I can still remember the jingle, and politician more questionable than today, like Claude Kirk.
Ironically, I witnessed the rise of Lawton Chiles, and now his niece or grand-daughter in-law, I forget, stumbled into the U.S. Senate seat, last time around.
Neighbors? Very close, in Time and in Space, though probably not at precisely the same era. And each era in Miami differs and is the same as every other era there almost as much as that squatter's camp on the Potomac. Went to Palmetto, Junior and Senior, exiled in '73, returned sporadically a decade later. Dad worked for Eastern management, so it was a kind of Golden Age, personally.
Let's see. S.W. 109th Terrace, and on Old Cutler Road, both first-owner houses, amazingly, both still extant though they were right under Andrew's path. One of the two houses looks it, too.
For all the downsides, and it's a tough call, I guess I was never happier in any one place than between the ages of 13 and 15, 1970 to 1973, just south of South Miami.
If you knew where to look, you could still see old Florida, the Florida of Flagler and Julia Little, and a lot of the Florida of the Forties, rapidly going the way of the Lockheed Super Constellation.
I've got to be careful. Memory of a memory of a memory scrubs the awkward moments, and the time stands out in stark contrast to places lived in before and after those days.
Without laboring it further, you can still find a strong hint of Florida as it was in eastern North Carolina, in the right season. Wilmington reminds me a lot of our Miami before the Cocaine Rush, and Hyde County (the last undeveloped mid-Atlantic, earliest settled, largest and least populated county in the State) offers that same taste of ancient, early 20th century Florida, if one knows when and where to look.
Take Care!
My mom and step-dad both worked for Eastern. That’s where they met. My step-dad was a mechanic for over 30 years. My mom only worked there about 5 years. Can’t remember exactly what she did but it was office work. Broke my heart when they went bankrupt. Lots of people in Hialeah worked for airlines. Had neighbors who worked for Pam Am and BWIA. The good ole days.