Its like the Eagles song about California: "Call something Paradise
and kiss it Goodbye". As a Fl native, I grew up snorkeling in the
springs, crystal clear rivers and picking up scallops in the bays. N.
FL was devoid of the tourism that I saw as a cancer on south FL. Life
was inexpensive here, beaches were pure and isolated and wilderness
everywhere. We could skinnydip in clear sinkholes as much as we wanted
and paddle up icy cold spring runs teaming with life and carpeted with
fossils on the bottom. Lacking the breeze that blows across the
peninsular part of Fl to moderate the heat, we thought the swampy
miasma would forever deter outsiders who were not used to it.
Oystermen, fishermen and loggers could do ok making way below poverty
wages cuz it simply cost so little to live here. Sure, Panama City was
the Redneck Riviera but it was just people from AL and GA and wasnt
growing fast andt there were plenty of places with miles of untouched
beaches, bays and salt marsh.
I s'pose all good things have to come to an end and first it was
just isolated yankees who thought they had found someplace exotic off
the beaten path. In the 80s, we started to see the first influx of
refugees from the social hell of South Florida. People arrived up here
to go to school and vowed to never return to the insanity there. I'd
just nod my head knowingly cuz I'd been down there and seen it.
The cancer crept north along the west coast up from St. Pete
overwhelming Clearwater and ethnically cleansing Crystal River of its
native culture. It metastasized and colonized Destin to the west
creeping slowly east toward Mexico Beach. The Redneck Riviera
succumbed to it replaced by new hotels and condos. It spread like
plague killing St George Island covering it with condo filth.
Hurricanes seemed to be the only hope of discouraging the influx of
people but they were rare in the 80s and early 90s. We thought we were
immune to the disease cuz we really had no beaches thinking tourists
dont like salt marsh and swamp. Unfortunately, once they destroyed all
the beaches, they decided they liked bays and then they decided that
even saltmarsh was preferable to their own hellish homelands.
Its nearly all gone now, even the isolated sinkholes have been fenced
and land on puddles is listed as "Waterfront" selling for obscene
prices. If you paddle up a spring run you wind up face to face with
some transplant who insists its his property cuz he really thinks he
owns the water bottom. Local shellfish is no longer fit to eat cuz the
transplants dont want to pay for the infrastructure they really need so
their septic tanks pollute the bays. Fishermen driven out of business
by the net ban have sold out their waterfront property cuz they couldnt
do anything else. An entire culture will disappear within a single
generation.
I dont know who to blame cuz if I lived in one of those gawdawful
places like Ft Lauderdale or Boston I'd think N. FL was paradise too.
I guess I'm also a hypocrite cuz I have lived all over the US before
coming back to N. FL and really loved Wyoming. We still go back to Wy
every two yrs with the kids and I bet I know how the locals there feel
about us being there.

Sorry about my little rant here.

wrote:
Sorry about my little rant here.


No apology necessary, I agree wholeheartedly... except that
I watched the process in other parts of the South, much
earlier that you seem to have noticed it.

Face facts, the world is getting more crowded. People have
to live somewhere. The nice stuff gets trampled, usually.

DSK

wrote:
Sorry about my little rant here.

No apologies necessary; people come to
UseNet to rant.

Your hedge against encroachment and
frothing real estate prices is to buy!
Then, when the bubble is about to burst,
you sell, move to Wyoming, and buy a big
ranch. Good luck!

