1
100
4
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/12cf57407a6f6676a3934940332a2c39.jpg
d9158df66c816a186c3c91c32809da7a
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Lucile Campbell Collection
Alternative Title
Campbell Collection
Subject
Sanford (Fla.)
Teachers--Florida
Educators--Florida
Description
This collection features postcards kept by Lucile Campbell, a schoolteacher in Sanford, Florida, for 30 years. Campbell collected postcards from her travels around the world and used them as teaching aids in her classrooms. In 1931, she took advantage of a special rate for teachers and sailed to Europe, where she traveled for several months and is thought to have acquired many of these postcards.
Contributor
Campbell, Lucille
<a href="http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Public History Center/Student Museum</a>
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Sanford, Florida
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Raffel, Sara
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Public History Center/Student Museum</a>
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples of still images are: paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type "text" to images of textual materials.
Original Format
1 color postcard
Physical Dimensions
4 x 6 inches
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Famous Middleton Oak, Middle Gardens Postcard
Alternative Title
Middleton Gardens Postcard
Subject
Gardens--United States
Oak--United States
Description
A postcard depicting the famous Middleton Oak tree at Middleton Gardens in Dorchester County, near Charleston, South Carolina. Now called Middleton Place, the site was formerly a plantation owned by a series of planters.<br /><br />This postcard is part of a collection of postcards kept by Lucile Campbell, a schoolteacher in Sanford, Florida, for 30 years. In 1931, she took advantage of a special rate for teachers and sailed to Europe, where she traveled for several months and is thought to have acquired many of these postcards. During the 1940-1941 school year, Campbell taught at Sanford Grammar School. Before her retirement in 1970, she taught at many other area schools, including the Oviedo School, Westside Grammar School, and Pinecrest Elementary School. Campbell used these postcards as aids in her classrooms to teach advanced subjects, such as Shakespearean drama. The collection, along with her other teaching aids, papers, and photographs, was later found at Sanford Grammar School after it became the University of Central Florida's Public History Center. Campbell's postcard collection and photographs provide insight into the life of a respected Florida educator.
Type
Still Image
Source
Original 4 x 6 inch color postcard by the Gulf Stream Card and Distributing Company: ACC# SM-00-243, file folder 1 (U.S. blanks), box 10A, Lucile (Mary Lucile) Campbell Collection, <a href="http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Public History Center</a>, Sanford, Florida.
Is Part Of
File folder 1 (U.S. blanks), box 10A, Lucile (Mary Lucile) Campbell Collection, <a href="http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Public History Center</a>, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/151" target="_blank">Lucile Campbell Collection</a>, Student Museum and UCF Public History Center Collection, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Is Format Of
Digital reproduction of original 4 x 6 inch color postcard by the Gulf Stream Card and Distributing Company.
Coverage
Middleton Place, Dorchester County, South Carolina
Creator
Charleston News Company
Publisher
Curt Teich and Company
Contributor
Campbell, Lucile
Date Created
ca. 1898-1978
Date Copyrighted
ca. 1898-1978
Format
image/jpg
Extent
249 KB
Medium
4 x 6 inch color postcard
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by the Charleston News Company and published by Curt Teich and Company.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the <a href="http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Public History Center</a> and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Contributing Project
Aphasia Project
Curator
Raffel, Sara
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.publichistorycenter.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">UCF Public History Center/Student Museum</a>
External Reference
"<a href="https://www.middletonplace.org/history~.html" target="_blank">HISTORY</a>." MIDDLETON PLACE. https://www.middletonplace.org/history~.html.
America's Most Historic City
botanical gardens
Charleston, South Carolina
Dorchester County, South Carolina
Middleton Gardens
Middleton Oak
Middleton Place
oak trees
oaks
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/23288d20d38c0f7e671f6412e62d4b87.mp3
55a3af9e40b4b44c9a4a0ad9c247159b
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/663dc00c96defba98cdc99ec779a8f3e.pdf
42d0c3d670181b55b0a681f04154e110
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Altamonte Springs Collection
Alternative Title
Altamonte Collection
Subject
Altamonte Springs (Fla.)
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the history of Altamonte Springs, Florida. Series descriptions are based on special topics, the majority of which students focused their metadata entries around.
In 1870, Dr. Washington Kilmer of Cincinnati, Ohio, became the first Euro-American to settle in Altamont. In 1882, the area was renamed Altamonte Springs. The Altamonte Land, Hotel and Navigation Company was one of the major developers of the area. On November 11, 1920, residents voted in favor of incorporation.
Contributor
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.altamonte.org/" target="_blank">Altamonte Springs, Florida</a>." Altamonte Springs, Florida. http://www.altamonte.org/.
Robison, Jim. <em><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49963391" target="_blank">Altamonte Springs</a></em>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1999.
Shofner, Jerrell H. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32274737" target="_blank"><em>A History of Altamonte Springs, Florida</em></a>. Altamonte Springs, Fla: City of Altamonte Springs in association with Tabby House Charlotte Harbor, Florida, 1995.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Motta, Daniel
Interviewee
Hattaway, Bob
Location
<a href="http://www.adulttoystorage.com/" target="_blank">Adult Toy Storage</a><span>, Altamonte Springs, Florida.</span>
Bit Rate/Frequency
14111kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Bob Hattaway
Alternative Title
Oral History, Hattaway
Subject
Altamonte Springs (Fla.)
Ferns--Florida
Casselberry (Fla.)
Sanford (Fla.)
Zellwood (Fla.)
Oviedo (Fla.)
Airports--Florida
Description
An oral history of Bob Hattaway, conducted by Daniel Motta on June 14, 2012. Hattaway was born and raised in Altamonte Springs, Florida. In the interview, Hattaway discusses growing up in Altamonte Springs, working in the fern industry, his real estate and agricultural endeavors, his family's influence in Altamonte Springs and Casselberry, the greenhouse business, local politics, and the air travel industry.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:46 Altamonte Springs during Hattaway’s childhood
0:04:26 Hattaway’s father
0:05:36 Childhood memories working in the fields
0:08:27 Education
0:09:58 Life after high school
0:13:16 Rivalry between Seminole County and Volusia County
0:15:24 Decline of the fern industry
0:19:20 Fern industry in Zellwood and shift to the tropical plant business
0:23:24 Interest in agriculture
0:24:11 Influence of the Hattaway family on Altamonte Springs and Casselberry
0:25:51 The Casselberry family
0:29:14 Greenhouse business
0:34:25 Local politics and involvement in the air travel industry
0:42:30 Evolution of the fern industry
0:45:28 How Altamonte Springs has changed over time
Abstract
Oral history interview of Bob Hattaway. Interview conducted by Daniel Motta at the <a href="http://www.adulttoystorage.com/" target="_blank">Adult Toy Storage</a> in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
Type
Sound
Source
Original 49-minute and 20-second oral history:Hattaway, Bob. Interviewed by Daniel Motta. June 14, 2012. Audio record available. <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank">QuickTime</a>.
<a href="https://get.adobe.com/reader/" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/118" target="_blank">Altamonte Springs Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Coverage
Altamonte Springs, Florida
Lyman High School, Longwood, Florida
Winter Park High School, Winter Park, Florida
Winter Garden, Florida
Oviedo, Florida
Zellwood, Florida
Casselberry, Florida
Orlando International Airport, Orlando, Florida
Orlando-Sanford International Airport, Sanford, Florida
Opp, Alabama
Adult Toy Storage, Altamonte Springs, Florida
Creator
Motta, Daniel
Hattaway, Bob
Contributor
Vickers, Savannah
Date Created
2012-06-14
Date Modified
2014-12-10
Date Copyrighted
2012-06-14
Format
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Extent
498 MB
175 KB
Medium
49-minute and 20-second audio recording
22-page typed transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Civics/Government Teacher
Economics Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Daniel Motta and Bob Hattaway, and transcribed by Savannah Vickers.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a> and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=2876&SessionId=50/" target="_blank">Representative Bob Hattaway</a>." Florida House of Representatives. http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=2876&SessionId=50.
"<a href="http://www.altamonte.org/" target="_blank">Altamonte Springs, Florida</a>." Altamonte Springs, Florida. http://www.altamonte.org/.
Robison, Jim. <em><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49963391" target="_blank">Altamonte Springs</a></em>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 1999.
Shofner, Jerrell H. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/32274737" target="_blank"><em>A History of Altamonte Springs, Florida</em></a>. Altamonte Springs, Fla: City of Altamonte Springs in association with Tabby House Charlotte Harbor, Florida, 1995.
Transcript
<p><strong>Motta<br /></strong>This is Daniel Motta.I am interviewing Mr. Bob Hattaway at his business, Adult Toy Storage, in Altamonte Springs.To start, Mr. Hattaway, could you tell me where you were born?</p>
<p><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I was born in the city of Altamonte Springs in 1936, which today, the location is on Lake Orienta, which at one time was called Orienta Ferneries, later in years.And the Hattaway family lived on that property for a number of years, probably 30 years, or something.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So you were born on the property?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I was born on the property, yeah.At that time, when I was born, 1936, a lot of people did not go to hospitals.They couldn’t afford it.So I was born at home.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And could you tell me a little about the neighborhood, the house, property?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>The property, basically—it was 150 acres of property.Thirty acres of the property was into a fernery slat shed growing tropical foliage and plants, mostly <em>asparagus plumosus</em> fern, and then another fern called leatherleaf fern, which came on in a later date, which became very popular in the flower industry.But we were growing plants and flowers and a lot of different products back at that time, to sell.So it was a very rural area.Altamonte Springs had one road leading in and one road leading out, and it was Highway 436 [Florida State Road 436].If you wanted to go shopping, you would get on 436 and travel [US Route] 17-92 to Downtown Orlando, because there were no stores in Altamonte Springs, or Casselberry.You had to go to Orlando to shop.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And I imagine 436 looked a lot different then.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah, 436 was probably a two-lane road, and going through the middle of Altamonte Springs was a four-lane road divided in the middle by two very large rows of oak trees, from about where the Altamonte Mall is today, all the way to the railroad track in Altamonte Springs.That’s going from west to the east.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Were any of these paved roads?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It was paved, yeah.Sometimes.But Maitland Avenue also was there, which was a two-lane road itself.But very rural.I mean, there was really nothing out here.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And you said, on the property, only part of it was ferns?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.Of the hundred acres, a lot of it, 30-something acres of it was slat shed fern itself, and the other was open fields, and we were growing <em>plumosus</em> or <em>podocarpus</em>, and were using that.We’d grow the podocarpus and cut that as cuttings and ship that to the northern market, to flower shops as well.So, and everything at that time, back when the fern business back in the [19]50s, and [19]60s, most of the freight was moved by rail, and not by truck.So there was a big depot in Altamonte Springs, and the depot itself, the major portion of it, was people like us—Hattaways, Casselberrys, Vaughns, etc.—shipping boxes and boxes and boxes of cut fern to the northern market, to flower shops.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And that would all take place here, or would it go to Sanford first, and go from there?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Just directly?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>There was a direct stop in Altamonte Springs and a direct stop in Casselberry, and also a direct stop in Longwood and Maitland.So they were little whistle stops, but most of the time they were stopping to pick up a product, like the fern product, and then some passengers.But there were no 7-Elevens, and there was absolutely nothing out here at that particular point in time.Not any tourists as well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>About how many families lived in this area, you think?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Well, you know, on the Orienta Fernery side, which was known as the Royal Ferneries at one time, there were probably—it was a housing development there, row houses for the migrant workers, or the workers, to live on the premise and work there, and [inaudible] 40-something houses with a church, [inaudible] on Hattaway Drive today, this long, long, long, then gone?.But they provided housing for people, and they were not great to live in and to be able to work.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And did your father build the houses and the church?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No, those were built back in the—golly.My father went in, they bought from Hibbard Casselberry, 1951.They bought what at that time they called the Royal Ferneries, and they bought that from Hibbard, and Hibbard bought it, I think, in 1946—‘45.And then my father worked for Mr. Casselberry, and my grandfather worked for Mr. Casselberry, and my two uncles, also, worked for Mr. Casselberry. All of them in stooped labor, cutting ferns by hand and taking it to the packinghouses, and then being able to ship the product to the northern market.And there were no Kmarts, and there were no big Walmarts, and those kind of things.Flower shops were flourishing.That was the mainstay of the fern business at that time, corsages and bouquets and things of that nature.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So what year did you say your father procured the property?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>He bought the property from Hibbard in 1951.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay. So, when you were born, he was working in the industry?He just didn’t…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway <br /></strong>He was working with Mr. Casselberry.Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay. And what were your experiences like as a child? Did you also have any contact with—did you work in fields at all?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yes, yes.Oh, yeah<em>[laughs]</em>. Those were wonderful moments.<em>[laughs]</em></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Could you tell me a little about them?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Out there with stooped labor, working in the—I would work in the summer months when I was out of school, high school and grammar school.I would pull weeds in the fernery.And they would hire a lot of young people like myself at that time—ten, twelve years old.And our job was—the fernery was full of weeds of various kinds, and so we’d line up ten, fifteen, or twenty of us in rows.We’d go down through and pull the weeds out of each row.That was a terrible job.I knew when that was happening I didn’t want to stay in the nursery business, or fern business.I darn sure didn’t want to be a stooped laborer in the field.But that’s where my family came from.I mean, they worked for every Casselberry.And Hibbard brought my grandfather and my father both out of the fernery, out of the field, and put my grandfather in charge of the fernery over[?]—which was the Royal Fernery at that time, Casselberry Ferneries as well—and put my grandfather in charge of that side of the fernery, and then my father went over to the main plant over in the middle of Casselberry, and he became the main foreman over there, in an office, working for Mr. Casselberry.And so Mr. Casselberry brought him out of the field, very little education, and put him in charge of a number of people.At that time, you know, back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, the fern business, it was a big business, and they were employing probably two, three hundred people.So it was a lot of people depending on the Casselberrys and the Foleys[?] in the fern business at that time as well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So when you were in the fields doing that work that you loved so much, were you paid for that, or was that just something expected of you?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Oh, yeah.Yeah, we got paid for it.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Do you remember…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Twenty-five cent an hour.And I was, you know—I’ve always loved to work.That’s been my mainstay, and I’ve got great work habits.And I think most people back then did.I’m not sure what they have today.I know it’s not as good as it was back then.But Mr. Casselberry provided a lot of employment for young people when school was out, that they could work during the summer.And pulling those weeds was part of what you did.And I would get out, and we’d help with the repair of the slat sheds, repairing the irrigation systems, just to keep the fernery back in good repair, so we could grow the fern itself.But it’s hard work.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I’d imagine.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>But, you know, I did that every summer.When I got out of school, the following week I’d be working in the field.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Could you tell me a little about where you went to school?Did you—high school, or did you go to college after?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Sure.I went to Lyman High School, grades one through twelve.I went to Winter Park High School the 10th grade to the 11th grade, and then came back to Lyman for the 12th grade itself.So I was actually grade one through ten at Lyman High School, the old school.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>It wasn’t called Lyman High School then?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It was called Lyman High School, yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>But it was one through twelve?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway </strong>One through twelve, yeah.There were, when I graduated, in 1954—’55 there were twelve boys and one girl in my class.Thirteen class.And the class behind us, I think, had 25.So it was a very small school back then, and grade one was, you know—all the way through.And I think they stopped that just before—no, it was still going on in 1955.It was still grade one through twelve, I think, at that time.But Lyman today is probably graduating one thousand kids at one whack.And you got Oviedo, and etc., etc.Great changes, but, you know, we had small classes.Probably the max in a class was 20, 25.Teachers were very personal.Teachers knew us all, and it turned out, had a good education.When I graduated from Lyman, I think there was only two people in our class went to college, and the rest of us went into the work field.And I immediately, when I graduated, I started buying real estate, starting my own fernery.