Tales of Sarasota

Entertainment Opportunity (IES)

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:56:34 -0500

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.

It's A Small World

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:59:09 -0500

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.

"54/40' or Fight"

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:41:13 -0500

Back in the late 1960s, I was in our shop (Sarasota Cycle & Key Shop) one day, by myself, when a trucker came in with a shipment for us. After he unloaded his goods he came into the shop to get a check for the shipping charges.

I asked him how much the charges were and he said $54.40 to which I replied: "Or Fight." He said, "No lady I don't want to fight, I just want a check for $54.40," to which I replied, "Don't you remember back in your history lessons in the mid 1800s there was a clash over the border between the US and Canada and the rallying cry was '54/40' or fight?" He looked at me like I had two heads and said: "No lady I just want a check for $54.40." I realized I shouldn't pursue this conversation any longer so I walked up to the front of the shop to get the check book and proceeded to write a check for him.

About that time a man walked into our shop with a wheel in hand for repairs. I looked up at him and told him I'd be right with him as soon as I finished writing a check and I turned to the trucker to verify the amount and when the trucker, who was getting a little perturbed with me by this time, said "It's $54.40" and with that the man with the wheel said: "Or fight."

I turned around and said to the man with the wheel: "I'm so glad you said that because I said the same thing to the trucker and he thinks I'm nuts". To which the wheel man replied: "Well I don't know about you but I am." I pointed to the front door and told the wheel man: "Out, out and never darken my door again."

The trucker grabbed the check and was scratching his head as he walked out and the wheel man and I stood there and roared. If this little scenario had been scripted it couldn't have been more perfect.

Life

Summertime In Sarasota

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:46:58 -0500

Summertime in Sarasota was made even more delightful for us teen-agers with the opening of our gorgeous Lido Beach Municipal Casino. One of its new modern gadgets was a coin operated binocular on the second floor balcony overlooking the snow-white sand being kissed by the Gulf of Mexico.

One July 1940 Sunday afternoon's peace and tranquility was suddenly interrupted by a lady's high pitched screaming voice summoning the nearby lifeguards.

"Hurry", she exclaimed. "There are three people out there about a mile. I can see three heads but they aren't moving." Two of the lifeguards ran to the water and swam out as fast as they could.

According to the front page article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune the event transpired over a two-hour time frame. On Monday, the three "rescued" teen-aged boys were charged with disturbing the peace and endangering the lives of public servants.

According to my brother Ray, he and two buddies were out there, just floating and drifting with the tide. Fortunately, they weren't tired out, because the lifeguards had spent their energy and needed help getting back to shore. Life was/is good.

Name that Christmas Carol

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:17:15 -0500

Name that Christmas Carol

Bleached Yule
Castaneous-colored seed vesicated in a conflagration
Singular yearning for the twin anterior incisors
Righteous Darkness
Arrival time 2400 hours

A Mail By Rail Tale

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:04:49 -0500

"Son, always pay your bills on time" was a favorite admonishment frequently uttered by my illustrious Father. But while operating a small retail business here in Sarasota my Dad unknowingly, actually taught me the art of "deadline motivation", by example.

Checks sent to suppliers had to be post-marked by the 10th of the month in order to get a 2% discount. The saving grace was the daily 5:17 Seaboard Railroad train to Tampa. Back in the 1930s and 1940s the trains had a mail clerk on board who shared the baggage car. There was even a mail drop slot on the sides of the car clearly labeled U.S. Mail. My job was to carefully carry and make sure those envelopes got on that train!

One day while I was feeding envelopes into that slot, and the train starting to roll, a man ran up to me and said, "At the post office they have a local slot and an outbound slot. Which is this?" I couldn't resist. So, I told him that maybe the local slot was on the other side of the car. With an unrepeatable oath that I was too young to understand, he shoved his local mail into the slot as the train pulled out of the station. But not to worry. As you and I know, the mail must go through, his just had to make a round-trip to Tampa and back. Life was/is good.

Giving Thanks

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:44:48 -0500

Even though it's really Pete's turn to write a blog, since it's Thanksgiving week I wanted to share a favorite family recipe.

On our first Thanksgiving in Sarasota we were invited to Willie & Bonnie Robarts house. They lived next door to their Robarts Funeral Home on Links Avenue. Willie Robarts and my Dad were first cousins.

Bonnie & Willie had a colored maid who was a fabulous cook. The only memory I have of that meal which was a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, was her stuffed celery. Fortunately, she graciously gave me the recipe. It has been a favorite of ours through the years and every one in our family just assumes it will be part of our holiday meal. In fact they insist on it. This was brought to mind the other night when our son called to ask for the recipe. Since he is not able to come home this year he's still determined to have stuffed celery at his Thanksgiving dinner. Here's the recipe:

STUFFED CELERY

1 8oz pkg. cream cheese
1 small can pears in syrup
Finely chopped pecans
Sugar to taste.

