Number 3,” the columnist wrote.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
