When Do You Realize You're A "Cracker?"

I don't know for sure when it happened, when I first realized I was a Cracker. Mostly because it has always been a part of me. I have never had to find my Cracker self - it's who I am!

I mean that for some who are drawn into a realization of just how unique things really were,  they come to a point where they think, "Wow, they were really different in pioneer Florida."  For me, that realization was ingrained into our family members through stories, jokes, tales, and recollections  to the point that we always knew we were the fabric that made up Florida Crackers.

We knew we were part of a larger culture that was our family, friends, kinfolk, and locals that were not those who moved here from Chicago, New York, or even Atlanta.  My daddy knew their daddy and our great grandparents went to school together just a few miles from where I and my children would go to school.

I learned this when my wife and I were renting our first home from a family I had attended school with from first grade through high school.  We met the great grandmother of this friend, "Biggie" (who by the way was 90lbs. soaking wet). She told me she went to school with my great grandfather. She continued to say that he was pretty much a rascal that made all the kids laugh. Mrs. McClelland's family had moved down from Alabama in the mid-1800's due to her mother's asthma. She still had a cowhide stool that was brought down in the covered wagon.

This is the kind of thing that has made me realize the uniqueness of Florida Cracker culture.  Please share any stories that have been handed down through your families.

Thanks a bunch!
Rob