Before the Sun comes up

Ok. So if you remember back I had a funny post I called before the hot water runs out. It was an attempt at me explaining to you how my brain that never turns off and goes off on strange jaunts.

Well tonight or this morning. It is 4:34 in the morning. Dark and cold. I woke up had to go to the bathroom and needed a drink of water. I laid back down an hour ago and it started. Just a little thought that today I am going to go to the Plumb House with my nephew. He really likes history and is my best hope at being the keeper of the family things that I am going to pass all these family things on to. For those of you that don't know the Plumb House is where the Clearwater Historical Society is housed. It is an old wood frame house with a wrap around porch the kind that would have been here 100 years ago when Clearwater wasn't even a dot on the map. The Plumb House was moved to it's present location in 1983 (had to look it up). I was in high school then. I am going to pause here and regroup but this year in Clearwater's 100 year celebration I am going to do a post on the Plumb House.

See I have already digressed from my original thoughts. Stay focused Jeanne if you want to go back to sleep before the sun comes up. So as I thought about the Plumb House it made me think that I love that the Historical Society is going to start using South Ward Elementary School along with the local Genealogy Society. I love this because so much of our history in this area is torn down and turned into condos or some high rise hotel that I can not afford to stay in. All of which is ironic to me because the reason people originally came here was the sun, the sand or the water. You can't beat the weather here. Well not this week's weather but most of the time, this time of year the weather is mild and the mosquito's have taken a break from biting us and we can all get out and enjoy the sun and the sand and the water.

Which all that makes me think of North Ward Elementary School. My Alma mater. The only elementary school in the area that had a alumni association. Well just like South Ward has been sitting empty for the last few years and for fear of the way things go around here I worry that it will to fall to the ground in the name of progress. Oh I have to stop for a second. The Belleview Biltmore Hotel (the largest all wood structure of it's time). Another local landmark, doing what. Yes. Sitting empty waiting for someone to tear it down and build condo's. Please. I am never going back to sleep. Another night another post.

So back to North Ward. I have an idea and tonight it will not give way to sleep. I feel like this is one of those idea's that I cannot let go of. Drum roll please... So my great idea. The North Ward Art Center. See Clearwater wants to be quaint like Dunedin but can not find a way to bring business to downtown. Why not well Scientology of course. It is the first thing that comes to any one's mind when they think of downtown Clearwater. Now developers with lofty ideas have done great things like torn down the old Calvary Baptist Church and oh yeah, built a condo. Can't say how tall it is but it is big and I remember driving across the bridge coming home from the beach and seeing that one light on. Yeah that was the one guy living in this huge building for the sake of progress. That one guy that was going to bring business back to downtown. Well there was a little real estate bust but come on people the price can only go so high before reality sets in and there are no more people that can afford 1 million dollar view. See again I have gotten off course.

So The North Ward Art Center. In my vision it is a place where people can rent and use the classroom's as art studio space. The auditorium can be a meeting space or a place for a art class. Where the cafeteria can become a a cafe with a few tables out of the front lawn. A front lawn that was a patch of sand when I went there. White sand with shells. My mom was the president of the PTA that found a way to put grass in. She also brought back the May Pole dance and got some of the alumni interested in coming back and sharing their history with the kids. A few of my favorite stories from some of the old timers was that there were kids that used to come to school without shoes and others that came by boat from the beach. Wow that way beats the bus that I rode. But if I had been in a boat on the way to school well I can definitely see days that are as I like to call them "Nice Days" (days just too good for work or school). Days that well as I have always said if I were Queen or Governor or at this point Mayor. I would declare those few days a year like a snow day for those northerners to be "Nice Days". If you live here you know the ones. They fall on a Monday or a Wednesday cause that is the way the weather works. And the weather is so nice that it is just not right to have to go inside and work. A day that you can go out and do anything which is better than being inside. I digress again. I am never going back to bed.

Speaking of the front lawn maybe a Tai Chi class on Saturday morning or Yoga in the evening. Maybe the old library could become an art library and the new building could be a darkroom and photo studio. The front class that has big window's I see as a dance class or music class something that can be enjoyed and seen as people go by. A place that people want to go in a place people have been moving away from. A place that shows the historic beauty of the area. I can remember in my class upstairs that we could open the big windows in the fall and spring and the breeze blew in off the bay, oh it had to because there was no air condition. And in the winter we were warmed by radiators. Hardwood floors that echoed footsteps of students for nearly 90 years. That should again echo footsteps of  people. Students could come on a field trip and learn history and art and natural beauty all in one space. They could learn that sometimes it is better to preserve and protect what is old than it is to tear it down.

