"Lovely to Look At" (continued)

Yesterday I wrote about McKee Jungle Garden and all of its quirky-ness.  You might wonder why and how I knew so much about one of Florida's old-time attractions.  We lived in Vero Beach, the home of the Garden and for a few years (I'm not sure how long anymore), my grandparents lived there too and worked for McKee's. 

Gram worked with Dr. David Fairburn (the man in charge at the time).  She worked in the Orchid House.  She helped with all aspects of the orchids....planting and transplanting, pruning, making cuttings, and making orchid corsages that were sold in the Gift Shop and other places. 

Gramps was sort of a general-all-around-something.  I'm not sure I ever knew what his title really was.  He made rounds through the Garden at closing time and then again during the night.  He was a greeter, and ticket seller sometimes, he took care of the parrots, and he occasionally gave tours.  He was a little bit of everything.

There was a small house on the grounds, in the non-public areas, that went with the job and that's where they lived.  It was the perfect arrangement for an older couple.  I remember spending many Saturdays and Sunday visiting Gram and Gramps, often overnights. 

The Gardens closed at 5:00 p.m.  It wasn't set up for nighttime activity.  But at 5:00 p.m. there is still lots of light left in the summer....and that is when I took over!!

The Gardens became my own "estate".  I pretty much had free rein, the only places I could not go were the  alligators' enclosure and the undeveloped areas of the property.  I could be Guinivere and the Gardens were Camelot!  I could be Juliet and know that Romeo was fighting through the jungle to get to me....nevermind that I was pretty sketchy on the rest of the story, I made up my own.  Tarzan and Jane....Admiral Byrd discovering whichever pole he found....my imagination was up to the challenge.  I went all over the world in my Garden!!

I was never bored!  I could pound away on the huge drums Sexton brought back from Africa.  I could pretend to cook in the outdoor Spanish Kitchen.  I must have gotten "married" in the Royal Palm Grove a gazillion times.  I explored the Gardens from up and down and backward and forward and I ended up knowing it like the back of my hand.

During the hours that the park was open, I still spent a lot of time playing there, but I was a whole lot less visible!  Looking back on those days, I'm pretty sure that Dr. Fairburn and the rest of the staff knew I had made myself at home.  Evidently, however, I was so well behaved that they just accepted that I was there a lot!

I would walk with Gramps on his walkthrough at closing time.  We had some great conversations.  Other times I would sit with Gram in the Orchid House while she worked with the plants.  I'm sure I pretty much talked her ear off, but when I was getting too restless she would send me out to play in this wonderful fantasy land! 

I suppose I didn't really go out to the Gardens as often and I think I did, but it doesn't matter.  My memories of that time and place  live in a special place in my heart and always will.  

After we had all moved away, and I was grown up, and married, we took Ratchlet on vacation with us when she was about 4 (that was in 1970, before the Gardens were sold and nearly abandoned.)  We of course, visited McKee's.  Ratchlet and the Big Guy both enjoyed it, but I was  back in my own private daydream, which can never be taken away. 

I haven't been back to the Garden since it re-opened in its 2nd life.  But I will one day!

It was truly a wonderful, magical place and to a small 9-10 year old girl, it was a whole lot more than just "Lovely to Look At!" 

 

"Lovely to Look At" (continued from Tuesday)

This photo is of my very most favorite place to be when I was around 9 or 10.  It was magestic and gorgeous and I "would walk down aisle" and imagine that this is where I would marry my prince charming someday.  It was the Royal Palm Grove at what I thought of as my very own personal and private fantasy land.  Other people called it McKee Jungle Gardens and it was just south of Vero Beach, Florida.  It's the third Florida attraction I want to tell you about. 

Opened in 1922, McKee's was the brain child of a couple of old-time Floridians, one named McKee, cleverly enough.  I don't know anything about him other than his founder's status.  The other was a wealthy but true eccentric named Waldo Sexton.  Sexton had traveled all around the world and brought back an enormous number of treasures that he found.  He was particularly fond of the odd and unusual and the town of Vero Beach, his hometown, had them stashed all over town.  He built the oceanside, Driftwood Inn, made of wood from ships and old buildings and the sea.  It was unique among hotels, I believe.  He also built the Ocean Grill, an oceanside restaurant that perennially looked like it was falling down, but was rated 5 stars for many, many years.  He also built the Patio Restaurant in town.  All of these places (and several others) housed all of his finds from his travels....ceramic Spanish tiles, wrought iron gates and chandeliers, statuary, furniture, artifacts, artwork,  some of it incomplete and well-worn.  His things went a long way toward making Vero Beach a quirky little beachside town back in the 50s and 60s.

