The Florida Experience-Day four

Well, the Old geeze is back with more stories of life and lifestyle during the silent" 1930's in South Florida. Why silent? Miami was and is, to some extent, kept alive by our Northern visitors. During the depression, they were conspicuous by their absence. The town had signs up pleading with visitors to "Stay through May." I remember a remark from someone, that "You could shoot a cannonball the length of Biscayne Boulevard, and not cut a hair."
Bay Front Park was actually bay bottom that had been pumped up and sodded. For trees, they put in "Jamaica tall" coconut trees and sea grapes. Sea Grape trees bear purple fruit in clusters that are edible and quite tasty, but you have to be aware that they have a very large seed that is rough on teeth.
On the North end of the park was the aquarium. It was actually a large multi-masted steel schooner that had capsized in the bay during the 1926 hurricane. It was dragged ashore and there finished it;s days providing home for fish of all kinds. In the front entrance were several very large galapagos turtles [tortoises] roaming almost free, on the greenery.
As a young teenager, I remember President Franklin Roosevelt coming to speak in the park. One night. a frenzied kook by the name of Giuseppi Zangara tried to assasinate him but his shot missed and killed then Chicago MayorAnton Cermak. For this stunt, he ended his life in Florida's Raiford Prison Electric Chair.
The 1926 hurricane, undoubtedly a category 4 event, destroyed many of the "frame" houses in town including ours. It moved our two story home West about ten feet onto the lot next door and took the roof off and deposited it on a street one block away. The hurricane was in September, and even though I would not be four years old until December, I have two scenes etched in my memory. One was of my mother holding my hand as we, with my grandparents and two uncles, made our way through a tangle of "turks cap" shrubs to the house of the medical doctor that lived right behind. The shrieking wind and blinding rain I shall never forget. The doctor and family were up North, and I recall my uncle Cyril breaking one of the small panes in the front door on the lee side, to gain entrance. As an aside, I remember that that bunch of shrubs was home to Painted buntings or Nonpariel, as we called them. They have to rank as one of Natures most vivid and splendid birds with orange and blue feathering.
Opposite the park and looking East is Government cut which was dug to accomodate shipping into the harbor. It is quite deep and protected from shoaling by two long jetties on either side.
In high school we would put two cell flashlights in mayonnaise jars, with the ligh on and padded with paper to keep them from moving around. We would walk to the end of the jetties and dive on the beach side where it was only about 25/30 feet deep. At night the crawfish, or Florida lobsters as they are now called, would come out from under the jetties and they were soon in our bags. I am surprised now that the water pressure did not break the jars. The PSI at 33 feet is
about 30. We never ate anything but the tail and we would take a "whip". as the long feelers in their front are called, and after wringing the tail from the carapace of body, run the whip into
the anus backwards so when you extracted it, the intestine came with it. This is the best way to clean your catch. A one-pound lobster is about five years old with a carapace of about three inches.
When I first got out of the Navy in 1945, lobsters were plentiful and my cousin and I would easily dive up two to two and a half hundred in a day. Most we sold to Zaney's seafood restaurant where the Miami Herald building sits today. We sold them whole, and got about eighteen cents a pound for them.
The tails are best, broiled with melted butter and garlic. They cook quickly and are best when not overdone.
Stay tuned for more from the old geeze.

Day three-The florida Experience

I recall how much colder it seemed when I was growing up. In Lemon City, a small village which was actually part of Miami, it was
not at all unusual to find a 1/4 inch of ice on a pail of water left outside. My Mother reported to me that even as far South as Key Largo, they could occasionally pick up many small snappers the
morning after a freeze. Of course snook in the creeks and amongst the mangroves on the bay side froze as well but were not collected.
To the people in the Keys they were called "Soap fish" because they
tasted to them like soap. that was because in those days the scales were cut off leaving the skin intact. Today we filet the sides off, then the skin,and that solves the problem. Snook are now a game fish and one of the tastiest morsels fish lovers can savor.
It will come as a surprise to some that "Sea Cows" [Manatees] were also on the menue for some and it was said they tasted exactly like pork. Another staple was sea turtles, both Green and Loggerhead. Nets would be set around certain rock "patches" known as turtle habitat. The live turtles would be brought ashore and if there was more than one, they would be put in a Kraal [fenced inclosure] and fed and watered until used as food. In the central Keys, there was a popular resturant featuring turtle called "Sid and Roxies Green Turtle Inn."
Small barracuda up to about 5 pounds were served in restaurants as "Deep Sea Trout". They are one of the tastiest of fish with firm white meat but dangerous to eat. Large ones, especially those caught in deeper water near the reefs, develope a poisen called ciguaterra that is very lethal.
The large mollusks called "conchs" from which the inhabitants of the keys derived their nichnames were a favorite item on the menue. We called them [broad lip conchs] but marine scientists refer to them by their scientific name "Strombus gigas". No matter, they taste the same. A great way to enjoy them is to dice then into small squares and douse with salt, pepper, and lime juice. As my friend used to like to say, they would "Make a rabbit hug a hound" they are so good.
A couple of other ways to fix then is to fine chop and season and deep fry. These are called "Fritters." Lastly, my son's favorite is called chowder. Again dice into small pieces, cut up fresh tomato in small pieces, add finely chopped onion, celery, black pepper, sea salt and drown in lime juice but do not cook.Let sit in the 'fridge overnight and VIOLA!!!! [p.s. more hound hugging]
stay tuned to my blogs for more memories of fishing and huntiog.
The geeze

My earliest experiences are centered around the four small villages that today make up
greater Miami, or "Miamuh" as we still pronounce it. They were, counting from the South to
North, Coconut Grove, The area around the mouth of the Miami river, then Lemon City, my birthplace,located at about 61st. and Biscayne Bay. Finally, Little River, centered at about N.W. 79 st. and the bay.
Of course, by the time I made my appearance Miami, as the county seat of government for Dade
County, was sporting what was said to be the tallest bldg. south of the Mason-Dixon line. The Courthouse was pretty small by today's standards however.
My Mom was struggling to keep body and soul together for the four children she had been left with during the depression and we ate tons of fish and wild game to help out.
Fish were plentiful and it was easy to catch very large salt water speckled trout and to bag for the table, all the wading birds. A favorite bird was the Ibis with their long curved bill. Today you often see them in groups of ten or twenty in front lawns running their bills underground looking for grub worms. They were all on the menu, as were cottontail rabbits.
stay tuned for more to come.

Day One

Today is Day One of this new blog. Having lived in Florida my entire life and watched how much fun my son was having with his blog, I thought I would start adding some commentary myself. Since I'm 87, I have to type fast to get it all down!!

Take a look at www.lifeisgoodpart2.blogspot.com.