I chose to call my blog "Lacoochee Kid." Lacoochee happens to be the town in Florida where I was born 64 years ago. Yes, I am a native Floridian. That may not seem remarkable to anyone, but after the "northern invasion" to Florida, a true Florida native is hard to find. I'm quite proud of that fact, and when I meet someone new, I usually mention that I was born in Florida. The comment often is "I've never met a real Florida native before."
Lacoochee is located in Pasco county, a few miles northeast of Tampa. In its heyday, there was a cypress lumbermill there. My father was from Trilby another thriving metropolis close by. My mother moved to Lacoochee to live with her sister. She and my father met and married in 1933. My father worked at the lumber mill, and my mother ran the hotel.
Lacoochee was a company town. The Cummer Lumber Company operated a commissary, had a hotel, and provided housing for its employees. It really was a thriving community. The lumber mill closed in the 50's, and a lot of the people moved to Dade City.
I was born in 1941, in September, just before the United States entered the war in December. We left Lacoochee right before I turned four, but I have faint memories of my life there. I had two little friends, who along with me, were out to kill those ****. Sorry, I guess I have to be politically correct here. I have pictures of us with our wooden rifles.
My daddy volunteered to serve his country, but he was classified 4-F, so he was not able to go. However, in the lumber mill, because of the number of men serving overseas, German prisoners of war were brought over to work. Part of my daddy's job was to guard these prisoners. He became friends with one of them. This particular man had a little boy who was the same age as me. Somewhere among old photos, there is a picture of this little boy.
One other thing about Lacoochee that I remember is the wooden sidewalks. Riding a tricycle over those boards was not the easiest thing...
Enough for one day....more about Lacoochee at another time.
2 comments:
Wow, a lot of those things are things I never knew! Do you have any more information about your father's friendship with the German? Did that change his or your perspective on the war at all?
David,
That's all I know. I remember Mother saying that the German had better chocolate than the Americans were able to get.
I'm sure my father realized that this man was doing what he believed in, just as the GI's were doing.
I have come across a website that has reference to prisoner of war camps in that area of Florida, but I haven't looked any of it up. Sometime when you're here, we'll go to Dade City, and you can talk some to Lorise. Or, maybe we could find some of the men who fought in the war. They are a dying breed, unfortunately.
Post a Comment