The sugar mill was started when a donkey is determined by the name of Molly, all 15 hands, started in the circle for ambling draw belt supported machines that spit out the Brown juice. "Here is what you need to understand," Steve Melton said, as Molly trudged together. "This is how we used to do so in Florida."
Melton, 62, holds a cane grinding each December in Pasco County farm as a reminder of the time when Floridians could not purchase sugar in bags at Publix. From the Panhandle to the keys, people of every race and creed to grow sugar cane, the stem is harvested in the fall, squeezed into juice and then Rod boiled the juice to the sweet syrup they sprinkled into coffee or more pancakes or even meat. An age before mass communication grinding sugar cane as well as social gatherings where Floridians may exchange news and gossip, tell jokes and sharing their dreams.
Now, it's ancient history, demonstrations in the country just, perhaps, or an image in the history books. Melton and a few others stubbornly scattered throughout the country continue to come out. They invite friends, neighbors and historians interested in watching. By making syrups sticks they keep in touch with their past. They think about loved ones long dead, grandmother created from scratch biscuits swimming in sugar cane syrup.
On the cane grinding, the boy swung on the rope under the oak moss draped while toddlers slid through the ears of corn weed licking butter dripping. From the terrace near the guitarist, mandolin player and fellow plucked bass sink done bluegrass song timeless.
The little girl skipping rope. Old man in overalls learn old tractor with a critical eye. Steve Melton collect old tractor. He was also collecting antique machinery that in the era of digging holes and planting corn seed and harvested. The ghosts of people who sweated and bled on the machines that are not visible except in Melton's memory.