Mix some of the pear juice and crush some of the pears into the cream cheese until spreading consistency. Add sugar to taste and pecans and stuff your celery and sit back and enjoy the compliments.

Bon Appetite & Happy Thanksgiving from Pete & Diane. Life was/is good

(The photograph below was taken just after Willie and Bonnie Robarts' wedding. They are standing on South Pineapple Avenue in front of the Methodist Church.)

Growing up in a Foreign Land

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:47:32 -0500

My brother and I were born in Boston of Southern parentage. My Mom was from Georgia and my Dad was from Bradenton. They married in the Depression and there was little work to be found in Florida at the time, so they migrated to a foreign culture where work was available. It was quite a shock especially for my Mom who grew up on a farm in Georgia. She was raised on Southern fried chicken, collards, black eye peas, biscuits and corn bread; none of which was available in Yankee Land.

For years my brother and I felt we were under-privileged because, while our friends were dining on brown bread, Boston baked beans and hot dogs, we were having Southern fare. I might add that the chicken was fabulous and her biscuits were so light that you had to slather them with butter to hold them down on the plate. Some time later we found out that Mom had to go to S.S. Pierce in Boston to find these Southern delicacies, and she paid a premium price for them.

Ah, the ignorance of youth. Life was/is good.

The Need For Speed

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:36:54 -0400

The other day someone asked me about a former entertainment venue that is now only a source of memories. Driven out of town by the "NIMBYs", now one must drive ten miles east to bombard your ear drums with VAROOM, VAROOMS.

Back around 1953, a place called Sara-Mana Speed Bowl was available to satisfy anyone's appetite for noisy, dusty, loud screeching tires and crashing sheet metal. I think it was an eighth-mile oval with asphalt pavement where hard-working local hot rod jockeys could spend a Saturday evening bashing and banging what they spent all week rebuilding.

Seems to me they ran ten heats of ten laps with 12 racers each and a twenty-five lap feature.

The track was located near 63rd Avenue and 14th St. W. Kind of across from Bayshore Gardens area. While not an official minor league to NASCAR at least one name, prominent in NASCAR, traces back to Sara-Mana Speed Bowl; Emil Reutimann, from Zephyrhills, raced number double zero there and today his grandson, David, has that on his Sprint Cup car. Ironically, Emil was killed in a highway collision a few years ago.

Back in 1939 there was a small grass strip airport on the other side of 14th St.W. The Mystery Ship Airport was used for Jalopy races. Later it was a golf driving range. They also used the City Island air strip when available.

A popular Jalopy racer was Sherman Studer (see photo) who operated Studer's Small Engine Clinic in Sarasota for many years. His little known notoriety saved the U.S. Air Force millions of dollars and who knows how many pilots. When the North American P-51 fighters were assigned to the Sarasota Army Air Base in 1944, they began to experience in-flight fires. When one pilot refused to bail out and he returned to the base, on fire, Studer, on North American's payroll, discovered a faulty solder connection on a fuel pump booster. Inspection of the other P-51s showed a pattern which enabled a saboteur in the factory to be captured. Studer's mechanical acumen was also evidenced when you saw him running errands in his 1959 (?) Cadillac pick-up truck; home-made of course. They were each one-of-a-kind.

Life was/is good.

Try To Remember

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:22:38 -0400

Does that sound like a line from a song? You must be one of The Fantastics. Here's a few things to spark your ROM; do your children know how to hand crank an automobile? Do you remember the smell while running a mimeograph copier? Anyone here still us a Dictaphone?

Speaking of automobiles-does yours have bumpers? When I was a kid my Mother would do her grocery shopping, then go to the New West Florida Ice Co. ice house and drive home with a 20 pound block sitting on the front bumper supports.

Another use for the front bumper was to hang a leather water bag on so you'd have cool drinking water on long trips!

Wing windows needed to bring in fresh cool (?) air; did you ever drive with your doors slightly open to suck out the mosquitoes?

"Saucered and blowed"? I haven't heard that for many years. Mother made percolated coffee in the mornings that was so hot that Daddy would pour some into the saucer, blow on it and sip it from the saucer. All this while reading the morning Tampa Tribune, and never spilled a drop.

Personally, I don't remember using a telephone with no dial. Every call was through a switchboard operator. I do remember we were on a four-party line. Not much privacy then. Life was/is good.