I paused my writing of this post so I could searched to see what year it was the last time I was there. I found an article written in August of 2009 in the St. Pete Times. that said the school closed on June 2nd 2009. So that was it. I was there that day. I had to go. It was one of those things that my mind would not let go. So I went I walked the halls I took some pictures. I held the hand rail of the banister on the stairs that 1000's of other kids held on their first or their last and everyday in between on the way to their class. I walked across the metal bridge that connected the two sides of the upstairs classes together. The bridge that kids would stomp across to hear their own foot steps.  If you stand there now I am sure you can still hear those footsteps echo across that bridge. Back to a time when the halls were filled with kids and laughter. Back to a time where Miss Davis would not threaten to call your parents if you were a neighborhood kid misbehaving but she would call your Grandmother. A place where Mrs. Delare was my teacher and Mrs. Bond taught music and Mr. Yanotovich taught band to 2 students. Yes me and one other person were the band class when I was there. The teacher's lounge area had white wicker furniture.  I went to 3 elementary schools because of zoning and moving to the beach but the other 2 were newer schools and built of concrete and had no wooden banister and no metal bridge yet bigger so still viable for school children. Don't get that.

I put a link to that article I looked at to see the year the school closed. Ironic because I had already written about the foot steps echoing the halls before I looked at it and I had already written about the view from my class and the banister in the hall before I saw that there are pictures of those very things. Those very things that need to be protected and saved and used. That banister was meant for you to grasp on your way to learn something new. I think it can be used again. I think these classroom's have been waiting for this idea. For this time. For this 100 year anniversary of the city and the school.

Goodnight
5:44AM Going to go back to bed now.

Sand Collar or Diamond Ring?

Sometimes I have the strangest thoughts and search something on the Internet and find the strangest things. One day just wondering what would come up I searched my maiden name on eBay. Just wondered if there was a picture of someone related or what would come up. The weirdest thing. I was expecting something from Ohio where my father is from with the family name or business on it. But instead I found a picture of my youngest sister. She and two other kids at craft contest had one a prize and this picture was run in the news paper. As soon as I saw the picture I knew it was her but kept thinking how weird that is. What are the odds. Well with me it seems to happen often. I think about something and then out of no where I see whatever I just said I never see this anymore.

This same thing happened one night years ago Brian and I were walking on the beach and I had just told him how we used to find the sand collars when we were kids and I had not seen one of them in years. We did not walk another 20 feet and there was one right in front of us. Brian's answer was why don't you think about how long it has been since you found a diamond ring or a pile of cash. This is my luck and fate at play. Rarely is cash going to be involved. Of course we have had times when paying the bills I have wondered how I was going to pay them all and then a check would come for a refund I forgot or an over payment I did not know I had made but for the most part it is just strange things.

So I have been thinking about some ideas to write children's history books. Just short stories about people or places that we have been. I have thought about telling them from different perspectives and I have been working on this idea of instead of telling the story from a child's point of view or an adults to tell the story from a plant or tree's point of view. I have had idea's for a few different places and people but today I thought about a tree in Clearwater that has been there as long as I can remember and I knew there was a plaque in front of the tree so today I stopped next to Perkins on Gulf to Bay near US 19 and wanted to check out the tree and the plaque. So the tree I thought was an Oak is actually a Camphor tree. And even though the tree looks big as you drive by if you have ever noticed. It is even bigger when I was standing in front of it. I would say it was 20 or 30 ft around. The plaque just says that it is a Camphor tree and it is in appreciation for the people who saved it from the National Arbor Society and dated February 1975. Took a few pictures and came home.

