We started the day at the Panhandle Pioneer Village in Blountstown. We trekked through the Panhandle Friday through Sunday. There’s a photo at our Genuine Florida blog of the location.

I took advantage of the deer busts that line the restaurant in The Ice House in Marianna.  We had dinner there with friends, Marti and Jeff Vickery. There’s also a 12 foot stuffed gator in the restaurant. Great seafood and view of the Chipola River below.

Today is Lucile Fair Day in Orlando! Lucile turns the big 100! With an exception of 2 months, Lucile has lived in Orlando, Florida her whole life.

Above is a portion of the card I drew and given to her this past Wednesday at a celebration for her. At the event, City Commishoner Robert Stewart presented Lucile with a proclamation declaring today ‘Lucile Fair Day’.

Over the years Lucile has painted cards for folks for holidays. I have a small gallery of a few of the cards from the past two years. That is  she was 97 and 98 when she painted these. I’ll add more to the gallery as I can.
Here’s the gallery:
http://robsmithjr.smugmug.com/lucilefair

We started off at the Orlando Remembered meeting where we celebrated Lucile Fair’s upcoming 100th birthday. Above is a photo of Peggy Jo Van den Berg handing a card I drew for Lucille’s birthday. Beside that Banning Radler signs the card. Amongat the guests that came is City Commisioner Robert Stewart. Here he is with Lucile below.

Sandra then went on to meet up with our friends the Singers. I went on to accomplish a number of chores and then an afternoon meeting with Kris Woodson at the Orlando Public Library and the owner of the 8 store Coliseum of Comics, Phil Boyle. We’re cooking up big plans on May 3rd. Moreto come soon!

I then went on to do an oral history with Terry Ivy, a fifth generation Florida native.

After that I met with Sandra at Harris Rosen’s new spot, The Shingle Creek Resort. We had dinner at ‘A Land Remembered’ , named after the book by Patrick Smith that I think should be mandatory reading for all Floridians. We had a  yummy dessert they serve at the restaurant, Key Lime Custard.

Below is a drawing of  the back of a person at the restaurant who gestured quite a bit. Beside that is a photo of the butter serve. We had to watch it’s bite.

This ia an outstanding book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It looks beautiful, the layout can’t be beat AND it’s a powerful story that gives a comprehensive look at the Florida attration Weeki Wachee, springs in Florida, the associated attractions, the fellow (Newt Perry) who started it all and mermaids!
This is a must-read for Floridians.

The book is also profusely illustrated with tons of photos that do an excellent job of giving a visual understanding of what is written. The photos are extremely well reproduced. I even like the fonts used.

A big part of this is the obvious love and care given to representing the Weeki Wachee attraction and Florida in general. A non-native Floridian would not be able to have written this book. The writers have such a firm grasp of our state and its tourism. It comes out in each page. The majority who write about Florida, fiction and non-fiction, don’t get it. There are the  writers who fall for the beach and flamingo fluff. Or the Disney stuff. There are those appeasing businesses (Disney, again) and the real estate market (Sidenote: That would include the authors of the Amendment about property taxes we Floirdians had better vote down January 29th for our own good No corporate welfare!). I truly hope the authors will endeavor upon more books about Floirda history. Maybe Silver Springs? Marineland? Please! I want to see the tale of Monkey Jungle!!!

A whole mess of family members gathered to celebrate my father’s 75th birthday in Bushnell, Florida. Bushnell is northeast of Tampa and where my uncle Charles lives. Charles and his wife Barbara hosted the party. Their son, Charles, Jr., and granddaughters Kim and  Lindsay were there. As were my Aunt Nickie and Uncle Connie from Tampa. Sandra’s father drove down with Sandra and I to join the festivities.  As for art for this entry there’s:1) the cake in the shape of ’75’ by Publix. 2) Whoever sculpted this marker at the Dade Battlefield historic site in Bushnell. Sandra and her father, my father, brother Jeff and myself went to the battlefield site and roamed where Major Francis Dade and his men were ambushed by indians in 1834 continuing the path to the start of the Seminole indian wars. The markers were placed for significant members of Dade’s crew who were killed. Here is Robert Smith, Sr., Jeff Smith, Sandra Friend Smith and her father Phillip Friend. They stand next to the monument of where Major Francis Dade fell. After this battle Dade’s name soon was given to the county that Miami is in. 3) Here is a very quick sketch of clothing worn by the Seminoles during the time of the wars in the 1800s. Drawn from a mannequin in the museum at the park.

I was at the Orlando Remembered meeting this morning. Here’s Santa Lucile Fair and her jolly elf, Jack Kazanzas.

