Iris Wall, 93, of Indiantown, happily shared information about Florida Crackers to participants in the Great Florida Cattle Drive on Dec. 4.

“I grew up on horseback,” she explained. Wall said she was born into an old Florida Cracker family. They had a few cattle and a garden. While they didn’t have much money, “we had everything in the world we needed."

“One thing about a Florida Cracker, he’ll work,” she added.

She remembered helping with dipping cattle for fever ticks and trying to avoid the game warden when hunting alligators.

After graduating from high school, Iris married her high school sweetheart and they had “47 years of a love affair,” she said.

Most Crackers learned how to get along with what they had and made the most of what they had or do without, she continued.

“They have great respect for women.

“A Cracker’s word is his bond,“ she said,

“Personal freedom is very important to the Crackers. You can never own one, no matter who he works for or how much money he makes.”

God, family and freedom are what Crackers live for, she said.