Tom Gaskins Cypress Knee

Starting in the 1930's you could cruise down US 27 in Florida to a little roadside curiosity called "Tom Gaskin's Cypress Knee Museum" in the town of Palmdale. It was a wonderful little place that displayed the art of a special man. Tom Gaskins (1909- 1998) was a unique fella, he never wore shoes thus getting the nickname of "Ol' Barefoot", and he loved to have his picture taken with the tourists that came to visit. He cut cypress knees from the surrounding swamps and peeled and polished them for the tourists to take home as a unique and natural souvenirs of their visit to the swampy, mosquito infested armpit of Florida. This one is mine. I was ten years old when I acquired it. My family took the pilgrimage to see this "8th Wonder of the World" back in 1981. We had finished our visit and were on the way back to the car when I realized that my parents had cunningly bypassed the gift shop on the way out, crafty as they were I would not be denied this pleasure. I wanted a cypress knee from the gift shop and they knew it. I began to beg them to let me run back and get one. Just a small one. I begged like I never begged until that day, and somehow it worked. My mother handed me $10 and said, "It can cost no more then this.", Money in hand, off I went. Tom Gaskins' Cypress Knee Museum had giant display cases filled with bizarre cypress knees that resembled things, faces, animals, all kinds of stuff. It took quite a bit of imagination to agree with the labels sometimes, but it was at the least memorable. Now I had my chance in the gift shop to get one that looked like something special to me. I was looking around, shelf to shelf, turning each one in my hands as I looked it over hoping to find one that looked like Bruce Lee doing a flying dragon kick or something, but they all just looked like stumps to me. Then I saw Mr. Tom Gaskins himself. He was speaking with a women in the gift shop, I approached him, waited till his conversation was over and then asked him if he could assist me. I figured that this man if any could help me pick a really cool one, something awesome. I said to him looking up, "Mr. Gaskins, could you help me pick a cypress knee that you think is really cool like the ones you have in the museum?" He replied very kindly putting a hand on my shoulder "Come right along and I will show you my favorite one here." This was going to be great. The king of all cypress knees picking his favorite out just for me! Life is good when you are ten years old. We walked over to a corner of the store and he reached back behind a bunch of other knees, as if this one was somehow stashed away for a special reason. He pulled it out and looked it over. "Yes, this is the one I was thinking of. This is my favorite one in the whole store." He said. He handed it to me and I instantly began to carefully look it over, trying to see what he saw in it. Was it a dragon? A hippo wearing a Carmen Miranda hat? What did he see in this particular cypress knee. He bent over and whispered to me, "Do you know why this is my favorite one?" I replied sheepishly, "No?" He came in a little closer, as if a great secret was going to be bestowed upon me and said "Because it reminds me of nothing. Only one like it." I was sold. But crap, I only had $10 to spend. This very special one had to be more then that. I asked him how much it was, showing him the $10 bill in my hand. "This is all I have." I said. He turned the knee over to reveal $22.00 written under it in pencil. I saw it, he saw it, and then he said, proving what kind of man he really was, "This must be a mistake, it sure looks like a $10 cypress knee to me." He took the $10 out of my hand and wished me a good day. He walked off knowing that he had made a kids trip to his shop pretty memorable. Thanks Tom.