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    • TB Times: St. Augustine coming to grips with civil rights history
    • Strawberry Festival organizers collecting material for new history book
    • Tarpon Springs' Greektown added to National Register as Traditional Cultural Property
    • Volunteers begin cleanup of historic Ocala cemetery
    • Jax museum presents 'Megalodon,' biggest-ever shark
    • Proposed museum switch generates anger in St. Pete
    • Report: Ocala's original cemetery lying in ruins
    • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seeking camera-wielding Elvis fans
    • Service of Florida Jews in World War II focus of new WLRN doc
    • Seventeen honored for Big Bend preservation efforts
    • Long dresses, long pants, no shorts: Life before AC was uncool
    • Sunken shipwrecks are being turned into "parks" off Florida coast
    • Run-down Dunedin hotel to be rebuilt in same architectural style
    • Painting at Ringling Museum leads scholar to discover slavery roots of Spanish painter Juan de Pareja
    • Hampton Inn in downtown Bradenton gets state historic preservation award
    • Civil War re-enactment draws criticism in Holly Hill
    • New documentary spotlights Anna Maria Historic Green Village
    • Tampa-area NAACP launching effort to save historic rooming house
    • Ride on "America's Movie Train" this weekend in Ocoee, Winter Garden
    • Tampa's historic Kress building set for reimagination
    • 67-year-old shipwreck off Florida identified
    • Florida History Today - Project studies South Florida native communites
    • Florida History Today - Tarpon Springs halts Sponge Docks upgrades
    • Florida History Today - Compromise reached on Tequesta circles preservation
    • Florida History Today - Sears homes remembered in Sanibel
  • On this day in Florida history - August
    • Aug. 15, 1887 - Eatonville becomes one of first all-black towns in U.S.
    • Aug. 13, 2004 - Hurricane Charley kicks off unusually active 'cane year
    • Aug. 12, 1981 - Developed in Boca Raton, first PC released by IBM
    • Aug. 11, 1987 - Santeria church vows to sacrifice animals despite Hialeah ban
    • Aug. 10, 1981 - Tragic discovery confirms death of missing Adam Walsh, 6
    • Aug. 9, 1956 - Reporters look down noses covering Elvis in Daytona Beach
    • Aug. 8, 1896 - Cross Creek, Yearling author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings born
    • Aug. 6, 1868 - Great Seal of the State of Florida adopted by Legislature
    • Aug. 5, 1763 - Britain takes over Pensacola, expands slavery over two-decade Fla. rule
    • Aug. 4, 1842: U.S. gives free Florida land to settlers willing to fight Seminoles
    • Aug. 1, 1939 - Florida Highway Patrol formed; to begin with 60 troopers
  • On this day in Florida history - July
    • July 31, 1962 - Actor, tax evader Wesley Snipes born in Orlando
    • July 30, 1956: Delta Burke, star of tabloids and television, born in Orlando
    • July 28, 1896: With railroad into town, city of Miami incorporated
    • July 27, 1816: U.S. forces obliterate 300+ free blacks, Indians at 'Fort Negro'
    • July 26, 1876 - Daytona incorporated, named after founder Matthias Day
    • July 25, 1884 - St. Petersburg Times debuts as West Hillsborough Times
    • July 25, 1957 - Country star, actress Pam Tillis born in Plant City
    • July 23, 1836 - Cape Florida Lighthouse attacked by Seminoles
    • July 22, 1964 - First 536 home lots sold in new city of Coral Springs
    • July 21, 1821 - St. Johns and Escambia become first two Florida counties
    • July 20, 1969 - U.S. astronauts walk on the moon
    • July 19, 1952 - Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins is born; stardom and tragedy await
    • July 18, 1940 - Winners of St. Pete mayor's safety slogan contest announced
    • July 17, 1821 - Spain officially transfers Florida to United States
    • July 16, 1943 - Former 'Canes, Dolphins, Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson born
    • July 15, 1997 - Killer gigolo guns down Gianni Versace at South Beach mansion
    • July 14, 1921 - Florida's most famous 'cracker cowboy' dies at 58
    • July 13, 1927: Officials dump $250k in liquor into Gulf Stream
    • July 10, 1972 - First of two major party conventions opens in Miami Beach
    • July 9, 1957 - Pass-a-Grille and three other towns form St. Pete Beach
    • July 8, 2011 - Last space shuttle launched from Cape Canaveral
    • July 7, 1983 - 'Operation Everglades' drug bust rocks Everglades City
    • July 6, 2003 - 'Hillbillies' star Buddy Ebsen, raised in Orlando, dies at 95
    • July 5, 1928 - Elks begin arriving for 1st Florida national convention
    • July 4: Florida celebrates America's Independence Day
    • July 3, 1971 - Doors singer, Melbourne native Jim Morrison dies
    • July 2, 1961: Key West icon Ernest Hemingway dies; cats live on
    • July 1, 1951: St. Pete woman's burning death baffles investigators
  • On this day in Florida history - June
    • June 1, 1937 - Amelia Earhart leaves Miami to begin final voyage
    • June 2, 2008 - Bo Diddley, 79, dies at his home in Archer
    • June 3, 1961 - Arrest made in case that leads to 'right to an attorney'
    • June 4, 1939 - Jewish refugee ship turned away from Florida coast
    • June 5, 2013 - Zephyrhills woman, 84, claims $590 million Powerball jackpot
    • June 6, 1990 - Broward Judge rules 2 Live Crew album 'obscene'
    • June 7, 1928 - Two elections workers shot in Tampa ballot box heist
    • June 8, 1888 - First train rolls into terminus "St. Petersburg"
    • June 9, 1903 - Flagler's Breakers Hotel burns down in Palm Beach
    • June 10, 1991 - South Florida learns it will get new major league baseball team
    • June 11, 1953 - Sabal Palmetto palm becomes Florida's state tree
    • June 12, 1913: With first bridge, Miami Beach is open for business
    • June 13, 1974 - Askew appoints first female Cabinet member