--
frosty

Feel the same way about my Western Washington State.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Its like the Eagles song about California: "Call something Paradise
and kiss it Goodbye". As a Fl native, I grew up snorkeling in the
springs, crystal clear rivers and picking up scallops in the bays. N.
FL was devoid of the tourism that I saw as a cancer on south FL. Life
was inexpensive here, beaches were pure and isolated and wilderness
everywhere. We could skinnydip in clear sinkholes as much as we wanted
and paddle up icy cold spring runs teaming with life and carpeted with
fossils on the bottom. Lacking the breeze that blows across the
peninsular part of Fl to moderate the heat, we thought the swampy
miasma would forever deter outsiders who were not used to it.
Oystermen, fishermen and loggers could do ok making way below poverty
wages cuz it simply cost so little to live here. Sure, Panama City was
the Redneck Riviera but it was just people from AL and GA and wasnt
growing fast andt there were plenty of places with miles of untouched
beaches, bays and salt marsh.
I s'pose all good things have to come to an end and first it was
just isolated yankees who thought they had found someplace exotic off
the beaten path. In the 80s, we started to see the first influx of
refugees from the social hell of South Florida. People arrived up here
to go to school and vowed to never return to the insanity there. I'd
just nod my head knowingly cuz I'd been down there and seen it.
The cancer crept north along the west coast up from St. Pete
overwhelming Clearwater and ethnically cleansing Crystal River of its
native culture. It metastasized and colonized Destin to the west
creeping slowly east toward Mexico Beach. The Redneck Riviera
succumbed to it replaced by new hotels and condos. It spread like
plague killing St George Island covering it with condo filth.
Hurricanes seemed to be the only hope of discouraging the influx of
people but they were rare in the 80s and early 90s. We thought we were
immune to the disease cuz we really had no beaches thinking tourists
dont like salt marsh and swamp. Unfortunately, once they destroyed all
the beaches, they decided they liked bays and then they decided that
even saltmarsh was preferable to their own hellish homelands.
Its nearly all gone now, even the isolated sinkholes have been fenced
and land on puddles is listed as "Waterfront" selling for obscene
prices. If you paddle up a spring run you wind up face to face with
some transplant who insists its his property cuz he really thinks he
owns the water bottom. Local shellfish is no longer fit to eat cuz the
transplants dont want to pay for the infrastructure they really need so
their septic tanks pollute the bays. Fishermen driven out of business
by the net ban have sold out their waterfront property cuz they couldnt
do anything else. An entire culture will disappear within a single
generation.
I dont know who to blame cuz if I lived in one of those gawdawful
places like Ft Lauderdale or Boston I'd think N. FL was paradise too.
I guess I'm also a hypocrite cuz I have lived all over the US before
coming back to N. FL and really loved Wyoming. We still go back to Wy
every two yrs with the kids and I bet I know how the locals there feel
about us being there.

Then close the damn border. Our birth rate is such that population would
decrease without immigration. A nation that can't control its borders is
not a country.

Roger (sorry)

http://home.insightbb.com/~derbyrm

"Bill" wrote in message
...
Feel the same way about my Western Washington State.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Its like the Eagles song about California: "Call something Paradise
and kiss it Goodbye". As a Fl native, I grew up snorkeling in the
springs, crystal clear rivers and picking up scallops in the bays. N.
FL was devoid of the tourism that I saw as a cancer on south FL. Life
was inexpensive here, beaches were pure and isolated and wilderness
everywhere. We could skinnydip in clear sinkholes as much as we wanted
and paddle up icy cold spring runs teaming with life and carpeted with
fossils on the bottom. Lacking the breeze that blows across the
peninsular part of Fl to moderate the heat, we thought the swampy
miasma would forever deter outsiders who were not used to it.
Oystermen, fishermen and loggers could do ok making way below poverty
wages cuz it simply cost so little to live here. Sure, Panama City was
the Redneck Riviera but it was just people from AL and GA and wasnt
growing fast andt there were plenty of places with miles of untouched
beaches, bays and salt marsh.
I s'pose all good things have to come to an end and first it was
just isolated yankees who thought they had found someplace exotic off
the beaten path. In the 80s, we started to see the first influx of
refugees from the social hell of South Florida. People arrived up here
to go to school and vowed to never return to the insanity there. I'd
just nod my head knowingly cuz I'd been down there and seen it.
The cancer crept north along the west coast up from St. Pete
overwhelming Clearwater and ethnically cleansing Crystal River of its
native culture. It metastasized and colonized Destin to the west
creeping slowly east toward Mexico Beach. The Redneck Riviera
succumbed to it replaced by new hotels and condos. It spread like
plague killing St George Island covering it with condo filth.
Hurricanes seemed to be the only hope of discouraging the influx of
people but they were rare in the 80s and early 90s. We thought we were
immune to the disease cuz we really had no beaches thinking tourists
dont like salt marsh and swamp. Unfortunately, once they destroyed all
the beaches, they decided they liked bays and then they decided that
even saltmarsh was preferable to their own hellish homelands.
Its nearly all gone now, even the isolated sinkholes have been fenced
and land on puddles is listed as "Waterfront" selling for obscene
prices. If you paddle up a spring run you wind up face to face with
some transplant who insists its his property cuz he really thinks he
owns the water bottom. Local shellfish is no longer fit to eat cuz the
transplants dont want to pay for the infrastructure they really need so
their septic tanks pollute the bays. Fishermen driven out of business
by the net ban have sold out their waterfront property cuz they couldnt
do anything else. An entire culture will disappear within a single
generation.
I dont know who to blame cuz if I lived in one of those gawdawful
places like Ft Lauderdale or Boston I'd think N. FL was paradise too.
I guess I'm also a hypocrite cuz I have lived all over the US before
coming back to N. FL and really loved Wyoming. We still go back to Wy
every two yrs with the kids and I bet I know how the locals there feel
about us being there.

