[jannd228]

Originally Posted by John_W

From 1955 to 1959 I was between the ages of 5 and 9 and lived in Baltimore. Every summer my parents and I would come to Florida, I had been to Cypress Gardens, Silver Springs, Key West and all over Florida. When I was 6 years old I even shook Adali Stevenson's hand in Winter Haven when he was running for President.

My dad had a pretty good job, he worked as a welder for Bendix and our home was 3 stories tall, we had apartments rented out on the 2nd and 3rd floor. One day in 1959 my dad came home from work and said he had quit his job and we were moving to Florida. That's how my dad handled the move to Florida. No job waiting, no home, didn't even know what city and of course we had no internet back then. We headed to Ft. Myers, didn't really care for the town when we got there. Turned around and went back north on Hwy 19 and settled in St. Petersburg. My father ended up retiring from the City of St. Petersburg after 25 years in 1984 and I graduated from St. Petersburg High in 1968.

So when I hear all these stories about the planning, the trips, the rentals and conversations, I just think of how my dad moved to Florida. In 1984 upon my parents retirement, they moved to Spring Hill. That's about 50 miles north of St. Petersburg on Hwy 19 in Hernando County, it was a planned 55+ community that had just opened. Turned out to be a very nice place and was built out about a dozen years ago. 2,000 homes, 3 golf courses and completely walled in with security gates. Much cheaper than The Villages, but not nearly the lifestyle.

Excellent post thank you