Fringe Florida: Travels Among Mud Boggers, Furries, Ufologists, Nudists, and Other Lovers of Unconventional Lifestyles by Lynn Waddell

Author:Lynn Waddell [Waddell, Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Social Science, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), Cultural, Anthropology
ISBN: 9780813044934
Google: n7dpmAEACAAJ
Amazon: 0813044936
Goodreads: 17347813
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2013-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

may be. It doesn’t matter if their ancestors fought for the Union, the

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southern rebel rules.

I see more Confederate flags in these muddy fields than I’ve seen

in my entire life, and I grew up in a town that was briefly the national

headquarters for the Ku Klux Klan. The Stars and Bars is on ATV flags,

car tags, rear windows, shirts, and hats. A woman in a rebel-flag bikini

and cowboy boots parades throughout the park on the hood of a truck

with a Busch beer in her hand. When she goes on break, a blow-up doll

in a rebel-flag bikini takes her place.

One buggy flies a pair of rebel flags imprinted with Hank Williams

Jr.’s face. “If the South Woulda Won.” Yes, imagine.

Not surprisingly, the crowd is more than 99.9 percent white.

Redneck Rock Stars

As Tony steers us to the next play area, he shouts that we’ll come back

after the races. “It really gets busy in the pits then.” Busier is hard to

fathom, but the main parking lot and campground give a sense of the

potential. A mass of steel and horsepower covers more than 40 acres.

Everything from million-dollar RVs to towering pickups with flatbed

trailers.

The amount of money invested in the sea of recreational vehicles is

unfathomable. Tony says his buggy tires alone cost six hundred dollars

proof

each. It costs a hundred dollars just to fill up the buggy for one day in

the park. Even small ATVs sell for around $5,000. Then there’s the cost

of constant maintenance and upkeep. Breakdowns are a given.

A fancy buggy nearly as large as Redneck Royalty is stalled by a bro-

ken fuel pump. The owner says it was the only replacement part he

didn’t bring. He had to send someone all the way back to Punta Gorda

to pick up a new one.

Tony nods his head in commiseration; he’s been in that spot before.

A row of vendors in travel trailers borders the huge campground.

The smell of fried food overpowers our buggy exhaust. This is one of

s

the few areas where people dare set out on foot, and not just for a

KCe

burger and fries. A mudder can pick up a copy of Mud Life, an Orlando-

nd

based magazine distributed around the nation and a big seller at U.S.

er

military bases in the Middle East. A few entrepreneurial, self-professed

laC

“bubbas” of central Florida hawk Bubba Rope®, a towing strap adapted

ida

from ones used by military helicopters. And what event would be with-

r

out a T-shirt vendor? A family-based business from Myakka started

53

small, but soon incorporated as Sloppy Holes Mud’n Club. They sell

1

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