2015 April A-Z Challenge - F is for Florida

F is for Florida....and fun days.  I grew up in South Florida  in the 50's-60's and let me tell you it was Camelot.  I loved it. We were free to roam outside from sunup to sundown.  We all knew that we better be home when the street lights came on.  Life in the early days of Florida was A&W Root Beer stands, The Hut, The Okeechobee Steak House, Buds,  the Dreher Park Zoo (where Caroline Kennedy's kangaroo was housed), the beach, Russo's subs, the Library, fishing in the canals, swimming with manatees, the parks....oh the parks were glorious. One of my favorites was Banyon Street Park.  The trees were amazing.  The parks at the beach were amazing and we would play til we got hot and then we would run and jump in the water to cool off.  We had so many beaches and so little time....my favorite was Lake Worth and Juno.  Lake Worth had the Lido pool. The Braves did Spring training in West Palm....and so did the Expos.  We would go and watch games, eat popcorn and hotdogs, and hopefully catch a ball or two that headed into the stands.   Life was grand!   We were safe....at least safer than now.  I hate that my kids were not allowed the kind of freedom I had in growing up in Florida.  The neighborhood kids would have wars and pelt each other with Florida cherries.  We would eat fruit from neighborhood gardens, we would climb coconut trees....ride our bikes....like was blissful.  I never wanted to grow up....but Kennedy was shot and killed....mean people got meaner....Vietnam happened.....Kent State Happened....and we grew up and moved away.  Now when I go home there is little left of my childhood.  The house I grew up in is gone.  The beaches have lost their innocence.  The traffic is unmerciful.  The great hangouts are no more....sigh....yet life has changed, I have changed and have new memories....these are of adulthood. I have a love affair going on with the sugar white sands of the Gulf now...because they are closer....and they fill my need to be at the beach!