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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.