Jaxlore: Folklore, Urban Legends, and Regionalisms

8. The Bardin Booger: The First Coast’s Premier Skunk Ape
Bardin and Palatka

 
Image courtesy of Lena Crain.

The Skunk Ape – Florida’s version of Bigfoot – has been a prominent feature of Florida folklore for decades.  Perhaps the most colorful member of this evasive species is the one who patrols the pine woods around the tiny logging community of Bardin, about 10 miles from Palatka. Metro Jacksonville, meet the Bardin Booger.


Bud’s Grocery. Katie Delaney

Sightings began decades ago, but took off in the 1970s. Early stories are typical Bigfoot fare: a hirsute, humanoid monster vexing folks in the woods. Locals swapped yarns about it at Bud’s Grocery, an unassuming shop and filling station that qualifies as Bardin’s center of town. Owned by Bud Key since 1966, it’s the only game in town for provisions, gas, and home-cooked cryptozoology.  


The first Bardin Booger article. Katie Delaney
 
Bardin’s Skunk Ape left the realm of local lore when the Palatka Daily News reported on it in 1981. Needing something for an intern columnist to write about, publisher Jody Delzell suggested the Bardin monster. He’d heard the stories but considered them little more than a creative way for teen boys to convince girls to go “exploring” in the woods. Delzell dubbed the creature the “Bardin Booger” – “booger” meaning “boogieman.” The column was a big hit, to the point AP News and various other outlets picked up the story. Suddenly, Bardin and its Booger were national news.
 
Monster hunters poured into Bardin as sightings jumped to 2o a month, no doubt aided by pranksters.  Bud’s Grocery quickly became Booger headquarters. Bud Key, who still runs the store with wife Norma and daughter Karen Moore, added Booger T-shirts and merchandise to the shelves (they’re currently sold out, but plan to restock pending demand). The Keys hang frame Booger stories in the window and still maintain a “Booger file” collecting all the news clippings the notorious critter has generated.
 
Jody Delzell adopted the Booger for his own Daily News column, writing dozens of pieces over the years.  Delzell casts “Boog” as an ancient wanderer trying to make his way in this modern world. Mainly, however, Boog is a satirical device who vocalizes opinions Delzell would never print in his own voice.  

Mr. Bardin Booger, Bardin is your home
And every day, you love to roam
Runnin’ through the bushes and runnin’ through the trees,
Mr. Bardin Booger, don’t you get me, please.
“Bardin Booger,” by Billy Crain

However, credit for keeping the Booger alive really belongs to Lena and Billy Crain of Palatka. Billy, who passed away in 1992, recorded a “Bardin Booger” song that became a bar favorite, and Lena later wrote a followup, “The Bardin Booger’s Christmas Wish.” Deciding “Ole Boog” should be available for appearances, the Crains devised a costume: a gorilla suit enhanced with long ears and big feet. Donning this getup, Lena has been a hot commodity at parades and festivals for over 30 years. Now 74, she still suits up when duty calls.


Image courtesy of Lena Crain

Today, the Bardin Booger is more a mascot for the Palatka community than the folkloric menace of old. Everyone I spoke to confirms that no one has encountered the “real” Booger in many years. Despite this absence of new sightings, the legend continues in Lena Crain’s appearances, Jody Delzell’s columns, and the conversations at Bud’s Grocery. What keeps it all going? As anthropologist David Daegling wrote, “maybe the Booger lives on for the simple fact that people want him around.”


Article by Bill Delaney