Turning the Page

In the days when Marco was very young and electric lights first began to shine and light our way, there were extreme challenges for all our islanders. The mosquitos in the Ten Thousand Islands were such dark clouds of menace that no visitors could ever imagine living on Marco. During the tropical heat of summer, the daily deluge of rains and the oppressive humidity that was the reality of living amongst a mangrove jungle created a life on our islands that was indeed a constant struggle. Not only was there a hostile environment, but also trying to catch, grow, and preserve food was a continuing ordeal. Facing unexpected hurricanes blowing up from the Gulf of Mexico was a never-ending worry for summer, but even during the reprieve of the winter season, there were other and more sinister suspicions and concerns. There was murder afoot on the nearby islands, gunfights on the dock at old Marco, and a lack of modern medicine that could turn a mild infection into a dreadful scenario at the Marco cemetery. Even with all the daily disappointments and challenges, life and the calendar continued and islanders celebrated Christmas and the upcoming New Year. Optimism for the future was always contagious, thankfulness and gratitude were prolific, and good cheer for the early islanders was perhaps inspired by some locally made guava brandy.

In the late 1920s, The Atlantic Coast Railway Line built a railroad through the mangroves and a trestle bridge over the Marco River. During the fruitful years that followed, tourists arrived for winter and lived at the Marco Inn. Canned clams, bottles of clam bullion, and pineapples were shipping out by train and Marco and her islanders began to thrive. This prosperity, however, was short-lived as over-fishing and a clam blight spoiled the clamming industry, and saltwater intrusion from a hurricane poisoned the pineapple plantation. The Great Depression arrived on the island with far reaching implications for everyone, but before 1933 and the Volstead Act and Prohibition of alcohol was repealed, Christmas still came right on schedule and the New Year was most probably celebrated with Cuban rum that was smuggled in by rum runners from nearby Havana.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in the infamous December of 1941, and the United States declared War on Japan, Nazi Germany declared war on America. Refrigerators might have replaced iceboxes on Marco, the murders of migrant workers and gunfights on the docks might have been only a memory, but when a German U-boat torpedoed the Baja California just offshore, Marco islanders patrolled the beach at night with shotguns. The newest threat was too close to ignore and once again, there was widespread fear and uncertainty. There was, however, Christmas and the New Year right on time and island life was once again celebrated; this time perhaps with some Marco guava brandy, leftover Cuban rum, or from the newfangled bottles of beer that were trickling down from Milwaukee.

When the Mackle Brothers and the Deltona Corporation decided to buy the 24 square miles of Marco Island in 1962 for 7 million dollars and begin the modern development of Marco Island, more trouble was once again on the rise. This was when Nikita Khrushchev of Soviet Russia decided to send nuclear-tipped missiles to his new friend and communist ally Fidel Castro. With Cuba less than 180 miles to Marco, an ultra-modern missile tracking station was quickly erected as an early warning radar station on the southwestern point of Marco Island - where Cape Marco is today. With the world watching and the communist Russian Satellite Sputnik shining brightly as it raced over our heads, televisions on Marco and around the world flickered black and white images of the Russian leader pounding his shoe on a conference table and shouting to America, “I will bury you!” Even with the entire world facing intercontinental missile warfare and mutual destruction by atomic and hydrogen bombs - Marco only a few hundred miles from where Russian Ships and the US Navy were facing off to begin the end of almost everything - Halloween still came. Thanksgiving arrived with many more thanks for peace than usual, and Christmas came to Marco as giant dredges began digging the 100 miles of waterway canals on our island. When the New Year came, even under the vast shadow of nuclear attack, Marco Islanders once again celebrated. Perhaps with some local guava brandy, some Cuban rum slipped away before Castro took over, bottled beer from everywhere, or the classic champagne created by Dom Perignon and his fellow monks in their Abbey in France.

When the Marco Beach Hotel opened on Marco Beach in December of 1971 and the first Marco Beach Boys began stepping out onto the sand, the era at the time was ushering in a flamboyant and luxurious new age for our island. The images flickering on our color television screens however, were once again showing death, destruction, turmoil, and strife. The war in Vietnam was a raging nightmare: every evening war correspondents were reporting the death tolls of brave young American soldiers and a communist enemy that seemed to be fighting and dying while dressed in black pajamas. Even with America, seemingly torn apart with massive protests in Washington, rioting in the streets, hippies taking LSD and smoking pot, and flower children flashing smiles and showing peace signs, Christmas came again, and so did New Year’s Eve. When the end of another year came and it was time again to turn another page, the islanders on Marco, Goodland, and the Isles of Capri, rallied together and celebrated the good over the bad, the triumphs over the disappointments, and optimistic accomplishments of one another.

This time we celebrate with a vaccine or not, giant televisions flickering 24-hour bad news that used to take only one hour, and perhaps some brandy, rum, or beer. Or perhaps the classic champagne created by Dom Perignon when he ignored all the bad news around him and gathered his friends and colleagues for the first drink of his sparkling wine: “Come quickly,” he shouted. “I am tasting the stars!”    

Tom Williams is a Marco Islander and the author of two books: “Lost and Found” and “Surrounded by Thunder - The Story of Darrell Loan and the Rocket Men.” Both books are available on Kindle and Nook.