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Pete and Diane are taking this week off. Why, you might wonder? Nope, they're not going on vacation, or even hitting the beach - instead they are proud to announce they are now great grandparents!

Let's all wish them and the little lad, Parker Robert Artis, a happy arrival, and a joyful Spring. Parker's parents are Robert and Heather Artis, and we bet Diane and Pete will be spoling the little one as much as possible.

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.

We've found out it really is a small world since we've been writing this blog. When we agreed to write a blog about growing up in Sarasota little did we know that tales of our personal experiences would be so far reaching.

After I wrote a blog about the Bee Line Ferry across Tampa Bay a friend of ours gave me an aerial photo of the opening day of the first Sunshine Skyway bridge so I decided to do a follow-up story and in order to verify the date of the Skyway opening I Googled "Sunshine Skyway" and to my utter surprise, there was my previous blog.

Recently our editor notified us that he had received an email from a man stating that he had read our blog about his aunt, Margaret Myrwang, "The Bicycle Lady" whom he remembered seeing many times in his youth when she came to visit his family. He requested a meeting with us when he was visiting here in Sarasota the following week.

Before their visit we went to the Sarasota County History Center to do some research in old City Directories to provide him with addresses and dates where Margaret had lived during her years in Sarasota.

He and his wife came to our house and we had a lovely 2 1/2 hour visit. They live in the DC area and he is a retired Lutheran Minister.  We were able to give them information on areas where Margaret used to paint, and he even found a retired minister in South Carolina who had one of Margaret's paintings and was willing to give it to them. It would be wonderful if this blog uncovered more of her art works they could obtain.

While they were in Sarasota they visited some of Margaret's old haunts and they went to McCown Towers where they found some folks who remembered her. And, the world seems to be getting smaller all the time.  Life was/is good.