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Once in a while something truly special happens to you.  This past weekend was just such an event for Pete and me.  We were invited as guests, to the Players Theater production of "Pete's Repair Shop".

The author/playwright, Jeffrey Kin, introduced us to the audience prior to the show and said that ten years ago he came into our shop, Sarasota Lock & Key Shop and was impressed by all the pictures of old Sarasota that we had covering the walls. He thought to himself: "Wow, if these walls could talk" and that was the seed of inspiration for this play.

If it was just a play it would have been a fun and enjoyable experience for us but Jeffrey had a poignant message all wrapped up in a delightful musical tribute that told of the folly of "Tearing down paradise to put up a parking lot" or in this particular case, a condo.

In Jeffrey's play the pictures come back to life and people from Pete's past return to help him save his shop. The cast was superb and they all seemed to really be enjoying themselves. We were royally received backstage and made to feel like part of the group.

Jeffrey's message needs to be delivered over and over again. Kudos to you, Jeffrey for a thought provoking message and a wonderful play!

 Life was/is good.

Doing outside locksmith service calls for forty years did certainly add variety to my daily routines. Sometimes I was called upon to solve puzzles. Just for the fun of it, try solving this one; no prizes, no awards.

Back in the mid 1970s I got called to change the locks on a Realtor's office in the Vischer building on South Pineapple Avenue (Little Five Points). While I was there he told me he was having the locks changed because he thought someone was coming in after-hours and running up his electric bill. Just recently, his monthly bill went up to almost $200.00 from a usual $39.00.

He had also called an electrician to look for the problem. They unplugged everything in his office and noticed the wheel in the meter still turning. Then they tripped all of his circuit breakers. Well, now his neighbor, who had moved in two months ago, came out the back door complaining. (Have you guessed the rest?) The neighbor was a tailor and he was ironing a shirt and his iron just went cold.

When the building was built, Carter's Drugstore occupied the first floor.  After they moved out the former large expanse was partitioned off to make several smaller units.

Yep, you guessed it; both sides of one wall receptacle were wired to only one office.   Life was/is good.

I know there are lots of folks who have lived here a long enough time (notice I didn't say "old timers") who remember the old red brick Sarasota High School building on Main Street. It was located on the south side of Main diagonally across the street from the First Baptist Church, and it was set back from the street quite a bit.

The cornerstone of that building now resides at the Sarasota County History Center on Porter Way.  My grand uncle's name, L.L. Hine, is on the corner stone as Sarasota was part of Manatee County when the building was erected in 1912. He was Superintendent of Public Instruction for Manatee County at that time.  The text of the cornerstone reads as follows:

Sarasota High School - Erected 1912

L.L. Hine – Superintendent of Public Instruction

A.F. Wyman – Chairman

Board of Public Instruction Manatee County

F.H. Tucker

E.F. Wilson

A.B. Edwards

Board of Local Trustees

R.I. Kennedy

Sarasota Sub-District #7

John Halton

Willis R. Biggers Architect

I.F. Jones Builder

After the new SHS building was built in 1926 on the South Tamiami Trail, the old building was used as a library until the Chidsey Library was built in 1940. It also had a life as a youth center and a WPA sewing room during WWII.  

In the mid 1940s Mr. Lewis Van Wezel built a row of stores facing on Main Street in front of the school house which he called the Egna Arcade. Pete theorizes that the name Egna derived from the Van Wezels using every other letter in Mrs.Van Wezel's name, EuGeNiA.

Sometime in the mid 1950s the old school building was razed to make way, eventually, for the current Post Office. We were told that the red bricks now form the outdoor patio/cafe at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Life was/is good.

Back about 1944 or so, the little fishing village of Sarasota was so small that finding spots for overnight recreational camping took about a 20 minute bicycle ride.  The "sand dunes" on north Lido Key had been created with fill when New Pass was periodically dredged.

On one of our overnights there, a hurricane side swiped us so bad with pounding rain and 70 m.p.h. wind that we couldn't stay in our hammocks.  We packed up our soggy back packs and soggier bodies and pedaled over to WSPB radio station on City Island.  The night manager, whom we knew, let us telephone our parents and even let us sleep on the floor;  Life was good.

Later on, in the 1980's and 1990's, while doing outside lock service calls on Westway Drive, Center Place or  Morningside Way (Lido Shores), the home-owners were very surprised to learn that their house was way out from civilization.

While I was still a member of BSA Troop 8, a neat over-grown jungle wilderness was just off Swift Rd. and Wilkinson Rd.  Today it is "Woodbridge" Because you drive on a wood bridge, over a drainage ditch on Moss Oak Drive to get to our haven.

Another way-out place in the boondocks-in-town was New Made Land.  To get to our campsite, you could backpack, go by boat, or four-wheel-drive vehicle.  In the late 1930's it was dredge and fill, known as Cummer Park.  Today that sandy, mucky, over-grown barren, worthless sandspur farm is Harbor Acres.  Life was/is good.

I find reunions to be so much fun. Whether it’s Pete’s class, my class or my annual family reunion, I always have a great time.

This time it was very different because I agreed to be a Deputy Director to Marshall DuBois, Director of the Sarasota High School Grand Reunion committee.

We started over a year ago planning and meeting with class reps. With Marshall’s technical ability it made the work so much more efficient. Not any less maybe, but more efficient for sure.

The day of the event we hit the floor running and I think everyone seemed to have a great time visiting and reconnecting with long lost classmates. We had a woman, Emilie Bradley, who graduated in the class of 1933 (pictured with Marshall). The youngest was a gal that graduated in the class of 2007. Imagine that, a 74-year span! We’ve gotten excellent feed-back and suggestions from some classes, and the “gate” was a record 1,550 in attendance.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the help of our two children, Pam McLeod and Ken Esthus and our son-in-law, Larry McLeod, and Gordon Clay, who willingly stepped up to the plate to help us; their help was invaluable.

One of Ken’s classmates commented that he thought if would be boring, but found to his delight, that he reconnected with old friends and reminisced about old happy times and had a great time; so much so that they continued to celebrate after the Grand Reunion ended.

That’s what it’s all about…Life was/is good.