For many years, Chattanoogans have tended to pair the words “Florida” and “vacation.” Back in the 1960’s and the halcyon days of my youth, we took vacation trips to Florida. However, Florida seemed to move a lot slower than today. I-75 was still under construction, so the motoring was by way of the old U.S. routes such as 41 and 27. Before Disney World opened in 1971, there were no theme parks to monopolize your time. Instead, there were many roadside attractions; some which showcased Florida’s natural beauty, and others – well, eh – they were very interesting.

As summer vacation season is upon us, let’s take a Florida getaway, 1960’s-style. Everybody pile into the 1965 mint green Chevy BelAir station wagon, and please, don’t spend all of your souvenir money at Stuckey’s before we cross the Florida state line.

STEPHEN FOSTER FOLK CULTURE CENTER STATE PARK

Not far from the Florida line is the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park. In the 1960’s, every school’s choral group sang the songs of Stephen Foster. Thinking that it would be good to learn about history as well as have fun on vacation, we stopped here.

Appropriately, the park is on the banks of the Suwanee River that was commemorated in one of Foster’s popular tunes. According to the park’s Web site, Josiah K. Lilly, an Indiana pharmaceutical manufacturer, promoted the idea of a memorial to Stephen Foster at his beloved Suwanee River.

When we were here in the 1960’s, I recall taking a tour of the museum and hearing the music of Stephen Foster as played on the carillon. There was also a boat that took passengers on a cruise of the Suwanee River. I recall that the river water was very dark brown, and reminded me of Coca-Cola.

SAINT AUGUSTINE

Saint Augustine is south of Jacksonville, and is on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the oldest city in the United States, which also makes its surviving structures the oldest of their kind. Thus, the Old Jail, the Oldest School House, etc. are tourist attractions.

I recall that we toured the Old Jail, and also visited the alleged Fountain of Youth sought by Ponce de Leon. The fountain was low to the ground, as though coming from a spring. Even as a naïve youth, I had my doubts about the authenticity.

MARINELAND

Drive south of Saint Augustine on highway A1A, and you will come to Marineland. According to their Web site, Marineland is the world’s oldest oceanarium. It dates to the early 1930’s when a group of men had the vision of a facility to house a subset of the world’s aquatic creatures. They designed holding tanks which would be large enough for underwater filming.

The park opened in 1938 as Marine Studios, and became Florida’s most successful attraction. One of my favorite science fiction movie series is the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Its second installment, “Revenge of the Creature,” was filmed at Marineland.

When we visited Marineland in the 1960’s, we captured several minutes of the dolphin show on 8mm home movies. I also recall that Marineland had a couple of Mold-a-Rama vending machines which dispensed a somewhat brittle plastic toy dolphin or whale.

In recent years, Marineland has struggled to compete against the more modern theme parks. However, the park is currently undergoing a renovation, with plans to reopen this summer.

DAYTONA BEACH

Daytona Beach has become a lot more congested than it was in the 1960’s. Back then, it was a great thrill to be able to ride in the family car on the wide, spacious beach. As shown in one of the photos which accompany this article, even my grandmother had a fun time at Daytona, as evidenced by her grin.

SILVER SPRINGS

This park is legendary for its glass-bottom boat tours which take visitors on a cruise of the springs of the Silver River at Ocala, Florida. According to the attraction’s Web site, those boat tours date to the late 1870’s, when Phillip Morell, lifetime resident of Silver Springs, built a glass-bottomed rowboat and sold rides above the springs. Numerous films and television programs have been filmed here.

When we visited in the 1960’s, “The Glass-Bottom Boat,” a comedy starring Doris Day was recently released. In it, Doris is a widow who works odd jobs, including being a mermaid at her father’s glass-bottom boat tourist attraction, to make ends meet.

Silver Springs is still bubbling with tourists today, and has added several rides and animal attractions in recent years.

RAINBOW SPRINGS

Over on the west coast of Florida at Dunnellon is Rainbow Springs. This was a privately-owned tourist haven when we visited it in the 1960’s, but has now joined the Florida State Parks system. I recall that when we toured Rainbow Springs, it was sort of a junior Silver Springs in its offerings.

CITRUS TOWER

The Citrus Tower was erected in 1956 at Clermont, Florida. Tourists, of whom I was one in the 1960’s, can still today ride an elevator up 22 stories to the observation tower.

