Genuine Florida

One of my fondest childhood memories was spending my hard-earned pennies on buying sea shells at the Silver Springs Shell Shop, an iconic gift shop across from the Sun Plaza Motel in Silver Springs. They had everything, from conchs to cowries to tiny jingle shells and shark’s teeth. Like most gift shops of the day, they also sold goofy trinkets like coconuts carved to look like monkey heads, tacky t-shirts, big beach towels, and stickers.

Alas, the Shell Shop is no more. For reasons known only to themselves, Florida DOT decided several years ago that they needed to plow it down to widen an intersection. Well, here it is two summers later, and they’ve yet to build the intersection, and the land stands empty. Why they couldn’t have left this perennial tourist icon alone is a mystery to me. And so it goes into the file of memories of places that aren’t there anymore. That’s me, buying a beach towel, on one of the last days the store was open in 2006.

It’s Florida’s tallest lighthouse. Completed in 1887, this beacon over Ponce Inlet soars 175 feet high, tapering to just 12 feet at the top. And if you’ve got vertigo … this isn’t the place to go. Take a tour through our photo gallery and read the rest of the story….

Gatorland in Orange County has gone through many changes over the years. One is above. That is the entire facility circa 1961 along South Orange Blossom Trail. Today it is more than three times as large. Another is that the admission was a donation in 1961. Today there is a charge and you get a ton more for your money.

Gatorland seems not to have faltered as an attraction,  as most of Florida’s other mid-size attractions have dealt with to one degree or the other. It has maintained itself and the business has stayed in the family, a trait that long standing healthy businesses can be traced back to.

I never met Gatorland’s creator, Owen Godwin. Learn more about him and Gatorland by clicking here. I did have many opportunities to talk to his brother Charlie and his wife. Charlie shared many stories of Gatorland. He and his wife were great folks.

Lakeland has a literal open-air museum of wonderful signs. Here’s another: Dick’s Auto Sales. Started in 1945, the dealership now sells used cars. There are quite a few signs on this area of Main Street alone to see. They will slowly appear here.

To cut a path across Florida to get ships through has been kicked around for centuries. The Cross Florida Barge Canal was as close as it got. You can read more here and in an article Sandra wrote about the Cross Florida Greenway’s history. It was eventually halted due to the hard work of many. Most specifically by Florida resident and environmental activist, Bill Partington. Bill’s efforts got President Richard Nixon to cancel the project despite efforts by Florida politicans and businessmen.

Above is from the 1960 publication ‘Florida, Today and Tomorrow’ by C.M. Gay. Obviously the reason this project ended is that it would have split the state in two (Though, those in North Florida might welcome that now). The dream was to get ships to have faster and cheaper access to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The problem was having what would had to have become Panama Canal type structures cutting through the limestone rock of our foundation across the state and the likely damage to our underground water supply.

Here Swampy visits Bradenton’s infamous Shake Pit. Since 1959 the Shake Pit has been serving Manatee County. What a great place to bring children to see what there fore mamas and papas experienced in Bradenton.

They serve soft serve and real ioce cream, along with burgers and hotdogs. You can order outside or go insiode and make use of the spinny chairs at the counter. The indoor area is very small, but that’s because most are odering ice cream to go.

There is a very good variety of shakes and nothing is better than stopping at the Shake Pit during a typical sweltering Florida day and cooling off with a shake!

Here’s an interesting item from the collections: A giant Silver Springs matchbook. These images are actual size. Above is one side of the outside. Below is the otherside.

Below is the interior of the matchbook. It’s a wonderful illustration of Silver Springs across the matches. Also look at that map! Pre-75, pre-95, pre-interstate 4. Look at the balance of cities. It’s all fairly balanced, as it should be. All communities are important.

Saturday, May 3rd, Princeton Elementary in Orlando marked it’s 81st birthday. Former and current students, former and current teachers attended. Dianne Williams, retired P.E. teacher, was honored with a pavillion opened in her name.

Above Swampy lingers at one of the back entrances of the school. This is part of the original construction of the school.

‘Dutch Uncle’ is part of the ‘Hard Case Crime’ series that is reprinting older pulp novels and brand new ones. This is a new one that was first published in 2005 and still available in stores. The locations is primarily in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Other locations involved are Sunrise, Gainesville and Orlando.

Author Peter Pavia has begun an extremely promising writing career with a top notch read of what most face in South Florida: Various varieties of crime. Pavia does a great job of laying out the various characters and their thought processes. The story then bounces from one to the other each with their own view of various situations in the book. This is very well done. The plot seems to be heading to a cliff,,,and maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. That makes another interesting turn in the writing: You draw your own conclusion. The way it is all written, you care enough to find out. Well done!

Since 1957, it’s Harry Family Restaurant on Main Street in Lakeland.