Everyone has great memories of old Florida. This is me in Anna Maria Island, ca. 1980.
I seriously love getting mail like this. It makes me happy to know my book can evoke happy memories in my readers.
My neighbor gave me a copy of ‘Backroads’ because he knew I was an old Florida boy. I thought it sounded interesting, then I read the Table of Content and got excited and then I read the Preface and you had me. I have only read the SR 50 chapter but that took me back to the many times I traveled that road to Playalinda (which, at 18, I thought was way cooler than New Smyrna or Cocoa).
“I always chose the back roads to travel Florida. I took 441 to 27 to 98 to get back and forth to FSU. And childhood trips to Sanibel Island, before the interstate, are embedded in my head not only because they were long and rough on a child (no AC in those days). Sunday trips to new Smyrna from Winter Park through Sanford and across the rickety bridge over the St. Johns near Mims were memorable. More recently, for old times sake, I drove my mother from her Sarasota condo to Winter Haven and Haines City to find Gramma’s and Uncle Lee’s houses and returned via Arcadia. The sights and smells (boiled peanuts) are all still there. My wife from Arizona had never seen such sights.
“I could go on. Thanks for writing this book. It’s good to find someone else who appreciates the real Florida.” —Mark M., Austin, TX
