I Remember Gamble

By David Dowling

When entertaining guests in St. Augustine, we take much pride in bragging about the things we consider most special about our old Spanish town. Of course we'll want to show you the Castillo, the architecture, the museum and galleries, the handsome beaches, the narrow streets, and the many fine dining establishments. Once seated in a favorite restaurant, we may choose this time to share with you something else we cherish - something you cannot actually "see."

We will speak proudly - almost reverently - and nostalgically about an extraordinary person who walked these streets only 15 years ago. For many years our friend Gamble Rogers entertained us - and the rest of the country--with his unforgettable and hilarious stories and his outstanding guitar picking. He inspired us with his charisma, his good taste in all things artistic, and his sense of involvement with his chosen town.

If you spend that evening being entertained by any of our fine local musicians, you are likely hearing someone who owes some of his or her expertise--and especially their passion--to our friend Gamble. Perhaps you'll even notice a particular manner of sly grin being aimed your way at the end of a song. Gamble left us that too.

To those of us who knew him, he is still here, although we recall well his untimely death in 1991 while trying to save the life of a stranger in wild northeast Florida surf. We will tell you that story if you'd like. And when the meal is over, we might drive you down Highway A1A to what is now The Gamble Rogers Memorial State Park - the site of his heroic act. We might return by a different route and show you the Gamble Rogers Middle School and the displays that are kept there. This man was loved and valued by so many.

If you visit us the first weekend of May, we will most certainly make sure that you attend the Gamble Rogers Memorial Folk Festival., where you will not only see and hear some of the preeminent pickers, writers, and storytellers in the country, but you will also fully appreciate just how determined so many of us are to continue honoring this most unique man for a long, long, time.

We will prove to you that Gamble Rogers truly lives among us still--all over the state of Florida and the U.S.—and especially here in St. Augustine.