[mackinac81]

Hello Florida People,

I just got back from a trip to Florida with my family, and while I was there, I was thinking that Florida must have been really different before Disney, tourists, and retirees came. For example, my guidebook said that Orlando was a "sleepy, southern farming town" before Disney came along.

So for all of you longtime residents, could anyone describe to me what "old florida" was like? From Pensacola to Key West? Just Curious

Mackinac81

[LM1]

I wasn't alive back then, but from what I understand, it was basically an enormous orange grove.

[SANDYHAIR]

My friend was born here in Orlando lots of orange groves he use to be a picker.he owned land but just sold to move a bit more north. said it is just to busy here now for him.

[Lilybeans]

Central Florida was different. South Florida, while smaller, was still south Florida.

[bdpop]

Orlando was a nice quiet town. Very different from how it is now. I remember orange groves in Maitland on Howell Branch Rd/Horatio Ave. There was nothing south of the airport, east of 436, north of Maitland/Casselberry and west of Altamonte Springs.

[jaguar77]

There was a program on TV last year, I believe, that detailed how Disneyworld came to be.
I recall there being lots of orange groves, agricultural and vacant land in that area. The Disney company started buying parcels of land here and there, keeping their intentions extremely hush hush. They didn't want folks to suddenly start hiking up their prices. If the required amount of land could not be bought within budget, then they would have to scrap their plans. It worked out well for them, and Florida's economy.

[bobio]

We're called Florida People? Try Floridans, or even crackers. Before all the New Yorkers came it was a nice peaceful quite pleace. Not all this constuction going on. We all had some type of farm; with horses or any type of animals like that. We didn't worry about the kids. They would go out all day and we didn't have to worry. Everything was so much nicer...

Originally Posted by mackinac81

Hello Florida People,

I just got back from a trip to Florida with my family, and while I was there, I was thinking that Florida must have been really different before Disney, tourists, and retirees came. For example, my guidebook said that Orlando was a "sleepy, southern farming town" before Disney came along.

So for all of you longtime residents, could anyone describe to me what "old florida" was like? From Pensacola to Key West? Just Curious

Mackinac81

[Katie1]

I lived in Green Cove Springs as a kid loved it. We had a horse & cattle farm near us and sugar cane fields. Swamp with lots of wild life.

[AliceT]

Traffic was nearly non-existent and a traffic jam was usually the result of people stopping for a duck leading her ducklings across the street. Most everywhere were cow pastures or orange groves. I recall seeing cows where there are now apartment buildings. The Orlando International Airport was a just another small town airport, looked similar to a private airport with occasional flights coming in or going out. There might have been one taxi outside the terminal at any given time. There was a car rental place down the street but not enough business at the airport to have one there.

SR 436 was almost always empty. It was a clear and unobstructed road from the airport to Altamonte Springs.

There were a lot of home town stores, very few malls or strip shopping centers.

Roadside stands could be found on almost every road.

You could buy fresh produce beside the road - regardless of the road - and no such thing as holding up traffic to pull off or back onto the road from the stands.

There was a bait shop every mile or so.

The University of Central Florida was Florida Tech. It mostly taught about computers, engineering and agriculture.

There were a few convention centers, nothing like what there is now. Property taxes were low and apartment buildings were few and far between.

Property taxes were low. Most folks lived in single family homes. Trailer parks were everywhere. Even back then, folks wintered in Florida and spent their summers elsewhere.

Contrary to popular belief, there were and still are a great many true Floridians in Florida. Those are folks that were born and raised there and have never been anywhere else. Nobody knew what a tanning bed was nor were there any tanning salons. You could ride a bike safely on any road or thoroughfare.

Kids knew the police and the police knew the community. Seeing an out of state tag was rare, except during the winter.

Unlike now, it was a really nice place to raise children, for seniors to retire and to watch a sunset.

[tallrick]

According to my parents and grandparents, and those of my friends Florida was a lot more interesting than now. Tourists had a choice between the cities like Miami, and sleepy oceanside towns, to working fishing villages. There were no condos, shopping malls or mega-theme parks. What Florida had was tacky tourist attractions, family-run roadside motels, luxury hotels on North Miami beach and the Keys were even more wild than today. Of course there was the bad as well, like the corrupt small town sherriffs who picked on tourists for revenue, and corrupt politicians who turned their backs while gambling and prostitution existed in places like Miami. As a kid I was able to catch the end of Florida and remember some of the local farms and ranches, as well as tourist traps like the Serpentarium and the Miami Wax Museum. People forget that most of Florida was built on cheap land, and anyone with a dream could build an attraction. Florida used to generate its own income and that meant all was either tourism or agriculture. The little bit of manufacturing was to support either segment.

It all ended in the 80's when Funny Money from the northeast, Latin America and Europe turned Florida into the overpriced septic tank it is today. Practically everything was bulldozed to make room for overpriced condos, and retail space. It really makes me wonder how Florida will survive when the US economy heads into a recession/depression. Perhaps I will live to see the day when shopping centers and condos are demolished to make way for farms and manufacturing.