BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Bert Brooks likes to tell stories, but insists that the publication of “Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance” will be the last time he does so in written form.
“Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance” is the fifth book written by Brooks, a sixth-generation Floridian who grew up in Union County.
Brooks, who’ll be 80 in December, said his wife, Alecia, recently told the members of their church that he had stated he would write no more books, which resulted in groans and disbelief. Brooks, a self-proclaimed “court jester” who makes it difficult for people to determine if he’s ever telling the truth, insisted he was serious. His wife, however, said, “No, I don’t believe that. I believe come winter, when he doesn’t have anything to do, when he can’t get out in the yard, when he gets laid up, he’s going to start writing again.”
Brooks’ response?
“The woman is lying through her teeth.”
He noted that the statement was made in a Baptist church, so maybe it’s wise to believe that he has in fact written his last book. Perhaps his wife simply wishes it wasn’t his last book. Brooks said she’s told others that writing keeps him out of trouble.
Feigning shock, Brooks asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Whether it kept him out of trouble or not, the writing and self-publishing of “Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance” had Brooks waxing nostalgic. The title comes from something Paul Harvey once said.
‘Well, he’s gone to Heaven, so I might as well just use that,” Brooks said, adding, “I like his take on things.”
The self-published book, which can be purchased at bertbrooks.com.
Mind antiques
In the preface of “Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance,” Brooks writes about his interest in antiques — not the items of days past that you find in stores and have a high dollar value, but the memories of how life used to be.
“I guess most of my antique collection is in my mind,” Brooks wrote as part of the book’s preface. “Sort of stored there like an old Model A, which is stored under a log shelter.”
Brooks, the son of Whit and Iris Brooks, grew up at the intersection of Brown Still and Carl Brown roads. In his book, he writes of his family’s split-rail fence and the wooden bridge that spanned Bluff Creek. As he described it, “A towheaded boy could sit on the bridge with a cane pole and catch warmouth perch that came from the Suwannee River to the Santa Fe River.”
“It was country all the way,” Brooks said.
He writes about his grandmother Ella Carlton, whom he describes as his “granny with an attitude.” She was responsible for him getting his first job as a preacher. She told him he was going to interview to fill an opening at the church his great aunt went to. He was 15.
“God blessed me,” Brooks said, noting that he was hired to preach the second and fourth Sunday of each month.
In “Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance,” he also reminisces about being a “barefooted, country boy” walking from the school bus to a friend’s house because he could enjoy a cold Pepsi there.
“We couldn’t afford them,” Brooks said.
Another reason to stop at this friend’s house was the fact that the friend’s mother “fixed the best sweet potatoes I’ve ever eaten in my life.”
Brooks said his mother told him not to eat at his friend’s house because she was cooking supper for him, but he couldn’t resist.
“I had sweet potatoes and Pepsi-Cola. Are you kidding me? I would eat up there often — three to four times a week,” Brooks said.
Life’s experiences and reminisces may be part of the book, but Brooks said it’s not an autobiography.
“It’s about people,” he said. “I don’t think it’s about me. I didn’t write about me. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”
Writing it all down
Brooks has chronicled his life’s events and the people he’s met in more than just book format. During his time pastoring churches, a friend who was a preacher encouraged him to keep a daily diary.
His home office is filled with those diaries.
“Everything is stacked, but I can find everything in a heartbeat,” Brooks said.
Brooks said his wife has asked him if he can clean his office, saying, “It looks all jumbled.” He has replied by saying, “It’s a man’s office.”
Jumble or not, Brooks has references to his “circuitous journey” as a pastor and missionary, going back and forth from between Florida and Canada as well as to Georgia, Ohio and “Lord knows where.”
Brooks was the music minister at a Baptist church in Austintown, Ohio, when one of the church deacons told him the Pentecostal quartet “down the street” needed to replace its bass singer. That led to him becoming a member of The Temple Tones.
The same week he was hired, he lost one of his fingers in a drill-press accident at the General Motors factory he worked at. That was on a Wednesday. On Friday night, Brooks was singing in the first of three weekend performances by The Temple Tones.
Brooks’ preceding book, “Sunday Meetin’ Time Down South,” chronicles many of those experiences, which his latest book comes with a Temple Tones CD.
A wonderful life
Besides “Sunday Meetin’ Time Down South” and “Over My Shoulder a Backward Glance,” Brooks has written the books “Cracker: The Life and Times of Ella Carlton,” “Old Oaks: The Civil War in North Florida” and “Views from My Rocking Chair.”
While he’s devoted time to writing books, his wife devotes time to reading books. Brooks said his wife returns from the public library with seven books, which she’ll read in a week.
“She just reads all the time,” Brooks said. “We go to ballgames, she’s reading. We go fishing, she’s reading. We go out hunting, she’s reading. We try to go to bed, she’s reading. Did I miss one?”
When asked if she reads his books, Brooks laughed and said, “That’s a good question.”
It’s another example of Brooks filling that role of “court jester,” but in all seriousness, he said God called him to do three things: preach, sing and write. He accomplished all three.
“It’s been a wonderful life,” he said. “I’m ready to go home, so to speak, because I think I’ve done everything I could.”
Brooks claims that life will now consist of landscaping the 7 acres he and his wife purchased in High Springs not long ago. That and the effects of getting older (diminished eyesight, etc.) have him believing he’s written his last book.
His wife doesn’t believe that. Many others don’t believe that.
Does Brooks believe that?
“I’ve got to figure out if I’m going to keep my word,” he said.
