“A month-long program of fun known as the Tri-City Suncoast Fiesta was inaugurated during July, 1960, by Florida’s west coast resorts. Led by the key cities, Tampa, Clearwater, and Saint Petersburg, 16 commmunities participated in the events. Included were a boat-a-cade from Clearwater to Fort Myers, fishing tournaments, a walk-a-thon, a Latin Quarter festival in Tampa, and numerous other activities.”
Before the digital age, before everyone's world became their phone. It was fun.
ReplyDeleteMy parents, sister and I lived on 116th Street in the vast wilderness of West Miami after WW-II when my dad took a job with Pan Am. Sadly I was a tad too young at the time to partake in lusting over damsels.
ReplyDeleteWe moved to Clearwater from West Virginia in January, 1960. I remember this.
ReplyDeleteWe moved from PA to Fort Myers in late 1966 and those were the best years in Florida as far as I'm concerned. I lived there and across the river in Cape Coral for the next 40 years, moving here to Hoosierville in 2006. By 1980 that area was changing fast and not for the better. Way too many people and all the downsides that go with it. I have not been back there, even though most of my work comes from there, and don't intend to. It ain't Florida no more, it's something else.
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence? I think that's true for just about everywhere these days..
DeleteThe California I grew up is gone...long gone, as with a lot of other great places to be from. Some of those great places, where kids can still experience riding in the back of a pickup truck with the dog still exist. They're just harder to find, and obviously not where they used to be. Good times.
DeleteI grew up in a resort town. this is resort town behavior, fabricate a festival tp drag tourists in.
ReplyDeleteeverybody detested tourists, like people from red states detest Californians who leave their paradise. but bastards bring their wallet, so learn to make a grimace look like a smile and take the dough.