Is Coral Springs Near Milton?

I read an article on the Foxnews website where two teen age brothers in Coral Springs, Florida, were fighting and one of them plunged a knife through the other’s chest killing him.

“Two teenage brothers were home alone in their suburban neighborhood when an argument over loud music spiraled out of control, police said, leaving one brother dead from a knife to the chest and the other accused of killing him.”

I remember driving across Florida with my folks to visit my grandparents. We stopped for breakfast in Milton at a small local café where the waitress chewed gum and smoked a cigarette while taking our order. When she brought our order and placed it on the table a fly buzzed past us. Quicker than you can say “Hick town waitress” she slapped it with a fly swatter, wiped away what was left with a table napkin and continued on as part of the entertainment.

We joked about the incident as we told the story to my grandfather, “Unc”; that’s a whole “nother” explanation I’ll have to throw in. When my maternal grandfather died, my grandmother re-married; I better back up some more or none of this will make sense.

Once upon a time, isn’t that the way children’s stories are supposed to start; well there were a brother and sister with the last name Fraser. My grandfather, William Fraser married my grandmother and his sister married Daniel Wadsworth. The brother and sister eventually died and a second union, one between the surviving spouses was held.

I’m one of the few kids who can say, with a straight face, that I attended my grandmother’s wedding. I wasn’t all that thrilled, come to think of it; the wedding took place the same day as Little League try outs. So the fellow we all called “Unc” was now married to my grandmother. I know, for a few moments you thought we were from the hills of W. Virginia; there I go again, insulting a whole state.

Anyway, getting back to the waitress swatting flies at the café in Milton, “Unc” grew up in the backwater towns of Florida. He laughed and threw in, “They’d kill you for a quarter in Milton”; guess we got off lucky.

I read the rest of the story and found where Coral Springs is just north of Miami; maybe these folks had relatives in Milton. Remember, “They’d kill you for a quarter in Milton.”

Now I remember, from my American History class; Florida was where they dumped the least desirable, the dregs of society; robbers, murderers, politicians and lawyers. And they thought I wasn’t paying attention…