More Cruising

We have returned from our cruise and it was great as usual. Cruising is a great way to relax. The porters take your bags as you walk up to the terminal and they magically appear outside your stateroom door. We are fortunate here in Tampa to have a cruise terminal so it's just a short drive downtown and you're on the ship. Then you can eat and drink and play all you want. It was great to have the family and friends together. Here are some pics...

Cruising

We took our first cruise in 1999 on our 20 year anniversary

Tomorrow we leave on our 12th cruise

Along with our three kids and about 20 of their friends...See you Monday

JFK comes to Tampa

It was November 18th, 1963....50 years ago today that John F. Kennedy visited Tampa. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and mild temperatures when JFK electrified Tampa with his visit. School kids were given the day off from school so families could gather to see the President.

 At 11:24 am Air Force One touched down at MacDill Air Force Base. Kennedy was flown by helicopter to speak at Al Lopez Field. Then he left for his ride through downtown Tampa. It would be the longest domestic motorcade of his Presidency.

He is riding in the same bubble top car that he would ride in Dallas four days later. Along the route he would ride down Lafayette St. which would later be renamed John F Kennedy Boulevard. It was Kennedy's request that no Secret Service agents ride on the back of the car because he wanted the people to see their President. He would tragically repeat that mistake four days later.

This statue stands on Kennedy Boulevard outside Plant Hall at the University of Tampa

Kennedy's trip to Tampa is remembered as a day of joy and optimism...Four days later that would all change

Gorgeous Georgia

OK so I pilfered that title from a Bellamy Brothers song...tomorrow I make my yearly visit to north Georgia to visit my family. I have been making that journey for many years. My first visit was in October 1956...I was 7 months old. I don't remember much about that visit :)...There is a picture of my great grandmother Rosa holding me in a rocking chair. The date was October 8, 1956...the day is memorable because as my Father told me, it's the day Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history. In the years since I have always returned to the place of my Grandfather's birth to visit with our family. 

I'll be gone until Monday...Go Dawgs !!

Changes

This is the way Tampa looked when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's. I remember when that first tall building went up. It was a relatively small city. I used to ride my bike to school and in junior high that was a three mile ride. You would never let a child do that today. Times have changed and so has my city..in a big way. The Tampa Bay area which includes Tampa, St Petersburg and Clearwater is the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the Southeast behind Miami and Atlanta. Tampa now has three major sports teams with the Buccaneers, Rays and Lightning. The Buccaneers have won the Super Bowl and the Lightning the Stanley Cup. The Rays were in the World Series in 2008.

This is Tampa today...much different...here are some other changes..

The Buccaneers used to play in Tampa Stadium...the Big Sombrero

Now they play in Raymond James Stadium

The Cincinnati Reds used to train at old Al Lopez Field. I used to watch the Big Red Machine here

Now the New York Yankees train at George Steinbrenner Field

The old Skyway bridge had room for sail boats

The new Skyway has room for this...as I close this morning it's a cool 61 degrees here in Tampa

Streetcars

Streetcars were once the primary means of public transportation in Tampa. I have a particular affinity for the streetcar. My Grandfather used to drive them. Streetcar service began in Tampa in 1892. The heydays of streetcars were the 1920's and 30's when over 190 cars were in service. In 1926 over 24 million passengers rode streetcars over 53 miles of track in Tampa. The streetcar died in 1946 after the war. Buses made them obsolete.

Not a great pic but this is car # 163 in service

Car 163 was found being used as a dilapidated residence

This is car 163 today...A fully restored and in service 1922 Birney streetcar. TECO runs 6 streetcars over a 3 mile track that runs from Ybor City then through downtown and on to Channelside. Chances are my Grandfather drove this car. I wish Columbus H Cleveland was alive today to go for a ride with me in this car...

Some Tampa History

Cigar factories used to number close to 200 in Tampa. Today as few as 20 of the buildings remain and only one still produces cigars. 

Cigar making came to Key West in the late 1800's from Cuba. In 1885 most of the Key West cigar makers, led by Vicente Martinez Ybor relocated to Tampa. The combination of H.B. Plant's west coast railroad, a large sea port, and a warm and humid climate made the then small city of Tampa an ideal location. About 5,000 homes went up around the factories and Ybor City was born.

El Lector...he would read to the workers as they rolled cigars

Many of the factories today are boarded up like this one. As a boy I used to sit outside a factory like this while my Father, who was a city policeman, worked extra shifts in the evenings watching the parking lot and keeping an eye on the workers when they went to their cars around 11pm. We would listen to the Braves on WSUN. This is where I learned to love Cuban food. A truck would come by at suppertime to sell food to the workers and we could get our supper there some nights. Days gone by......

Random shots

Low tide..

From the Reddington Long Pier

Sunset at Honeymoon Island

First entry and other things

November 11, 2013

This is my first blog and I don't know what I'm doing yet. My plan is just to offer observations and opinions and also talk about this wonderful place I live here in west central Florida. 

This is a common activity...this is the beach at Pass A Grille in south St. Petersburg

I'm reading two books at present...Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly is good so far. About half way through. I think however that Lincoln and Kennedy were better.

The other is called Skyway and it recounts the Skyway bridge disaster of May 1980. 

College football rolls on and I am an unabashed Florida State and Georgia fan. 

I love politics but I won't go into that today

As I close this day's entry at 2:20pm it's a seasonal 80 degrees here in Tampa FL...the Cigar City