Easier Way To Make A Living

There was a guy who lived in Cedar Key.  Everybody poked fun at him and they all said he wasn't quite right.  But Chuck liked him and always got along just fine with him.  His name was Charles Rogers. 

Please, please do not confuse him with Mr. Charlie Rogers, who was the Pastor of the Methodist Church for many years.   They are two entirely different men with the same name.

One night Chuck and some of his friends were out boogalooing.  They happened to bump into Charles downtown somewhere.  Chuck’s friend Wilbur (Chuck always called him Red) Allen, and Charles, disliked each other considerably.  They started making snide remarks to each other, and that led to a scuffle. 

Chuck got between them trying to break it up. The next thing he knew Wilbur said “Damn Charles, you cut me.”  Chuck looked around, and sure enough Charles had reached around Chuck and had cut Wilbur’s belly open.  Charles always carried a knife and he kept it razor sharp.  He had been known to use if before.

The fight stopped immediately.  Wilbur grabbed his stomach trying to hold it together and keep his guts from falling out and said again, “Damnit Charles, you cut me!” 

Charles said, “Wilbur I tried to git you to leave me alone and you wouldn't, you a lot bigger’n me and I had to stop you the only way I know how to.”  They loaded Wilbur into a car and took him to a hospital and got him sewed up.  He carried that scar the rest of his life.

A Bird's Eye View Of Cedar Key

The time Chuck spent in Cedar Key before joining the Navy was always treasured by him; those were some of the happiest and most care-free days of his life.

On the last ice fishing trip with his Uncle’s, they were fishing up on the western shore, up toward the mouth of the Suwannee River.  They had the hold about half full and a nor'easter hit. It pushed all the tide out and left them hard aground on a sandbank.

And there they were stuck, till three or four days later when the tide came in enough they were afloat again and could get out of that area.  During the time they were stuck there, Chuck said, “It was as cold as a well digger’s a** in the Klondike, and I decided there ought to be an easier way to make a living.”

Photo Courtesy of Carmen Day Williams
 this is the back corner of the Fish House

After they came in and settled up at the fish house, and Chuck settled all of his open accounts with those he owed money to, he went and found Wilbur (Red) and Jake Campbell.

They took off up to Gainesville, got rip roaring drunk, and joined the Navy. Jake was the designated driver and he stayed sober. By the time they made it to the Recruiting Office they were almost falling down drunk and Jake was sober, but when he got nervous he stuttered; the Recruiting Officer wouldn't let Jake join because he thought Jake was drunk.

Of course Chuck and Wilbur thought this was just hilarious!  And they teased Jake about it, here he was the only one sober and they could barely stand up.

This  story concludes the stories of Chuck’s fishing and turtling days in Cedar Key before he joined the United States Navy and spent the next twenty + years sailing the seven seas in a submarine.