    • June 14, 1966 - FSL's Miami and St. Pete set record for longest baseball game
    • June 15, 1822: City of Jacksonville founded, named after Andrew Jackson
    • June 16, 1955 - Judge Chillingworth and wife go missing
    • June 17. 1942 - German U-boat saboteurs land at Ponte Vedra Beach
    • June 18, 1983 - Sally Ride becomes first American woman in space
    • June 19, 1972 - Hurricane Agnes makes landfall in Panhandle
    • June 20, 2003 - Non-profit Wikipedia established in St. Petersburg
    • June 21, 1926 - Miami barbers don't want to be called 'chirotonsors'
    • June 22, 1990 - Florida bans thong bikinis in state parks
    • June 23, 1938 - Marine Studios, 'world's first oceanarium,' opens
    • June 24, 1987 - S. Fla's most famous resident, Jackie Gleason, dies at 71
    • June 25, 1981 - Dolphins QB Bob Griese retires after 14 seasons
    • June 26, 1964 - Governor orders extra police to riot-torn St. Augustine
    • June 27, 1964 - State tells Daytona: Stop price-gouging your tourists
    • June 28, 1911 - Big Cypress Indian Reservation created by President Taft
    • June 29, 1931 - Monticello hits 109 degrees -- hottest-ever for Florida
    • June 30, 1975 - Cher marries Daytona Beach's favorite son Gregg Allman
  • On this day in Florida history - May
    • May 1, 1562 - Jean Ribault arrives at St. Johns River, claims Florida for France
    • May 2, 1936 - Panama City Beach incorporated in Bay County
    • May 3, 1901 - Jacksonville burns to the ground
    • May 4, 1990 - Execution goes awry as flames, smoke shoot from head
    • May 5, 1961 - Alan Shepard becomes first American in space
    • May 6, 1965 - Rolling Stones play Clearwater, write 'Satisfaction' riff
    • May 7, 1940 - Voting machine shortages create long wait at polls
    • May 8, 1923 - Killings of work camp prisoners detailed in hearing
    • May 9, 1981 - Sinkhole swallows house, five Porsches in Winter Park
    • May 10, 1781 - Spanish Gen. Bernardo de Gálvez captures Pensacola
    • May 11, 1996 - ValuJet Flight 592 crashes into Everglades
    • May 12, 1997 - Tornado hits Miami, poses for photos, videos
    • May 13, 1955 - Jax fans chase Elvis after show, tear off his clothes
    • May 14, 1973 - Skylab launches new era of space study...and toys
    • May 15, 1947 - Florida State College for Women goes co-ed, renamed FSU
    • May 16, 1929 - Lake City mob lynches grocer after wife shoots chief
    • May 17, 1980 - Not guilty verdict triggers three days of rioting in Miami
    • May 18, 1955 - Educator Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune dies
    • May 19, 2004 - Drugstore chain owner Jack Eckerd dies at 91
    • May 20, 1913: Henry Morrison Flagler dies in his home at Palm Beach
    • May 21, 1956 - Police close beach after catching black, white teens talking
    • May 22, 1931 - Canned rattlesnake goes on sale from Arcadia
    • May 23, 1898 - School for Deaf & Blind issues first diplomas
    • May 24, 1931 - Writer develops Planet of the Apes storyline for Miami
    • May 25, 1961 - JFK challenges nation to land on moon within decade
    • May 26, 1845 - Florida holds first statewide election
    • May 27, 1965 - Mysterious land deal near Orlando revealed
    • May 28, 1935 - Now controversial "Old Folks At Home" becomes state song
    • May 29, 1967 - Woman jailed after 25 kids found in station wagon
    • May 30, 1989: Claude Pepper dies after 60 years of public service
    • May 31, 1539 - DeSoto comes to Florida, changes continent forever
  • On this day in Florida history - April
    • April 1, 1926 - Air Mail service begins in four Florida cities
    • April 2, 1513 - Juan Ponce de Leon lands in Florida
    • April 3, 2006 - Gators basketball team win first-ever national title
    • April 4, 1933 - NASCAR 2nd generation leader Bill France Jr. is born
    • April 5, 1925 - 'Great Miami Tornado' kills 5, destroys 250 homes
    • April 6, 1959 - Seminole Tribe votes to support building "Alligator Alley"
    • April 7, 1890 - Author, Everglades crusader Marjorie Stoneman Douglas born
    • April 8, 1923 - News of "lost" Tamiami trail blazers heats up
    • April 9, 1921 - Whites kicked out of West Palm Beach "colored" town
    • April 10, 1766 - John Bartram ends journey through Carolinas, Ga., Florida
    • April 11, 1986 - FBI shootout in Dade prompts cops' need for more powerful guns
    • April 12, 1981 - Space Shuttle launched for first time
    • April 13, 1951 - Marion County sheriff killed by forged check suspect
    • April 14, 1528 - Bumbling conqueror Pánfilo de Narváez lands near Tampa
    • April 15, 1896 - Henry Flagler's railroad arrives in Miami for first time
    • April 16, 1915 and 1917 - Aviation takes two steps forward
    • April 17, 1961 - U.S. launches failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba
    • April 18, 1957 - Florida to U.S.: Integration ruling unconstitutional
    • April 19, 1930 - First Publix store incorporated in Winter Haven
    • April 20, 1967 - Orange Juice becomes official state beverage
    • April 21, 1924 - NY's infamous 'Bobbed Haired Bandit' caught in Jax
    • April 22, 2000 - Elian Gonzalez seized in raid, returned to Cuba
    • April 23, 1982 - Keys secede from Union, create Conch Republic
    • April 24, 1965 - Orlando honors hometown astronaut with John Young Day
    • April 25, 1966 - Gov. Haydon Burns says his plane trailed by UFO
    • April 26, 1920 - Crop shippers seizing ice, creating shortage
    • April 27, 1969 - 1,000 students help during FSU admin building fire
    • April 28, 1985 - World's tallest sand sculpture built at Treasure Island
    • April 29, 1980 - U.S. braces for magnitude of Mariel Boatlift
    • April 30, 1915 - Broward County created, named after former governor
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Picture
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The 80s are the new 60s:
Cultural observations of a
middle-aged karaoke D.J.

