Swampy’s Matchbook Wednesday – Colonial Inn, St Petersburg Beach.
on September 4, 2013
at 1:21 am
Comment
In Melbourne and the surrounding area the Union Cypress Railroad ran a lot. That included what this building was, The crescent Theater. During it’s existence it was actually in a town named Hopkins. Hopkins eventually got swallowed by the growth of Melbourne.
This photo is from ‘Melbourne: A Century of Memories 1880-1980’ by the Centennial Book Committee.
You can purchase a copy by clicking here or below.
Swampy’s Florida
Here’s the carton cover of Gustafson Farm’s Half and Half. Gustafson Farm’s milk products have been a staple in Florida homes since 1908. They’ve been continuously around Green Cove Springs. The cartons have been gone a while now, but look for the plastic containers in the refrigerated area of your local grocery store.
Click here to learn more about Gustafson Farm.
This carton, as is with most everything else you find within this blog, is part of the Swampy’s Florida collection.
Here’s David Rosenblatt in his delivery truck in 1930. Rosenblatt owned Southern Grocery located at 636 22nd Street South in St. Petersburg.
Here’s what is at that address today:
View Larger Map
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is part of my Florida book collection.
I picked this up noticing the Florida location and considered it a romance novel. I hadn’t read one before. However, after reading the book, it’d be more accurately described as a life novel. There are romantic overtones, but this is just as well following a lady as she takes a new job at a hotel in the Key Sud hotel somewhere amongst the Florida Keys. Based on hints given in the book, I’d guess on Big Pine Key. Seems the author would mention Key West. Though, some distances mentioned don’t seem to be that far down the Keys.
Location information is a bit lacking, but a number of Keys, Homestead, Miami and Miami Beach are mentioned. The author knows a bit about driving from Dade County through the Keys by her descriptions and must have traveled it herself.
The story was a bit predictable to me involving the turn in the story. Which guy the nurse ended up with was not as obvious. Overall the writing is direct and well done. Very good dialogue. Douglas does a tremendous job of depicting a teenager in the 1960s.
This 1969 book further shows me how poorly books today are assembled. From writing, to story to the actual publication, what’s happened to the book industry? If books today were at a higher caliper I would give this book a lower rating. Due to appalling mess of the book industry in the past fifteen years or so, i have to give this a higher rating. This book is certainly cheaper and better written and I didn’t notice any misspellings or punctuation issues I see in so many of today’s books.
Bottom line: I recommend this book.
View all my reviews
Something I learned after I wrote the review is that ‘Diana Douglas’ is actually Richard Wilkes-Hunter (1906-1991), who wrote under quite a number of pen names. ‘Resort Nurse’ was one of a series of medical romance novels he wrote.
If you’d like to get your own copy of ‘Resort Nurse’ you can click here or below.