Remembering When

Well the weather is absolutely gorgeous and anyone who is living here, or visiting here, has everything to be happy for! They can swim, fish, boat, play pickleball, shop, enjoy friends, sit on their back porch, and just enjoy life at its finest. Isn’t that why we came here? Welllllllllll, no it wasn’t, actually. We came because we visited friends for one day and one night in 1974, and as I was packing to leave to go back home, my husband said “I’m leaving you here! Find yourself a house, and then get back to Cleveland to pick up the medicine for the baby. I’m going back home to Cleveland now to sell our house and sell the business. WE’RE MOVING!!” Just like that, I said? He replied, YES, just like that. And that’s how the decision was made to move here. Oh did I tell you – he and his buddy had been drinking all day? That might have entered into it too! Anyway, that day I found a new community that was about to be built, but it did have five model houses to see and pick from. That community was named Lakewood, and I still live in that same home I picked out that day. It wasn’t a thru street, and only the five houses to look at. No trees whatsoever. No sidewalks or thru streets but some lakes that were lovely. There wasn’t really anything to look at, so I bought the house I liked in Lakewood and packed up and flew back home to Cleveland to get the medicine for my baby and get ready to move. I didn’t want to leave, but my husband was the boss. After all is said and done, I look back and realize it was the best thing we could have done. My son lived, thank you God, and slowly got better. I then had another son (that made five kids) and I started work at the local Airline called PBA – or Provincetown-Boston Airline (I had worked at United Airlines in Cleveland when we abruptly left, so it was an easy transition). Naples was a very small town back in 1974, and not many places to go to, but it had a lot of nightclubs, which was not something I was looking for, but they really were plentiful and lovely.   

It was a small town back then. And Collier County only had about 20,000 people in the whole county! No traffic problem whatsoever. By the time my son, who had a struggle to live when we moved here, was ready to go to East Naples Middle School. He took off to school on his bike, but the school called to say he had not arrived. I said I would find him. I drove up to Davis Boulevard, which had finally been built and connected to Lakewood Boulevard, and there he was petting the cows! Yes, we still had cows at the end of our street on Davis Boulevard. Life was really different back then. It was more friendly and neighborly. We still would meet our neighbors outside and have little picnics, etc. The kids were safe and there weren’t speeding cars. Once we connected to Davis Boulevard though, it became a major cut-thru and the speed picked up big time. Our little community grew steadily and new communities began to pop up. Stores and restaurants came to the area. We always had great restaurants in Collier County, and they just keep getting better all the time! Yes, some things can be improved, but it seems if we keep our eyes open, we can make good things happen. Right now, we have a few new restaurants about to open right here in East Naples! They’re going to be surprised to see how popular they are! They’ll do just fine as long as they have good food and have great help, and let’s face it, we have a lot of that great help living right here, so they won’t have to go that far to work. And we have lots of grocery stores close by. (If I could have a wish come true though, I’d ask the movie theater people to clean up their theater in Towne Center! It’s disgraceful! If I were their owner and came to inspect it, I’d get that place cleaned up in No TIME!) I hope someone takes this column to the people who can make that difference, and they get busy making it happen. 

Have a GREAT WEEK folks! (I miss Ralph and Marian).