Thursday Morning in Florida

Thursday was an interesting combination of frustration and relaxation. In the morning I took the children to the Old Fort Lauderdale Museum.

I had the poor fortune of selecting a day when the lady who operates it had a family situation so it was to be closed except for the school field trip that began before we arrived. Thankfully, the kind ladies at the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society next door let us go in and take the self-guided tour. The museum was small and half of it was dedicated to Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a champion of the Everglades and author of The Everglades: River of Grass.

The other half was dedicated to Ft. Lauderdale history. It was interesting to learn that the city is named for a man, Lauderdale, who built a fortification along the New River for Tennessee Volunteers in Second Seminole War. I also found it humorous to read that Ohioans fleeing to Florida is a phenomenon much older than I thought. In 1895 Frank Stranahan, an Ohioan, opened Stranahan's Trading Post at the New River ferry crossing on the one and only rock road between Lantana and Lemon City in north Miami.

The museum also had before and after exhibits about a September 1926 hurricane. The area plunged into economic depression three years ahead of the rest of the nation, and recovery did not come until after World War II.

Spring Break! Clarion call of college students making a pilgrimage south was not always the hedonistic flesh fest we see on the news these days. In the 1920's Fort Lauderdale had a regulation- size ocean fed pool. The site hosted the Annual College Swim Forum, which over the decades has grown (ahem. Perhaps that should be "decended") into the Spring Break phenomenon.

The children were amused by the man's bathing suit and woman's bathing dress.