By JOY REGISTER

A truer cracker was never born.
He looks it, sounds it and is it. He's Carl Allen of Auburndale. He was born and raised a cracker and he'll tell you just as he told Frank Thomas who wrote a song about it, "My Heart's Buried in the Sand."
Florida will never see another promoter like him. He's a bluegrass fan and he's going to be the MC for the blue grass shows at the Strawberry Festival March 10 from I until 10 P.M.
And Plant City couldn't have a bigger fan.
"The luckiest people in the world are the people in Plant City. The politest, kindest people in the world are here. I think it's because they are farmers. They just can't be beat," he spoke quietly and sincerely.

OF COURSE, he is bringing the blue grass shows to the fair and he may be prejudiced. Besides his father was an Auburndale farmer. But, according to him, you know you are in Plant City the minute you walk down a street.
"People aren't friendly other places like they are here. They speak to you even if they don't know you," he said.
He may not realize it, but his appearance may have a lot to do with it. How. could anyone pass up a 60-year old man in a western hat, wide jeweled belt and boots? Especially one who wears a friendly smile and has a pretty wife on his arm.
He just got back from Raiford Prison where he did a Johnny Cash type show with seven or eight country western and blue grass bands appearing for two days.
And he feels Plant City area people and tourists are going to be exceptionally lucky when they come to the festival and have free admission to one of the best blue grass shows anywhere - one that ordinarily would cost $12 to $15. Blue grass, he says, is the old hillbilly music and is as "American as apple jelly."

THERE WON'T be any amplifiers and all the musicians will be professionals. Also, he will show what cloggers (square dancers) can do.
As owner of Allen's Historical Cafe, a catfish house on US 92, eight miles on the other side of Lakeland, he has lots of chances to keep up on the best of blue grass.
"We have jams all the time. We have kind of a meeting place for musicians. I love music and have an ability to know whether bands are good," he said.
And the ones he has lined up are good examples, he believes. He said, "We'll have Paul Champion, 'fastest banjo in the state.' He is so talented his rhythm is unimaginable. He's the best on guitar and banjo."

THEN THERE will be Chubby Anthony and The Tall Timbers.
"Their vocabulary of musical notes is outstanding." And the Lewis family, gospel group. "They are always well liked."
While something of a musician himself, he prefers to do his playing away from the crowds and does only the MC'ing. He plans to be on stage for the entire blue grass show.
The audiences are the thing though. "All musicians are looking for good audiences. They are only as good as their audiences. But this type of music draws a good type of crowd," he said.

THE BANJO, Jew's harp, fiddle, bass, mandolin and dobro players started meeting at his catfish place because they felt at home and "for jamming they play what they want the way they want" and nobody tells them what to do.
Also, he said, "It's usually the best musician from each band. And when you get the tops from each you really have something."
His fish place was started by him and his wife, Jewell, after they got tired of driving all the way to the Okachobee area to get a good fish dinner. His restaurant is full of antiques they 'collected from the beginning and "we've never sold a one and don't intend to."

'Jamming' At The Catfish House
That's Carl Allen on the right in the western hat enjoying two things he loves almost as much
as he loves other crackers. It's catfish from his own cafe and blue grass music being played
by Paddy Mitchell, Fran Burbette (on bass) and Paul Champion on the banjo.

THEY HAVE fishermen from Okeechobee supply them and they serve "the best fish dinners, catfish' and hush puppies you can possibly get anywhere." All their food is native to Florida and it includes armadillo, rattlesnake, soft-shell turtle and ordinary things like red snapper and mullett.
The cat fish are what are called around Okeechobee small sharpies and they and all the other dishes are cooked using original recipes that date back to early years in Florida.

HE IS intensely fascinated with anything "early Florida," and he has made a collection of hundreds of recordings and tapes he has made of talks with old-timers on what fife used to be.
"Anyone hearing them would have to laugh and cry," he said. Sometime he plans to use them in writing a 'Gone With the Wind" type book using facts from these and other sources. He says he will call it something like "Roots Grow Deep" which he got from an old lady who managed to grow a garden way up into her late years. He asked her how she could produce vegetables in such sandy soil. Her answer was "the roots grow deep." He likes that.

HE ALSO has "hundreds and hundreds" of pioneer pictures. "I want old pictures. I. don't have to have the original," he said. As long as it's from Florida's past, he would like to copy it.
"I make lots of speeches and was asked one time,'' he said, "why do I love Florida so good."
Why? Because to him the crackers are so strong. and so proud. "They remind me of the grandma in the Grapes of Wrath sitting up there in that old Modeler Ford. She had nothing but pride, Pride is what all these crackers have," he is convinced.

THIS CRACKER, who should be making a recording of his own voice and thoughts, says he has traveled all over the world.
"I believe God made a place for everyone.
And my place is right here."
The Aliens have raised seven children between them (his and hers) and adopted another. Because of the family interests, they got to thinking one time how difficult it would be for a family to pay to see a real show. As a result he started a free show each year at Auburndale so that "a couple with two children have an opportunity to see good blue grass. and country western entertainment.

HE DOES the same thing once a year for oldtimers. They not only get music all day long but he and his wife also feed them.
"We try to make them feel like a king for a day," he said.
He has a large cracker heart that comes from the "sand in my shoes" and the conviction that there's no place like Central Florida.