McKee Jungle Gardens was another depository of his treasures.  But Waldo Sexton's trinkets were not the only thing that made McKee's special.

There were gardens with trails and tours similar to the Cypress Gardens I told you about the other day, but McKee's was more natural, less manicured, and had some unique features.  It was basically a botanical garden with a botanist overseeing all of the plants.  As part of that there was the Orchid House, where all sorts of beautiful, unusual and rare orchids were grown and propagated and studied.  There was also a natural sulphur spring where the water smelled like rotten eggs, but there were many people who came regularly to collect the water for its supposed healthful qualities. 

There were a few creatures who made their home in McKee's too, most notably, two gorgeous Macaw Parrots (who lived right next to the sulphur spring....they must not have a very good sense of smell!!)  One was mostly blue and red and the other was green and yellow.  If I remember correctly, they were quite old (does over 75 sound right??)  And boy, were they LOUD!  You could hear their squawking all over the gardens.  They supposedly talked but I don't remember anything but the squawking! 

The other full-time residents were a couple of huge alligators.  (Well, they looked huge to me, but I was only 9 or 10, so maybe they weren't.)  I remember the biggest as being bigger around than I was!  They lived within an enclosure with a 4 ft. wall around it, that also contained a pond with lots of water grasses and plants.  It was kind of marshy.  There was a big grassy area where the alligators spent much of their time just lying in the sun or else just hiding in the water with only the tops of their heads and their eyes visible.  They were so still and you weren't sure they were even breathing.  They were kind of spooky to a little girl like me!  Every now and then tho, they would all of a sudden lumber from one position to somewhere else with no real warning.  Now I say "lumber" because alligators have legs that are only about 8 inches long, when they moved at a regular pace, they lumbered!  If they were agitated....YIKES, those babies could MOVE.  They are faster and more graceful than you would believe, and if they are after something to eat....well, just get out of their way!  Seriously!  I was pretty much afraid but fascinated by them.

The Gardens boasted an enormous pond crammed from bank to bank with water lilies.  They were so thick you couldn't see any water unless a fish or something moved through.

As I said the introductory photo was of the Royal Palm Grove.  There were probably 75-100 palms in tall straight rows with a center aisle.  The Royal Palm is the tallest and prettiest of the palm trees.  Their trunks are nearly white, a fully grown one is about as big around as bicycle tire at the bottom and they rise about 18-20 ft. high!  At the top of the trunk, is a bright green section, from which long and graceful fronds emerge; spreading like a canopy over the ground dappled with sunlight.  It was a gorgeous part of the Gardens.  Over the years many, many couples were married there in the most beautiful setting I could ever imagine.

The "piece de resistance" however, was the Hall of Giants.  The Hall was what seemed to me to be an enormous 2-story building filled with more of Waldo Sexton's treasures.  A large part of the lower level was used as the Gardens' Gift Shop.  They sold shell jewelry and novelties, carved coconut faces, post cards, stuffed animals, Orchid plants, books about plants and Florida history, Florida souveniers, and other odds and ends.  A lot of the merchandise was displayed on the biggest and most beautiful table I have ever seen.  It is the world's largest mahogany table!!

The table (shown here in an artist's rendering that doesn't do it justice at all!) which was 35 feet long, was made from one single slab of mahogany cut from the center of what must have been a huge tree.  The table was polished to a high sheen and the grain of the wood was beautiful.  The table had been transported in one piece by ship from somewhere in South American where it was made.

It saddens me that McKee Jungle Gardens no longer exists in the form that I remember.  But its not all bad news!  The following is a quote directly from McKee's website:

In the early 1970's, attendance dwindled due to competition from new large-scale attractions and the garden was forced to close its doors in 1976.

