Pandemic and Things – Part 50

21 November 2020

It’s going to be an interesting evening. A group of friends are getting together on Zoom for an 80th birthday dinner party for a friend. A company is catering the meal and you can either pick up your meal or have it delivered. I’m having mine delivered and it should get here sometime after 4 pm. Cocktails are scheduled at 5:30 pm and dinner around 6:30 pm. There are at least 14 of us and the Zoom screen should be full of people and comments.

Today has been a gorgeous day with moderate temperatures and a lot less breeze than the last four days. Yesterday and most of the week we’ve had winds 18-20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. I’ve had to glue my hat to my head on my morning walks.

On my last post, I wrote about my Dad’s training at Camp Blanding before the outbreak of WWII. I also mentioned he and friends drove to Miami and Miami Beach where he heard the radio announcement about Pearl Harbor. It looked like he and his buddies had a great time and they apparently went deep sea fishing and even visited the Musa Isle Indian Village. I’ve done a video of the trip with his photographs. The date on the back of the photos is 1941.

Click on the movie.

What’s interesting to me is the Miami skyline. Two of the buildings I know are still there – the federal courthouse and the Freedom Tower.

The federal courthouse has a pyramid-like top to it and it’s where a huge number of vultures congregate in the winter. Apparently they are part of the large migration of vultures from Hinckley, Ohio. Can you image walking into a federal courthouse for a trial and look up and see hundreds of vultures looking down at you?

The Freedom Tower is a very slender building in one of the shots and its real claim to fame is that it was the processing center for the refugees from the Cuban boat lift and also for those who fled the Batista regime. It sat neglected for many years until it was renovated and turned into a museum and art space. At different times of the year, various events are saluted by lighting the freedom tower in different colors.

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The Musa Isle Village is no longer in existence but was one of Miami’s earliest tourist attractions. It opened in 1921 and closed in 1964. Today, you can still see alligator wrestling at Flamingo Park on the edge of the Everglades.

I no longer have a very clear image of two of the boats docked on Miami Beach. They were tourist boats and also took crowds of people out to fish and also to cruise the Intracoastal Waterway. In the original photograph, you could make out the name of one of the boats. One night, while bored, I Googled the name of the boat and found there was a number II still operating in Miami. I contacted the web site for the boat and found the son of the owner was still operating the business. I asked if he wanted the photo and he eagerly agreed, so the original is now in his possession.

I can’t find any trace of the Royal Palm Marine Station. It doesn’t seem to be a Coast Guard station at all but it could have been a private towing service for disabled boats. The building itself is sitting on the Intracoastal Waterway and I have to admit that a lot of the buildings along the Intracoastal look very familiar. I suspect some are still there. However, Miami only recently (1980’s) got into preservation and most have probably been torn down for luxury condos and hotels along the Intracoastal.

I also tried to find the Comer Apartments and the Trail Rest Tourist Home but cannot find any record. I was amazed at the price of the rooms at Trail Rest ($0.75 a night). I suspect that they stayed at the Trail Rest as opposed to the Comer Apartments.

My Dad is one the left of one of the shots at Musa Isle with Seminole children surrounding him and one of his buddies. The Musa Isle was located at NW 25th Ave and NW 16th St. in Miami along the Miami River. Two blocks north on NW 27th street, the Miami River had a small waterfall (probably more like rapids). It was later dynamited and is no longer there. The Miami River has a long and interesting history and has gone from bust to boom to bust to boom. Right now, it seems to be in a boom period.

One photo along the Intracoastal shows a large stand of Australian pines of the genus Cassurina (they are not pines nor or they gymnosperms but instead are angiosperms – flowering plants). Large numbers of these were planted to stabilize the soil and to serve as wind breaks. Unfortunately, they do too well in Florida and there are active removal programs in Florida trying to eradicate this invasive species – one of many invasive species in Florida along with boa constrictors, walking catfish, iguanas, tegu lizards – the list goes on and on.

My song recommendation is the background for this movie: “Conga” by Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine.

Stay tuned and stay safe!

Author: searcyf@mac.com

After 34 years in the classroom and lab teaching biology, I'm ready to get back to traveling and camping and hiking. It's been too long of a break. I miss the outdoors and you can follow my wanderings on this blog.

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