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Graduated from high school?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah, high school.I didn’t go to college. Didn’t go to college.And I was working—I got a job in Winter Garden with Continental Can Company, and they were making small cans to put orange juice into, frozen orange juice, and that was a—you’d put three cups of water with it…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>The concentrate?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Concentrate, and do all those.I worked there at night, the night shift from 3:30 ‘til 12:00 or something of that nature.And then during the day, I bought a piece of property in Oviedo on Chapman Avenue[sic], and built my first nursery under oak trees.And I started my own business back in 1956—I guess ’57, ’58, something like that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Where did you say the canning company was?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway <br /></strong>Continental Can Company.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Where was that?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>In Winter Garden.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, okay.So those…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It was a big canning company.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Pretty far from each other, the two?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I’m sorry?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>The two jobs you had were pretty far from each other.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.Yeah.One was working in the can company, the other was working in the field, in a nursery.And started my own place.I bought an oak tree hammock.And we’d found by that time, in the nursery business, in the fern business, that slat sheds were very expensive, and you couldn’t keep them up because of cost, wood rot, and it became—they were falling down.So, we started…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>How often do you have to replace those?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Oh, you were constantly working on the building, on the fields themselves, and you’re talking about 30 acres of slat shed.Just slats are, you know, four inches wide.And sometimes they would kind of fall down.If you’re tall like I am, you’d run into a slat and hit your head and etc.So we went from the slat sheds into buying oak tree hammocks, and putting fern under the oak tree hammocks.And we also started planting in the ferneries—the old ferneries, oak trees inside of the fernery itself—to grow up through the slat sheds for shade.You were looking for a certain amount of shade.And so we started that, and that’s where the slat sheds kind of disappeared, and everybody, especially Mr. Casselberry, his whole side was nothing but oak trees.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, really?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>The side we had, and my father and grandfather had, over on Orienta Fernery side, they planted orange trees, which was a really, really smart move, because they always had orange trees—they also had the product of fern under that.The problem was, when they planted the orange trees, they budded the orange tree to Valencia, navels, or whatever it’s going to be.When they sprayed the orange tree spray on the fern, to kill worms, etc., it killed the buds on all the orange trees.Ended up with 25 acres of sour orange trees, and there’s not a lot of market for sour orange trees.So it was just a good concept, but it didn’t work.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So, by that time, there was pretty much the natural solution of replacing the slats with the trees?Like, is that what all the fern owners pretty much moved to?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.Yeah.Everybody was doing that.Everybody was doing that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Fern business was big not only here in Central Florida, in the Orlando area, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Fern Park, but it was big up in Crescent City and Pierson, which it still is today.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It’s the mainstay up there as well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Was there any kind of rivalry between, like, here and Volusia County?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Oh, yeah.Oh my god.Yeah.Yeah.They would—and I’ve heard my father talk about the stories that the price of the ferns had become very cheap—and so the industry got together and met someplace up in DeLand or something, some little community, with the main growers all meeting at one concept.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Woman<br /></strong>Excuse me, do you need anything before I go to lunch?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No, I’m good.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Unidentified<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I’m good.They all went back to discuss the pricing, and I guess they were trying to do what you’d call the price fixing.But the typical agriculture business, they all got together, they all decided, shook hands, and this is what we’re gonna charge to the fern.All of them couldn’t wait to run back to the phone and call their customers in Chicago[, Illinois] or New York or where it is, and say, “Hattaway’s going up on the price of his fern by three cent.I’m gonna stay the same price” or “I’m gonna drop the price.”It never worked.And so they cut their throat time and time again.But there was great rivalry, especially, that I’m familiar with, between the Barnetts, the Casselberrys, the Vaughns.And there was a rivalry there because Mr. Casselberry started the tax-free town of Casselberry, and the Barnetts were a big, very wealthy family, had a lot of ferneries in the Fern Park, Casselberry area, and they didn’t like Mr. Casselberry, because he was so aggressive, and he was a new guy in town.And they got into a hell of a rivalry.So it was always a shootout.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And the Vaughns, you said?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Vaughns.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta <br /></strong>They were also in Seminole County already.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>That’s right.Yeah.They were up in Casselberry—which you would never say “Casselberry,” you would say “Fern Park”—which today is the location of the Home Depot.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Near Lake Concord?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>On 17-92 and Concord.That area.So yeah, there was a real rivalry going on between the small families with the Casselberrys.And those three, those were the three players.So.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta <br /></strong>And this was like the ‘50s, early ‘60s?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah, ‘40s and ‘50s.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So when did the fern industry kind of start slowing down, in the area?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Oh, god.My father—I read this this morning—and it had so many ups and downs that I wasn’t even aware of—when I read his notes.And the, you know, just the price of fuel became so high, and labor became so expensive, that we really saw it when my father bought the place in 1951 from Hibbard, like 130 acres, Orienta Ferneries.He, within five years, was subdividing the fernery.And he became involved in real estate, which was a really smart move.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And these, the plots, were they designed for the houses and also, like, partially for ferns?Like, if somebody wanted to grow, like, a little on the side…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No. That was way before that ever happened.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>That was a lot of little nurseries that were back in the ‘20s and ‘30s.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So this was purely real estate?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah. purely real estate.Yeah.He started taking the fernery, which had a hundred and some odd acres, and started selling the land off itself to people that wanted to move.By this time, Altamonte Springs and Casselberry and the community started growing, and so people were starting to migrate, if you want to say that, from Orlando out into the country.And we were selling real estate lots on Lake Orienta—that was a fernery—and we took some of the slat sheds down and were selling real estate lots 100 feet wide, anywhere from 250 to 300 feet deep, for $2,000, for a lot, on paved road.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Around what year was this?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>In the ‘50s—’58, somewhere along there, ’57, ’58.That area where Hattaway Drive is today, that drive that was all Orienta Ferneries, all the property that my father bought from Mr. Casselberry.But he went in like Hibbard.Hibbard went into the real estate business big time.He had a lot of land.And he saw the handwriting on the wall itself.The fern business was just not thriving.There was—and, a lot of artificial stuff coming down the line.People were using <em>podocarpus</em>.People were using [?], using a lot of fillers instead of using the fern.It was cheaper to buy a filler and put inside, in that corsage, for the price.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh.I was about to ask what were some of the reasons it kind of went down.That was pretty much just the artificial—were other parts of the country…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It wasn’t artificial, then.It was just shrubs and things they were cutting that they could stick into a bouquet of flowers.Bouquet of flowers won’t last, you know, a week, four or five days.So they could take <em>sphagnum</em> moss, or they could take a <em>ligustrum</em>, or something that’s leafy and green, and put it in a corsage at a cheaper rate than they could a sprig of fern, or a sprig of leatherleaf fern.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>But if people did want those kind of ferns, were they still dependent on this area, or were there other parts of the country, do you know of?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Not from what I remember.It was mainly this area, plus the Pierson-Crescent City area, that was the mainstays.Later on, it became, everybody started to go off—not everybody.Several of the nurserymen started going off to Costa Rica and islands, and growing fern down there.In fact, one of the largest growers, probably still today, moved from Zellwood.Name was John Marcell.He moved to Costa Rica, and the last I heard, and I haven’t seen John in a long time, he had over 1,000 acres of saran shade cloth, growing leatherleaf fern, and ferns shipping all over the world.Actually, I’ve been told he controls the fern market in Costa Rica.This[?] big.<em>[laughs]</em></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Was Zellwood into the fern industry, or were they in other agriculture?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>And actually Zellwood was—it was a small little town, still today.Marcell was the main grower at that time of leatherleaf fern.Went over to Lockhart, there was another grower over there, name of Joe Wofford, and he had a small fernery, probably ten or fifteen acres.He was growing leatherleaf fern.And Apopka itself had started transitioning over from the fern business—the Ustlers, Mahaffeys—golly, some other families there.But they were more into the tropical foliage business, and growing—building—greenhouses, taking slat sheds and growing tropical plants, which were now becoming very popular.So they shifted from the fern business over to the tropical plant business.And I shifted, also.I saw the handwriting on the wall.The one I built over in Oviedo, myself, it was only small as ten acres.But I sold that to another fernery guy out of Crescent City, took the money of that and started buying property in Altamonte Springs, off Hattaway Drive, and built my first greenhouses.And I went in the greenhouse business.So I shifted from the fern business over to the tropical foliage business.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>More broad[sic].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah. broader opportunity of selling to a greater amount of people.And my first greenhouse I built was out of used lumber, and I took a saw mill myself, and cut the two-by-fours and four-by-fours out of used lumber, and built my first building, which was 30 feet wide and a hundred feet long, which I have pictures of it there.And, gosh, over the years, became a pretty good size.<em>[laughs]</em></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And where did you say this first one was?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It was over just off of Hattaway Drive there in Altamonte Springs.Small place.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay.So how long were you—your property in Chapman, you said it was on Chapman Road?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.I was over there—I was in Chapman, probably, I had that nursery probably ten years.A good while, long enough that I’d made enough money working at night.At the Continental Can Company, they were paying me union wages, and I never joined the union.But I was making big bucks, and I was able to buy the land and do the things I’d need to do to get a business going.And it was pretty successful, but when I had the opportunity of selling that property to another person, then take that money and come back over into Altamonte, and go into a different business—although I was still in the agriculture business, it was a good shift.I ended up—well, the fernery there had 20 acres there on Hattaway Drive, and greenhouses—had probably ten acres of greenhouses there.And grew there for a number of years.To build the buildings, [?], build the buildings, I was—to get the lumber for that place—I was going, also to get the used lumber, I was going up and down the railroad tracks.They were taking down power poles and telephone poles, and I would cut the telephone poles and take the arms.At that time, they had arms going out with wires on them, and those were like three-by-fours, and they were like eight feet long, and I would use those for posts, as I gathered used stuff to build my whole nursery.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Were they just, like, the ones that they left there?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Was it okay that you took those?<em>[laughs]</em></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah. definitely.They knew I was doing it.They were taking them down.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And, so, you pretty much built all those house, the original houses, yourself?It sounds like you’re a jack of all trades.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway</strong>I am. <em>[laughs]</em></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Did you enjoy the growing aspect?Like, did you have a green thumb, or was it like…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Oh, yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Did you enjoy the business?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I enjoyed the business, and I definitely did not have a green thumb.But I enjoyed the business, and I didn’t know anything else.What else could a guy do?There wasno—there was nothing out here.You either worked for the Hattaways, you worked for the Vaughns, you worked for the Casselberrys, or you worked for the Bradshaws in the grove business.This was agriculture community.There was nothing to do.Or, work at the dog track, something like that.So it was, you know—happy as a pig in slop.<em>[laughs] </em>What else can you do?This is what it is.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>This might be going back a little bit, but did your family have any influence on early Altamonte Springs, like developing and like with the government?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No, my father did.He was elected a constable.He worked for Hibbard.And when Hibbard incorporated the City of Casselberry—I’ve heard my mother and father talk about that the night that they did the incorporation, they had a town hall meeting before it was ever incorporated in Mr. Casselberry’s office.There was a—had to have a certain amount of people in the meeting to have a quorum and to be able to appeal to the legislature for incorporation.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And this—as a town?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>As a town.As a town.And they didn’t have four[?] people…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>This was around 1940?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>In the room, so my father left the meeting, went home—we lived on Concord Drive—and brought my mother to the meeting, and she voted, and that’s how, that was part of the process of incorporating the City of Casselberry.My father was elected in 1941 as the first constable of the City of Casselberry.And it was a, I guess, kind of a window-dressing job, but he was constable for eleven years in the City of Casselberry.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And that’s kind of like the police chief of the town?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>That’s right.Yeah.He was the police chief.<em>[laughs] </em>I don’t think he even had a badge.<em>[laughs] </em>But that’s old time there.</p>
