THE WAY IT WAS IN COCONUT GROVE

        Remember the way Coconut Grove use to be?  We called it a village because it really was. Trees were taller than the buildings. Things were different then.  

     
          In the old days, everyone got along in Coconut Grove.

    You could ride your bike to the five and ten and leave it unlocked. When you came out it would still be there.  No one stole anything back then. Maybe it would even look a little nicer because a stranger had given it a shine.  

Remember when the Beatles played at the Grove Playhouse? It's been closed for so long now, only cockroaches and beetles play there now.

     We had Winn-Dixie, a real grocery story where the Mayfair Hotel now stands. The bag boys never asked "paper or plastic?". They'd place you purchases in a sturdy canvas bag then deliver them to your house while you took your tennis lesson. By the time you got home your groceries would be perfectly stacked on their shelves. Life was so simple.

My mother (right) with her sisters at the Grove's annual Easter parade, 1939.





NO MONEY, NO PROBLEM
     Food was cheap!  At Scotty's Grocery on Bird Road they sometimes gave it away.  Pangs of guilt would sometimes cause Scotty (the owner) to say, "How can I charge people for food? Like air and water, it should be free!".
    Grove restaurants were absolutely affordable.  When I moved here The Tom Thumb, a small cafe on Grand Avenue, had a $1 breakfast special. They'd serve you eggs, smoked ham, pancakes, and Jamaican coffee with a smile on the side.  Often they would serve the early meals for free just so they could look busy. That's how it was in the old days.
    Monty's Bayshore Restaurant has been around since WWII.  When you'd go there back then, who would take your order?  Monty himself!  It was a one-man show where the Key West native did it all. Once, after I ordered fish, I watched Monty catch one, clean, and cook it in fifteen minutes.  It came with a frosted mug of beer that cost fifteen cents. It was somethin' in the old days. Now its so crowded you can barely see the water. And

OH, THE WATER!

     
Biscayne Bay was so clear back then the water was almost invisible. Herds of sea cows were easy to spot as they grazed on turtle grass. The sailboats moored
 One of the few spots where you can see the water now   nearby seemed to be hovering over the sea bed but we weren't fooled.  We knew the water was there.
      The tourists?  Not so much. When they would try to walk out to pet the sea cows they'd be shocked to find themselves knee-deep in the wet stuff.  
    "The Return of The Creature from the Black Lagoon" was filmed in Coconut Grove's pristine waters.

NO CRIME THEN
    There was no crime in the old days. With life near perfect there was no reason to break the law or even have laws. We didn't need them in the Grove because everyone had everything they needed. 
   
    Yes, it wasn't that way in Hialeah or downtown Miami but in the Grove? My dad would sometimes show off for visiting guests by attaching his watch to the stop sign at Grand and Main. Sometimes he'd forget and I'd still be there a month later.  It wouldn't last a week now.

   Once in a while a few  hooligans would come our way.  When they did they met fierce resistance by our own mini-militia, "The Broom Whackers"  Just the sight of these little women made the bad boys skedaddle.

THE ORIGINAL KING MANGO STRUT  

    Some people think I started the Grove's King Mango parade but that's not true. It was my grandfather, Harry Terry, who got Grove-ites  marching in the streets.  Here's a photo of the first one heading down Main Highway in 1912.  It was quite patriotic and did not make fun of anyone. Why would it? Life was good, politicians were saints and everyone got along back then.


Peacock Park looked like Hawaii in 1972.

 






HEALTHY LIVING

     With everyone walking, riding bikes, and eating home-grown produce, we stayed healthy. 
  Dan the Milkman made his deliveries every morning by bicycle.
     Doctors made house calls but not because we were ill. Our physician, Doc Jones, would stop by to chat about the weather, Hialeah crime, or the Michigander who nearly drowned trying to pet a sea cow.  If you predicted that in sixty years people in his profession would be building Brazilian Butts with injected fat he'd have called you "cuckoo" or worse. 
     In the days of yore if a gal felt her backside was lacking, she'd wander down to the bay and pick up a couple cockle shells.  After she stuffed them into her britches no one would be the wiser.

Croup and measles was unheard of. Kids never got sick back then. 


TRAFFIC? WHAT'S THAT?

      Grove  traffic now is almost impossible. Drivers are rude and parking spots, rare.
      It wasn't that way when I moved here. You didn't need a car as you could walk or bike to everything you needed. City buses were clean, comfortable, and would leave you off at your door step.
    With few people driving traffic jams were rare.  They would  occur when drivers at an intersection kept insisting,"You go first!", "No, you go first!". There was never any speeding, road rage, or fights over parking spots. A horn honk meant , "Howdy!".

     If we saw a car abandoned by the road we'd stop and fix it. After doing this once  with friends years ago, we hid in bushes waiting for the owner to return. When she did and found her flat tires inflated, she assumed it was some sort of religious miracle. 
What a laugh we had!
    These days it can seem like a miracle when I go out to my car and it's still there.

     Things have changed but not necessarily how I described them above. The Grove has lost much of its small town charm but much of it remains. Call me an April fool but I believe we still can recoup some of our lost Grove glory.

Happier Days in the Grove. My brother Clay and sister, Linda,1946.*

     We can step outside out security gates and get to know our neighbors better. Try being a little nicer -and- having a good explanation when that stranger catches you shining his bike.
                                   _________________________________________________

*  It was great fun letting my imagination get the best of me when describing the "old days". For those of you too young to remember, theft never left and the Beatles never performed in Miami. Those really are my relatives pictured above but we lived 7 miles NW of the Grove in Miami Springs. Part of me wishes I could have spent my boyhood in the Grove. That would have been something growing up next to Biscayne Bay.  The water -while not "invisible"- was very clear and you could swim in it years ago.