I wish I had time to list Florida book suggestions for Christmas gifts. Here’s one of my favorites: Weeki Wachee by Lu Vickers – Well written and beautifully illustrated. An excellent history of Weeki Wachee itself and springs in Florida.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It’s Cypress Gardens! This is one of my favorite postcards of the vast Cypress Gardens collection I have. This one is postmarked 1973.
Swampy will be visiting Brevard, Pinellas, Polk and Hillsborough Counties in the next few days. Photos to follow. That includes a stop at The Knowledge Exchange in Palm Bay late tomorrow to sign a few books. Come by and say[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Below are the full images of the front and back of the matchbook. Above are the two sides of the front cover. To us Ronnie’s fans, there was only ‘The Big 1’ – Ronnie’s!
The author of ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit’, Sloan Wilson, lived in Florida on and off from when he was five years old. A number of his books takes place in our state including this one from 1967,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Sorry to learn of death of Larry Hagman. He starred for 6 years in series set in Cocoa Beach, ‘I Dream of Jeannie’. Here’s the story: http://ow.ly/fxn43
It’s Toys ‘R Us in Ocala at 7:30 pm Thanksgiving night. The parking lot full and people parking everywhere else. The building itself is set back almost a block back from the sidewalk full of people. Closer examination found that[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Swampy in Orlando Sunday morning as the Downtown Orlando Christmas star goes up. Swampy’s dear friend Jack Kazanzas got the City of Orlando to renovate and to continue to put the star up above Orange Avenue each year. Friends of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s the largest load of lumber pulled from the pine forests of Lee County, near Slater, by the Dowling & Camp Lumber Company in the early 1930s. From ‘Lee County – A Pictorial History’. You can purchase a copy by[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s the Red Cross Pharmacy that once stood in Downtown Miami. It’s gone now, but had a long history. Over the years the business changed hand eventually ending up with Florida drug store magnate, Jack Eckerd. Before Eckerd bought the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Here’s a matchbook from Bradenton. The Palmetto address is now a parking lot. The Bradenton address is now a title company. Here’s the inside of the matchbook.
Here’s a banking bag of Fruit Industries in Bradenton. Fruit Industries was started by Anthony Rossi and was the precursor of Tropicana, now owned by Pepsico, Inc.