SKU: 77992936959

Totch: A Life in the Everglades

Sale price$16.79 Regular price$18.66
Save 10%

Pay in installments of $4.67 with ShopPay, AfterPay and Klarna

Shipping Estimate
USA
  • USA
  • CAN

Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Aug 19 - Aug 24

Promo Codes Available:

For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15

Description

Totch: A Life in the Everglades"Totch Brown's memoirs of vanished days in the Ten Thousand Islands and the Everglades the last real frontier in Florida, and even today the greatest roadless wilderness in the United States are invaluable as well as vivid and entertaining, for Totch is a natural born story teller, and his accounts of fishing and gator hunting as well as his life beyond the law as gator poacher and drug runner are evocative and colorful, fresh and exciting." from the

"Totch Brown's memoirs of vanished days in the Ten Thousand Islands and the Everglades--the last real frontier in Florida, and even today the greatest roadless wilderness in the United States--are invaluable as well as vivid and entertaining, for Totch is a natural-born story-teller, and his accounts of fishing and gator hunting as well as his life beyond the law as gator poacher and drug runner are evocative and colorful, fresh and exciting."--from the foreword by Peter Matthiessen

In the mysterious wilderness of swamps, marshes, and rivers that conceals life in the Florida Everglades, Totch Brown hung up his career as alligator hunter and commercial fisherman to become a self-confessed pot smuggler. Before the marijuana money rolled in, he survived excruciating poverty in one of the most primitive and beautiful spots on earth, Chokoloskee Island, in the mangrove keys known as the Ten Thousand Islands located at the western gateway to the Everglades National Park.

Until he wrote this memoir--recollections from his childhood in the twenties that merge with reflections on a way of life dying at the hands of progress in the nineties--Totch had never read a book in his life. Still, his writing conveys the tension he experienced from trying to live off the land and within the laws of the land.

Told with energy and authenticity, his story begins with the handful of souls who came to the area a hundred years ago to homestead on the high ground formed from oyster mounds built and left by the Calusa Indians. They lived close to nature in shacks built of tin or palmetto fans; they ate wild meat, Chokoloskee chicken (white ibis), swamp cabbage, even--when they were desperate--manatee; and they weathered all manner of natural disaster from hurricanes to swarms of "swamp angels" (mosquitoes). In his grandpa's day, Totch writes, outlaws and cutthroats would "shoot a man down just as quick as they'd knock down an egret, especially if he came between them and the plume birds."

His grandparents were both contemporaries of Ed J. Watson, the subject of Peter Matthiessen's best-selling Killing Mr. Watson, and Totch is featured in the recent award-winning PBS film Lost Man's River: An Everglades Adventure with Peter Matthiessen. He also appeared in Wind Across the Everglades, the 1957 Budd Schulberg movie in which Totch and Burl Ives sing some of Totch's Florida cracker songs.


Loren G. "Totch" Brown was born in Chokoloskee, Florida, in 1920. After purchasing his first motorboat at the age of thirteen (and retiring from formal schooling after the seventh grade) he worked as an alligator hunter, commercial fisherman, crabber, professional guide, poacher, marijuana runner, singer, and songwriter.



Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 09/20/1993
ISBN: 9780813012285
Pages: 279
Weight: 0.97lbs
Size: 9.02h x 6.10w x 0.82d

Review Citations: Booklist 12/01/1993 pg. 672
Shipping Notes
  • Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
  • Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
  • Delivery to the USA:
  1. Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
  • If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
  • We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
  • Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
  • To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
  • Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
SKU: 77992936959

