Yulee, Florida is not a town, a city, or a village. It’s a “place.”
Yulee is officially designated as a “place” – a census-designated place (CDP) – located in East Nassau County. CDPs are unincorporated communities that are identified as “places” for statistical purposes during the census. That’s it, nothing more, nothing less..
Sure, it’s a rapidly-growing residential “place” with a handful of grocery stores, a two-chair barber shop and a suburban feel, but it’s still not a legally incorporated place. There’s no downtown, nothing. There’s no there there. It’s a plain ‘ole dot-on-the-map “place.” It’s a nowhere nondescript kind of place just off Interstate 95, located somewhere between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, sprinkled with strip malls, fast food joints, traffic congestion, convenience stores and signs pointing the way to Amelia Island located “over-the-bridge”.
Yulee is certainly not the “place” Toby Keith sings about in his hit song:
It’s my kind of place
Just walkin’ through the front door
Puts a big smile on my face
Nope, Yulee doesn’t do that. It has no character, nothing to point to with pride. There are no postcards touting Yulee’s attractions or landmarks because it doesn’t have any. Even a statue of its dubious namesake David Yulee, is in Fernandina Beach. So, maybe it’s time for residents to change its image, starting with its name.
Since it isn’t a town or a city, it doesn’t have a mayor, a city commission, or a town hall full of mindless bureaucrats performing useless tasks. That’s a good thing. However, it’s not a lawless anything-goes kind of place either (unless you count urban sprawl). It’s a decent place, albeit a nowhere place.
The well-respected, tough-as-nails Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper and his crew keep things under control. The no-nonsense, frugal Nassau County Commission is in charge of the nuts and bolts stuff that keeps the “over the bridge” (OTB) place humming.
The best thing folks living in this “place” could do for their community is give it a new identity. It’s not that hard to do and I doubt it would meet much resistance from locals, most of whom probably don’t even know the derivation of the place’s name.
I used to live in Austin, Texas, South of a tiny town of 25 called Andice, about 40 miles away. Historians disagree, but locals told me that the town got its name when residents of Williamson County voted to go “dry” thus causing the only commercial establishment thereabouts to change its outdoor sign that read “Beer And Ice” to “…And Ice” thereby conceiving the newly incorporated community’s name.
I have an idea more creative than “And Ice.” How about changing the name from “Yulee,” after David Yulee, a Confederate slave owning, treasonous swindler to ”Henry,” the name of a local accomplished and generous, admired national athlete, Derrick Henry.
Florida Author Craig Pittman, who was in Fernandina’s Beach’s Story & Song Book Store and Café last week for a discussion of his new book “Welcome to Florida” is not a David Yulee fan. He labels him “one of the rogues and rascals who ran the state for his own profit.”
Apparently the only folks that admire Yulee are the ones OTB who honored him with a statue in front of Fernandina’s old train station about 10 years ago. While other U.S. communities were frantically tearing down statues of Confederate luminaries, a handful of locals hereabouts were busily raising funds to erect one of their shady hero, Yulee.
Yulee’s single accomplishment, says Pittman in his 2027 book, “Oh Florida“ was “building Florida’s first cross-state railroad using federal and state money that also lined his own pockets.”
Pittman’s not alone of his criticism of Yulee. In his 2013 book “Finding Florida – The true History of the Sunshine State”, native Floridian and Miami Herald Reporter T.D. Allman, also obliterates the local Yulee myth
Allman traces slaveholder Yulee’s path from his urging of Florida to join the Union to advocating its secession while a sitting U.S. Senator, an act that earned him a prison term in Fort Pulaski, GA for treason following the civil war. I’ve read elsewhere that Yulee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis were the only two key Confederates imprisoned following the war.
Wouldn’t it be more fitting to rename the place after a local hero rather than a disgraceful zero?
Derrick Henry is a nationally admired area native, who established the U.S. high school football rushing record at Yulee High School and went on to fame and fortune in college and the NFL?
Oh, let’s also rename the high school to honor its most famous graduate.
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Black Doors Matter: Flipping through a periodical the other day an article on residential home sales caught my attention.
The item, compiled from a roundup of experts and studies on real estate values, reported at MoneyTalksNews.com, claims that by merely painting the front door black sellers can raise the sale price of their home an average of $6,271. I have no idea how they arrived at this figure, and they didn’t say. It also said that if you’re trying to sell your house and your neighbor’s lawn is poorly kept, it’ll hurt your efforts.