<p class="Body">Yeah.But you know, again, you know, this was small town, U.S.A.Hibbard would have—and I can remember this so well—he would, at Christmas time, he would have a big Christmas party on the front lawn of the offices, and for all the employees that worked for Mr. Casselberry, his entire operation.And he would get every kid a gift at Christmas time.And this was black, white, whatever it was be.He would always throw this big Christmas party.Big deal.You’d either get a knife or get a yo-yo or something like that.<em>[laughs] </em>But, and he was quite a—he was a good man.A lot of people, you know, just—vision, had great vision.And smart, wasn’t hard to talk to.He was a young man at that time.He was just good to us.He was very good for the community.Barnetts won’t tell you that.And the Vaughns won’t tell you that.But the Hattaways damn sure will tell you that real quick.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Did you know Mr. Casselberry personally, as a young man?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Mm-hm.Yeah.I knew him.He, and especially Leonard [Casselberry]. I don’t know if you’ve interviewed Leonard, Jane [Casselberry]?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah. about a week or two ago.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Leonard used to come to my mother and father’s house, and Leonard would love to read comic books.<em>[laughs] </em>He—he wasn’t too energetic.<em>[laughs] </em>But he would come in and read the comic books, and Jane—they lived over off of the old race track road [Dog Track Road], at the horse track.He probably told you that’s what they built there, as well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta <br /></strong>Yeah.Was knowing the founder and, I guess, owner at that time of Casselberry, was that like a—in this year, that seems kind of, like, strange, or maybe not strange, but—was it, did it seem like a big deal, or was he just like any normal citizen?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No. It was—to the normal person, it was probably a big deal.But because my father worked for him, and with him, I would go into my father’s office, and Mr. Casselberry’s office was right there.And he had a big picture window that he could look out into my father’s office, and then be able to look out into the grading there.They graded fern—longs, shorts, mediums, whatever you were looking for in the size of fern to ship.And, you know, he was just there all the time.He had a—I can remember so well—he had a big, big tarpon fish mounted in his office in back there.He would go to—my father, in fact, I’ve seen some pictures of him—he would go to the flower shows in Chicago or New York, where they might be, and Martha [Casselberry], his wife at that time—he married three times—Martha would wear, he would wear white riding pants—horses, cows?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Mm-hm.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>And boots, real knee boots up there.With a big coat on.All in white.And a fern spray on this thing.Promoter.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah. representing his…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.He was a promoter, as well.Promoted, and he had a knack about doing that, much better than the Vaughns and the Barnetts, as well.But, yeah, he was a good man.I can’t tell you that enough times.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So you started getting into the nursery, would it be considered nursery business or the greenhouse…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Greenhouses.Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>How long were you involved with that before you looked more towards retail?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I started in the fern business when I got out of high school, 1954-55.I was in the fern business by 1960, with the fernery over in Chapman Avenue in Oviedo.And then started the first greenhouses and then grew that business.And I went out of the business in 1988, of the foliage business.So I graduated, basically, from the fern business over to the foliage, from the foliage into the foliage business itself.Ended up with this place, which is 500,000 square feet of what was greenhouses.But I built steel structure buildings, I told you.And today it’s now the steel structure buildings that are storing boats, cars, and recreational vehicles.1974-75, I bought a farm in Puerto Rico, and I started out with thirty, three thousand, building 3,000 square feet—300—yeah, 3,000, 30-feet wide and 100-feet long.And I bought a farm in Puerto Rico that was 80 hectares of greenhouses.And I was shipping fern or foliage plants from Puerto Rico, by sea freight, to Europe.So I moved from 33,000 square feet, to a farm here, and a farm in Puerto Rico.And I farmed in Puerto Rico, foliage plants, for twenty years, twenty-two years.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Did you sell that land, or still…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah, I did.I sold it.I sold it.I wanted to go out of the nursery business.My brother, and then, by then graduated from University of Florida, had a degree in horticulture, and he wanted the nursery in Puerto Rico, so I sold the nursery to him in Puerto Rico.And he farmed in Puerto Rico for, I don’t know, another eight,-nine years.And we had three major hurricanes hitting back to back.First time we had insurance.We rebuilt.Second time, had insurance.Insurance company went belly up, and we rebuilt.And the third time, we said, “That’s it.”And we sold it.And then I was here all the time, and I just started converting all the buildings over to what you see today.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So about what time did you decide you wanted to get out of that business?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>1988.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.I already had another vision, what you see today.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Works out for you.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah, it worked out.Yes.Yeah.It really—what was my whole plan at that time, was—I had roughly 30 acres here—was to add on a trailer park in front of me, which today is a public shopping center.And I was trying to buy their property, and I wanted to build a big industrial park, 40-45-acre industrial park.And I couldn’t buy that trailer park, and made them some ridiculous offers.I’m glad they didn’t take it, ‘cause the market went to hell in a handbag.I ended up, you know, basically looking at what they were doing, and I said, “If they will pay $35.00 a month to park a boat outside in an open field, with grass and grasshoppers, what will they pay to put it inside the building?”And from there, you know, it grew from there.So, in 1988, I was in the foliage business.In 2012, I’m now in the storage business.And the place is doing fairly well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>That sounds like a pretty brilliant idea, just converting the fields to this.Do you know if any other growers have took that...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No, no.They can’t.They all built buildings that were not convertible.They couldn’t do what I did.In fact, I saw Earl Vaughn two weeks ago. Had a funeral up in Apopka, and went over and we were talking—and I know Earl.Great guy.I like Earl.I don’t know if you’ve met him or not.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>No.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>You need to meet him.You need to meet Earl Vaughn.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I would love to.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Vaughn Greenhouses.They’re in the book.He’s no longer in the foliage business, but he has a farm, a foliage place up on [Florida State Road] Highway 46 up in Sanford.And saw him, and I said something, and he said, “Hattaway, what you did is brilliant.”He said, “I’ve been trying to do the same thing, except I can’t get my zoning.I’m in the Wekiva [River] Protection Area.”And so, he can do nothing other than what he’s doing.So, you know, fortunately, when I started building the buildings, I then started working politically to change the zoning on this place.And so I did it back early.If I tried to do it today, I’d probably never get it done.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Are you still involved in local politics?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /> </strong>I just write checks.<em>[laughs]</em></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong><em>[laughs] </em>Well…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>No, I’m still involved.I have a lot of friends in the political scene.I help them.You know, I served eight years in the [Florida] Legislature.Loved it, and had fun with it.Eight years at Orlando International Airport.That’s a full-time, non-paid political job, and did that for eight years.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And what was your—for the airport, what was your…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I was the—actually, I was chairman for four years, and vice chairman for two years, and on the board for eight.And the governor appointed me.Lawton Chiles appointed me.And so, I served there, and when I went on the board, there was $10 million worth of construction going at the Orlando International Airport.When I left, eight years later—yeah, eight years later it was—it was $500 million worth of construction going.And they had another $500 million committed to build the south terminal, and the new board decided that they didn’t want to do that, and so the new board today is trying to figure out how they can get the money to build the south terminal for international rivals.And, you know, that was a group of Democrats—John Rich, Bill Miller, Howard McNelty, myself—four really strong Democrats.We got in and got aggressive, said, “This place is gonna grow.”And we went from 22 million passengers—eight years later, it was like 31 million passengers.That’s growth.And all we did, we went out and started marketing the Orlando International Airport, as a board, as a group of people, with the mayor of Orlando, Linda Hood, and the county chairman, Linda Chapin.And we were a hell of a team, and we moved around this country, all around this world, basically.And brought airlines in, British Airlines[sic], Southwest [Airlines], Virgin [Atlantic].Those were all new carriers that came in that eight-year period of time.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Were you involved in the [Orlando-] Sanford [International] Airport or the…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>That was my first venture.Back when we did that one, Kay Shoemaker was the chairman, and John—what was the name—Steve, he was the executive director.I can’t think of his last name now.But he came to me, I was a new board member, and he said, “You know, we need to go after international passengers for the Sanford airport.”So we went to Kay Shoemaker and talked Kay into letting us fly, I think it was, Toronto, Canada.And the concept that Steve had—and I was just the baggage, went along with him—that we need to go to Holiday Travel, and talk to them about direct flights from Toronto to Sanford, and not from Toronto to Orlando.And we met with the Holiday Travel, they thought it was a good idea, and he was very much in favor of it, but the issue was that the travel time coming from the Sanford Airport to [Walt] Disney [World], you didn’t have the 414, I think it is, or 4…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh,[State Road] 408, [State Road] 417?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>417, yeah, coming across the lake.You didn’t have that segment built, and, so, that was a stopping point.When that segment was built, Holiday Travel and a lot of those guys started flying into Sanford, and bypassing Orlando.Well, in the meantime, I moved from the Sanford Airport board, over to the Orlando Airport.<em>[laughs] </em>So, it was quite a conflict there for a while.<em>[laughs] </em>And Larry Dale—and I don’t know if you know Larry—but Larry Dale and I had some real knockdowns and drag-outs about the airports.He’s the executive director of the Sanford Airport.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, yeah?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah.Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I’m curious how you, how did you even get involved with the airport, like the industry?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>The governor.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>The governor.Yeah, I—when Lawton was elected—Lawton Chiles—I’d been in the Legislature.I knew him very well, and I worked with him for his election.And he was elected.He appointed me to the lottery commission.I didn’t believe in the lottery.I didn’t like the lottery.When it was approved, I was in the Legislature.I voted against it.And was opposed against it then, and Lawton told me, said, “I want you to be on that board.You’re the first Democrat to be appointed, and I want to get rid of the executive director.”I forget her name.She was really good, too.But he wanted to get rid of her and he wanted to change the entire board.He wanted to make changes.And so, I did that for a couple of years.And I was tired of it, and finally we just got enough Democrats on the board that I went to the governor, said, “I’m out of here.I don’t want to do this anymore.”In the meantime, when that happened, the [Greater Orlando] Aviation Authority thing came up available in Orlando, and I was supporting a Republican, Sue [inaudible] was her name, and Sue wanted to be appointed to the board.And I went to the governor to appoint her from Seminole County, and the governor says, “No, I’m not going to appoint a Republican.But I will appoint you if you want to take the job.”So I said, “Well, okay. I’ll do it.”</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Did you have an interest in air travel?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Yeah, I did, because of Sanford.And I knew that it was a very, very important job.The Orlando International Airport is the economic engine that really runs this community today.And the things they’ve accomplished, and the size of the airport.This is number one around the state of Florida, certainly, that I enjoyed that.But I did, I was able to go into that segment having eight years in Tallahassee being a legislator, that I knew a little bit about politics, and I knew that a lot of my newfound friends that I found in Tallahassee, of eight years, when I was no longer elected, they didn’t know my first name or my last name.And when I was appointed to the Aviation Authority in Orlando, I told my wife, Charlotte, I said, “This is altogether different.We’re going to have a lot of brand new friends, and they’re going to love us for eight years.And when we’re gone, they won’t know our name.So we’re gonna do this different.We’re gonna do what the hell we want to do, and we’re gonna do the things that we think are right, and eight years from now, we’ll be good.”And that’s how we prefaced that.So it was fun.It was, like I said, it was a full-time—as a chairman—non-paid, political job.But would I do that again?Probably not.It was the right time.You know, I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve lived at the right time, when things were just starting to peak or things were really going smoothly, and everybody was getting along.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>It seems like you’ve always been able to do what makes you happy.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I’ve been lucky.You’ll never sit across the table from a more blessed, lucky guy than me.Life has been good.With high school education, I’ve competed with all of them.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Work ethic.Whistling[?] away[?].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It’s worked out, worked out fine.<em>[laughs] </em>So, and I laugh about. In fact, I’ve brought my report cards in today for some reason, and I looked at those report cards, looking through stuff, and I said, “Man, I was a straight-F student.”<em>[laughs] </em>So, but, it’s been fun.Life’s been good, been good.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I wanted to ask you, for the Sanford Airport, when did that start becoming—when was it under construction?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>It was, you know, it was a naval base [Naval Air Station Sanford], and then they converted over into a commercial airport, and I don’t remember the years.But I was on that board—phew.It wasn’t in the—must have been in the late ‘70s when they started converting it over.Yeah, I can’t remember the dates on that one.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So, did—it might have been the fern industry—I mean, it might have been kind of already low at that time, but was there any kind of transition?‘Cause you said the railroads, in the early days, that was like the artery.Was there, like, did the airports start to be more of a central thing with transportation?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>With ferns, no.No.With the fern business, it became trucks.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Everybody moved from the—we did some air freight, not a lot.Most of it was done by—the whole industry changed from trains and rail over to the trucking industry.So there was a—trucking lines were moving strictly either foliage plants or ferns by truck itself to the destination.The fern business itself—the labor, cost of labor, the cost of materials, the cost of land—all those things just became cost-prohibited to be able to do anything with it.You asked a question earlier about, you know, do I miss it?I loved the plant business.I really enjoyed it, and still today would like to be in the business, except I know I can’t make any money at it.And I’m not gonna fool around with something I can’t make money at as well.But, you know, the guys in Apopka and the guys that been in the fern business, and growing something, you know, a plant or product, I think they all will tell you, you know, it’s just a great place to—it’s a fun thing to do.And it’s really rewarding to put a little plant on a stem into a piece of <em>sphagnum</em> moss, and grow it to a finished product, and ship it.If I had a nickel for every plant that I’ve grown, I’d be a very wealthy man.Rick [Hattaway] enjoyed it.My brother enjoyed it very much.And I kept telling him, “You don’t want to go into the greenhouse business.You want to stay out of it.”My mother told me that as well.But, you know, he followed the family trade and did that as well.But, it’s a good life.It’s a good opportunity.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>That whole watching something grow, that seems almost kind of like a good metaphor for your, all your business [inaudible].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong><em>[laughs ] </em>Yeah.Yeah.I read an article today, an old one, gosh, about when I developed that orange grove over there, and it was—Phil [inaudible] was the city manager.It was quoting him about what I was doing over there, and how I environmentally was taking care of Lake Lotus, and all the things I did back then.But, you know, to see the growth, or where we were back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and where we are today, people have opportunities.There were no opportunities when I was growing up.Either you worked in a fernery or you worked in an orange grove.There wasn’t high school education.People weren’t going to college.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>You had to find your own…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>You had to find your own, you had to make your own way at that particular point in time.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Since you brought that up, I’m curious what you think about how this area—I probably can’t imagine what it was like when you were a kid.What do you think?How do you think it’s progressed?Are you…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>I’m for growth.I’m growth.Opportunities.I mean, I had a farm, sold it a couple years ago up in Alabama, little town called Opp, Alabama.And it was heavy agriculture, farming area.And today—Opp, Alabama—you can take a shotgun down the main street and not hit a soul.There’s just nothing to do there.And that’s the way it was here.The growth has been really, really, to me, healthy.It’s been giving good opportunities to people having good jobs.Our way of life—there are no poor people in this community today.You see some not as well off as others, but everybody either has a television, or everybody has food on the table.Everybody has an opportunity to make something of themselves, you see, if they want to take that opportunity.And back then, there was no opportunities.You had to make it yourself.And today there’s many doors open for employment, and it’s not all agriculture.At that time, it was.But am I in favor of growth?Absolutely.Has it been good for this community?Absolutely.Has it been good for this state?Absolutely.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Is there anything that you see in this community, that you don’t find good about—<strong>l</strong>ike, obviously, there’s a lot of good growth brings, but is there anything you lament that has changed, or any nostalgia?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway <br /></strong>I think the one problem that we have in our community is that we have not been able to keep up with the road—the growth with our road network—and mainly because of the lack of proper leadership from the Legislature.We’ve never had the political voting power to be able to build a road network they have on the south coast, South Florida—they have on the west coast.And our group has been splintered—Democrat, Republican— and many times have not worked together to have the power base in Tallahassee to get the state dollars to build—FDOT [Florida Department of Transportation]—to build our community.So we’ve not done a good job on our roads.And you have one major road going through this entire community, from Daytona Beach into Tampa, and that’s I-4.Other than that, you have very limited roads.If it wasn’t for the East-West Expressway [SR 408], the [Central Florida] Expressway Authority, we wouldn’t have any roads.So that’s been a blessing to us, but I think that’s our biggest problem.Our growth has been handled with zoning—comprehensive land plan—where the commercial’s going to be built, where the residential’s going to be built—all those things, I think, have been handled very well.We have a great water system, sewer system in Central Florida.We have all the things conducive to solid development, except the roads.And you get on these roads, and you know what it’s like.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Gridlock.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>But I’m kind of surprised to hear that—weren’t a lot of the old, like ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, Florida Republicans, weren’t they kind of pro-growth and infrastructure?Wouldn’t they…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong>Well, when I was in the Legislature back in the ‘70s, the [Florida] House [of Representatives] and the [Florida] Senate was controlled by the Democrats, and the Republicans were along for the ride.And then, when power shifted chains, we didn’t see a lot of growth coming here.I mean, we’ve had—I don’t want you to write this.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>What’s that?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Hattaway<br /></strong><em>[laughs] I</em> don’t want you to write this.This is off the record on this one.Yeah.</p>
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Longwood Collection
Alternative Title
Longwood Collection
Subject
Longwood (Fla.)