By Harry Smith
The World According to Harryoke


I
was born in the 60s, and raised in the 70s.  My father was born in 1917.  These facts help to shape my cultural perspective.  I am old enough to remember throwbacks and hippies, and the 50s ALWAYS seemed like a long time ago.  Fifties culture ALWAYS has been retro, to me.  Happy Days was a huge hit in the mid-70s, and seemed like ancient culture to me, but when I think about it, it had only been 15 years since the 50s!  

   It is amazing to me that my perspective would allow me to accept that show as a look at the retro, when most of the TV I was watching in the 70s was from the 50s and 60s!  (For the record, Happy Days does not age well culturally and is unwatchable now as an adult decades later, LOL!!)   I was not culturally aware in the 60s, but always culturally aware OF the 60s.  I lived the stereotypical 70s.  I lived thru the polyester disco era, and did have a leisure suit.  I saw rock die, and be born again.  I witnessed the new wave.  I saw the birth of “alternative” music.  I remember the first times hearing rap music, and the first time I saw a break-dancer on the sidewalk.  The hair stood up on the back of my neck when I first heard Nirvana.  I wanted my MTV.     

   My observations are borne of several events.  The first event was that I found myself humming a song that I had learned from an Abbott and Costello movie.  I was thinking it was an old movie.  Now for some perspective, I was probably watching a lot of Abbott and Costello movies in 1975 as a 10-year-old boy.  It was a regular thing to view movies from the 40s and 50s, as they were aired regularly on TV.  They seemed ancient then, but in perspective, if it was from 1945, it was only a 30-year-old film.  Today, a 30-year-old film would be one from 1981!  There are still plenty of films from that era that would “feel” contemporary, but thinking like a 20-year- old today, the must feel ancient!  

