It's a story nearly everyone hears when they visit Delray Beach's Spady Cultural Heritage Museum.
"This one was told by Mr. Spady," says Charlene Farrington, the museum's executive director who is preparing to retell it.
She is sitting in what would have been Solomon D. Spady's living room.
"One black boy and one white boy were on a boat fishing in Lake Ida," she starts.
The black boy fell overboard, so the white boy jumped in right away.
Two white men on a different boat saw what happened, and asked the white boy why he risked his life to save the black boy.
"The white boy says, 'Because he had the bait,'" Farrington says.
The story is called "Get the Bait."
"The moral of the story is each individual is responsible for making sure they have what it takes, they have that gift or skill, that others will risk their lives to get," she says.
Farrington says stories like that define a community. Her museum celebrates the contributions the black community made developing Delray Beach.
Mr. Spady was an educator who advised the predominantly black community on financial, real estate and social topics from 1922 to 1957.
Now, the museum is looking for more stories.
At its festival February 20th, volunteers will use iPads to record stories about what makes this community so special. They hope sharing these little videos will encourage more people to share their stories.
"You can learn so much about a person and where they live just by the stories they tell and that's why we're interested in those stories," Farrington points out.
The museum also wants to hear those stories on social media. It's using #MySpady to share the stories.
Farrington say each experience unlocks a bit of history living in the city.
The annual Spady Living Heritage Festival is Saturday, February 20 outside the museum at 170 NW 5th Ave in Delray Beach.
