Blog

Since the Municipal Auditorium has been in the news so much lately it got us to thinking of the functions we have attended there through the years.

Long before there was a Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall most large functions were held at the Municipal Auditorium. If memory serves  me correctly, I think one of my High School proms was held there. Certainly my High School graduation was held there and they turned the auditorium around with the graduates seated in the balcony and relatives and friends seated on the main floor.

The Sara de Soto Pageant coronation balls were held there along with concerts featuring such notables as Stan Kenton, Tex Beneke, Dave Brubeck, Guy Lombardo, Carmen Cavallaro, the Florida West Coast Symphony as well as many more, that others maybe will remember.

The Historical Society held their unique version of "Antiques Roadshow" there twice.

The Youth Center, at one point, occupied the rear of the auditorium, and in recent years, we have attended jam sessions by the Jazz Club in the same place.

The High School Drama Class of 1946 presented a Pageant of Sara de Soto tableau with a cast of over 50 students participating. Suzette Jennings (Blue) played the part of Sara and Pete was an Indian.

Even when they did a "face lift" on the building and renamed it the Exhibition Center, I refused to call it that, so I was delighted when the city restored the original facade and put the original name back in place.

Both Pete and I feel this building is such an integral part of our collective memories of Sarasota that it should remain as a venue for all kinds of programs and functions for the benefit of Sarasota.  Life was/is good.

Having owned and operated a retail sales and service business in Sarasota for forty-two years did, indeed, expose me to many day-to-day experiences with an O. Henry-style outcome.

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stephenson operated their fashionable ladies’ fine wear clothing store on upscale South Palm Avenue for many years. Mrs. Stephenson always wore the latest fashions, even the latest in driving gloves when operating her shiny Buick sedan. Class? She exuded class by the ton.

After becoming a widow, Mrs. “S” decided to sell her house in Harbor Acres and move out to Arizona to live with her daughter. Since some of her door locks needed attention she phoned her favorite locksmith.

When I got there I spent a half hour on her locks and then we reminisced for an hour about the Sarasota we once knew. After getting a check and a hug, I headed out on to my next outside call.

When I got back to the shop, Diane handed me a hard cover edition of “The Story of Sarasota,” by Karl Grismer. The author had signed it, “To Mrs. Fred Stephenson, affectionately, Karl Grismer.” I immediately phoned her to tell her that the thought that she had given me a treasured sentiment overwhelmed me. She said, “Pete, don’t go overboard. That sentiment was for the first Mrs. Stephenson, not me, and I’m not taking anything to Arizona that used to belong to that witch!”

Life was/is good.

The lack of entertainment opportunities has been a complaint often voiced by youthful members of just about every community. Growing up in Sarasota, us young'ns, back in the '30s and '40s, had, oh let's see, Church activities, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, tennis, archery, sailing, swimming, baseball, softball, football.

High School football was number one spectator sport for kids and adults especially back in 1940. That year my sister, Marjorie was in the pep squad, brother Raymond and I were in the marching band.

How engrained that was; Friday night football and an after-game drive through SMACK.  How engrained? In 1965, after I joined the Rotary Club, I was talking to Marjorie and tried to sell her some tickets to the Rotary Charity Ball. As she was opening her purse, I mentioned to her that the Ball was next Friday night.  Her purse snapped shut as she told me "That was stupid! Pete, did they forget, that's the night of the football game??"

Life was/is good.