Sitting on grandpa's front porch, I could see the river as it flows past the island. I could see the flame vine behind the porch swing and bumblebees and swallowtail butterflies having their breakfast.

The water cistern was built at the back of the house. A purple fig tree towerd over the back yard, where the chicken coops, hog pens and vegetable garden were locatd. Beyond the back yard you would enter the woods. A hardwood trail would get you from there to aunt Eva's house. Her house stood on a high shell mound and is the very house that my Dad and his parents left, when they moved to West Tampa (Ybor City area). Dad was in the 9th grade when they left the city and returned to Shiver's Island.

I learned to row a boat in Tiger Bay. We were directly across from Tiger Island, where Divid Yulee's house stood, until it was burned down during the Civil War.

The porch on the side of the house near the kitchen had a shelf that held a whash basin and soap. After supper, grandpa would light a smudge smoker in an empty lard can to keep the sand gnats at bay. Sitting quietly, I would listen to the stories of what life was like, when they were young. Grandpa told us stories of how he met the Seminole Indian Billy Bowlegs, when he was a youth.