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the history of Longwood, Florida. Series descriptions are based on special topics, the majority of which students focused their metadata entries around.
The first European and Euro-American settlers arrived in present-day Longwood in the early 1870s. Its town founding settlers were John Neill Searcy of Tennessee and Edward Warren Henck of Boston, Massachusetts, both of which arrived in 1873. Henck was a railroad businessman, hotel owner, and real estate promoter, and he was later elected the first Mayor of Longwood in 1885. Henck was instrumental in bringing the South Florida Railroad to Longwood.
Although Longwood enjoyed growth from the railroad, the Great Freeze of 1894-1895 caused many citizens to leave Central Florida. However, the area experience growth again during the 1910s and 1920s. In 1923, the Town of Longwood was incorporated as a city. Longwood experienced decline during the Great Depression, and the city failed to dis-incorporate after its bank failed in 1932.
Growth returned to Longwood during World War II, thanks to the development of the Naval Air Station (NAS) Sanford and the Orlando Air Army Base, which was later renamed the Naval Training Center (NTC) Orlando. Prosperity increased again the 1960s and 1970s, due to the expansion of the military industry, the establishment of the space industry in nearby Brevard County, and the opening of Walt Disney World.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Longwood, Florida
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Contributor
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.longwoodfl.org/content/1115/151/147/default.aspx" target="_blank">A Brief History of Longwood</a>." City of Longwood, Florida. http://www.longwoodfl.org/content/1115/151/147/default.aspx.
Central Florida Society for Historical Preservation. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48909279" target="_blank"><em>Longwood</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2001.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Youngers, Stephanie
Interviewee
Bistline, Mary Carolyn
Location
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a><span>, Sanford, Florida.</span>
Bit Rate/Frequency
1411kbps
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Mary Carolyn Bistline
Alternative Title
Oral History, Bistline
Subject
Longwood (Fla.)
Miami (Fla.)
Lakeland (Fla.)
Teachers--Florida
Historic preservation--Florida
Educators--Florida
Description
An oral history of Mary Carolyn Bistline (b. 1928), conducted by Stephanie Youngers on December 10, 2010. Bistline was born on December 22, 1928, in Memphis, Tennessee, but has spent most of her life in Florida. In this interview, Bistline discusses growing up in Miami, the economic and social development of Miami, going to college and getting married, migrating to Longwood, her career in education, the history of her family and her husband's family, the Central Florida Society for Historic Preservation, her husband and children, opening Oak Tree Preschool, and her children and grandchildren.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction and biographical information
0:01:46 Growing up in Miami
0:04:53 Development of Miami
0:05:48 Brother in Coral Gables
0:06:49 College, marriage, and migrating to Longwood
0:08:02 Career in education
0:10:22 Raising her children
0:11:02 Family history
0:17:50 Parents and siblings
0:21:52 Going to college and working in the library
0:22:56 Meeting her husband, Fred
0:25:19 Community involvement
0:27:03 Central Florida Society for Historic Preservation
0:29:26 Husband’s employment history
0:31:42 Woman’s Club and the City League Building
0:36:02 History in Longwood
0:37:19 Opening Oak Tree Preschool
0:40:44 Children and grandchildren
0:46:37 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Mary Carolyn Bistline. Interview conducted by Stephanie Youngers at the <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
Type
Text
Source
Original 48-minute and 15-second oral history: Bistline, Mary Carolyn. Interviewed by Stephanie Youngers. December 10, 2010. <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
<a href="https://get.adobe.com/reader/" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/43" target="_blank">Longwood Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Creator
Youngers, Stephanie
Bistline, Mary Carolyn
Date Created
2010-12-10
Date Modified
2014-09-17
Date Copyrighted
2010-12-10
Format
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Extent
487 KB
187 KB
Medium
48-minute and 15-second audio recording
19-page typed digital transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Stephanie Youngers and Mary Caroline Bistline.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a> and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
External Reference
Central Florida Society for Historical Preservation. <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/48909279" target="_blank"><em>Longwood</em></a>. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2001.
"<a href="http://www.longwoodfl.org/content/1115/151/147/default.aspx" target="_blank">A Brief History of Longwood</a>." City of Longwood, Florida. http://www.longwoodfl.org/content/1115/151/147/default.aspx.
Transcript
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Today is December 10, 2010. My name is Stephanie Youngers and we’re here at the Museum of Seminole County History doing an interview with Mrs. [Mary] Carolyn Bistline. How are you, Mrs. Bistline?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>I’m fine. Thank you.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>And if you’d like to start with where and when you were born?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Oh. It asks my name—I have your little paper here, and I’m seeing that it says your name, and I usually mention to some people when it’s important and necessary for the record that my first name is Mary, but I’ve never gone by that name. My middle name’s Carolyn and that is how I’ve always been recognized. My birthday is three days before Christmas, and so there were carolers outside when I was born, and that’s why my mother decided on Carolyn.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Very nice.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>And that was in 1928. In the Dark Ages. I was born in Memphis, Tennessee. My dad had little desire for farm life, and they were living in the Carolinas. But he was good at mechanics, and so he took a chance to move from South Carolina—before I was born to Memphis—with an offer for a job where he got on a newspaper. However, the job didn’t last all that long, and so we moved back to the farm when I was about four, I think. And my little brother came along. That was in Clemson, which is formally called Central[, South Carolina]. I don’t think they call it that anymore, but that was the little town on the side of the road. And then we moved to Miami when he was about a year old, which I think was 1936. I’m not sure of my brother’s age precisely.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>So, I essentially grew up in Miami, which was just starting to boom. We thought it was a big city. We went there, but it wasn’t as big then as it came to be as I grew up. In our little neighborhood—or our community—we were happy and knew all our neighbors. No worries about crime. I went to Santa Clare[sic]<a title="">[1]</a> Elementary and Robert E. Lee Junior High School and rode my bike and we loved going to the beach and the skating rink, etcetera. But in starting high school, I decided to attend Miami Senior High [School], which was not the nearest school to our home. This meant I had to ride the bus downtown, and then take another bus across town. And the bus stop was several blocks from my home. So, I had to go early every day to make it there, but I loved the school. I was in the chorus and several clubs, and very active at Miami Senior High School. Now they have several Miami high schools, among others. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Miami…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>I have.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>You have. Well, there’s more than one. This is the northeast section of Miami where I went. And I lived in northwest.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, goodness.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>But the Andrew Jackson [High School] was nearest to me, and I didn’t want to go there. As it turns out, my brother ended up going to [Miami] Edison [Senior High School], which was not too far away, and we were bitter rivals. So we played football, we were both on each side, even in the band. I visited, when I was in high school, a military high school in Atlanta[, Georgia], because I was dating a young student there—a young man that I had gotten acquainted with at church. And I really enjoyed going there, because I got to see a real military-type formation. They did all the things. They did first—and then the dress parade, and the graduation and the dance afterwards. Of course, there were stipulations how I had to dress. I had to wear a picture hat, which was the big straw hat, you know—it’s called a “picture hat” at that time—with flowers on the crown. And the long gown. I remember again, I was having been raised in Miami, that I was inclined not to wear hosiery, unless I was wearing…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>That’s because it’s too warm.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Well, I had them. But I hadn’t put them on, because I thought that with the long dress, I wouldn’t need them. And so his sister came in to see and check on me, and I was getting dressed, because this was very formal, and she said, you’re not wearing your stockings. And I said, “Do I need them?” She said, “Absolutely, yes.” [<em>laughs</em>] So I really learned that this was military life, and that was the way they were. They were very formal. But I did enjoy it, and I dated him for really several years.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>And this was when you were in high school?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Yes. But everything really began to develop land-wise and population-wise in Miami when World War II started. So there were a lot of servicemen in our church in Downtown Miami. So I dated mostly servicemen. And so it went to where I had been dating steadily with this boyfriend, I went to dating others. Miami became a [inaudible] city. Too big. Too much traffic. And there was an influx of Cubans, and later Haitians. And Miami Beach—having been made of Jewish folks mostly from New York, and etcetera—was taken over, you might say, by servicemen. Navy, Army, Air Force. And South of Miami—Homestead—also became service-occupied. Did you say you had been to Miami, or you had been…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>You know something about it?</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>I’ve been to Biscayne Bay. I’ve been to Coconut Grove. Been to various places down there.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>My brother lives in Coral Gables. He’s an attorney, and now in the process of semi-retirement. A liaison, you might say, or mediator, in the circuit courts and so on. Just something to do. He’s really not handling, but he used to handle civil cases and had to learn Spanish while he was along the way. He drove downtown from the Gables every day, and then when he got to Flagler, he would drive up into the parking garage and park it and then go upstairs and cross Flagler to his office in the federal building. And when he was through with his day at work, he’d come back across—three or four stories up over Flagler—the walkway, and then get in the car and in the garage and drive back to Coral Gables.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Right. Wow.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Because he avoided downtown anymore. But when we were little, we went downtown to church, we’d get our shopping downtown and everything. We weren’t cautious or worried about it.</p>
<p>But in 1946, I graduated, and then I went to Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. And it’s a lovely, quiet, small town, which I liked. And I met Fred [Bistline] and dated him for a year. We married in 1949, after he graduated. We lived off-campus for a year since I had one more year of college. And I graduated in 1950, in the spring, already expecting. And in September of 1950, our first child was born in Lakeland.</p>
<p>In December of 1950, we moved to Longwood, because Fred had a chance to get on with Minute Maid Corporation, and he was into citrus. He was one of the first ones to go into citrus school there on campus. And so we’ve lived there ever since—here, in other words, where we live now—for 59 years in the same house, ever since. We actually stayed in a little guest cottage before we could build on their property, the Bistlines.</p>
<p>I started teaching in the old Lyman School, which is[sic] of course been torn down, and that was the school that Fred attended all 12 years. He played football there. He grew up in that school, because that was first [grade] through 12<sup>th</sup> [grade] at that time.</p>
<p>And I taught second grade. And during my high school year, I had worked as a clerk in a 10-cent store, as we used to call it—Woolworth’s in Downtown Miami, as a file clerk in a furniture store—my uncle’s—and I also worked one summer in the office at the church in Downtown Miami. And I also did a lot of babysitting. But when I went to college, I decided to be a teacher. I had always thought I wanted to do that. So I received a degree in Elementary Education and Early Childhood [Education], and that was a very, very hard year—my first year of teaching. And it was a very extremely hard time for me. But I’m glad I stayed with it, because I became a teacher and have been for all these years.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>And you stayed at Lyman for the whole time?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>No, I taught one year at Lyman and I had a downstairs basement room, really, with stairs to climb to come and go. And I had a young boy who was paralyzed from the waist down, and I had to get him up under his armpits and lift him and drag him up those stairs to get him to the top level and put him in a little chair with casters on it—because he was paralyzed—and take him to the bathroom down the hall. And of course, I would always not quite make it in time, and then all high school boys would be in there between classes, and they’d say, “Mrs. Bistline, get out of the boy’s bathroom.” And I’d say, “I’m sorry, but I’m here because I have to get this little guy in and out. “And I’d try to go between classes, but I couldn’t always make it, so—but I remember how Chucky was so dearly loved by all of our other students, because they could take him in the wagon, and they could pull him—we had an outside door to the playground, and he would bring his cowboy hat and guns, and pretend he was a cowboy. And they would pull him around, and take turns. Just loved to be able to be the one to take Chucky for a ride. We really adored him.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Where did you go after Lyman?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>After I left Lyman—I’ll get into that a little bit later. I went to stay at home for a while and had another child, a little girl. And at that time, it was really—I felt—in my best interest not to put my children in a school, or in a place where, anyway…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers <br /></strong>Childcare.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Mm-hmm. Childcare. I didn’t think they were really well set-up. I didn’t really like them an awful lot, so I stayed home as much as I could with them—my children—when they were born to when they were about of age to go to preschool.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Now you asked, there’s a question here about your family history. And I don’t know how I got onto that, because I wanted to try to go by your questions. And I see it there—number three—on the page…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, it’s fine.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Oh, I’m trying to keep my head on by writing this all down, because I’m not good at remembering things. Anyway, number 10 says—my family history. And so I wrote down some things, which I’ve just told you and Kim [Nelson] about a few minutes ago before we started officially here. I’m trying to have it researched now, and a lady and I—a local historic society is doing genealogies. But when she did mine, she traced names and birth dates only, back to the 1700s, which was interesting, but I’m curious about the occupations they had, and the birthplaces, some of which she did find. So I’m going to have to find someone who will delve further back, maybe, and find out what the people did, their jobs.</p>