However, a lot has changed about central Florida since the 1960’s. According to my trusty 1966 World Book, the metropolitan area of Orlando had around 318,000 residents. As of my 2005 World Book supplement, metro Orlando has grown to around 1,900,000 residents. While the 1966 view from the Citrus Tower looked out onto many acres of citrus groves, the 2005 view includes a lot more condominiums and houses.

GREAT MASTERPIECE

Lo these many years since I visited, this still seems to me to have been an odd combination within a tourist attraction. The Great Masterpiece at Lake Wales, Florida offered tourists an opportunity to see a mosaic of DaVinci’s “Last Supper,” as well as to take a sky bucket tour of cypress groves, ride a miniature train, and see an alligator pond. I recall that along the sky bucket tour, some of the trees had signs that marked the names of previous hurricanes which had struck the area.

The Great Masterpiece attraction, overcome by competition from the nearby Disney parks, closed in 1981.

BOK SINGING TOWER

Now known as the Historic Bok Sanctuary, this was called the Bok Singing Tower in the idle days of my youth. According to the park’s Web site, author Edward Bok was wintering at Lake Wales, Florida in 1921. The idea came to him of developing a hilltop as a bird sanctuary and gardens. Wanting to recall the resounding bell towers of his native Holland, he had a carillon built at the gardens in 1929.

This is an attraction without an ocean, mermaids, alligators, and other Florida prerequisites. However, I recall that the shade, peacefulness, and music of the Bok Singing Tower and gardens were actually very enjoyable to me as a kid.

CYPRESS GARDENS

Cypress Gardens at Winter Haven, Florida has long been famous for its stunning water skiing shows. The 80’s group, The Go-Go’s, even filmed a music video for their “Vacation” tune there, and pretended to be skiers. The gardens were featured for many years in the “Day of Discovery” broadcasts on Sunday mornings.

However, Cypress Gardens declined in popularity as the newer central Florida parks drew away tourists. Cypress Gardens closed for a while, but has re-opened under the same ownership as the Wild Adventures theme park at Valdosta, Georgia.

WEEKI WACHEE

This prime example of roadside America has been in existence since 1946. Newton Perry, an ex-Navy frogman, developed the concept of an underwater mermaid show whose performers would take a quick gulp of air from a camouflaged hose. Weeki Wachee became one of Florida’s top attractions, and like several others, was the locale of several movies and TV shows. Even Elvis stopped here, and had his picture taken with the mermaids.

Weeki Wachee was struggling to stay afloat when we visited it in 2004. There were numerous campaigns to save it from being closed, including enlisting the support of all former mermaids.

Still, the park was a lot of fun, and the underwater auditorium was packed with people to see an authentic Hans Christian Andersen version of “The Little Mermaid.” Buccaneer Bay provided the thrills of water slides.

A completely unexpected pleasure was a boat ride on the Weeki Wachee River. The water is crystal-clear above the limestone river bottom, with the exception of large strands of algae. The tour guide noted that the algae are the result of excessive use of fertilizer near tributaries of the river. Along the tour, we saw alligators and numerous species of birds, with some of them hitching a ride on the roof of the boat. All of the creatures which we saw were real, not mechanical like on some jungle cruises.

BUSCH GARDENS

No matter where else that we visited in Florida, our real destination was always Tampa, where some of our relatives lived. We loved to go with them to Lowry Park or to Indian Rocks Beach. I was amazed that they grew their own citrus fruit, including lemons that were as big as cantaloupes.

We also toured Busch Gardens, though in less time than it takes today. In those years, Busch Gardens was not much more than a parrot show and, for those old enough, a Budweiser sampling station.

Amazingly, in all of our Florida travels, I don’t think that we ever visited a gator farm. There’s always next year, though.

That concludes our 1960’s Florida vacation. So, it’s time to motor up U.S. 27 towards Chattanooga. After we get back home, we will spend their remaining day of vacation by cleaning our 1965 mint green Chevy BelAir station wagon, and removing these items:

* Sand from Daytona Beach
* Broken Mold-a-Rama dolphin from Marineland
* Empty plastic orange which once held juice from the Citrus Tower
* Conch shell lamp
* “Be a Little Mermaid” costume from Weeki Wachee
* Pink flamingo for the front yard
* Candy fruit slices from which fell between the seats, pecan roll, hot pepper chewing gum, plastic dinosaurs, sunglasses, gorilla paw back-scratcher, and magnetic draw-a-beard-on-the-man’s face - all from Stuckey’s

If you have memories of Florida roadside attractions, please send me at e-mail at jolleyh@signaldata.net.