derbyrm wrote:
Then close the damn border. Our birth rate is such that population would
decrease without immigration. A nation that can't control its borders is
not a country.

I'd agree, except that then the economy would tank because there would
be no one to work....



Roger (sorry)

http://home.insightbb.com/~derbyrm

"Bill" wrote in message
...

Feel the same way about my Western Washington State.

wrote in message
roups.com...

Its like the Eagles song about California: "Call something Paradise
and kiss it Goodbye". As a Fl native, I grew up snorkeling in the
springs, crystal clear rivers and picking up scallops in the bays. N.
FL was devoid of the tourism that I saw as a cancer on south FL. Life
was inexpensive here, beaches were pure and isolated and wilderness
everywhere. We could skinnydip in clear sinkholes as much as we wanted
and paddle up icy cold spring runs teaming with life and carpeted with
fossils on the bottom. Lacking the breeze that blows across the
peninsular part of Fl to moderate the heat, we thought the swampy
miasma would forever deter outsiders who were not used to it.
Oystermen, fishermen and loggers could do ok making way below poverty
wages cuz it simply cost so little to live here. Sure, Panama City was
the Redneck Riviera but it was just people from AL and GA and wasnt
growing fast andt there were plenty of places with miles of untouched
beaches, bays and salt marsh.
I s'pose all good things have to come to an end and first it was
just isolated yankees who thought they had found someplace exotic off
the beaten path. In the 80s, we started to see the first influx of
refugees from the social hell of South Florida. People arrived up here
to go to school and vowed to never return to the insanity there. I'd
just nod my head knowingly cuz I'd been down there and seen it.
The cancer crept north along the west coast up from St. Pete
overwhelming Clearwater and ethnically cleansing Crystal River of its
native culture. It metastasized and colonized Destin to the west
creeping slowly east toward Mexico Beach. The Redneck Riviera
succumbed to it replaced by new hotels and condos. It spread like
plague killing St George Island covering it with condo filth.
Hurricanes seemed to be the only hope of discouraging the influx of
people but they were rare in the 80s and early 90s. We thought we were
immune to the disease cuz we really had no beaches thinking tourists
dont like salt marsh and swamp. Unfortunately, once they destroyed all
the beaches, they decided they liked bays and then they decided that
even saltmarsh was preferable to their own hellish homelands.
Its nearly all gone now, even the isolated sinkholes have been fenced
and land on puddles is listed as "Waterfront" selling for obscene
prices. If you paddle up a spring run you wind up face to face with
some transplant who insists its his property cuz he really thinks he
owns the water bottom. Local shellfish is no longer fit to eat cuz the
transplants dont want to pay for the infrastructure they really need so
their septic tanks pollute the bays. Fishermen driven out of business
by the net ban have sold out their waterfront property cuz they couldnt
do anything else. An entire culture will disappear within a single
generation.
I dont know who to blame cuz if I lived in one of those gawdawful
places like Ft Lauderdale or Boston I'd think N. FL was paradise too.
I guess I'm also a hypocrite cuz I have lived all over the US before
coming back to N. FL and really loved Wyoming. We still go back to Wy
every two yrs with the kids and I bet I know how the locals there feel
about us being there.