<p>And then one of the next questions on your list—“Do you know any stories about how your family first came to Seminole County?” Well, that would be my husband—and I’ll tell a little bit about him—my husband Fred and his mother Adeline Alvina Niemeyer, were born in Longwood. So my husband’s brother John [Bistline, Jr.] —whom you’ve met, I’m sure—was born in Longwood. And he has studied the Bistline side of our family background with a lot of help from several cousins—Bistlines in Pennsylvania—who really came up with a lot of information. Fred’s father, Mr. John Aaron Bistline, from Pennsylvania, came to Longwood in answer to an ad from the founding father of Longwood to get a job. He started working with Mr. Niemeyer, who had a general store, and eventually married his daughter, Adeline. That was Fred’s mother. Mr. Frederick Niemeyer had married as Ms. Clouser, who was related to the master carpenter, Clouser, who was hired by Mr. Hink to build the hotel, and most of the houses in Longwood, the chapel in Altamonte [Springs], among others. We now own the Clouser cottage [Josiah Clouser House], and hope to keep it in the family in Longwood. Mr. Bistline, Fred’s father, grew orange trees, had quite a large acreage, and raised squabs, which were specialty birds for eating in hotels. Have you ever heard of squabs?</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>I haven’t ever heard of a squab.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Okay. It’s a baby pigeon, is what it really is. That’s what it’s called—a squab. I don’t really know how it’s derived. But they would take care of them by wringing their necks—I guess it was—like we do chickens sometimes, and they would pack them in ice, and ship them north each week by train from Winter Park.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh!</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>So my husband would get up early hours in the morning and help his father, because they had to pick them and ship them as soon as they did to keep them fresh, and they had to be a certain age, and a certain size. If they got too big, they became very tough, and so people don’t usually eat pigeon. But squabs are different. They’re very tender if you get them at a young age. And it was—that day also would have them in the hotels here that he raised and started his business. Then he got started and shipping them north, and so they would take them in a wagon, pack them in ice box, crates, and take them in the wagon to Winter Park and have them shipped out once a week.</p>
<p>So, another thing about Mr. Bistline—J. A. Bistline, Sr. —is that he started raising prize poultry as a hobby. And he became immersed in communicating with other men doing the same thing all over the world. And he won all sorts of awards, trophies, and prizes. Raised excellent expertise in raising silver-laced Wyandottes. <a title="">[2]</a> And these are beautiful, big, very regal-looking birds. Usually the roosters—the cocks, as they call them—with the large red cockade on their heads, and stripes along the sides. Feathers which might look lacey. They were in little rows, like on their feathers. I have pictures. And a lot of trophies. And some of these awards and letters from different countries—men soliciting information about Mr. Bistline about how he raised this beautiful poultry, because he won so many prizes and so many trophies and awards. And that’s a funny kind of an occupation to have, but it was a hobby, really, because he had the orange trees and the squab farm. We had over two thousand birds in that squab farm at one time. And so that was quite a job for Mr. Bistline and for Fred. John didn’t help very much there, John was always helping his mother.</p>
<p>So, anyway, Mr. Bistline was also very community-oriented, and he was on the town council in Longwood for at least, I think, 20 years. I’m not sure. He was active in church choir—an elder, a Sunday school teacher. He played trombone in a band. Now, I have a picture of him on the stage at our building—the City League Building, we called it—in Longwood. And he was on the Seminole County School Board for 19 years.</p>
<p>Mrs. Bisltine—or Addy, as she was called—went to Rollins [College], and she played piano. I have a picture of her doing a concert. And she played piano and sang in the choir, and she was a charter member of the Woman’s Club [of Longwood] and officer most every year—some sort of officer. And her mother was the same way, Frances Niemeyer. So it was accepted that when I married Fred and came there with him to live that I become a member of the Woman’s Club immediately, and be active in the church.</p>
<p>Now, it mentions on your list my background and my parents. My father was the newspaperman. And he inspired—he was probably inspired—I mean, possibly by his rich Uncle Vernon. We have a book on him. He was in the Midwest as an editor of a newspaper. But my dad’s mother had died when my dad was born, as was his twin brother. He died also. And since he had another older brother and four sisters, his father sent him as a tiny infant to live with Aunt Fannie. Doesn’t everybody always have an Aunt Fannie? In Pelzer, South Carolina. And so he told me some stories about how she carried him around on a pillow, because he was so tiny, and she nursed him to health and kept him there till he was almost nine. By the age of nine, he was on his own, I was told.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Wow.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Somehow, he worked on farms and moved about, and received minimum education. But then he met my mother, Hettie Catherine Hollis, in Central—or Clemson—South Carolina. And they married, and he went back to the farm business again, and they lived there on the farm. My mother went to Furman University, and studied business. And when my brother was born, I was ecstatic, because I hadn’t been told before. So when the doctor drove in under his [Ford] Model T, and saw my playing under the giant walnut tree, and he told me he brought me something in a little black bag, and I would get to see it later.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>That’s a good story.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>I loved my little brother. And I tried to help my mother to look after him. I remember when we built a house in Miami, after renting for a while, there were beds of scorpions in the palmettos when my dad started the dig the foundation—the coral rock, which is solid down there. He, being from South Carolina—or actually, he was born in Georgia—was not familiar with the conditions, and he was stung many times by the red ants and insects, scorpions and all, and finally decided that the rock was the foundation, because he couldn’t remove it with a pickaxe. When we got the walls up and the roof on, we moved in with the spiders and the snakes as well, and one night, my little brother stepped on a scorpion and it stung him, and being about a year old maybe, he didn’t know what was happening, and he just kept stepping up and down on that scorpion. These bugs—the scorpions—were very large, not tiny. Sometimes, we see them around here in Central Florida, but they’re very small, and very seldom do we see them. But these are large, large ones. Many two to three inches long, and had a lot of venom. His feet were swollen for weeks and we kept putting ice on them and carrying him around for long time, but he finally got well—survived.</p>
<p>So, as we developed a neighborhood there, we were fortunate ultimately in having a very nice home. Improved on our home a great deal, and my dad built additions on, and it became a nice building. We had great childhoods—my brother and I. Sometimes we did have a slight problem, because my father’s brother divorced and brought his four children to live with us at once time. And that was pretty hard. His youngest daughter was three months older than I was and she and I got along pretty well most of the time. But we were more like sisters I think in that we would fight occasionally. We love each other now to death. We have a lot memories, and nice memories. And he finally moved out and took one of the children with him. Anyway, we basically grew up together there for several years down home.</p>
<p>And then I went to summer camp at Florida Southern and that’s when I decided I wanted to go to college. So I’m backtracking a little bit here, because I mentioned it earlier.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>That’s okay.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>I entered as a freshman and joined a sorority right away—Alpha Delta Pi—and I enjoyed campus life and dated a lot. But because my uncle divorced and went to Miami with three children to live with my parents, I just decided to work part-time in the college library to help with my college tuition, and I learned a lot with that.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, okay.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /> </strong>Learned a lot about library books and how to catalog them. I had a little old lady who was probably 90 [years old], who was very, very strict. And she would make me look at those numbers until I was blue in the face, and so tired of trying to type them and keep the numbers straight. And I wasn’t a good typist. I would almost cry. I would get so tired of it. Finally, I got to be on the floor and handle books and see people, because I like people.</p>
<p>Okay. Next question. “How has it changed over the years?” Well, I don’t know where that goes. I have number six there. I’ll just go with what I have in my notes here.</p>
<p>One day, while standing in line at the campus cafeteria, I was chatting with friends, one of whom was talking to her boyfriend—she was the campus homecoming queen. And she introduced us. And he in turn introduced us to his roommate, and that was Fred. He and the roommate lived off-campus working part-time in a science lab, located on the grounds there, while attending school on the GI Bill [Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944]. They both were from Longwood. Charlie Stum was his roommate, famously know in Longwood for Stum’s Corner, where they used to live. She was not a very nice woman—his mother. Charlie’s now in Polk County and on the staff at the university there—the college there.</p>
<p>So, I had never heard of Longwood. And we chatted a while, and when my friend and I left, I felt something pulling me on my ribbon sash from behind. And I guess it was tied in the back. Anyway, he was trying to catch up with us, so he pulled on that, and I realized—I looked around and caught him trying to catch up, and looked at him kind of funny, and he thought that was funny. So anyway, we laughed and we stopped to talk and then he asked me out. Our first date was to attend a play in town called <em>Everyman</em>, and dinner later at the town cafeteria. That was a big deal in Lakeland, because that was all they had then.</p>
<p>Now, trying to get to the family here. Your question is, “Does your family have any heirlooms or keepsakes?” When Fred’s mother passed away, I was given permission, along with John’s wife [Mary Bistline], to share some of her jewelry—his mother’s—and porcelain figurines and dishes, photo albums, which I really treasure. And silverware and other stuff. So I was very glad to share and still have most of that. That was some time ago when she died.</p>
<p>Now, number 19—question is, “What kind of local events and gatherings were there?”</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>In Longwood.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>We were active in the Central Florida Society for Historic Preservation. We were charter members. And Fred was the very first treasurer, and then a trustee. And I was a docent, as well as a secretary and head of several different committees. We were active in our church, also. He was Superintendent of Sunday Schools, and I was a Sunday school teacher. Eventually, we were both ordained as elders. We were active in [Boy] Scouts [of America]. Fred had been a scout as a boy. I was a Cub Scout mother and leader of the Cub pack, also leader of the Brownie Scouts and Cadets, which I think now are called “Intermediates.” I think that’s what they’re called, anyway. Fred was a member of the Indian Guides. He was one of the dads, and he was a timekeeper at swim meets. Our second son got a scholarship from swimming. He followed through. He was very good at swimming. So we were both workers with the booster club at Lyman High School, where Fred went. And I was—for a short time, I was a helper with A[lpha] D[elta] Pi at UCF[University of Central Florida], which at that time was called FTU—Florida Technological University. I was always active in educator’s associations. President one year of Seminole County for Children Under Six—now, that’s not quite right. I’m sure it’s Seminole County Association for Children Under Six, which ultimately became part of the 4C [Community Coordinated Care for Children, Inc.] program now in existence, and I helped start that. I enjoyed that.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>When did you all start the Central Florida Society for Historic Preservation?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>In ‘73, I think it was. And the reason for that being that we wanted to move this house that was up for grabs for the fire department to use…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>The Bradlee-McIntyre House?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>And so, it was either ‘73, ‘75? No, I think it was ‘73 that we moved the house. I’m not really sure. It was right in there, that we moved the Bradlee-Mac house from Altamonte Springs to Longwood, and we also got the inside house while we were at it. We had to chip in, of course, a lot of our own money, and the move was quite large. Can’t remember his name—the man who did it—but it was quite an effort because, of course, because the Bradlee-Mac being three stories—Queen Anne. It was in terrible, terrible shape. I didn’t think to bring any pictures to show you today, but I do have pictures of how it looked before we moved it.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>I think I’ve seen some pictures of it.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>And it was in very bad shape.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>There was a man who lived in there, Bill Orr—he’s an artist. And I have pictures here where he had his—I don’t know if it’s a kerosene stove or not—but he had a pot sitting on it. Anyway, there were some pictures on the wall of the Beatles, or something like that. And you don’t really recognize or realize that’s the Bradlee-Mac house the way it looks now. You don’t realize until you find a few doorways and windows and things that you recognize. It comes to you that that’s the way it looked when it was going down. And after the move, we had to have power lines removed, or taken down. And a lot of trees had to be cut back, and a lot of hours spent on the road trying to move it. And there was just a small group of us, but we got it done. Of course, we were in the red for a lot of years afterwards, but we finally got ourselves in black.</p>
<p>Fred was a member of the Board of the [Florida] Farm Bureau for over 40 years, because he’s into citrus. And he was with Minute Maid, and they later became connected to Coca-Cola—part of Coca-Cola. And he had been, more recently, traveling a lot and helping out Coca-Cola to look for properties suitable for orange trees. We went to China twice. We went to Africa a couple of times. And I got to go with him to some countries, because Coca-Cola was interested not only the cocoa part of it, but they were also at that time selling coffee. And so I went to Jamaica with him a time or two, and Mexico several times. So I got to travel too some in between raising children.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Now was Minute Maid—was it located in Longwood?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>No. It was actually Orlando. It was a place called Fairvilla, which is still there. And he had an office there for a while, and then they moved to Plymouth—oh, I think they really were Plymouth first. I think that’s backwards. I think they were Plymouth first, and they had a packing plant over there and everything. And that was a little drive, but it was only 20 minutes then.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Right.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Now it takes at least half hour or more.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>So it’s really a commute.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Yeah. And he worked over there for a lot of years, and then they moved to Fairvilla and then opened more plants and opened more, not necessarily more packing houses, but more plants. Concentrate was coming in then. That was real important then. And he helped to start that, had to help get the vats in and all that that they required for that.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Mm-hmm.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>So, he was instrumental in the beginning of orange juice as we see it now, and concentrate, and then since then, fresh orange juice. It was almost, at that time, impossible to find. Then he became a kind of troubleshooter and consultant.</p>
