I traveled back to the Florida Capitol area to follow up on my visit last Tuesday morning, while Mom waited. Up at the Legislative Library on the 7th floor of the new Capitol building, I copied down information about the June 2004 South Florida state senators, then - since I decided to follow the Census Bureau's 2004 decision to include Palm Beach County to Dade and Broward County as the greater Miami metro area - I copied down info. about Palm Beach County legislators. I went to Tallahassee to do this because some of this information is not readily available on the Internet. I'm exploring - for a paper and presentation in Boston in early August -differences between the Minnesota Twin Cities' Hmong Americans and Korean Americans and South Florida's Cuban Americans and Haitian Americans (and trying to account for those differences).
On the way out I stopped in small Florida history gift shop on the ground floor of the new Capitol - where there is much more security - now - There were lots of cool history books, including many new ones I have not seen - one about Harry T. Moore, a Florida NAACP and voting rights leader who house outside of Titusville was firebombed on Christmas Day 1954 - killing him and his wife. I thought to myself - This would have been a cool bookstore to carry my Florida book, but that's not very likely, especially because it's now been superseded by an updated version - with a new co-author who no doubt updated it - a version which I've never seen. Then, something happened that has never happened to me in a bookstore (only in libraries - including the sleepy Macomb, IL library) - There was my book. I did what I did in libraries - I ask the woman working there if I could sign the book - and she - who was also excited - fished out a special little bookmark that said - signed by the author. That was cool. (New edition pictured above top)
Then I went into the Old Capitol - recently restored more - and in the basement was a very cool exhibit of colorized old 1960s black and white pictures of old timey Florida attractions - like the ones we have depicted in the "Dixie Before Disney" book and "Forgotten Florida" video. There were no pictures of Sarasota Jungle Gardens, which Stephanie, Vincent, and I visited when I lived 600 yards away for a year. But there were lots of pictures of Marineland, which my family visited when I was a kid, and which Stephanie, Vincent, and I visited about 5-6 years ago - soon before it was essentially closed as an attraction, and of something I've never seen pictures of: Six Gun Territory (non-colorized picture included above middle), which my family visited several times when we lived in Gainesville - it was outside of Ocala, near where our church had its retreat.
I wandered off to find any brochures/books/mementos from the special exhibit and found myself talking with Anne McKenzie, a former Broward County legislator, who helps direct the history program out of the Old Capitol. We reminisced about the 1981 legislative session, which I helped cover as a reporter, and I mentioned my research, partly about Broward. I said: "I'm sure Broward is very nice, but I love Tallahassee." She confessed that even though she represented Broward County (home of Fort Lauderdale - skyline pictured above middle) in the Florida House for many years, since she retired from the Legislature, she's only been back once - a month after retiring for a good-bye party. I added that - Of course, Tallahassee is changing - hopefully, partly for the better. She also showed me beautiful paintings of Florida history (one of these pictured above middle) that her program had commissioned and a book that the project produced (and two underwater scene paintings - one above bottom - not in the book).
On the way out I stopped in small Florida history gift shop on the ground floor of the new Capitol - where there is much more security - now - There were lots of cool history books, including many new ones I have not seen - one about Harry T. Moore, a Florida NAACP and voting rights leader who house outside of Titusville was firebombed on Christmas Day 1954 - killing him and his wife. I thought to myself - This would have been a cool bookstore to carry my Florida book, but that's not very likely, especially because it's now been superseded by an updated version - with a new co-author who no doubt updated it - a version which I've never seen. Then, something happened that has never happened to me in a bookstore (only in libraries - including the sleepy Macomb, IL library) - There was my book. I did what I did in libraries - I ask the woman working there if I could sign the book - and she - who was also excited - fished out a special little bookmark that said - signed by the author. That was cool. (New edition pictured above top)
Then I went into the Old Capitol - recently restored more - and in the basement was a very cool exhibit of colorized old 1960s black and white pictures of old timey Florida attractions - like the ones we have depicted in the "Dixie Before Disney" book and "Forgotten Florida" video. There were no pictures of Sarasota Jungle Gardens, which Stephanie, Vincent, and I visited when I lived 600 yards away for a year. But there were lots of pictures of Marineland, which my family visited when I was a kid, and which Stephanie, Vincent, and I visited about 5-6 years ago - soon before it was essentially closed as an attraction, and of something I've never seen pictures of: Six Gun Territory (non-colorized picture included above middle), which my family visited several times when we lived in Gainesville - it was outside of Ocala, near where our church had its retreat.
I wandered off to find any brochures/books/mementos from the special exhibit and found myself talking with Anne McKenzie, a former Broward County legislator, who helps direct the history program out of the Old Capitol. We reminisced about the 1981 legislative session, which I helped cover as a reporter, and I mentioned my research, partly about Broward. I said: "I'm sure Broward is very nice, but I love Tallahassee." She confessed that even though she represented Broward County (home of Fort Lauderdale - skyline pictured above middle) in the Florida House for many years, since she retired from the Legislature, she's only been back once - a month after retiring for a good-bye party. I added that - Of course, Tallahassee is changing - hopefully, partly for the better. She also showed me beautiful paintings of Florida history (one of these pictured above middle) that her program had commissioned and a book that the project produced (and two underwater scene paintings - one above bottom - not in the book).
No comments:
Post a Comment