Posted on 09/17/2003 1:29:11 AM PDT by dansangel
And thanks for the well wishes Meg and Tooters. I'm fine, just battling a seasonal cold. Keeps me from thinking strait. That is the most frustrating thing.
It all is a matter of perspective - and attitude, Freezee.
Consider that in all of America, there was no air conditioning to any degree until after WWII - in the 40's!
That was when refrigeration became a big deal, emerging fully from the literal 'ice boxes' to modern ones - and the introduction of - gasp! - frozen foods!
Those first were stored in a common, public one - then eventually incorporated into the fridge in your kitchen. (No mixes for things - everything was cooked from scratch; but that's another matter.)
No a/c in schools or stores - in other words, we viewed warmth as essential to life and health and well-being, just as you were accustomed to cold as the 'norm' in Vermont, and did not dwell upon that.
In Coral Gables, we prayed for a cold snap when I was little, since the schools did not have heat in them, and if it was near freezing, the radio announced, "No School Today!"
The first snow I ever saw was when I was 19 and in Rochester, NY - stunned that it was so wet, and not like the Ivory Snow Flakes laundry powder with which I was familiar..:))
As dansy said, on the East Coast, there usually is a pleasant breeze to enjoy, and it almost never reached and exceeded 100 degrees. You just took each day as it came - in stride - as you did snowy ones, no doubt.
By the way, later, living in Rochester, NY for two years, the very hottest I ever was, was a week there in the 90+-degree range - very humid - no breeze - and the heat magnified in the Asphalt Jungle.
To get any sleep at all, I had to lie sans clothing under a damp sheet with a fan on full force....and still was uncomfortable.
The reputation of The Deep South as being unbearable is not always deserved. This year, for example, here in my part of South Carolina, there have been only a handful of days that just barely went over 90 degrees - not in the 100's but one time - usually a breeze, and the humidity not excessive.
Nights for three weeks have been in the 60's, and last night 50's!
Comfort sometimes is a question of 'Mind over Matter' - -
if you think in terms of "I'm Uncomfortable," you are bound to be that.
Hey, I've drank from there! Now explain my grey hair!
Founding of St. Augustine
Don Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in America with Columbus on his second voyage, 1493. Leon and his fellows, not Columbus, completed Spain's claim to the New World. Made governor of Puerto Rico in 1510 and later deposed, Ponce de Leon, at his own expense, equipped an expedition to the North in 1513. A few years previous, Amerigo Vespucci had discovered and claimed the South American continent for Spain and John Cabot the northern continent for England. Two of the mightiest nations in the world stood opposed for proprietorship of half the globe. Ponce De Leon heard Indians tell of Bimini, a fabulous island in the North. Historians do not unanimously honor at full value the beautifully romantic story that Ponce was seeking to find the fountain of youth. Yet it was not incredible to men of that day - when the very existence of a New World was hardly believable to those who had not seen it with their own eyes - that those who had touched these shores should believe in greater magic in this strange realm. And certainly there is no legend more appropriate to the beginning of America than that this new land should offer men a vision of eternal youth. Indeed it has! With his able navigator, Anton Alaminos, Ponce sailed and chared the ocean's main artery, the Gulf Stream, shaping the destiny of oceanic transport for all time to come.
I've reserved a couple of chairs on the beach...they look made just for you and .45MAN...justa waitin'.
Good morning to all our Hostesses, and all the Finest.
It's Wedensday already...time is flyin'...Autumn is just around the corner...
I love living in FL because of the palm trees, exotic birds, gorgeous beaches, friendly people and our wonderful Governor JEB!
The history is so interesting.....each area is so diverse & has it's own special beauty.....Panhandle, West Coast, the Keys, St. Augustine, Central Highlands (283ft above sea level), the Everglades....I've tried to explore it all.
Have you read "A Land Remembered"? It is a historical novel about the struggles & triumphs of the early settlers....not great literature but I learned a lot.....the origin of the term 'Florida Cracker' and that FL probably has more beef & cowboys than Texas!
Sounds like people are discovering the beauty of FL without all the highrise condos blocking the view!
That's what .45MAN and I loved about Sebastian, just a bit further north from you. No hustle and bustle, the Inlet that is just as beautiful as it is treacherous - and miles of unspoiled beach.
[sigh] Now, I am *really* homesick!
We went there after you left Florida - was the Ampitheater over it then, and stage with depiction of it?
The guide gave that story of it.
And had they then uncovered, cleaning the area by the spring, the actual cross made of stones by him there?!!
Awesome to contemplate it being laid in 1513 to claim it for God!
Speaking of drinking the water, I did, and then went down to the statue by the bay.
Another older couple were returning from there, and the husband quipped to his wife, "See - she drank the water and it transformed her into Miss St. Augustine!"
It works!!
LOL
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.
Dansy did a thread on Flor-ida
Not even once did I snore-ida
Even though the state brings back bad memories of Gore-ida
And if you don't start making more errors in your threads, poems like this you'll get more-ida
Meant to include you in the address to my reply about Cattle Country, jw.
Had my own white quarterhorse named Grasshopper, and when I was 11, the mailbox was 3 miles east in a group, homes scattered; a mile or more apart.
During the school year, Mom drove us there to catch the school bus - in the summer, I used to ride my horse to get the mail and newspaper.
It was a wild departure from the Little City Girl in Coral Gables who played Sheena and dug foxholes..:))
Hmmph!
The beef came on a truck from Texas and the Cowboys are only
there on a temporary basis.. to whip the tar out'n the Dolphins.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.