Growing Up In Florida...A Sampler

What did it mean to grow up in Florida?

It meant that you got your orange juice, freshly squeezed, every morning in an eight ounce glass.

It meant that after school you went to the beach to study and you always kept a beach bag full of all your beach things including a portable radio.

It meant that the defroster was for when it rained to get rid of the condensation INSIDE the car windows.

It meant that the cold water tap was NEVER too cold.

It meant that bugs were a part of your life and you found ways to use them or avoid them. You chased your mother with the palmetto bugs or tossed them to waiting lizards, hunted down mole crickets in their tunnels, fed ants to doodle bugs, and learned to paint clear nail polish on chigger bites after climbing ficus trees.

You went cane pole fishing and learned that catfish will hit on anything including Lifebuoy soap.

You remember the smells of Coppertone and the ocean better than anything and when your sunburn healed you would have your sister/brother/best friend peel the skin off your back and marvel at how thin it was.

As hot as it was, we were always outside riding our bikes, climbing trees, hunting, snorkeling, water skiing, surfing, fishing, scuba diving, playing tennis, racket ball, skating, volley ball, hand ball, water polo, synchronized swimming, canoeing, hiking, golfing, riding horses, or just plain swimming, swimming, swimming because water is everywhere. It should be against the law in Florida to not know how to swim.

It seemed like everyone had a Florida room with jalousie windows that were impossible to keep clean or fully closed and the crank ALWAYS broke.

If you stuck a stick in the ground, it grew or got moldy. If you left something metal out, it got rusty and in a week it was covered in vines. Good luck finding it.

It always rained at three o’clock to cool things off and made the walk home from school a puddle hopping adventure.

Sinkholes are a fact of life, just like ‘gators, sharks, Portuguese man o’ war, sea lice, chiggers, water moccasins, brown recluse spiders, and I-95.

Lizards were earrings and we were always sucking on the base of some flower or chewing on some plant. It's a wonder we didn't die.

It meant that thunderstorms and tropical depressions held no special meaning but you prepared for hurricanes a couple of days ahead and filled the bathtub with water and collected all your supplies.

It meant that you could eat fried catfish and hush puppies one night and Ropa Vieja with black beans and rice the next and think nothing of it.

It meant the people around you were always changing but you never met a stranger because this was the land of sunshine and whomever you met received your smile.

Welcome to Florida.