    When I was 10, my father was a 58-year-old man.  He probably became culturally aware in 1927, during the depression.  I grew up in a house where 40s culture was HIS stimulus…big band, orchestra and show music.  The 20s were his 60s.  I am sure that in the 40s, it was a novelty to dress up and have parties dressing in zoot suits and flapper gear. 

   Another event that got me thinking, was that I recently did an event with an 80s theme.  I lived thru the 80s, and the outfit I wore actually was based around a piece of clothing I HAD in the 80s.  Most of the guests were in their 20s and 30s, and it was interesting to see their take on a decade that I have great familiarity with.  Many of them NAILED it perfectly!  Most of them were born in the 80s…hmmm; I was born in the 60s.  The 60s dress-up was popular for my generation when I was younger.  I observed to myself that we would always look back nostalgically, whether that is good or bad, on the era in which we were born, and always evolve out of that era into a new fashion sense.  

   This seems to be happening in 10-year cycles, and 20 years always begins to seem “retro.”  Of course, if you are 20, retro is not that far away, but if you are 40, that scary retro has a familiarity, and you can think back 20 more years…then I started looking at the 60-year-olds in the room and thinking how their memories must go back even further to THEIR 60s…the 40s.

   As we get older, and have more years under our belt, time perspective changes.  A year is 1/10th of the life of a 10-year-old, but only 1% of the life of a 100-year-old.  This is why summers were so short when we were kids, and go by so fast as adults.  

   
   As a teen, it is amazing to think of what I considered an OLD car.  My first real car was an old Ford.  A buddy of mine got it from his dad, who was a car dealer. He drove it hard, beat the crap out of it and had a slight accident with it and sold it to another friend of mine.  He took it apart and put it back together again and beat the crap out of it.  We spent days and days working on it all thru high school, then after graduation he sold it to me and I beat the crap out of it.  

   In the meantime, I always got compliments on my “great OLD Ford.”  Everyone used to talk about my “OLD Ford” and ask me about it, and I took pride in owning an old car.  The reality is, this car was only 14 years-old and had less than 100,000 miles!!  As a man in my 40s (and admittedly in an era when cars last longer), no one looks twice at a 14- to 20- year-old car.  OR DO THEY?  I now look at this through the eyes of a 20-year-old.

   Loris has 3 kids in their 20s, so I get SOME perspective culturally from them…BUT most of my perspective comes from the 20- to 30-year-olds I meet at work.  Many of my closest contemporaries and closest friends happen to be as young as Loris' kids or younger.  I started doing my job 13 years ago. I was a man in my very early 30s, playing to 20-somethings at Finns.  Now I find myself in my mid 40s, playing to 20-somethings at Finns.  My cultural perspective finds balance by the 80-year-olds in my audience at some of my other venues.

   Another recent event giving me perspective was the DAY after the 80s party…and this event was an 85th birthday party for a good friend.  Seeing all the generations, and supplying the music to please them all really got my mind going in regard to cultural relevance.  That means that my friend was born in 1926, and that the 1920s were her “60s,” and that culture from the 1890s probably seemed relevant, yet old.  While her great-grand kids were singing karaoke, this gave me pause to reflect!

   So back to work, I tend to play music at work that I like.  Maybe not as popular, but that is what gives my shows their flavor.  I was playing 80s music that was a little more obscure while getting ready for the show, and in between singers.  THIS was when I had the epiphany that what I was putting the 20-year-olds through was equivalent to making me, as a 21-year-old, listen to 60s music!  Thankfully people seem to enjoy it and I can remain relevant!  

   I have been fortunate that the music I find relevant comes back around as the cycle continues and the younger generation embraces it.  I find teens and twenty somethings very knowledgeable about classic rock, and R&B music.  I get requests for this era and they seem to be singing it.  I am FAR more tolerant of 40s and 50s music now than I was as a kid, and if I were honest, my favorite music comes from the 60s and 70s. 

   Another event that shaped my ramblings was the screamo-metal folks that would perform on my stage at the old Finnegan’s/Finns.   Personally, in a karaoke environment or DJ environment, I am not a big fan of the screamo-metal that was finding its way to my stage for five minutes years ago.  It seems to have thankfully waned in that arena.  That will be the cool thing to imitate in 2025 if history is any indication.

   If you have a baby or young child right now, today is going to be their “60s.”  I think our perspective of life and culture is always grounded in the decade in which we are born, and tempered by the number of years we live.  I will just continue to observe this from my perch on the stage.   

   Peace, Man!  HA! 
Harry Smith administers the popular Facebook groups, I Grew Up in Daytona Beach and I Grew Up in Daytona Beach #2. This first appeared in his blog, The World According to Harryoke. It is reposted here with permission.