A couple of other items it says that’ll help sell your house are new bathroom caulk, indicating a well-maintained home, and tightened doorknobs and hinges, that show a home is well-cared -for. You’re welcome.
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Look! Protestors! Floor It! It appears that ICE protesters in Florida are in season and know better than to block roads after Governor Ron DeSantis reminded state residents they have rights.
Protestors in Florida blocking roadways do so at their own peril as they could end up being hood ornaments on an angry commuter’s car. Blocking traffic has been used in leftist protests and has enraged drivers thereby sparking debate on what people can do to prevent being blocked.
Protestors in Tampa recently were more than courteous and didn’t block roadways thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis’ ruling.
Protesters there used timed crosswalk crossings to convey their anti-ICE message before scampering out of the roadway for the coming green light.
According to a Bix Pac Review (BPM) article June 14, DeSantis issued a reminder that drivers don’t have to be held hostage by the whims of protestors. Protesters in Tampa comically block street during red light, flee on green light
“And we also have a policy that if you’re driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety,” the governor said. “And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you. You don’t have to sit there and just be a sitting duck and let the mob grab you out of your car and drag you through the streets. You have a right to defend yourself in Florida.”
In Fernandina Beach the traditionally small gatherings of protestors cause few problems and are unable to attract attention much less disrupt much of anything. They mostly resemble a confused assembly of grey-haired grannies gathered for a quilting bee who stumbled outside by accident, having no idea of why they are there and lacking any leadership or direction. And nobody wants a grey-haired granny hood ornament.
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Speaking Of Protestors: A confused crowd of the usual grey-haired local granny suspects milled aimlessly around downtown’s old courthouse last week carrying hand-painted “No Kings” protest signs, chanting indecipherable nonsense and appearing ridiculously dim.
When confronted with questions from bystanders, all these little ‘ole ladies could muster in response was a middle finger. Shouldn’t they be home making cookies and knitting?
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Nosediving Media: My Tampa Plant High School pal, Larry Thornberry, a current American Spectator writer, casts doubt on the recent media statistics saying: “Fox News presents the most realistic picture of what’s going on in our nation and world. But I wouldn’t celebrate these numbers. 2.7 million viewers in a nation of 340 million means fewer than one percent of Americanos watch Fox News at night.”
Larrys adds that “the numbers for ABC, NBC, and CBS need to be added together as they’re all information arms of the progressive project and their products are indistinguishable. “
“Together they have nearly three times the viewers of Fox. But, taken all around, the lot of them together have a trifling effect on the life of the republic. ‘Influencers’ on anti-social media clean the floor with all of them. For every person who listens to Brit Hume’s reasoned analyses, there are dozens who follow the ramblings of some guy who’s at his keyboard in his pajamas all day or some gal with purple hair. This is why we have so many rebels without a clue.”
Following are the numbers: Ere are the numbers: https://www.foxnews.com/media/fox-news-beats-abc-nbc-cbs-during-weekday-primetime-while-cnn-has-lowest-rated-week-year .
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Muffuletta Sighting: A well-known Amelia Island reader who prefers to keep a low profile hereabouts alerted me to a muffuletta sighting recently writing: “Dave, for a few years I’ve read about your craving for Muffuletta sandwiches, which, until a few days ago, I had never had one. I had occasion recently to have lunch at the Oyster Bay Yacht Club and noticed two new sandwiches on the menu: a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich, which I love, and a Muffuletta sandwich. Torn between my favorite and my curiosity you’ve raised over the Muffuletta sandwich, I finally opted to try the Muffuletta. I found it to be quite delicious, though I have no frame of reference to compare it to any others. I just thought you might like to know that the next time you have an incessant craving for a Muffuletta, you can try to con someone into letting you dine there.”
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Wait! What? Why do all those protestors out there waving Mexican and Venezuelan flags get so intensely angry and resist when picked up and sent back to the countries whose flags they proudly wave?
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Paid Parking? So far I have yet to have anyone convince me why “paid parking” in downtown Fernandina Beach is a bad or good idea. I have no idea why I’m supposed to endorse it or oppose it. Can someone persuasively explain in two or three sentences why I should care?
Paid parking….repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results is insanity.