My next stop was at Jim’s Barber Shop to have him fashion me one of his outstanding hair cuts.
	Next it was on to Orlando’s Veterans Administration nursing care facility to draw some of our mighty soldiers.Here’s Richard’s drawing. He’s 99 and once owned Longwood Nursery.

This morning someone I truly admired passed away.

Andy Serros was the heart and soul of a group I’ve been with since 1986, Orlando Remembered. The group gets displays placed in buildings of what used to be in Orlando back in about the 1950s. Andy was a founder of the group back in 1979 when the storied San Juan Hotel got prematurely demolished. He and Dan Acito and Bill Demetree came up with the idea of historic displays to be placed throughout Downtown Orlando to remind people of Orlando’s greatness. The group had chalked up many a display by the time then Orlando City Clerk, Grace Chewning, introduced me to the group that was meeting in the Orlando Mayor’s boardroom. It was clear from then on that Andy Serros, insurance executive (and self-proclaimed bottle washer), not only created the group but was leading the way.

Andy was amazing in his ability to know every project. He would know the various objects from various businesses or individuals that was to be part of a display.  He was quick to advise where to find artifacts or what to do if such an item souldn’t be found so that the project would keep moving. Andy hated a dormant project. A phrase I will never forget that he used alot, and I picked up from him, was to get something “off dead center”.

Besides Andy’s leadership abilities, I also admired his incredible good humor and bright outlook to life. I’m sure Andy got mad. In all these years I missed that. I saw him get testy and frustrated but never actually angry. More people should have his good nature.

Andy’s health had been deteriorating this past year. He was brought back to the hospital a week ago. His brother Robert reported that just before Andy died he gave Robert some advice reguarding Orlando Remembered matters.

I last saw Andy at the Orlando Remembered meeting in September. He had arrived in the parking lot when I did and we made our way to the meeting. He was moving in a way I had never seem. A bit of a shuffle. Clearly all was not right. He still was his humorous self. I now treasure that last handful of time I got to experience with the great and always to be missed Andy Serros.

Just finished ‘Floridian of the Century: The Courage of Governor LeRoy Collins’. I really looked forward to this book that came out earlier this year. This is the first real book about who is considered our best Governor. I especially liked that Martin Dyckman is the author. He was a cracker jack columnist for the St. Petersburg Times for decades. I was certain this book would be excellent. I was wrong.

I’d love to write this was just a project lacking a good editor. The book is just poorly written. Everything from run-on sentences to a last name with no reference as to what the first name is or who the person is. Making it all worse is Dyckman writing of the complex segregation issue. With the style in which this book was written it’s pretty tough to follow the history.

There are parts that are coherent. Those are great to read. Especially when Dyckman quotes others.

Helping me get through the book is my knowledge of Florida history. Often when things didn’t make sense, I could rely on my memory. Others not knowing our state’s history will probably find it extremely difficult to finish the book.

Dyckman has proven himself a great writer with his columns. I sure hope someday he’ll write a book that reflects those.

Sandra’s been hiking around Lake Okeechobee as part of the annual nine day ‘Big O’ hike. All of the hikers gather for Thanksgiving dinner at the 1938 Clewiston Inn in Clewiston. Click here to learn more about this hotel in the middle of sugar country.

I picked up my father and we headed down to join Sandra and the Thanksgiving feast with the hikers in the Clewiston Inn restaurant. The room was full with just under a hundred folks. The food was terrific.

We stayed overnight at the Inn and the next morning had a wonderful breakfast in the Inn’s restaurant. On the left is a drawing of part of the fireplace that is in the restaurant.

After years of many working hard to bring back the Belleview Biltmore in Belleair, success was seen this past Summer when the Legg/Mason Investment Group bought the hotel. It was furthered today when plans were unveiled for the restoring of the largest occupied wooden structure in the world. The photo above shows the principles of the presentation: Joseph Penner of Legg/Mason, John Hildreth of the National Trust for Histroic Preservation’s Southern office and Governor Charlie Crist.

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Here’s a waiter that was serving various snacks at the presentation.
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That evening there was a more formal presentation of the plans at the Biltmore in the Tiffany Room by the architects with lots of food and drink. I made the mistake of offering to entertain by drawing caricatures and drew non-stop from before the presentation until I was the last one in the room hours later. Oops!

Below is Fritz and his subdued reaction to his caricature that night.

It was a late lunch stop for us at the historic Billy’s Tap Room. What a great place. wooden interior and terrific atmosphere. Learn more here!

Instead of my art decorating this post, I’ll include a photo of a painting by the legendary Jack Davis that hangs on the Tap Room wall. Sorry for the glare. The pasiting is right beside a front window (Not a good place for art). If I could’ve walked through the wall and glass I could’ve gotten rid of the glare.