Floridays

The movie house on Avenue D in Fort Pierce was a focal point for the African-American community during the era of segregation. Now the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee is seeking funds to reopen it. 

Carl Fetzer of Vero Beach painted his packinghouse machinery purple to make his citrus more appealing to prospective buyers.

But the Sebastian to Fellsmere line never went farther west. Fellsmere Vice Mayor Joel Tyson rode it one time,  in the 1940s.  The train is long gone, but the site is expected to become a hiking and biking trail.

Janet Reno, attorney general in the Clinton  administration, once tried to save the geckos living inside the house, including a supersized one dubbed Moby Gecko, before it was tented for termites. Her sister, former Martin County Commissioner Maggy Hurchalla, tells the story.

When school was out, Marilyn Cato Anderson and other children came up with their own entertainment. She and her sisters played a game they called "J.C. Penney's" in their large grapefruit tree.

Melba Campbell says slaughtering pigs taught her not to be afraid of the sight of  blood or "messy things."     

The boiler of a ship that sank more than a century ago was visible to Vero beach-goers for years. Bibble Irvin says surfers used to swim out to the boiler and stay all day.