Dave, It is clear to me that having “enough” parking in Downtown Fernandina is far more important than having “paid” parking spaces on Center. Put up some paid parking decks and have at it, but don’t disrupt the small town feel of everything between Ash and Alchua. Find a better way to collect more money than to engage in a labor intensive program policed by an army of golf cart vigilante’s. Also there is a current debacle going on in St. Augustine where a new paid parking program is not working well and is on the news. There is also a petition that received 5,000+ signatures just yesterday against paid parking collected in a very short time on Change.org.
Dave:
I will be having my book launch “10Steps To Finding Mr. “Not-So” Perfect ” at Story and Song August 14th from 3-4pm.
Appreciate any assistance you can offer.
Also enjoy your blog.
Paid Parking – can’t possibly increase business for the downtown area
Paid Parking- an annoyance for tourists and AI residents
Paid Parking- how about if the city reduces its bloated staff first via analysis conducted by relatively new city manager
Perhaps renaming Yulee could be “Heisman?” “Shocka?” (Derrick’s nickname) or just “O’ Henry?”
Confederate slave owning, treasonous swindler.?
Dave! This sounds much more like an opinion from the Observer than your bit. I don’t agree with you at all on this topic. Yulee lived in different times as yours, and your rash judgement of him is reprehensible and not to your objective standards. The honoring of his legacy with the town name is appropriate, and your liberal bias is starting to show here. He was able to legally create a flourishing town, supplying the nation with goods from Florida. Thousands were employed by his legal operations. Sadly, the times were such that many endured difficult work to make it all happen.
I hope that your comments were satire, because Yulee, not a saint, created the town that you call home.
Instead of ‘Henry’, how about ‘OTB, Florida’?
The Muffuletta isn’t a sandwich. It’s a culinary oil spill wearing a sesame-seed hat. Imagine someone took every leftover from an Italian deli floor, threw it into a bread frisbee, and said, “This… this is lunch.”
The meats? A greasy lineup of salt-cured deli rejects, stacked like someone’s trying to hide evidence. Mortadella, aka “bologna with acne,” is stuffed next to ham slicker than a used car salesman. Salami joins in, sweating through its casing like it just ran a marathon through a sodium factory.
And then — the olive salad. If coleslaw and motor oil had a baby and left it in a jar for a month, you’d have something close. It’s chunky, funky, and somehow both mushy and crunchy, like it can’t decide which part of your soul to assault first. It slathers every inch of the sandwich like it’s trying to drown the bread before you can.
The bread itself? A dense, round discus of doom. It absorbs all the oil and salt like a sponge made of regret. Take a bite and the whole thing explodes in your hands — meats sliding, oil dripping, and olive bits flinging off like shrapnel.
By the end, your fingers are greasy, your face smells like an Italian deli dumpster, and your stomach’s asking, “Why do you hate me?”
For my next post, I’ll address MAGA and the content of this blog. Meanwhile, y’all keep eating those disgusting things and I’ll see you in the ER!
Doc: I rarely respond to comments, but your penned assault of the Muffuletta requires urgent attention.
After chuckling out loud and wiping away a tear or two of laughter, I have to defend my favorite sandwich that you dismembered with your scalpel-like disrespectful but witty words.
Your attempt to slap a “do not resuscitate” warning onto my favorite deli delicacy had the opposite of your intended outcome. Your malicious description reinforces why I love that New Orleans inspired Italian dinner in a bun and you, doctor, are guilty of culinary malpractice. You generated an irrepressible urge in me to find and convince a member of the Oyster Bay Yacht Club to smuggle me into that joint or smuggle out one of those dietary delicacies, containing what you apparently believe are gastronomical explosives with time-delay fuses.
If the medical experts like you are correct, and humor is indeed a cure, then after I eat my rustled Muffuletta I’ll see you in the ER for your standup show and a comical cure. I’m looking forward to your promised MAGA routine. However, you’ve set the bar so high I fear I may be disappointed.
By the way, do you happen to know where I can find smoked mullet hereabouts?
On renaming Yulee, perhaps Hart’s Road, it’s original name or Kings Ferry which could make some heads explode. Both have history in the area.
Yulee’s identity crisis comes from strip malls on 200 and no downtown.
A town center is suggested on any of the north to south roads crossing 200. A town square with shops and no chain restaurants.
If you love a Muffuletta, then you would be over-the-top for a sandwich from The Original Fireside Caterers up in LawnGuyland call Mussolini’s Revenge!
A recent president once said, “I wonder, is it George Washington next week?” How about Jacksonville?
After reading the post by “A Real Doctor” I think we have found a much more entertaining food critic than that wordy Amelia Magazine lady.