My father died 8 years ago today, in Titusville Florida. When I was in High School my parents rented a condo in Titusville a couple of winters, then bought a house. They retired six years after they bought the house and moved to Florida. I lived there for a couple of years after high school, then moved to Orlando.
Titusville is across the Indian River, a wide intercoastal waterway, from the barrier islands that the Kennedy Space Center is on. The city had experienced booming growth with the space program, and total bust when the Apollo program ended, NASA ended the employment of 10,000 people one Friday afternoon. The city leaders, where wary of any growth of development for decades after that fateful Friday.
After I moved to DC, I would drive down at holiday time, and fly down at least one other time each year. The year my parents died, I flew down 11 times in 10 months. (My parents died five-months apart, at home, with incredible care by my dear sister and Hospice.)
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| I was thrilled when we started spending winters in Titusville, there were two shopping malls between home and school. Miracle City Mall had two major anchor stores and probably 40 shops in-between. I stopped almost every afternoon to walk through the mall and visit my friends in the camera and coin stores. Sadly, as this photo shows, it was demolished a few years ago. |
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I spent a night sleeping outside in Titusville in the early 70s. We had a cookout of fresh shrimp we bought from a guy who was shrimping right across the road. And our view that night was across the water to the launch site. I could probably find the spot again. A very cool night and probably illegal.
ReplyDeleteThe real party sites were a string of tiny islands in the river, I never went to them (I didn't have a boat.)
DeleteGrowing old in Titusville or anywhere else for that matter is not for the faint-hearted. The city is the only place in the world where the endangered Dicerandra thinicola, or "Titusville mint" grows.
ReplyDeleteIf we are lucky, we will all grow old someplace. I had never heard of Titusville Mint.
DeleteMemories of what was there, along with photos, are so important. But they can come with sadness too.
ReplyDeleteHe had a good and long life, and a good death, peaceful - at home - with only a few days of being incapacitated.
DeleteSome cool pictures!!! What was the one toward the end? Was it a Mantee in the water?
ReplyDeleteA Manatee tail, in the inlet just north of the space center.
DeleteA day for memories and reflections.
ReplyDeleteI try to remember, without dwelling.
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