Remembering the Original Florida

While I lived in Florida for more than 36 years beginning in 1979, my first memories of the Sunshine State began as a teenager in the early to mid 1970s. 

These memories are rooted in a Florida that – for many reasons – no longer exists. Places like the Neptune Inn, an old-timey motel located on one of the most beautiful white sand beaches in Fort Myers Beach, that featured kitchenettes, shuffleboard courts, and the ability to dig sand dollars with your toes in the warm Gulf waters; the Kapok Inn, a kitschy restaurant in Clearwater that featured exotic gardens, fountains, and mediocre food at best; Lum’s, a family restaurant chain with beer-soaked hot dogs; and the original Cypress Gardens, where twenty-something young women in Southern Belle dresses floated around the gardens welcoming visitors, while athletic water-skiers climbed on each other’s shoulders to build pyramids on the cypress tree-lined, alligator-infested lakes.

My Dad had no childhood. His mother died when he was six. He and his two brothers lived with his dad in rural Kentucky in a house with no electricity, running water or plumbing. My Dad had never been anywhere until World War II called, then he spent more than two years traversing Europe as part of the Greatest Generation. In the late 1960s, he and my Mom took their first vacation, after my Mom won a five-day “all-expenses paid trip to Miami sponsored by the local grocery,” and my Dad was hooked on the state. Florida became a magical place for him – and my Mom and I spent the next 10+ years along for the ride. 

To appreciate these early days in Florida, you must understand what the state was like before Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens and Sea World. Those were the days of Silver Springs, Cypress Gardens, and the Citrus Tower; of hundreds and hundreds of acres of orange groves in Clermont and other Central Florida towns that stretched farther than your eyes could see; and of white sand beaches that extended for miles from Clearwater and Treasure Island to Sarasota and Siesta Key to Fort Myers Beach and Naples.

Polynesian Village

My first visit to Florida was in Thanksgiving 1971, when we went to Disney World just six weeks after it opened. Those were the early days of the Disney ticket book, where “E” tickets that allowed you to jump on the best rides were priceless. The park wasn’t quite finished in those early months, and upon checking into the Polynesian Village (where we always stayed), some families in our group discovered that not all the hotel rooms’ locks had been installed. LOL. Of course, those were the days when rooms went for $25 a night. 

After spending a few days at Disney World, our group of families headed to the Neptune Inn at Fort Myers Beach. All of us kids ran, swam, and explored what was truly nothing more at that time than a small town on a beach. Few restaurants, beautiful sunsets, peace.

Neptune Inn - Fort Myers Beach

For the next nine years while I was in high school and college, when Thanksgiving came around, I was in the car with my Mom and Dad on the way to Florida. Some years, we’d go to Disney World (we’d ALWAYS start at Disney) and then head to the Neptune Inn in Fort Myers Beach. Other years after we’d had our fill of the Magic Kingdom (remember, in those early years the other Disney parks had not yet opened), we’d head to Treasure Island which was west of Tampa. No matter where we headed, the visits were always the same. We’d walk the beaches for hours and hours, looking for shells and hoping not to burn; eat average food at best; rest; but mostly bask in the joy of just being together. 

What, you wonder, has happened to these places since?

• Disney has, of course, exploded its footprint over the years and while it’s still a special place for many to visit, it’s unrecognizable from the original Magic Kingdom where Peter Pan, Small World, Haunted Mansion, the Crystal Palace restaurant, Country Bear Jamboree, and the Jungle Cruise were the quaint star attractions. 
• Cypress Gardens closed in 2009, but part of the park has been absorbed into LEGOLAND. Thankfully, Silver Springs is now part of the Florida State Park system and is easy to visit, and while the citrus groves have all but disappeared, you can still tour the Citrus Tower and see the beautiful lakes that dot the Central Florida landscape. 
• In 2022, Hurricane Ian pretty much took out Fort Myers Beach and destroyed the Neptune Inn, ending its time as a small, local motel. A developer is building a larger hotel on the site. Hurricane Milton recently took a second swipe at Fort Myers Beach with reports saying many locals are considering leaving the island. 
• The Kapok Tree Restaurant in Clearwater closed in the early 1990s, while Lum’s, which was founded in Miami Beach in 1956, closed in 1982. 
• And finally, Hurricane Milton also smacked Treasure Island and St. Pete Beach earlier this month, destroying many of their businesses and infrastructures; and doing a number on their beautiful white sand beaches.

While I know from my research that hurricanes and storms hit Florida during the idyllic years that form my early memories, Florida was different then. There were fewer people living along the coasts, climate change hadn’t made the storms that hit as intense as we see today, and the limited communications of the time didn’t share the impacts as far and wide. Still, every time I see today's storms hit Florida – especially impacting the places that hold such a special place in my heart – it makes me reflect more on what’s been lost from the state’s early years. May the people attempting to pick up the pieces of their lives from these most recent impacts find peace. And, may we also remember what made these places in Florida so special to those of us who visited them over the past decades.