City Snapshots

When I met John Lee, he was doing his best to persuade me to buy one of his “magical t-shirts.” At his Apalachicola store Southern Sage, John said that the shirts that are emblazoned with antique logos will have the following effect:

1. You’ll fish better.

2. They have mojo in them.

3. Your significant other will treat you like a queen.

Take it from me, he’s pretty convincing, so my two friends and I each walked out of his establishment proudly toting an Apalachicola t-shirt.  We also pushed a pin into our hometowns on the U.S. map John that has for everyone who buys a t-shirt.  The map is only three months old and already has hundreds of pins in it.

John is also a walking billboard for the small city situated on the Florida Panhandle.  “This is the third oldest town in the state of Florida and the first place to manufacture a machine that produces ice,” he told us from behind the counter.

John has had a pretty interesting life.  The Idaho native was in the air force and that’s how he ended up in Florida in the early 1960s.  He also owned the local newspaper for over 30 years.   A special display for the 1997 Peter Fonda film Ulee’s Gold was positioned on the counter beside the old timey cash register, and John explained how the majority of the movie was filmed in his small town. John quickly picked up a remote control when we asked about the DVD display and pressed play on a boxy television that was set up to play Ulee’s Gold.  He fast forwarded through the film to show us different scenes in the downtown area and smiled proudly at his knowledge of the area.

The human encyclopedia of Apalachicola is a definite fixture of the small town.  And a t-shirt from Southern Sage is a necessary souvenir if you want good fishing, a happy love life, and a dose of John’s magic mojo.