The Perlman brothers and their father at the original Lum’s in 1956. They took a small bar that served hot dogs in the early ’50s in Miami Beach and turned it into a chain of hundreds of restaurants throughout Florida[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for Swampy’s Florida History
Here’s the bakery area that was once in Ronnie’s Restaurant in the Colonial Plaza in Orlando. The bakery was in a room that also, to the left of your view here, had a small delicatessen. The room was adjoining Ronnie’s[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The place to go on a hot Summer day – The mall! Here’s Colonial Plaza Mall in Orlando in the mid 1960s. The Publix moved from it’s much smaller location on Mills Avenue to Colonial Plaza. The building it left[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here is a wonderful way to present a fishing exhibit. It at the Winter Garden Heritage Museum. A short distance away is what was once one of the premiere bass fishing areas in the country. That area is Lake Apopka.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Do you have a Friendly Floridian card?
Dick Pope, the owner of Cypress Gardens & stalwart Florida promoter, cooked up this pin & card around 1970 with the support of, then Governor, Claude Kirk, to encourage tourists to visit Florida as much as possible. Pope was under[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
In the New River near Fort Lauderdale a group of Seminole go hunting, 1904. They would later sell what they caught at the Stranahan Store in what is now Downtown Fort Lauderdale. From ‘Pelts, Plumes and Hides – White Traders[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
From Pictorial History of Florida by Richard Bowe.
From ‘The Golden Coast’ by Harnett Kane.
The Florida History text book is available now for homeschool teachers or, as I’ve been told, for anyone who’d like to read a short version of Florida’s history! Just $6 each and includes questions, projects and even my phone number[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
S & H Green Stamps
Who remembers what these were for? Many of us old enough collected many, many of these and stuck them in a stamp book. Then we went to a store and traded them for toasters and lamps. Publix had the Green[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Swampy Live! Cartoon & Florida History Talks in Melbourne on July 28th, Saturday!
Swampy’s Rob Smith, Jr. is giving two talks at The Knowledge Exchange in Melbourne on Saturday, July 28th, from 10am into the afternoon. Rob will also be signing (and doodling) in his coloring books there. Rob will also be introducing[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s Main Street in Sarasota heading out to the water in 1888. From ‘The Story of Sarasota’ recently added to the Swampy library after