Fifty-seven years ago, as a foolish seventeen-year-old looking for adventure, I had my most memorable date on an evening when the last hurricane that directly visited St. Pete Beach’s Pass-a-Grille Beach roared along the Tampa Bay Area coast. Back then, television weather forecasts featured a weatherman drawing storm predictions on a white board with a felt-tipped marker over a silhouette of the state. Warnings were not taken as seriously then as they should have been.
Michael Arthur Taylor
Praise
Gulfport Author Tells His Rodeo Mama’s Story
Michael Taylor’s mother had a “rodeo romance” with her husband. Pictured here are Taylor’s books, on a table built by his father to frame a hand-tooled leather piece his mother created in 1947.
It may seem like an unlikely story: A young woman from small town Massachusetts takes a job at a dude ranch, marries an aspiring rodeo rider, and follows her cowboy dreams into the Florida sunset.
It happens to be true.
Two new books from Gulfport author Michael Taylor (“Natalie, A New England Girl with Cowboy Dreams” and “Natalie’s Cowboy Dreams Take a Tropical Twist”) chronicle the life of Taylor’s mother, Natalie Gray Taylor Linger, who moved with her husband and two boys to a ranch in Indiantown in 1956. Their rodeo romance – part of a thriving Western culture of dude ranches that flourished across the country in the 1940s and 1950s – wasn’t always easy. The accidental death of Natalie’s son Smokey and divorce from her husband Bill rocked Natalie’s foundations, but she hung on. Reflecting on the story captured in his pages, Taylor muses, “I think she would be proud.”
This isn’t Taylor’s first foray into family history. His 2016 memoir “Growing Up Floridian” chronicles his early life, from cracker cowboy kid in rural Florida to a beach-loving teenager on the Gulf. His new project involved a lot more research, gathering stories from older relatives and reading accounts of everyday life during the World War II era. His investigations lead him to discover some fascinating Florida stories – like tales of Vick and Faye Blackstone, a legendary Florida rodeo duo and the only couple represented both in the national Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Cowboy Hall of Fame –as well as some surprises, including two divorce certificates indicating his parents had divorced not once, but twice.
“Writing gives you a changed sense of yourself, of your family.”
His research also delved into what became one of the real highlights of the Natalie books: dozens of striking photographs of his mother. Each chapter begins with a different image that captures the essence of that moment in her life, and Taylor notes that pairing words and images through the self-publishing platform provided by Amazon Kindle offered one of the most satisfying aspects of the project.
I’m a little envious; as a collector of family stories, I would love to see some of them immortalized in print – triumphs, struggles, and oddball adventures playing out on the page, and connecting my ancestors to the bigger story of life in this country and beyond.
For Taylor, it’s an ongoing process of discovery.
“Writing gives “In the end, Natalie’s is really an amazing story about a woman who went through all kinds of trauma,” he grins. “And still managed to do a good job by me.”
By Amanda Hagood
The Gulfport Gabber January 26, 2022
https://thegabber.com/gulfport-author-tells-his-rodeo-mamas-story/
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Amanda Hagood
Sh*t my mom read: Growing Up Floridian by Michael Taylor
Short blurbs about books that you may want to read. None of them are too taxing — more easy, fun reads. Unless they aren't. Don't worry, my mom will let you know if they don't meet her "fun reading" standards.
Cathy Salustri
Jul 20, 2017 12 AM
Courtesy of Michael Taylor
Editor's note: This book by a local author is self-published, which we don't often review at CL. However, I know better to tell my mom no when she likes a book and wants people to know. —CS
Taylor gives an interesting account of how he spent his early years (1950's) in Indiantown, FL. Growing up he learned a lot about animals and nature and worked hard (whippings or slaps on his head taught him to do what he father wanted) with cattle, fences and all the stuff that goes with somewhat undeveloped Florida.
One sad bit: Taylor and his brother were playing with a gun and the brother died.
Another sad bit: His father ends up leaving with another woman and he and his mother moved to Pinellas Park to live with the grandmother.
Just want to read the bits about Tampa Bay? The parts about Pinellas County begin about page 240. He writes about how the Don CeSar was a VA office until 1967, then sat empty for a few years.
Overall: It was enjoyable to read and made you think about how hard a child under 10 had to work at his father's insistence on their ranch.
Growing up Floridian
Michael Taylor
2016. 328 pages.
Available online at Amazon or locally at the Gulfport Beach Bazaar or the Gulfport Historical Society
https://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/words/article/20868177/sht-my-mom-read-growing-up-floridian-by-michael-taylor
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Cathy Salustri