6 Signs Someone Grew Up in Florida Before Disney Changed Everything
Ask a Floridian who grew up before 1971 what they remember, and the stories rarely start with theme parks.
They come from an earlier Florida, one that Disney was about to change.
Here are the signs someone grew up in Florida before that happened.
1. The Parkway’s First Name
The Sunshine State Parkway completed its first 110-mile stretch in 1957, the turnpike’s history page says.
In April 1968, the road was officially renamed Florida’s Turnpike.
That gave the first name about eleven years.
Did you ever call it the Parkway?
If your family drove it in the 1960s, you may still say Parkway out of habit.
2. Mosquito Fog Trucks
In 1952, three fog trucks covered all 120 miles of the Keys, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District’s history says.
John Beidler, who directed the Indian River Mosquito Control District, told the Indian River Guardian in 2014 that thermal fog machines were used across Florida from about 1950 to 1970.
Speaking from Vero Beach, Beidler recalled kids running in and out of the fog all summer.
He said the odor came from the diesel fuel, not the pesticide DDT.
Did you run out to meet the truck?
If you did, you may remember that diesel smell better than the mosquitoes.
3. Hurricane Donna
Hurricane Donna reached the middle Florida Keys as a Category 4 storm on September 10, 1960, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The National Weather Service says the center crossed the middle Keys between 2 and 3 a.m. on the 10th.
After that, Donna reached the coast again south of Naples and passed out to sea just north of Daytona Beach.
Did the storm cross your county?
Directly or indirectly, 12 deaths in Florida are linked to Donna.
It was also the first major hurricane in Florida since the Miami storm of October 1950, nearly ten years earlier.
If your family lived along that path, you may know the date by heart.
4. Sunshine Skyway Before 1969
The original bridge opened to the public in 1954, Florida State Parks says.
Then came 1969, when a parallel span made it a four-lane bridge.
Did you cross Tampa Bay in the 1950s or 1960s?
Your first crossing of the bay may have been on that original bridge.
Psst! How much do you know about the springs, groves, and launch pads of the years before Disney? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Pre-Disney Pop Quiz
Answer eight questions on the years before Disney. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
How long did Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 flight last after it left Cape Canaveral in 1961?
5. The Teacher Strike of 1968
On February 19, 1968, more than 25,000 teachers stayed out of school, according to WLRN.
Twenty-two of Florida's 67 school districts closed.
Was your school among them?
It was the first statewide teacher strike in U.S. history.
Complaints included little pay, poor working conditions, too many kids in a classroom, and buildings in disrepair.
It lasted three weeks.
If a parent of yours taught then, you may know the story firsthand.
6. Apollo 11 Launch Day
NASA says an estimated one million people gathered on the beaches of central Florida to watch Apollo 11 lift off on July 16, 1969.
Some early arrivals camped out on the Indian River in RVs and cars, while others filled motel rooms.
Liftoff came at 9:32 a.m. Eastern time.
Did you watch from the beach, or did your family camp out early?
Cape Kennedy's 1963 Renaming
On November 28, 1963, Spaceline reports, President Lyndon Johnson announced that the cape itself would be renamed Cape Kennedy in memory of President John F. Kennedy.
That same month, Johnson designated the launch facilities as the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
NASA's Apollo 11 overview still says Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy.
If you called it that as a kid, you used the same name.
The 1959 Sale of Weeki Wachee
The first show at the Weeki Wachee Springs underwater theater opened on October 13, 1947, according to Florida State Parks.
Newton Perry, a former Navy man, had trained Navy Frogmen to swim underwater in World War II.
He scouted the spring as a site for a new business.
Newton Perry installed air hoses and airlocks at the bottom of the spring.
The American Broadcasting Company bought the spring in 1959 and promoted it heavily, which began its heyday.
The network then built a larger 400-seat theater, set 16 feet below the water's surface.
During that heyday, the mermaids performed eight shows a day.
As many as half a million people a year came to see them.
Did your family ever make the drive?
Orlando in 1970
In 1970, the year before Walt Disney World opened, 692,062 people lived across Volusia, Lake, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola Counties, the United States Geological Survey says.
Orlando had become the trade center for a citrus-dominated agricultural region.
The Sunshine State Parkway's second section, between Orlando and Wildwood, opened in 1964, the turnpike's history page says.
An interchange with Interstate 4 west of Orlando followed in April 1967.
In its story marking 50 years since the park opened, National Public Radio calls Orlando a former cow town and citrus center.
Walt Disney World welcomed its first guests on October 1, 1971.
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