<p>Then I was president of the Woman’s Club for a couple of years, and instrumental in setting up the old-timer’s reunion once a year. This was a get-together of all the old-timers in Longwood, which we all loved. That was discontinued when the Woman’s Club disbanded. It was no feather in my cap that we had to give up, but we had dwindling numbers—membership—and most of the ladies were not able to drive or get out without help. And we’re getting up in years. We were just to the point where we couldn’t seem to get younger people in. They were busy working. We finally disbanded and we gave the building to the historic group in Longwood—Central Florida Society for Historic Preservation—with the provision that the building would eventually become a museum. It hasn’t happened yet.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>And is that the Bradlee-Mac House?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>No. It’s the City League Building. And it was the former Woman’s Club building, and we gave it away. Kind of regret that, sort of. But if we had tried to sell it, we didn’t know how we would divide the money, or what we would do. Where it would go. And there were so few members left that we didn’t seem to think that seemed fair. So I suggested we give it to the historic society, which we did, but it was with the provision that it become a museum. Now, we’re putting some things in there. We have a museum committee, of which I am a member and John is the president—my brother-in-law. We’re trying to get a museum set up and started. We’ve got some bulletin boards up and things, but they’re renting the building out now to society, because they did a whole lot of renovations. It was in pretty bad shape. So they spent a lot of money on it. So now they’re trying to make up that money that they spent by having people come in for weddings, and such as that. Bar-mitzvahs, other things. They do raise money, anyway.</p>
<p>So right now, we’re not having much luck on getting—we don’t want to really put anything in there of any value, museum-wise, anyway. So we’re collecting a few things, but we’re basically just trying to do the bookwork that goes with it, and collect some information on people who helped start Longwood. And we’re putting together a little book, we’re calling it <em>Footprints</em>. And we’re trying to get some information together. And some, you might say—the basics, just right now, and hopefully we’ll someday have a museum in Longwood. I don’t know if it’ll happen before I’m gone, but we’re trying.</p>
<p>Fred and I have also been active in the Seminole County Historic[al] Society—charter members there also. And I’ve been Recording Secretary at one time as well as Chairman of the Student Tours. Now, that goes with the society—the local group, the tours. CFSHP, which is Central Florida Society for Historic Preservation. I initiated tours—student tours—by visiting approximately 55 schools in the county, one by one, and introducing the history of the Longwood area for them, and setting up field trips by bus, through a grant. We had to work hard to get the grant. We’ve had as many as four days a week sometimes touring students through the town and/or the Bradlee-McIntyre House museum. It was I who introduced John and Mary [Bistline]—Fred’s brother—to the local group after he retired from New York, and they moved back to Florida and they became very active. I was raising four kids and teaching school, so I became less active for a while, and I’m again more active now since I retired from teachers. This getting too long?</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Nope.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>I’m proud to say that—now, number 21, you asked how historical events affected your family—community. Proud to say that we in Longwood were included in the Bicentennial Parade. The governors came through Florida in 1976. And I have some snapshots of a similar celebration in—I’m not sure if it was 1880—but Ulysses [S.] Grant came to visit, just for a day, in Longwood. His name is on the book at the hotel. We’re also proud of the Clouser heritage, hence the Niemeyers, and then the Bistlines, and pioneering the oldest city in Seminole County. The Clouser House has been acknowledged with a small plaque, and we had a little celebration at the City Hall, then Mayor Paul Lovestrand and other dignitaries—and our now-grown children, our four children have greater respect than when they were young, and appreciate the history of Longwood now. We put out a book, so we have some recognition, when we have our book on. And that’s our family on the front cover, the Niemeyers.</p>
<p>Number 23 is, “Is there anything you’d like to discuss?” I just going to say—I’ve always wanted to have my own private kindergarten, so my husband agreed after some rentals we had were vacated, and he was tired of being a landlord anyway. So with some renovations to three small homes, we opened a school. We connected them all together, three little houses in a row, and we called it Oak Tree [Pre]School, because we have what is probably the largest tree, the live oak, anyway, in Seminole County.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh!</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>It’s supposed to be between 400 and 500 years old, according to a forester who came out in ‘88, and I’m trying to have that checked out now, because it’s been so long, I think it may have grown a little, and there was an article in the newspaper in <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, fairly recently, about a large live oak in Lake County, and according to the writer, there’s nobody in Seminole County who pushed through like they did there in the town council who worked on getting this tree recognized with some kind, you know…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, to protect it. Yes, mm-hmm.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>I called the writer—The <em>Sentinel</em> writer—to ask him and he talked with me and suggested names, one of which is a lady who works for the forestry service. And she’ll come out and measure for me which is the other one did, when I had this—but I had gotten the children out there and talked about the tree, and then they helped him measure. And they enjoyed that and they had a little—they gave me a plaque. And around that time—it must have been already. So I want to bring this back to attention in our little town of Longwood, and because it’s in our backyard. It’s not something you just invite the whole town to, but I do want them to know that they can come and see it, and be ready to mention it to anybody who’s interested in trees. And so I’m going to look forward to her coming. She’s coming after Christmas sometime to measure, and she said, by the way it sounds—with my measurements that I gave her—it sounds like it is one of the largest oak trees in the state.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Wow.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>At least in the county, anyway. So we hope to have that recognized soon. And anyway, since I’ve been teaching in Seminole County for about eight or 10 years in public school at that time, I was disenchanted with all the paperwork, so I enjoyed revising the joining of these houses into one building, and making up the playground, etcetera. And I had that school for 11 years, we call it the Oak Tree Preschool. Well, actually, it came to be kindergarten. That’s my love, that’s my Early Childhood degree. But I had it for 11 years, but I gave it up after that, because even though I loved it very much, nobody wanted to pay tuition. They wanted to bring the children, but they didn’t want to pay. So it was just like—they thought it should be free, and I just let it go too long. I am a dedicated teacher, but I’m not a businessperson. So, I really let it go, and there were a lot of disappointed parents that we put a lot of money into, and we finally had to give up on that.</p>
<p>Now, I was just wondering—when you ask if there’s anything else I would like to discuss, I realize I must not forget to mention our children, of which I am very proud. Walter Bistline, Jr. was born September 30, 1950, in Lakeland, and he’s now an attorney with several large law firms. But he’s been semi-retired and he was in New York City, where he got his law degree, and he went with White & Case. Then he moved to Dallas[,Texas], and opened and branch there, and later he went to Houston[,Texas], and opened a branch there, and now they live in Richmond, Indiana, and that’s because he found it on the computer—they have a photography studio there like, that he can go to there, because that’s his hobby. And so he’s on the faculty teaching photography and he judges shows, and they just came back from Turkey. Brought me this back from Turkey.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, very nice, yes.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Did you know that tulips were grown originally in Turkey?</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>I did not know that.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>All of us all think of Amsterdam[, the Netherlands] as the base for tulips.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers <br /></strong>Very pretty.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>He and his wife bought that for me—a pendant with the tulip on it. And they’ve travelled, not only just to Turkey. They took a group of students there, and they stayed in England this time three months, but they were only in Turkey for a couple of weeks. But they do take students, say, a group like 25 students and sponsor them included. Well, they get sponsors, but they get help. This time, they got a flat to stay in in England—that was last summer. He’s travelled a lot. He’s been to China, he’s been around quite a lot in different places. Travels a lot. She’s also a lawyer.</p>
<p>And then Frances [Bistline], our daughter, was born June 23, ‘53 in Sanford. And she has become an environmentalist and a magazine writer, and lately she’s been teaching school. She met Paul—her husband, Paul Stephen—at a church summer trip and went to Florida State University, lived in a co-op dorm, and then they married after graduation and moved to Naples[, Florida]. They lived there about 20 years. He’s a Clearwater guy, and he loves the water, so they did a lot of surfing, fishing, boating. You name it. And now they have moved to California, which I’m very sorry that they’ve done, but he’s looking for a new job, so they went out there.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, wow. That’s far away.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Our next one was John Leland [Bistline], named after my husband’s brother and my brother. He’s a doctor of psychology, and he’s now working with insurance company. His wife is very, very sickly, so he has to stay home. Has his office there. He wrote a book. He met Kathy [Bistline] at Richmond University, at which time she was very, very into sports, and very strong. But she’s become ill with arthritis really bad now. They’re married in Virginia. Living there now. He’s really looking after Kathy himself. He’s her caregiver.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>And when was he born?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>He was born in 1955 in Sanford. And at that time—I have a picture of that old house that was the hospital in Sanford where they were born, he and Francie, and of course, it’s terrible, in bad shape. And when he was born, I had apparently just come out of a sleep afterwards, and they were going to bring him in, and they said they’d bring the babies in a few minutes. And all of a sudden, this rumble-rumble-rumble sound. And I said, “What in the world happened? My bed’s shaking.” And she said, “Oh, that’s just the elevator.”</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, my goodness. [<em>laughs</em>]</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>And it turned out my bed was near the elevator shaft. Whenever anybody went up or down on the elevator, it made my bed shake.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, I bet you couldn’t wait to get home.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>That’s exactly right. And then they brought him in and he was nine pounds and a half ounce and since you have a football player, I said, “That’s not mine.” Because Walter was only seven pounds and four and three quarters ounces, but they said, “Yes, this is yours.” So he’s a handsome young man and a big guy. He played football at Lyman, and as I say, they’re living there now. He’s in Richmond, Virginia, and Walter’s in Richmond, Indiana. Strange consequence.</p>
<p>Jane [Bistline], our baby, was born in ‘65, December 4, 1965. And she went to Florida Southern College, where we went. And she was homecoming queen in high school. She’s a fitness instructor at the YMCA [Young Men’s Christian Association] now, and she does personal fitness in the home. She married Keith Reardon and they have three children. Two are twin boys—Keegan and Kamden. They’re now six, and Khloe is age nine. They all start with K’s. All of my four children attended Lyman High School, just as their dad had. And I have five grandchildren altogether. I lost Fred about a year ago, but I stayed busy and I have an active life. I meant to mention my granddaughters, Katie and Addie, now in their twenties. They don’t have any children yet.</p>
<p>And one other little addition, I forgot to explain my teaching job sort of. I didn’t really go into that very much. But I did mention the old Lyman, when I had the base…</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Basement classroom?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Yes. Thank you. [<em>laughs</em>] That was first through 12<sup>th</sup> grades, but then they started building new schools, so I went home and waited. I was inclined—I kept taking leaves to have family, and I taught one year at the old Lake Mary Elementary, which is also now gone. It was about 1957, I think it was. Then I taught at Altamonte Elementary for a lot of years—I figured, around 1966, but I’m not going to be able to remember it for sure—until I opened my private school in 1985. And had that for 11 years, and then I decided to retire. I don’t think I taught after that. I may have gone back to public school. I don’t remember.</p>
<p>But anyway, I now serve on the Seminole County Historic Commission, and the Board of the Seminole County Historic Society, which I enjoy. And I’m interested in history, even though I hated it when I was in high school. That’s it.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Is that all you have?</p>
<p><strong>Bistline <br /></strong>That’s all I have.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Alright, well thank you so much, Mrs. Bistline.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>Thank you for being patient with me.</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Absolutely.</p>
<p><strong>Bistline<br /></strong>I was writing things and realizing how long I was writing and how much I was writing. And I thought, <em>This is terrible</em>. [<em>laughs</em>]</p>
<p><strong>Youngers<br /></strong>Oh, it’s fine.</p>
<div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[1]</a> Santa Clara Elementary School.</p>
</div>
<div>
<p><a title="">[2]</a> Wyandotte chickens.</p>
</div>
</div>
Coverage
Bradlee-McIntyre House, Longwood, Florida
Florida Southern College, Lakeland, Florida
Longwood, Florida
Lyman School, Longwood, Florida
Addy Niemeyer
Adeline Alvina Niemeyer
Alpha Delta Pi
Altamonte Elementary School
Bicentennial Parade
Boy Scouts of America
Carolyn Bistline
Central, South Carolina
Charlie Stum
chickens
City League Building
Clouser
Coca-Cola
Coral Gables
Downtown Miami
Early Childhood Education
elementary schools
Fairvilla
Florida Farm Bureau
Florida Southern College
Footprints
Frances Neiemeyer
Francis Bistline
Francis Bistline Stephen
Fred Bistline
Hettie Catherine Hollis
high schools
Hink
Hiram Ulysses Grant
Jane Bistline
Jane Bistline Reardon
Jane Reardon
John Aaron Bistline, Sr.
John Bistline, Jr.
John Leland Bistline
Josiah Clouser House
Kamden Reardon
Keegan Reardon
Keith Reardon
Khloe Reardon
Lake Mary Elementary School
Lakeland
Longwood
Lyman High School
Lyman School
Mary Bistline
Mary Carolyn Bistline
Memphis, Tennessee
Miami
Miami Senior High School
Minute Maid Corporation
Museum of Seminole County History
Oak Tree Preschool
oak trees
oaks
Orr, Bill
Paul Lovestrand
Paul Stephen
Pelzer, South Carolina
pigeons
Plymouth
poultry
preschools
Robert E. Lee Junior High School
Santa Clara Elementary School
Seminole County
Seminole County Historic Commission
Seminole County Historical Society
squabs
Stephanie Youngers
Stum’s Corner
Ulysses S. Grant
Walter Bistline, Jr.