Now today I was supposed to do just a few things clean the counter and the dining room table which are catch all. Basically throw out the trash on the table and put everything else away. Do some laundry and the dishes and make dinner. But no. First visited my dad. Then went to the store. Went by and checked out the tree and oh yeah. Came home and got online and decided to do some searching to see what else I could find out about this tree. So Googled Camphor tree in Clearwater and found a few articles about the tree I am speaking of. Very interesting. I now know the tree is about 125 years old and was planted about 1890 with 3 others on the property of William Frank Fields who I read cleared and built his family a home. The four trees were planted to shade the yard for his children to play. Not sure how big the trees were when he planted them but I am sure he would be quite surprised to see how big the lone survivor is.  So the strange part. Checked out a few other links but then one caught my eye. Clicked on it and realized it was a link to an eBay page. See how we tie back to the eBay thing at the beginning. Love it when everything ties together. I pull up a picture and it is a newspaper photograph from 1971 of the very same tree. I don't know about you but this is weird. I mean isn't it. I just don't know. So does this mean that I am just strange? Or am I to take it as a sign that I am to write these stories and yes this should be the first one. Or does it mean nothing at all?

This is where sometimes over analysing the situation can leave me to do nothing at all because when my mind never turns off sometimes I will over think a situation until I do not want to think about it anymore and let the book idea go. Or is it that I continue to think about it that it is a good idea and I should continue to do more research. So including my Clearwater tree I have 4  stories in the works. I even have a title in my head but someone else uses it as a name of a business so I guess I would have to look into that as well.

So not sure if today I found a sand collar or a diamond ring but I was not looking for either when it appeared.

Convictions

Like that title? Makes you wonder. Am I talking about a trial? Well in a way. I spoke to the Mayor of Clearwater this morning. He woke me, because I had left a message at his office last week. I said that I did not like the idea of selling the property City Hall is sitting on to the Marine Aquarium. He sees it as a move forward or that is what someone has told him to see. We have a 50 year old City Hall that is in disrepair and the Aquarium wants to purchase it. My first thought was but I did not say was I live in a house that is almost 60 years old and when something goes wrong I fix it. I can not afford and did not think the City could either afford to tear down a building and replace it because of some leaking faucets or broken floor tiles. At my house I would hire someone to fix it or figure out how to do it myself.

I offered that I felt the Harborview center was a more appropriate piece of property and that it could more easily draw people downtown. From Crest Lake where the sign points to downtown and used to say to the beach. Could  now direct people to the Winter exhibit. It is funny that the Mayor then countered with that City Hall is only a block from the Harborview Center and I thought and isn't it ironic that the way the City directs people to the Winter Exhibit is from Fort Harrison instead of using the large signs near Crest Lake or any other signage to direct people down Cleveland Street. That seems strange to me now. Do they not want downtown to succeed or do they not want people to see that it is not successful?


Sea Shell Motel


All of this reminds me of when I was young and my parents were active in the political circles. They would pass out pamphlets, go door to door and drive in caravans of people in support of one candidate or another. My mother was very outspoken when it came to tearing down the old Sea Shell Motel and building the Holiday Inn Surfside. The first tall building built on the North End of Clearwater Beach except for Mandalay Shores. If you don't know what buildings I am referring to. Now it is the Surfside Double Tree and 880 Mandaly that has been standing all my life. I know why it was a big deal. Letting one high rise lends room for another and then another and how many condos can the North End of Clearwater Beach hold. Well I am pretty sure that we have reached the limit of what will ever be lived in considering a good portion are not lived in. But somehow developers are like used car sales men. They can sell ice to Eskimos and a Condo to a bank every time. I used to think what difference does a hotel make or a old building being torn down. But I know now that when Calvary Baptist Church moved out to McMullen Booth and they built what oh yes, a condo building that is what, again empty instead of using it for the Library that was also in disrepair and needing to be replaced. Seeing a pattern. This is where my convictions come. I do not know what is wrong with preserving a beautiful old building that is in good shape. Pinellas County has reached it's saturation point and honestly does not need another condo unit.

I know that most people that live here have not lived here all their lives most probably did not go to school here but those of us that did see pride in saying the attended the Original CHS. Sorry to those other CHS graduates that lived in East Lake Woodlands and went to the New School that barley has 20 years of history under its belt. I liked that I went to a school that had teachers that had gone to school and had some of the same teachers I did. Some of these people I still know and have some of the same values that I do to preserve what is good in this community. Keep an old house as the Clearwater Historical Society.

So this conviction I have infuriates me when I think about what will be left for my nieces and nephews when they are grown. Will they believe that only new things are good and old things should just be thrown out or torn down. Or should they learn that keeping old things in good shape is a way in showing the value to what we have in this world and not everything or everyone is disposable.