SKU: 77992936959

Totch: A Life in the Everglades

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Totch: A Life in the Everglades"Totch Brown's memoirs of vanished days in the Ten Thousand Islands and the Everglades the last real frontier in Florida, and even today the greatest roadless wilderness in the United States are invaluable as well as vivid and entertaining, for Totch is a natural born story teller, and his accounts of fishing and gator hunting as well as his life beyond the law as gator poacher and drug runner are evocative and colorful, fresh and exciting." from the

"Totch Brown's memoirs of vanished days in the Ten Thousand Islands and the Everglades--the last real frontier in Florida, and even today the greatest roadless wilderness in the United States--are invaluable as well as vivid and entertaining, for Totch is a natural-born story-teller, and his accounts of fishing and gator hunting as well as his life beyond the law as gator poacher and drug runner are evocative and colorful, fresh and exciting."--from the foreword by Peter Matthiessen

In the mysterious wilderness of swamps, marshes, and rivers that conceals life in the Florida Everglades, Totch Brown hung up his career as alligator hunter and commercial fisherman to become a self-confessed pot smuggler. Before the marijuana money rolled in, he survived excruciating poverty in one of the most primitive and beautiful spots on earth, Chokoloskee Island, in the mangrove keys known as the Ten Thousand Islands located at the western gateway to the Everglades National Park.

Until he wrote this memoir--recollections from his childhood in the twenties that merge with reflections on a way of life dying at the hands of progress in the nineties--Totch had never read a book in his life. Still, his writing conveys the tension he experienced from trying to live off the land and within the laws of the land.

Told with energy and authenticity, his story begins with the handful of souls who came to the area a hundred years ago to homestead on the high ground formed from oyster mounds built and left by the Calusa Indians. They lived close to nature in shacks built of tin or palmetto fans; they ate wild meat, Chokoloskee chicken (white ibis), swamp cabbage, even--when they were desperate--manatee; and they weathered all manner of natural disaster from hurricanes to swarms of "swamp angels" (mosquitoes). In his grandpa's day, Totch writes, outlaws and cutthroats would "shoot a man down just as quick as they'd knock down an egret, especially if he came between them and the plume birds."

His grandparents were both contemporaries of Ed J. Watson, the subject of Peter Matthiessen's best-selling Killing Mr. Watson, and Totch is featured in the recent award-winning PBS film Lost Man's River: An Everglades Adventure with Peter Matthiessen. He also appeared in Wind Across the Everglades, the 1957 Budd Schulberg movie in which Totch and Burl Ives sing some of Totch's Florida cracker songs.


Loren G. "Totch" Brown was born in Chokoloskee, Florida, in 1920. After purchasing his first motorboat at the age of thirteen (and retiring from formal schooling after the seventh grade) he worked as an alligator hunter, commercial fisherman, crabber, professional guide, poacher, marijuana runner, singer, and songwriter.



Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 09/20/1993
ISBN: 9780813012285
Pages: 279
Weight: 0.97lbs
Size: 9.02h x 6.10w x 0.82d

Review Citations: Booklist 12/01/1993 pg. 672
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SKU: 77992936959

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I should have know this would be like every other pillow I've ever ordered. It's too puffy for me. No give. It claims to offer better support for side sleepers but instead it's giving me kinks in my neck. Not for me. Not adjustable. Not versatile. Standard materials. White. Can't speak to washability and durability as I have had it long and haven't washed it. fair price for two standard pillows. I really wish all these bedding companies would stop rolling and vacuum sealing pillows and such.
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I had down pillows, and foam pillows, and other synthetic pillows etc and some were ok and others were not. I cannot get a great nights sleep if I am constantly having to adjust my pillow during the night. I ordered these pillows as I sleep on my side mostly but sometimes on my back. When they arrived I followed the directions (as they are in a vacuum pack) and only takes a few minutes for them to acclimate. Then put pillow cases on them and off to bed. I had the BEST sleep I have had in YEARS !!!!! The pillows are great. They keep your head comfortable and cool (No Sweating) and super comfortable. The only issue is after a perfect nights sleep, I find I really do not want to get out of bed in the morning..One great thing, is I am retired so I really do not have to get up out of bed until I want to 😴😳. The pillows are well made and feel like expensive down filled pillows but softer. I am VERY satisfied with the pillows. I just wish I would have found these pillows years ago. But now I have them and the perfect sleep that they provide. Dr Dave
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Bought these for our guest bedroom. They are quite overstuffed, so if you like full pillows this will be your thing. As such they are dense and firm. The height is a bit much if you are small framed, but are comfortable overall and stay cool enough to be nice in the summer.
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