Women’s Club of Longwood
World War II
WWII
Wyandotte chickens
-
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/07e6bec83a190e1b586ee004f7edcbdd.mp3
187a4a9be507784ce65c432f6a6b8526
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/files/original/be86d7afae2d764311c85f1823f0025c.pdf
119f341379fca234c9f13ef52d2434db
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Casselberry Collection
Alternative Title
Casselberry Collection
Subject
Casselberry (Fla.)
Description
Collection of digital images, documents, and other records depicting the history of Casselberry, Florida. Series descriptions are based on special topics, the majority of which students focused their metadata entries around.
Fort Concord was constructed near Lake Concord in 1849 to protect settlers during the Seminole Wars. Settlement increased following the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862. Stephen J. L. Hooker, the nephew of Florida cattleman William B. Hooker, migrated to the present-day Casselberry area in the 1850s.
Gordon J. Barnett migrated to Altamonte Springs from New York and opened a fernery in the area. He also began a housing development called Fern Park Estates. Soon, the area became one of the world's largest fern producers. In 1926, Hibbard Casselberry migrated to Fern Park from Winnetka, Illinois, and began his own subdivision called Winter Park Ferneries. In 1937, Barnett was elected to the Florida House of Representative and failed passed a bill to incorporate the Town of Fern Park. On October 10, 1940, the Casselberry, which included parts of Fern Park, was incorporated as a tax-free town. The fern industry declined during World War II and Hibbard Casselberry began manufacturing bandoliers, bomb parachutes, and hospital tent liners. The City of Casselberry was incorporated on July 25, 1965.
Contributor
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/44" target="_blank">Seminole County Collection</a>, RICHES of Central Florida.
Language
eng
Type
Collection
Coverage
Casselberry, Florida
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.casselberry.org/index.aspx?nid=33" target="_blank">History</a>." City of Casselberry. http://www.casselberry.org/index.aspx?nid=33.
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewer
Motta, Daniel
Interviewee
Casselberry, Leonard
Casselberry, Janes
Location
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a><span>, Sanford, Florida.</span>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
Oral History of Leonard Casselberry and Jane Casselberry
Alternative Title
Oral History, Casselberry
Subject
Casselberry (Fla.)
Winter Park (Fla.)
Ferns--Florida
Azaleas--United States
Description
An oral history of Leonard and Jane Casselberry, conducted by Daniel Motta on May 30, 2012. In the interview, the Casselberrys discuss life in Casselberry, Florida, which was founded by Leonard's father, Hibbard Casselberry. Other topics discussed include the founding of Casselberry, working in the fern industry, the effect of World War II on the home front, how Leonard and Jane met, how Casselberry has changed over time, Hibbard Casselberry's involvement in growing azaleas and oak trees, and the Casselberrys' occupations after Leonard left the U.S. Navy.
Table Of Contents
0:00:00 Introduction<br /> 0:00:38 Education and childhood<br /> 0:02:00 Founding of Casselberry<br /> 0:04:28 How Leonard and Jane met<br /> 0:04:37 Working with ferns<br /> 0:13:04 Shipping ferns<br /> 0:15:59 Fern industry during the war<br /> 0:18:41 Leonard's father<br /> 0:19:48 How the city has progressed over time<br /> 0:21:50 Leonard's father and azaleas<br /> 0:24:08 Orange groves, oak trees, and local competition<br /> 0:26:20 After leaving the Navy<br /> 0:36:20 Opinion of Casselberry today<br /> 0:37:29 Leonard's occupations<br /> 0:38:53 Closing remarks
Abstract
Oral history interview of Leonard Casselberry and Jane Casselberry. Interview conducted by Daniel Motta at the <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a> in Sanford, Florida.
Type
Moving Image
Source
Original 39-minute and 14-second oral history: Casselberry, Leonard and Jane Casselberry. Interviewed by Daniel Motta. UCF Community Veterans History Project. May 30, 2012. Audio record available. <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
Requires
Multimedia software, such as <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" target="_blank"> QuickTime</a>.
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/reader.html" target="_blank">Adobe Acrobat Reader</a>
Is Part Of
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>, Sanford, Florida.
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/collections/show/117" target="_blank">Casselberry Collection</a>, Seminole County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.
Creator
Motta, Daniel
Contributor
Casselberry, Leonard
Casselberry, Jane
Vickers, Savannah
Date Created
2012-05-30
Date Modified
2014-09-30
Date Copyrighted
2012-05-30
Format
video/wav
application/pdf
Extent
396 MB
172 KB
Medium
39-minute and 14-second audio recording
19-page typed transcript
Language
eng
Mediator
History Teacher
Economics Teacher
Geography Teacher
Provenance
Originally created by Daniel Motta, Leonard Casselberry, and Janes Casselberry, and transcribed by Savannah Vickers.
Rights Holder
Copyright to this resource is held by the <a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a> and is provided here by <a href="http://riches.cah.ucf.edu/" target="_blank">RICHES of Central Florida</a> for educational purposes only.
Accrual Method
Donation
Curator
Cepero, Laura
Digital Collection
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/map/" target="_blank">RICHES MI</a>
Source Repository
<a href="http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/departments-services/leisure-services/parks-recreation/museum-of-seminole-county-history/" target="_blank">Museum of Seminole County History</a>
External Reference
"<a href="http://www.casselberry.org/index.aspx?nid=33" target="_blank">History</a>." City of Casselberry. http://www.casselberry.org/.
Robison, Jim. "<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-05-25/news/0305230547_1_casselberry-fern-hibbard" target="_blank">Casselberry Family Sheds New Light On Life Of City Founder</a>." <em>The Orlando Sentinel</em>, May 25, 2003. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-05-25/news/0305230547_1_casselberry-fern-hibbard.
Click to View (Movie, Podcast, or Website)
<a href="https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka2/files/original/07e6bec83a190e1b586ee004f7edcbdd.mp3" target="_blank">Oral History of Leonard Casselberry and Jane Casselberry</a>
Transcript
<p><strong>Motta<br /></strong>All right. It is May 30, 2012, and I am speaking to Mr. Leonard Casselberry and Mrs. Jane Casselberry at the Museum of Seminole County History. To start off, Mr. Casselberry, can you tell me a little about where you were born and your childhood?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, I was born in Chicago[, Illinois]. I fit in a shoebox when I came down here, and I grew up and went to school in Winter Park.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So you just moved down here when you were one or two?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes, yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So you went through high school in Winter Park High School?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>I went to military school two years.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Bolles</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Bolles Military School in Jacksonville.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Jacksonville.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>And went in the Navy.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So did you not spend much of your childhood in the Central Florida area, or…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Oh, yes. Yes, went to school in Winter Park, and back out in Casselberry, when I was working out there, following my dad around a little bit. It’s what you usually do [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So how long did you stay? You went through high school here, or just—when did you go to military school?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Junior, senior year.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay. Was there any particular reason you went there, or...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, it was just coming up on the war [World War II], and dad sent us for a little military training or something.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So how old were you when the war broke out?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Eighteen or something.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Seventeen, I think.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Seventeen.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Seventeen? So you didn’t serve? You were a little too young then?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Couldn’t get in, then.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah. No, no problem there.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So do you have any memories of—I mean, how was it, being the son of somebody who was starting his own town?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Of course, we—Dad<a title="">[1]</a> was in the fern business out here, and occasionally I could ride from Winter Park, where I went to school at. We lived on Lake Maitland in Winter Park, and I’d ride with Dad coming out here. From Via Tuscany, and then come out on…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Lake Howell Road.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Lake Howell Road, and turn left and come back out this way.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I imagine that trip was different then, much different-looking.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes, came by the turkey farm, and came on out through the orange groves, on out to Casselberry.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>It wasn’t Casselberry in charter until 1940. His dad came in 1926, to work with—what’d they call it, Fern Park Estates? Where they would try to have like an artist colony, and people to come down, and they would have a little piece of fernery, and some orange, piece of orange groves. Maybe they’d have a little income with their house, and they could retire here or come in the winter, and…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And that was with Mr. Burnett?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yes, he was hired to sell real estate, and to—and Mr. Burnett had a fernery, and Mr. Casselberry started his own fernery, and of course there was a lot of tension between the two.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah, I’d imagine. Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And you went to Winter Park High School, correct—s well?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>I did. I graduated from Winter Park High.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And that’s where you two met?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So did either of you do any work with the ferns or azaleas or anything? Like, were you actually…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>He did as a kid, in the winter, when they called everybody in due to the danger of freezing.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Any stories there?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, you know, are you familiar with a fern shed, and you see the pots and so on? But what’s the temperature on there? And the temperature indicates it’s going to be down close to freezing. We’d call the hands in, so to speak, and watch the temperature, and then Dad had thermometers stuck in the different areas around the fernery, so we could check the different areas, and when the temperature goes down in one part of it, they notify, send somebody out to get the hands, ‘cause most of them didn’t live in Casselberry. They lived over in Altamonte [Springs], and they’d send the truck around, get the fellows to come in that were gonna be there, and one of the ladies would come in, do a little cooking for us. We’d watch, read the thermometers, and when the temperature goes down close to 30-something, we’d pass the word along. The men would come on in, and they’d get their—some of them would have—Dad used to issue boots, and…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>How did they light the smudge pots?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>They’d go around with—light the flare or a little torchlight that they could light, and they’d tip them down and spill some of the diesel and gas mixture into the pot to get it started.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Into the soil?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>In the pot. Light up, take a little while, ‘cause it was fuel oil and not gasoline. It’d explode or something. So.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So that’s how they kept the ferns warm?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes—well, they’d light it. And, I was reading—Paul Bates was one of those foremen there, and he’d go in and light the north, and the west, or sometimes the east side, first. A row along the fence. Well, the heat inside slat roofs like that, keeps some of the heat underneath. But it’d let the sunlight in the daytime, but when it got cold, it’d keep some of the heat in it. When the temperature got down to 32 [degrees Fahrenheit], they’d light up the side that the breeze was blowing on, and that would go through the fernery and would still keep it above freezing, until it got lower at other parts and they’d light other pots. Sometimes they’d have to light them all—before morning, ‘cause the cold temperature here about seven o’clock or after. It was quite interesting, and we’d get around the heaters, and of course we’d have to continue reading, and if the temperature drops down, or comes back up, we’d put some of them out, or didn’t light them all. When the time comes to shut them down, they’d go by and snuff them out. Then we’d have to fuel them, and Dad got the Atlantic Coast Line Railway[sic] to put a side track on up there where Casselberry’s siding, inside where our railroad station is, and how it got started.<br /><br />Got a siding there. They’d come in, drop a tanker there, and we’d pump it out of there, and some of it would be there, then we’d pump it from there, part of it, out to a tank out by one part of the fernery, and another part to another part. Then they also had another pump. It would feed the line. We had line running from the tank on out the fernery. I don’t know if it shows it in this photograph or not, of a—run about a two-inch line, and then drops down to smaller, and then we had the faucet to fill at the end of each row where the pots were going down through, like in a row, and fasten the oil hose there, close the valve, of course, and then, move to the next one and fill the next row of pots that way.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Well, there’s a lot—there’s a lot you don’t think about, that goes into that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yeah, they dragged in the oil, you know, like a sprinkler line or hose line down there, and it has a valve on the hose, so you’ll stick it inside the pot and watch until it gets full, turn it off and go to the next pot, does the same thing, in a row, and then as far as they can reach, and then go over to the next one and go back down, to fill them so they’d be ready for the next day.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, tell him about how they’d cut the fern <em>asparagus plumosus</em> and how they sorted it and everything.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, <em>asparagus plumosus</em> used to—you’d refer to it as that ferns you’d see in the front of the banquet or someplace like that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>The center of the table.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>The center of the table. Sometime you get a flake of it in your butter or something—like that, butter patty?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>It’s a lacy fern, and it usually lays flat. When it grows, as you call it <em>asparagus plumosus</em>, it comes up just like a shoot of asparagus, and comes on out and sticks way up in a room like this and finally feathers out up there like that, and turned—of course, it’s not always green. It’s yellow and gets green when—it gets dark green—when you grip it off to bring in the packinghouse, and in the packinghouse, they’ll cut them and bring them in in bunches, big bunches like this—field hands— ‘cause they’ll catch all different kinds when they’re clipping them, just trying to clip ripe ones, or good ones, so to speak, and then we they come in—and then the girls will grade them, and they’ll grade them, and some of them are long, and some of them are medium, and some will be shorts.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And get rid of the…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>The rest of them.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>The rejects.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, yeah. Go out, and then, they will be more or less laid flat on each other, like this, with a ball, bag of moss, like, on the end of it, with a—they’re tied together.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>And it would have been in a tank of water.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Ball of paper around it, and then they would be put in a tank to preserve them, like when you put flowers in a jar to keep them.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Were they shipped out like that?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>They would just sit down on slats in shallow tanks, like this, in rows, and then they would go in, pick them out, and go to pack them. Well, they were taken out of there, and dipped in icy water, and break up ice, put it in a tank, about so square and that deep. They’d dip them in so they’d get wet all the way through. Then they’d throw them on the rack and let them drain out, and then they’d put them in thin wood pack…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Crates.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Crates, like food crates, like…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Like fruit crates?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Similar to that, and they would line the box with newspapers. We used to open up newspapers, get them flat like this, and then we’d roll them and take them and sell them to Barnett or Casselberry who needs them, buys them, pays them so much a pound for them. So many cents a pound for them. The newspapers all flat, and they’d take four, five, six of them to line the box, put down the end, the side, and the side like this, and some in the bottom. They’d put a few bunches of fern in there like this, and then they’d have a chunk ice, and wrap it in newspaper, several layers, depending upon the size of the box for shipping, and you’d be put it in the middle. They’d put some more fern around it like that, close newspapers around it like that, and close the crate like that. Then you gotta—like an ice box, ice in the middle, wrapped up in paper, and the fern’s the insulation, and outside’s the insulation’s newspapers, and they’d take it to the railway express, and they’d load it on the train.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta </strong>I never realized how much ice was involved with ferns.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard </strong>Yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane </strong>And the—these ferns were shipped directly to the florist, and they could be packed to order if they wanted so many shorts or longs.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And did you ship just to around the Florida area, or nationally?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Nationally.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>All the states and Canada.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, yeah?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>At one time, it was the largest fern business in the world.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And that kind of tapered off after the [World] War [II]?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, during the war, of course, that was not a priority, to ship ferns. There were war materials. Also, a lot of the men were called to war, and didn’t have people to work.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So the women were mostly working in the…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>So that’s when Mr. Casselberry was looking for something to help the war effort that would involve something that the women would be good at, and they said women can sew, you know. So that’s when they started making the bandoliers for the Army.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>And parachutes for fragmentation bombs?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>That came later.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And your father—did he own the factories that made those, or...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes, he converted some of the buildings where the fertilizer mixing—where we mixed the fertilizer for a while, and we quit doing that and used that building on the railroad…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>To make bandoliers.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>To make bandoliers on it.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>But for the parachutes, we had to have a special building, and of course getting any priority to build anything was frankly impossible back then.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Couldn’t build, even with the parts that you couldn’t buy building material, to build houses or anything like that, ‘cause everything was going to the war.