The land was sold and all but 18 acres were developed. The remaining acreage, zoned for additional development, sat vacant for twenty years. In 1994, the Indian River Land Trust launched a fund-raising campaign and successfully purchased the property on December 1, 1995 for $1.7 million.

Close to $9.1 million was raised to purchase, stabilize and restore the Garden. The Garden held its formal Dedication November, 2001

I urge you to visit this website, so you can get a better understanding all it had to offer and still has to offer today!    McKee Botanical Garden

I loved this place, it was truly "Lovely to Look At" and I spent many happy hours there. 

....so tomorrow I'll tell you the rest of the story!

Interlude

I know I said that I'd tell you about my third favorite place in Florida today, but I hope you'll forgive me if I ask to postpone the conclusion another day. 

I had to get up early this morning to go to the eye doctor.  They did the measurements for the new lens that will be implanted at my cataract surgery next week.  (Went fine, if you're wondering.)

In case I haven't made it clear, I hate mornings!  I've felt a little  wonky off and on all day.  That's what usually happens when I'm in need of sleep.

Anyway, I have no energy for writing tonight.  So if you don't mind too much, come back tomorrow.  I should be recovered by then and I'll try again!

So sorry!

"Lovely to Look At"

I have mentioned before that I lived in Florida as a child, we moved there in 1951 and left in September, 1964.  While those weren't exactly Pioneer Days, it was a long time ago.  Florida in 1951 was a much different place than it is now.  It was slower, poorer, simpler.  That was certainly true in the small towns and even in the bigger cities to some extent. 

There wasn't much industry except for citrus and cattle.  Much of Florida had the winter snow birds that would come down for the "season", so there was some tourism but mainly in the winter.  NASA was just getting started, but hadn't actually launched anything.  Orlando was just a city on the small side as cities go and it really didn't have much going for it.  Stuck there in the middle of the state, it had no beach access and no big draw, so it wasn't much of a town for tourism or growth. 

Nevertheless, the whole state was peppered with "attractions", but if you mentioned Disney, people thought of cartoons;  Busch meant beer; and no one had ever heard of Six Flags over anywhere.   

There were small roadside attractions that promoted everything from "Alligator Farms" to "Drive on the Beach at Daytona!" and air boats in the Everglades.  Some of the attractions were delightful others were just stupid.  Of course, their purpose was always the same.  Get people to stop and pay money to see the "the Live Prehistoric Creatures" (mostly alligators and iguanas), or "Pick Your Own Oranges", or "See Real Mermaids at Silver Springs".  Some of those roadside stops were a family's total source of income.  Many of them would actually sell you a living baby alligator that was about 18 in. long.  Most of those poor creatures were ultimately dumped into lakes , rivers, and sewers from New York City to L.A.

Not all the attractions were fake, trumped up wannabees.  There were several attractions that were truly worth the money  and time and offered something worth seeing.   Over the years there were three of that sort that I became quite familiar with and spent a lot of time at.  They were unique, wonderful places.  Sadly today, of the three, only one still exists, is still open and still worth the money and the time.  The other two eventually, along with most of the others, closed due to the poor attendance and the increasing sophistication and education of the tourists.  Basically they were overshadowed by Disney, Epcot, Busch Gardens, Sea World and the rest.  Tourists wanted the thrills, and chills, and excitement of the newer "theme" parks, where you could spend your entire vacation(and most of your money) in one place.  And they did, by the millions.

No wonder the smaller, less exciting attractions couldn't compete.

When I think of my favorite places in Florida, it isn't Disney, or Busch or Six Flags that comes to mind.  My favorites are three you probably have never even heard of if you're under 50 years old!  The thing that has always drawn me to these places is that they are eacg "Lovely to Look At."

The best known and largest of the three was Cypress Gardens just outside of Winter Haven.  It was a beautifully landscaped and meticulously maintained garden with gorgeous and unusual flowers and plants that thrived in Florida's climate.  The Gardens could be toured either by boat (through bayou type waterways) or by walking tours.  They were known for the beautiful young women dressed in Antebellum hooped skirt dresses and big picture hats that would gladly pose for photographs.  (If memory serves, several television and radio programs broadcast from the Gardens over the years....Arthur Godfrey was one, I think.  --  Again, if you're under 50 you won't have any idea who that was!)

