FLORIDA GROUP: Florida nostalgia thread, pre-1980, remember when.....

[steve2470]

Note: I am the host of this group. Please do NOT post any snark towards Florida, the south, southerners, etc in this thread. This is NOT the thread for that. I'm asking politely. Please go post snark in General Discussion. Thank you.

Ok, on with the thread. I chose 1980 as a very arbitrary date. I remember Florida before then, Orlando mainly. It was a lot less populated, more southern overall. Of course it had its flaws, but I enjoyed growing up where I did. I could go into a lot more detail, but I don't want to bore you.

What are your memories ?

[patricia92243]

1. No memories yet. We just moved to Sebring and love it!!

[steve2470]

3. hope you keep loving it! nt

[d_r]

2. Homosassa springs park

When it still tried to be a roadsode tourist trap before the state took over (which was a great thing of course) going in the pontoon boat past little islands with turkeys and monkeys.

We used the go out to the spoil bars with post hole diggers and crackers and hot sauce and eat fresh oysters and pull crab traps.

I remember this teen dance place I'm Leesburg we would all load up and go to.

[steve2470]

4. Homosassa Springs, been years....

I loved that place too. Leesburg, didn't make it there often back in the day. I was stuck mainly in Orlando. Shakey's Pizza Parlor was fun for me on 17-92 and we actually had teen dance places back in the disco era of the mid '70's.

[voteearlyvoteoften]

5. My husband Winter Park Class of 1966

He grew up in Maitland and hates what Disney has done to his town. Used to hunt where Altamonte Mall is now.

[steve2470]

6. I think there was an orange grove there ? LOL..... memory is foggy

That mall went up in 74. Altamonte was waaaaaaay out of town for me back then.

[Glorfindel]

7. I had two great aunts in Florida: One in Clearwater, the other in Tampa

We used to visit them every summer in the late 50's and early 60's. I thought it was paradise! Aunt Julia (in Clearwater) had a huge avocado tree in her backyard. She was very proud of it. Of course, hardly any place was air conditioned in those days, but we didn't mind. I was always sad when we had to leave. The last time I was there was in 1968 and already things were changing. My aunts (and their children) are long since dead and I have lost contact with both families, but I'll always be cherish the memories of those visits.

[HooptieWagon]

8. Moved to south Sarasota Co in 1965.

No Interstates, mostly two-lane highways. Many mom and pop motels and tourist attractions...Disney put them out of business. Small town, kids would run out the door in the morning and play all over town or on the water, unsupervised. Ride bikes home by dinner. We did a lot of DIY building "forts", boats, push-carts, whatever.

[steve2470]

18. same for Orlando about the kids, just be home by dark, no one worried about Halloween! nt

[kcass1954]

9. Moved to Satellite Beach in 1970.

So quiet. Like a small town but the beach was 3 blocks away.

I could never move back - too different, too busy. And all the places we used to park by the beach are condos now.

[steve2470]

10. New Smyrna Beach was like that. All condo and pricey-home-lined oceanfront now nt

[riverbendviewgal]

11. Marathon 1968

Just married, young and in love. Loved living on the Gulf side near the 7 mile bridge. Fishing in the front yard on the coral and eating what we caught. Or going to Sombrero Beach swimming. Cobbs country restaurant where a morning radio show was broadcast. Lots of stars.

[steve2470]

12. sounds wonderful! The Keys is my favorite part of FL nt

[lpbk2713]

13. I remember I-4 under construction.

Friends and I rode our bikes one weekend from Lakeland to Polk City and back before
it was opened for traffic. Of course this was before Disney changed everything. And I
remember citrus groves all around. Now most are gone.

[csziggy]

14. I just attended a talk about Florida back in the day

It was one of the Lunch & Learn series of talks at the Polk County History Center, tied in with an exhibit currently at the center. The talk was by Rick Kilby who researches Florida history. More about the Polk County History Center:

Good Reasons for Good Roads: Celebrating the Dixie Highway at 100 Years
Event Dates
— July 2015 —

Thursday Jul. 23, 2015
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Bartow FL

Friday Jul. 24, 2015 -
Monday, Aug. 31, 2015
Bartow FL

Located At

Polk County History Center

Good Reasons for Good Roads: Celebrating the Dixie Highway at 100 Years is a new exhibit opening at Polk County History Center in July.

The Dixie Highway’s initial route officially opened in 1915 and transformed the cultural landscape of Florida. In honor of this ambitious construction project, Good Reasons for Good Roads: Celebrating the Dixie Highway at 100 Years is a temporary exhibit exploring early highways, the people who travelled them and a new era of development in the state’s history. The exhibit will be on display through August 2016.