--
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." - Proverbs 22:3

In mid-summer with temps and humidity near 99 I'm drivin down to teh
coast to check on my sailboat before an approaching hurricane. My old
truck has no AC or even fan and its so hellashisly hot I carry a towel
that is soaked and a gallon of ice water. I decide to stop at the
spring fed slough that flows into the Wakulla R to cool my feet and
when I get out the smell of days old roadkill envelopes me. Thats
normal, all the highways smell like that in summer cuz the critters are
out running around feeding. I wander down to the water, crystal clear
rimmed with the eel grass that I have noticed grows best near springs
and an egret eyes me warily but continues looking for snails. Stepping
in the water almost burns its so cold compared to the air and takes my
breathe away even though its only to my knees. Mosquitoes everywhere
after the rain, repellant hardly stops em. Fortunately the repellant
does stop the yellow flies that plagued my childhood when no real
repellant existed. Huge Banana Spiders, the kind that my daughter has
a phobia about, nearly 4 inches across with big yellow stripes make
enormous webs across the open space of the water. My mom taught us to
like them cuz they eat bugs and she encouraged them to live in our
yard. I once tried canoeing this slough but its so clogged with fallen
trees and its course so uncertain that I got nowhere. A big old water
moccassin suns on one of the logs, normally aggressive, this ones
fairly sedate with his scales being a dullish brown from dried mud.
I stand thinking "I've lived all over the US and been a lot of
places from east to west coast and from South America to North Alaska,
many of those places so beautiful they took my breathe away. So, why
do I consider this area to be special? Where is the beauty that I
think it has?" I cant put my finger on it, after all the bugs will
make you crazy if the heat doesnt, the snakes are dangerous, the
terrain is flat, the air has so much pollen that its nearly deadly to
half the people I know (I am immune to it) even to my wife (who is from
Chicago). Maybe its the rampant life all over giving me the feeling
that if I stand still for more than a few minutes the vines will drag
me off. Maybe its just home, I dunno but I feel a weird connection to
it.
I wonder, do people from elsewhere feel this way about their home
places? They must but since their homes are different they must feel
connected to those different things. My wife misses snow and talks
nostalgicly about it but doesnt want to live in it. I want to live in
this awful place with its heat, cultural isolation, bugs and flat
terrain. Millions of people live near Chicago which I consider to be
hell and they seem to actually like it. I once knew a guy who lived in
Santa Barbara, CA and pined for Chicago. Is it simple familiarity that
we love about "home"?
I think my rant of this morning was driven by seeing an area being
cleared for housing, my home looking less and less like home every day.
Being 49 yrs old, the shock of having the foundation of my "home"
crumble bit by bit musta disoriented me. So, I apologize for being too
wordy and for my rant.

wrote in message
oups.com...
...........
I think my rant of this morning was driven by seeing an area being
cleared for housing, my home looking less and less like home every day.
Being 49 yrs old, the shock of having the foundation of my "home"
crumble bit by bit musta disoriented me. So, I apologize for being too
wordy and for my rant.


Damned good rant.

I've been lurking here for awhile now.......didn't realize that there was
actually signs of life.

I'm out on the coast of B.C., born in the cold rain, fungus between my toes,
logging and fishing used to be a prideful way to get through life. Not
anymore.

If you've never known better you don't mourn.

.....Ken

On 4 Jan 2006 09:02:20 -0800, "
wrote:

I dont know who to blame cuz if I lived in one of those gawdawful
places like Ft Lauderdale or Boston I'd think N. FL was paradise too.
I guess I'm also a hypocrite cuz I have lived all over the US before
coming back to N. FL and really loved Wyoming. We still go back to Wy
every two yrs with the kids and I bet I know how the locals there feel
about us being there.

You don't have to be a Carl Hiassen fan to know this is inevitable. A
lot of middle-class Americans have just enough capital to buy in even
crappy parts of Florida, but that's enough to outclass the buying
power of locals. As the boomers age, the prospect of seeing another
frozen-snot winter becomes less appealing, and listening to that
goddamn Jimmy Buffett, the guy at whose sandalled feet you can lay a
lot of the blame for this picture of Florida as an unbroken paradise
for fat-arsed retirees, becomes a sort of mantra.

Add to that the older streams of New Yorkers and Quebeckers whose
roots go back decades, and actual, living Florida folk are an
endangered species, as is the Florida ecosystem.

Good thing you can sail away, eh?
R.