They also had one of the very first and arguably the best, water skiing shows in the country.  Very impressive, again with beautiful young men and women who would perform tricks, and jumps, and pyramids, and patterns, while carrying flags and being pulled through the lake water right to the shore where they would let go of the ski rope and glide gracefully up the sandy beach.  It was beautiful and fun to watch.  Some of the performers were truly world class water skiers.  (Anyone recognize the name Tibado??)  The Gardens were justifiably famous all over the world and people came by the thousands to see them.  It was only about 30 miles from Disney World.  Sadly, it closed forever in 2009.  http://www.cypressgardens.com/cghistory.php

The second place I love is the Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales Florida.  Bok Tower is a gorgeous stone tower built by Edward Bok to house an enormous and beautiful carillon.  There are carillon concerts every day that can be heard all over the grounds. Its a fascinating and beautiful place.   Again there are wonderful gardens and walkways and places to sit to contemplate nature and life and and peace.  It is the most peaceful place I have ever been.  I am thrilled that it is still in existence and open to the public.

If you have never heard of it or been there, I can recommend it as a place that would shelter, comfort, and awe you.  Here  is their website, take a look!    http://www.boktowergardens.org/

The third and final place I want to tell you about deserves its own post, sooooooo I'll pick this up again tomorrow.  Y'all come on back tomorrow, ya heah?

"Certified Blues"

I'm sorry to have to say it, but I seem to have the "Certified Blues"!   I'm cranky and restless and generlly dissatisfied with life right now.  Now there is no reason to worry or anything, this is not life threatening or anything, I just do not deal well with the sun disappearing for weeks on end with only tiny peeks through the clouds every 3rd or 4th day.   My Seasonal Affective Disorder hasn't gone away.  I'm SAD.  I hate being SAD!

Years ago, I had a boss I had worked with for a long time introduce me to a new member of our staff.  I'll never forget it.  He said, "I'd like you to meet my assistant.  She's been a great help to me and she's a great resource for you too.  Of course, she's in a bad mood from January thru March, but the rest of the time she's great." 

Oh yeah, he knew me well!! 

We were living in Chicago at the time, and that's not the best place to find sunshine in the wintertime!  A few years later we moved to California and I thought, "Great!  It never rains in California.  No grey!"  May I be the first to mention if you did not already know this, the song LIES!  It rains like hell in California, practically all winter long some years!!  And even if there's no rain, there is still fog and grey, windy days.   So I was still SAD in CA.

Fast forward a few more years and off we went to Texas.  The first few years we were here were great!  Winter was truly mild and the sun shone a lot.  It was super.  I didn't get SAD at all.  But the last two winters have swung to the other side of the pendulum and the rain, the grey, the fog, the lack of sun has been happening pretty much daily.

I remember the first flight I was ever on that took off into a big, grey, rainy cloud bank that covered the whole sky.  It was an awful day in Chicago.  We were flying somewhere for a business thing the Big Guy had.  I was very SAD and didn't really want to go anywhere or do anything.  Nevertheless, off we went into the "wild grey yonder" straight into the clouds where it didn't seem like you could see a foot in front of the plane.  It only took about 30 seconds or less, but suddenly, we broke through the clouds into wonderful, beautiful blue sky sunshine!   When you looked toward the ground, all you could see was the top of this huge cloud bank.  It looked like great big white puffy, cotton balls spread like a blanket below.   It was gorgeous! 

I guess I had never really thought about it, but I was simple amazed that on the ground it was a horrible, ugly day, but just a few thousand feet straight up, the sun shining brightly, doing its thing, just like always.  I never realized that before that flight.   Sometimes knowing that the sun is still up there is reassuring and can help me fight off my SAD-ness.  Other times, it just makes me mad!!

Well, today I'm MAD-SAD again.  I think maybe I've written about this before....so if this is a repeat of old news, I apologize.  It just when it gets like this I can get so far down Misery Road, that I can't think about much of anything else.  It's the reason I haven't been inspired to write much lately. 

I hope it doesn't last much longer.  MAD-SAD isn't a nice place to be!
I'm so ready to be rid of these "certifiable blues"!