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>But he got the permission ‘cause they needed this product, and it went up in, what, how many days? A month or two months, and they said it was like a miracle building, you know. So that’s where they were making the bomb chutes to be used…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Do you…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Do you wanna tell what they—how they—why they needed them?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, they needed them for fragmentation bombs. The ones they dropped bombs on, they had to fly low to drop down. But when you drop a bomb, it follows along underneath your plane. So they wanted a parachute for the backup to slow the—so the pilot could get out, you know?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Lost a lot of planes that way!</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>So they came up with the idea of putting a parachute on the bomb so it would slow it down and let the crew get away.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I’ve always seen the parachutes on the bomb, and I never thought of that. Yeah, that’s—could I—I’d like to back up a little bit. When you two met in high school, did you know who he was? I mean, did you know, like, who his father was?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, we were probably in tenth grade, and we would have shared some classes, study hall.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So everybody knew who his father was and everything at that time?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, not really much. But he had a nice convertible—owned by his dad—that he could come to school in. [<em>laughs</em>]</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>What kind of convertible?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Ford.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>This was a Ford Club Coupe convertible, with the top down.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh [<em>laughs</em>]. That’s a nice Florida car.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yeah, she wanted a ride home, but she didn’t tell me that ‘til later.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>] Well, looks like things worked out well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes, very well.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yes, and he lived on one side of Lake Maitland, and I lived on the other, and he would come see me in his mother’s sailboat.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So that was in Winter Park, not Maitland, you lived in?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>That was Winter Park, Lake Maitland.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay. So, I mean, [<em>laughs</em>] what do you—I’d love to get your opinion on what you think of how the city’s [Casselberry] progressed. When you look at it today, what do you think? I mean, what comes to your mind?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, we remember when we were incorporated, but also remember when we didn’t have so many families there.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Back to about the paper that they wrapped the ice in, that was a good way—later, after the war, when we had children, that’s how they made their money to go to the movies or whatever. We’d take newspapers, and roll them, and sell them to the fernery.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, yeah? So people would just collect newspapers and sell them?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yeah, you’d collect your newspapers, leftover newspapers.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Stack them up and roll them.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Recycling, so to speak.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Do you remember how much you got for like a bundle, or—like, how much…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /> </strong>Not much, but it was a lot then.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta <br /></strong>Yeah, few cents here and there. Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, get a couple of rolls, and you made a movie ticket.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>That’s not bad.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>And the ferns were shipped on railway express, back then, ‘cause they didn’t have the airplanes and things, and one of the first times we ever sent a shipment out on air, we went up to Ocala, and there was just like a cargo plane, maybe like a [Douglas] DC-3.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So there wasn’t an airport near Sanford, then?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, I don’t know. Maybe that was the nearest one that was shipping agricultural things.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So do you remember—I read that your father got into azaleas—like starting to grow azaleas. Is that correct?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes, back…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Earlier he was into gladiolas.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>They grew out gladiolas from the bulbs. And—I gave Kim [Nelson] a picture, and the Belgian azaleas were beautiful. Up ‘til then, you know, just had the plain azaleas. But we had—with the Belgian azaleas, there were so many different varieties, and they were ruffled, [inaudible], different colors and combination of colors, and he was in business with a man called Jules Cole…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Jules Cole.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>That knew about azaleas. That’s how they got introduced.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>But it was mostly just ferns. That was the main product?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>The Belgian azaleas, they set up as a couple acres or something like that for him, and developed them. Dad sold them out on the highway, and would scatter them around through town.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>There was an area that had, like the bay trees and oak trees and things. It was like north of where the [Casselberry] City Hall is now. It’s this plain, but back then it was just thick woods.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Near Lake Concord, or...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>And he had, like…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>South of Lake Concord.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Okay.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Like a faux Cypress Gardens. He had girls in antebellum skirts and outfits, showing people around the azaleas.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, yeah? Were there like refreshments and things there?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>No, it wasn’t that. But it was just a…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Just a…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Something that slows traffic down.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So you mentioned going by orange groves. Your father wasn’t in that business at all? Orange…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>No, we had a couple places where we started some going. Tally Hattaway and I got a bunch of seedlings up, but we didn’t follow through with much of them.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>They were, like, sour, and they had this idea of planting them in the ferneries to add a shade. I guess it was expensive to replace the slats, and they planted these trees—orange trees—that got big, to provide shade, and that was the area where you find Target now.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>By the Evergreen Cemetery?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>It was all ferneries, and it had those orange trees growing in there. The sour oranges.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So the orange trees were pretty much abandoned then, ‘cause of the sour?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yeah, well, they liked the oak trees, and the competition we had…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Oak trees, yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Was from DeLand ferneries, and they’d grow theirs out in the woods, under the oak trees.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Out in Volusia [County].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So that was your father’s competition, the DeLand growers?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Some of it was there.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>We had local competition.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yeah, and then, so, we started buying oak trees. Dad put some of them on every lot that he was developing, and then we had planted some of them in ferneries, and so we had quite a few that were trees, but we didn’t replace the slats much again, and just let them grow under the trees. We could get them that way.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, we moved to Casselberry after he got out of the Navy, after World War II, and he had a piece of fernery that he’d inherited, from an aunt or something?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Aunt May had left it to my brother and I, a couple acres of fernery, were on these development deals where they could have a house on it and so on, and Dad just leased those, so I said, “Well, can I lease those?” And Dad said, “Yeah, let me lease them.” So I’d be responsible for them, and I’d see about getting the fertilizer, mowing them, taking care of them. Had a crew working, just like big crews too. Yeah. Of course, in most cases they’re cutting fern or something like that, but they also had crews that they’d weed when they weren’t cutting. They’d go back to weeding or something else.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So that looks like a pretty big fernery. Was that about average size, or was this...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>No, that’s just one acre or so. There’d be several of those put together.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>And he got, worked up all these florist customers, and we went through the Midwest, visiting and trying to get business.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So was that your primary business after you got out of the Navy?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Probably for a little while. But Dad wanted us to go to the conventions, and we’d have to wear white.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah, he always wore a white Palm Beach suit, or white with white jodhpurs or something, with a spray of fern on his lapel, and so when we were going with him to Chicago, to the convention, we had to have the white suits, too. With the fern.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And you didn’t care for those?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Oh, they were fine, except I got one and he said, “No, that wouldn’t do it.” It had to be like the Palm Beach kind of suit.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Wrong kind of fern?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>So—went back and got some more—another outfit.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So you’ve lived in Casselberry since then? You haven’t lived anywhere else, moved anywhere?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Not since then.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, we lived at the horse track for several years.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>At the horse track?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yes, see, soon after we moved to Casselberry, Mr. Casselberry acquired the Seminole Driving Park, and that was what, at the time, a winter training track for harness horses, and it was built about 1925, something like that, and then at time there was thoroughbred racing and different things. So here we were. We had no experience in this at all, and they’re a very closed community—the horsemen. But, so then he had to get the property ready, the barns fixed up and tack rooms, and came with it like a grandstand and a clubhouse. Well, his dad wanted him to run the clubhouse like an American plan hotel. So, as well as maintaining the track and everything, we had to go in the hotel business.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And that was...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>And he was his early twenties, with—had to learn, like, experience…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>As you’re going along?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah, and he had to go up north to the horse sales to placate the horsemen that might have been upset about something that happened before we got it, and talk them into coming back, and then he would fix up the barns and do this and that. So.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Of course, we didn’t know that when Dad—it’s adjacent to his property, and Dad bought it and he’d acquired some additional property to be able to develop part of. Says, “You can take care of the horses or I can.” So we were in there and trying to take care of it. When they sold it is when the horsemen had agreed with Ben White Raceway, which hadn’t started yet. They said Orlando told them, “We’ll build this half-mile track in Orlando if you’ll come down here, leave Seminole [County].” So they agreed to do that.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, we figured, at least we’ve got this guy Frank that’s a track man that would know what to do and knows the horsemen, and then he announces that he’s been hired to go to Ben White [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So they just stole it all away from...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Well, they stayed just a little bit. We had some help getting up until they had to move to over there, on how to handle—we bought a jeep to drag the track with. Had a water wagon.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>A clay track. Dirt track.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And was this all—were all these jobs—you were writing at the time?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>I was not writing—well, I had been writing just local news for the area newspapers.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Like the Sanford newspaper?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>But not full-time. So, his dad advertised it with an organization called “Ask Mr. Foster”, where you could—they send people to you, a travel service, you know, and so we were getting—here we were, and we had people, ninety-year-old women and eighty-year-old men, and then we had young families looking for excitement, and women looking for men. Whatever, you know [<em>laughs</em>]. Had all this variety, plus we had the horsemen to feed, and the grooms you’d have to feed like at five in the morning, before they went out to work the horses, and we’d have—they would be kind of rough, and would come and get drunk or something, and then we’d have these nice people [<em>laughs</em>] Oh, it was interesting.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Sounds interesting. So did you have any other jobs after that, or...</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, in the summertime, we didn’t have the horses. About May, they would go up to the races, and sometimes you would have car races back then, before they had the Daytona…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>[Daytona] 500?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>They would have stock car races on that track.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>And where was this located, the track located? In the…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>You know where Seminola Boulevard is?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>The same, where the…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Where they’re building apartments there now.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, the big…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>At the end of Seminola Boulevard.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, yeah, the big field area.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah, all of that was our track property.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>When did that go away, the track?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>We had a one-mile track. After Mr. Casselberry sold his white elephant. He—it was various kinds of horse races with pari-mutuel betting, and then it was dog races. I mean, we had like a dog track on each end of Seminola.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So the track went away in the <em>‘</em>70s or so, or, around then?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Well, a few years back, they closed down the dog track, and then they sold it to this developer. Well, actually, they sold it to Northland Church, and then Northland decided to expand on their present property on Dog Track [Road], and they sold it to the developer, and they’re still building and building, building.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, wow. Well, learn something new every day.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>So, your opinion on today’s Casselberry?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Is it what?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Do you like it? Do you enjoy what the city is like now?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Oh, yes. Of course, Dad had a lot of fun while it was happening.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah. I know it was a lot different.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>He was working and sweating on a lot of it, some of it.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>You think he would be proud of what it has become?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Oh, yes.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>I think so. Right now, it’s in kind of flux in major areas, business areas, because of those fly-overs.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah, I actually live just about a half-mile from one of those—the construction site. So, yeah.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yeah, they built—you know, they bought up property. But it’s just sitting there, and the business had to move, or close, or something. But we like the parks, what they’re doing with the parks. They’re beautiful, and people are using them.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Well, let’s see if we have any…</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>You asked what he did. He’s done a little bit of everything, but he worked for Casselberry Utilities many years. His father developed the sewer system that built the sewer plant and everything. That was the first sewer plant in Seminole County that really treated the sewage.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Sanford had one. They just chewed it a little bit and dumped it in a lake.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Dumped it in Lake Monroe.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>[<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Did your father own the utility company, or was that city by then?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>He owned it.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>He owned it, and eventually it was sold to the city, and he continued to work for the city.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>For a short time.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>For a time.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Seven years. Not enough to get a retirement out of it.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>And then after he retired, he went to work for the City of Winter Park Utilities, ‘til he was up in mid-seventies.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, impressive.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>That’s a while back.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>Yes, 87 now.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, wow. Congratulations. Working into your mid-seventies, that’s admirable.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Jane<br /></strong>A lot of people can be doing that now [<em>laughs</em>].</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Yeah, it’s admirable, though. Was there anything else you would like to discuss that we haven’t already? Any anecdotes or anything?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Any more questions you have?</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>I think we covered a lot there.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Leonard<br /></strong>Yes, more than you want, probably.</p>
<p class="Body"><strong>Motta<br /></strong>Oh, no, this is great for me. All right. Well, thank you very much.</p>
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<p><a title="">[1]</a> Hibbard Casselberry.</p>
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Altamonte Springs
Ask Mr. Foster
asparagus plumosus
azaleas
bandoliers
Belgian azaleas
Ben White Raceway
Bolles School
bomb chutes
Burnett
car racing
Casselberry
Casselberry Utilities
Chicago, Illinois
City of Winter Park Utilities
Cole, Julius
Cypress Gardens
Daniel Motta
Daytona 500
DeLand
dog racing
Dog Track Road
Douglas DC-3
Evergreen Cemetery
Fern Park Estates
ferneries
fernery
ferns
fertilizer mixing
fertilizers
Ford Club Coupe convertible
fragmentation bombs
gladiolas
Hattaway, Tally
Hibbard Casselberry
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Jacksonville
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