Gobbledybook

Spanish Author Inspired by Town's Musical Name

"Gideon's Trumpet" was a 1980 Hallmark Hall of Fame made-for-TV movie shown on CBS. It chronicled the legal fight of Clarence Earl Gideon who was convicted on a breaking and entering charge in Panama City in the early 1960s. The story is important because Gideon asked for legal counsel and was denied. At that time Florida only supplied court-appointed counsel for capital crimes. The case, Gideon versus Wainwright, made it to the Supreme Court and forever changed the legal landscape. The result was a ruling that criminal defendants have the right to an attorney even if they can't afford it, something we take for granted now, and it all started in our neighboring city to the west.

So, where is all this going? Believe me, there is quite a remarkable connection.

Awhile back, David Adlerstein, city editor here at the Times, forwarded me an interesting email. It seems that Spanish author Salome Rodriguez Hage had written a young adult fantasy novel set in Apalachicola. Her agent thought we might be interested in reading and reviewing it.

Well yes, but my Spanish is limited to phrases and food. I called on my good friend and colleague in the school system, Diane McGrath, to come to the rescue. She is fluent in Spanish, learning it while teaching English in Nicaragua some years back. She not only read the book but provided me a written translation chapter by chapter.

The TV movie "Gideon's Trumpet" is what supplied the spark for Salome to set her book in Apalachicola. Her young adult fantasy novel is entitled "Pasaporte a Apalachicola." She said that "Gideon's Trumpet" had a line something like, "We came to dance in Apalachicola." In an on-line interview she went on to say that she liked the sound and the pronunciation of the city name and decided to set her story here.

The fantasy is set in a small town near a beach. Salome wrote that she only discovered later, via the Internet, that Apalachicola fit that description. She has never visited here or known anyone who has. Salome said that it has been peculiar and strange that the place of her imagination is so similar to the real Apalachicola.

"That experience has generated my curiosity to know the history and culture of your city, every street, every monument, every detail of its lifestyle," she wrote.

The story is classic good versus evil. The protagonists, children Rosalynn, Peter, and Rome are pitted against a Portuguese with a thirst for power. They must protect magical flavors that taste like colors and are sold in Rosalina's shop.

Salome wrote to me about the stories of fairies, goblins, witches, princes and princesses in her childhood. She said that her greatest aspiration as a writer is to ensure that "children come into this imaginary world that I created for them and open that invisible door that only a child can see." She wants her stories to become "a passport' to a universe of fantasy, a world of wonders," a fun and colorful place.

Six degrees of separation? I'm beginning to think it's much less. Apalachicola is magic. I've traveled fairly extensively, and I am constantly surprised how many people know of our town or have some connection to it. Just the musical sound of the city's name inspired a writer half a world away.

Will Atlanta be allowed to destroy our beautiful place by robbing our water, our real-life version of "flavors that taste like colors?" Ninety percent of the oysters for Florida's critical seafood industry come from here, yet some would have us believe that the water dispute is about "people versus mussels." Where are our Rosalynns, Peters, and Romes? Who will protect our magical town? I ask Atlanta can we replace that magic with the flavor of Coke?

Denise Roux is the board chairman of the Apalachicola Municipal Library. Please share your comments, suggestions and reviews with her or Ann Sizemore, the librarian at the 74 6th Street facility.

For more information on the library, call 653-8436. Hours are Mondays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays 10 a.m. to noon; and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 10 a.m. to noon, and 2 to 5 p.m.