An opening reception for Good Reasons for Good Roads: Celebrating the Dixie Highway at 100 Years will be held at the History Center on July 23 from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

About Polk County History Center

The Polk County History Center is located at 100 E. Main St. in Bartow and is open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. All events and programming are free and open to the public.

One of the roadside items he mentioned in the talk was Sand Mountain, just south of Fort Meade. I just barely remember it, but he showed video of it:

My family has a unique connection to Sand Mountain - my grandfather was part of putting it up, and my Dad managed the mine that reprocessed the sand and took it down. Sand Mountain was made from the left over matrix from mining phosphate back when there was no good market for getting rid of the sand. When my father improved on his father's process for extracting phosphate from the sand, it became economically feasible to reprocess the sand since the sand could be sold to be used in the Florida building boom of the mid 1960s.

Other places mentioned in the talk were the Coral Castle (http://coralcastle.com/), Solomon's Castle (http://www.solomonscastle.org/), Sea Zoo (http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20121002/COLUMNS/310029965) and McKee's Jungle Gardens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKee_Botanical_Garden).

Rick Kilby has a book out on Florida history, "Finding the Fountain of Youth: Ponce de León and Florida's Magical Waters" - http://upf.com/book.asp?id=KILBY001

[steve2470]

15. great post nt

[csziggy]

16. I remember visiting Orlando only once in the '60s about 1965 or '66

We drove up to the airport to pick up my sister when she returned from a college trip to Germany. Back then the airport was Air Force connected so there were a lot of service people around. The areas along I-4 were all palmettos, cow pastures, swamp and a few orange groves. We drove up from Bartow and had to catch where I-4 started north of Lakeland since it wasn't completed all the way to Tampa!

On the way we passed a big billboard that said "Future home of Disney World" - we thought it was a joke since it was in one of those palmetto filled cow pastures!

Soon after my 4-H club took a field trip to Kissimmee to go to one of the tack shops to look at saddles and other equipment. Kissimmee was a sleepy little cow town - that saddle shop was the biggest business in the place. When we went in there were real cowboys that smelled like cows. Now the closest you can get to that is the Kissimmee Cow Camp which is actually outside Lake Wales on Lake Kissimmee - http://www.visitcentralflorida.org/destinations/cow-camp-at-lake-kissimmee-state-park

Another big trip was to visit Kennedy Space Center right after the Vehicle Assembly Building was completed and the big tractor system was in place to carry the Atlas rockets to the launch pads. There was no visitor center, but if no launch was scheduled you could get tours of the facility. That was right at the beginning of the final effort to reach the moon. My dad figured out exactly where to look to see the rockets take off from our house. We could watch the launch on TV, run outside and see the exhaust from the center of the state. If it was a quiet morning we could hear the roar of the rocket from 100 miles away. I watched the moon launch from home on my 17th birthday in 1969.

When relatives from out of state visited, we'd take them to Busch Gardens in Tampa - which consisted of the brewery and gardens with a bird show - or Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven - with beautiful gardens and a water ski show - or Bok Tower in Lake Wales - with the carillon and gardens. My preacher uncle liked the Great Masterpiece in Lake Wales - a mosaic version of "The Last Supper" http://lostparks.com/mastgard.html None of those places had rides or theme park things back then, each just had one big draw and some landscaping to keep you around for a little longer.

I spent a week with a friend at her grandmother's in Daytona Beach around 1962. It was quiet enough that she'd let us walk to the beach and spend time there alone at 10-12 years old! But most of my beach time was at my grandmother's house on Eagle Lake just outside Winter Haven. When her house was moved from one of the mining towns, she'd had sand trucked in to make a nice sandy beach for her Northern visitors to enjoy. We'd go out almost every Sunday after church - before anyone had air conditioning, swimming was the best way to cool off in the summer. The adults would be up on the screened porch with the ceiling fans running and let us kids swim all alone.

[steve2470]

17. another good post!

Some of my memories:

Driving down I-4 in downtown Orlando circa 1965 with my parents (age 7). I-4 used to have grass medians through town.

Nothing between Orlando and Disney World except, as you said, pastures

Big empty lot where Universal Studios is today (1979?)

Orlando International was wayyyyy out of town. An Air Force bomber crashed near there in 1972.

Miami being a lot smaller in the downtown area and just smaller overall.

Old 1930's and 1940's era motels on the beach at Daytona Beach. I think a few are still left.

Lots and lots of orange groves, and the sweet smell of orange blossoms. Almost totally gone now where I am.

High school kids actually feeling to have a job at Disney World was a privilege!

[onethatcares]

19. I have a picture of myself, my wife, my brother and my son

in front of our first rental house.

My son was about 8 at the time and he's holding an "ARRIVED STONED" License plate.

Remember open container laws? I do.