The Atmosphere of Bill and Patty's Blacksmith Shop Hits Your Senses Like a Sledgehammer and Beckons You Back to a Different Time

Pictures (click to enlarge) -
1. Patty Draper shows Josef how to start his coat hook.
2. Bill and Patty invite us into their blacksmith shop made from scratch.
3. Doug Dawson makes hose hanger while Bill Robertson says to not keep it in the fire too long.
4. Joel Dawson puts a tip on her garden hose guard.
5. Harry strikes the iron while it is hot making a wrought iron nail.


Today George and Joel took us 20 miles east of town into the middle of "cracker land" in the Florida Panhandle. Around each curve in the road you expected to meet up with Marjorie Rawlings - this is the Florida that I abandoned the coal regions of Pennsylvania for.

Finally we reached the homestead of Bill Robertson and Patty Draper. It is a splendid country place - a cedar home up on stilts and a blacksmith shop nearby. Did you ever run into someone new and feel that you had a brush with genius? That is how I felt about meeting these folks. Bill has a degree from FSU in psychology and spent 15 years as a taxidermist. Patty has a doctorate in law and worked as a lawyer for FSU. A few years ago - they just decided to try a new life. They built a really neat blacksmith shop and now they make things out of iron. They also collect historic tools - their home is decorated beautifully and reminds one of a museum. This is real country life - right down to their Twin Toyota Tacoma Trucks.

To my surprise - when we got to the blacksmith shop - they had two fires going in the forges and they were going to teach us how to be blacksmiths. Joel made a garden hose protector - Doug made a hose hook - Josef from South Africa made a decorative clothes hook - and I made a nail. If was just so much fun working with all the antique tools. I was smithing on an anvil from the 1600s. One's senses were overwhelmed with a feeling of history.

After our work - we had a lunch that Joel prepared and brought along - sandwiches - soup - salad - all from scratch. Notice I did not mention George in the story once - he drove us there - and just watched us having this wonderful experience.... and then he drove us home. Thanks, George.