JANIE GOULD 

Otters used to be a valuable source of income for an Indian River County couple. Edna MacPherson and her husband cleared land to build their home just off State Road 60, across from the present-day mall. That was more than 60 years ago, when much of the area was marsh.

“My husband, Charles Price, would go out in the marsh and set his traps. Then, the next evening he’d come home from work and then we’d go out and run those traps. I had a baby and we’d set the little baby in the airboat and go out and run our trap lines. Otters were plentiful at that time. We’d bring them home and skin them out before we’d ever go to bed at night.”

Q: “How did you sell the pelts?”

A: “We packed them in dry ice and took them to the railroad station. We fixed ‘em and packed them for shipment to New York. They paid $25 apiece for the pelts! We bought our first refrigerator and stove for our house with that money. We were up all times of the night skinning those pelts, getting them nice and clean and rolled up for shipment, and the next night we would do the same thing and it would start all over again.”

Q: “How many otters would you typically bring in from the traps?”

A: “Well, anywhere from five to 10 or 15 maybe.”

Q: “That’s a lot of otters to skin!”

A: “That’s a lot of otters to skin but my husband was a strong, husky man. Charles Price, he believed in working hard and paying for our house and having a good home for our family.”

Q: “What were the pelts used for”?

A: “Coats for rich people, that and collars for ladies, hats and warm clothes for people up north. Only rich people could afford to have them.”

Q: “Did you also use the meat from the otters?”

A: “Sometimes we did, but we found out that a lot of people weren’t eating the meat, and I don’t know why that was. We ate the meat. It was just as good as the alligator tail that we trapped!”

Q: “How did you prepare the meat for your family?’

A: “Well, I rolled mine like chicken, you know, with flour, and dipped it in hot fat. It was real good.”

Q: “Ten or 15 otters a night!”

A: “They only allowed you a permit for so many, and if you caught your quota for the night that was it. They were plentiful, but then they made a law that you couldn’t trap ‘em anymore, so we didn’t do it after that.”

Q: “Did you ever have an otter coat, or anything like that, a collar for a sweater, for yourself?”

A: “No we didn’t, because they had to be treated in a certain way to make beautiful coats for women.”

Q: “You lived in the same house for over 60 years. It was on Road 60 across from where the mall area is now. You and your husband cleared the land. How did you do that?”

A: “We had a lot of shovels, a lot of hoes, a lot of rakes. We had to go down in the canal. We’d park our car on the side of the road, go down on the side of the ditch and go up on the other side and carry our tools across. Finally, my husband put a boardwalk there. Hallelujah! We were glad for that.”

Q: “The house is still there. Is that right?”

A: “The house is still there. Yes, it is.”

Q: “Did you ever think that the town of Vero would essentially come out to meet you, when you lived there?”

A: “No, I never did. I never thought that State Road 60 would be like it is now.”

The couple didn’t have electricity at first, but eventually they made enough money selling otter pelts to pay for the city to extend a power line to their home.

“Then we could pay the city $300 to get electricity in our house, and I had a built-in oven. I felt like a queen with all those appliances, which I did not have as a child. The otters made it possible!”

Edna MacPherson grew up not far from State Road 60. Her parents’ home is on 66^th Avenue, a busy road that runs just west of the mail. The road used to be known as Lateral A and some folks called her “Edna Mae from Lateral A.”

“Even my boyfriends in high school teased me about being Edna Mae from Lateral A!”

This interview was first heard on Janie Gould’s Floridays show on public radio station WQCS/88.9 FM. Her new book, “Food for Floridays: Recipes and Stories,” will be available this month. Contact Gould at Janiegould@aol.com to reserve books.