Discover Niche Categories That Outsell

Top-Converting Item to Boost Your Average Order

4.2 ★★★★★
Based on 19 reviews
Sort
Highest Rating
Newest First
Oldest First
Product Reviews
M
Verified Purchase
Matt C.
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 3
IMMEDIATE REACTION, PLUS FOLLOW UP AFTER A WEEK!
Style: For Him
**Package arrived LITERALLY 5 minutes ago, here is my immediate initial reaction, and then I'll actually post this after USING the soap and getting a better feel for the product.** Keeping in mind that smell is subjective, here are my knee jerk thoughts on the bars of soap: - Firstly, I can smell the soap through the bag (and box). Whatever scent this is, it's POTENT. - Opening the box, the bars of soap look a LITTLE small. Not egregiously so, but a little bit smaller than your average bar of soap; BUT I check them against a new bar of Dove soap that I have, and they are identical. The eyes are playing tricks on you with these. - Here is the breakdown of the 6 scents - Activated Charcoal. This is what I was HOPING would smell like the "Pine Tar" that other companies (like Dr. Squatch, which I've never used, btw) have, but it is the "soap-est" smelling soap, with a hint of tar. It smells a little bit like a can of new paint. - Tango Mango. IMHO, the best smelling of the 6, with strong citrus smells. Very lemon-y, but pleasant. - Eucamint. Ahhh, here's what was permiating out of the box. This smell is STRONG, with an AGGRESSIVE mint smell. Like, Ben Gay mint. And as strong to boot. It doesn't smell BAD, but it's hands down the strongest scent. - Oatmeal Shea. Meh. Kinda smells like an old coat that would be hanging in your grandfathers closet. It's not a BAD smell, but it has this weird odor to it, like when you leave a can of peanuts in your cupboard for a long time, and then go back and smell it. - Patchouli Lime. This one kind of smells like a mixture of Activated Charcoal, Eucamint and Oatmeal Shea. It smells like a room that you just painted a day or two ago, and it definitely has the Ben Gay after aroma lingering. - Apline Spice. This smells like a box. Like find an empty cardboard box, open it, and take a whiff. Boom, Alpine Spice. My least favorite. I will say, none of them STINK; as in there isn't a smell that I'm like, "ewww, I don't want to smell like AT ALL!" Which sounds weird, because I described some of them as "paint," "an old coat," and "a cardboard box," but I feel that those are just very passive smells, not aggressively bad ones. If there is a problem soap, I would assume it's going to be Eucamint, because it might just be too overpowering, although I've found that the more you smell them, they seem to mellow out. I imagine that after a shower with these, the smell will dissipate enough that it will be more mild. Still, with the exception of Tango Mango; a very good smelling soap mind you, I'd say they are all very "manly" scents, and I'm excited to try them out. Ok, so I'm a little over a week in, and here's my final take. (I made it through Activated Charcoal and Tango Mango): First, the scents ABSOLUTELY mellow out when used to actually shower with them. My wife, who admittedly isn't really up on me like that, hasn't even mentioned me smelling differently than the last 11 years. So, if she's even noticed, it's not on a level to make a fuss about. This is important because fresh from the box, these things have some powerful scents, but they are definitely tamed by washing with them. The bars last ABOUT 7 showers. Obviously, your mileage will vary based on how long you're in the shower, how much you scrub, how you store them, etc, but I was able to get 7 GOOD showers out of these. I have them in these natural sisal (whatever that is) exfoliating bags that help lather and store the soap, and really did some good scrubbing in my showers. The bars lather decently, but I'm not sure how much the bag helps with that. If you are a once a day showerer, a bar a week is a very fair approximation of what you'll get. I definitely felt.....SOMETHING I didn't before with my shower gel showers. I don't know if that's the moisturizing, or the exfoliation, but my skin felt a little different after showering. A decent buy. I'm not thrilled, but I'm not upset either. I don't think it changed my life, or even the way I shower, but I'm not mad at the experiment. I may try the Dr. Squatch soaps to see how all these stack up.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2020
J
Verified Purchase
Jessica
Boise, US
★★★★★ 5
Convinced to make the switch
Style: Citrus
Love this soap. I was using Jukebox, but I'm making the switch. Crate 61 feels better on my skin, the bars last a little longer and the 6 pack is $15 cheaper than I was paying for 6 bars with the Jukebox subscription. I get extremely dirty at my job so I tend to go through soap faster than the average women. Jukebox bars would last me about 4 days. These will last 6 or 7 days. Jukebox bars were a definite upgrade from body wash, but it would irritate the sensitive areas. I don't have that issue with this soap. Jukebox bars smell nice in the shower, but I feel like the scent didn't last beyond that. Crate 61 leaves a pleasantly subtle smell on my skin after showering. The only benefit with Jukebox is that you can choose the individual soaps in your 6 pack, rather than selecting one of the collections.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2026
K
Verified Purchase
kim labarre
New York, US
★★★★★ 5
Great exfoliation
Color: yellow
This does a beautiful job exfoliating, no more flakey legs. And it's gentle enough for the rest of my body. I'm on my 2nd bar of soap in my 1st bag and it's holding up well. I give it a good rinse after each use and hang it on a hook in my shower to dry. Well worth the money.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2026
G
Verified Purchase
Glow
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Extremely satisfied with my purchase.
Color: yellow
The ‘bag’ size is big enough to fit a LARGE (up to a 10 ounce bar of homemade/ handcut soap) bar or many tiny pieces. I am tired of using body wash (full of harmful chemicals) & a ‘pouf’ that may not be getting fully clean after throwing it in the washing machine periodically. The fabric quality is organic, natural & PREMIUM! It has little loops on the fabric which are great for lightly exfoliating & cleaning the skin, has a bead to keep opening closed and the string is long enough to fit around your wrist to hold it easily while bathing or showering. As far as effectiveness, it gets very bubbly if you get the fabric wet 1st & then make some traction (rub the wet bag back & forth onto the wet soap bar) between soap and the bag. For washing, use ‘wash bags’ (which are sold on Amazon & other retailers in many sizes) to keep them from being torn from buttons, zippers, etc on other items in the wash. With 8 in a pack, you should always have a clean one to use, while washing a previously used one. Rinse it out & Hang it after use to fully dry.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2025
R
Verified Purchase
RH
Lowell, US
★★★★★ 5
I love these
These bags are the best for bar soap. They scrub and rinse out nice.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2026

recommand products