[LadyX]

"and that FL probably has more beef & cowboys than Texas!"

Right you are, Julie!
I moved to 12 miles west of Melbourne in 1943 - 1,000 acres in the heart of Cattle Country, from there over to Kissimmee and environs.
Among our neighbors were the Platt families - a ranch dynasty with several brothers and their families. Daddy let Marion use our land to graze some of his cattle, and the sons were exempted from military service during WWII because raising the beef for the troops was essential.

Marion's son, Donald, was my age, and he and Clyde Hilliard in the 4th and 5th grade plied me on the school bus ride with Teaberry and Black Jack chewing gum, courting my favor...:)) (Gum was scarce during the war)

Now and then went out with them on roundups and branding times - great eating, the women bringing dinner to them - and my older teenage sister rode with them a lot.

Eventually, Marion sold many thousands of his acres to create what now is Port Malabar, extending all the way over to the St. John's River. Marion and Lorena, though, remained in their modest big home in the country they'd always had that used to belong to a judge; and I last visited her in 1997, keeping in touch every Christmas.

The Rodeo in Kissimmee was a Big Deal back then - long before Disney was created and the area boomed.

[Calpernia]

>>>The Rodeo in Kissimmee was a Big Deal back then - long before Disney was created and the area boomed.

I wish there was a way to stop the developing. We all get more hurt by losing farms and ranch life.

[JulieRNR21]

LadyX...What a wonderful story about your cattle raising neighbors in Melbourne.

I was living in CA when I first learned about the many FL cowboys. We went to the Rodeo at the Orange County Fair and noticed that most of the cowboys came from FL.....many more than from TX & OK. We were amazed.

I meant no offense to TX, humblegunner. I loved living there myself at one time.....but now my heart belongs to Florida!