Skip to main content

Highlands Hammock Park-Sebring, Florida


Thursday of my Florida trip took me to the Highlands Hammock park in Sebring. I was driven around the park and shown a lot of nature exclusive to that area of the country. I enjoyed walking on one of the trails, seeing cypress trees and looking for alligators(we didn't see any). Above is a picture of my mother in law, her sister and brother in law on the walkway.
Here are some cypress trees, palm trees, and cypress knobs. Normally there would be some water, but Florida, like most of the southeastern United States is suffering from a drought.


The most interesting thing there for me was the Civilian Conservation Corps(CCC) museum, located inside the park.

The CCC was established in 1933 as one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to try to put the country back to work and to try to reclaim the land. There were CCC camps all around the country.


Florida was plunged into the great depression a couple of years before the rest of the nation, due to a devastating hurricane and the Mediterranean fruit fly.

The picture to your right was of my mother in law listening to a recording of one of FDR's Fireside Chats. The man sitting next to the radio was a member of the CCC. He is 91 years old and very spry.

We were informed of many of the CCC projects, such as firefighting, building projects, and other agriculture related jobs. The young men who comprised the CCC were between 15-18 years old. They earned 25 dollars per month, most of which were sent home to their families. They had strict guidelines to adhere to in regards to their personal belongings, bed, footlocker, and uniform.
I had mentioned in a previous post about the greatest generation. They were children to the generation who felt the effects of the great depression the hardest. Their fathers were also those who were part of the CCC.

No wonder the greatest generation were able to save to be able to live well into retirement. They saw what their parents had to do just to make ends meet.

Back to the CCC. The Civilian Conservation Corps were disbanded in 1942 as the country was to be plunged into World War II.

Next: A trip to Spook Hill.

Comments

Bella said…
Good post Wixy!

I love cypress trees.

Well, any tree for that matter.

:) Bella
Cliff said…
Thanks for you comment Bella.

Glad to see you made it back from Mickey Mouse land.

And thanks for sending Valley Girl this way, as she has become the newest friend to this blog.
Stylin said…
Hi WIXY
Your post made me think of The Little white house in GA.you have to visit it,its in warm springs and FDR came there to treat his polio

Popular posts from this blog

Post 800: Time to chat

Hi Guys, It's hard to believe that this is post number 800 for this blog. I started this blog out of my desire to communicate. Since radio and television is becoming more and more automated and less and less personal, I'm glad I made the decision to go in this direction as it has given me many blessings. When I first decided to write my musings, a friend from the radio and television boards who goes by the name of newsnomore, told me not to be discouraged if I didn't get any readers. The fact that I did in the early going made me surprised and grateful that anyone was enjoying what I wrote. I've had people tell me that maybe it wasn't meant for me to ever be in radio, that maybe my calling was blogging. Nowadays I think blogging makes for better two way conversation than terrestrial radio, especially the way I do it, non confrontational. The closest I come from any confrontation is the innocent digs that Pat and I shoot at each other. On an average day I get betwee

Lawson's Chip Dip

On a couple of occasions I have written posts dedicated to Lawson's, a convenience store chain that was located in Ohio for close to 50 years. In the late 1980's the chain was bought out by Dairy Mart, of Engfield Ct. Dairy Mart was then purchased by Alimentation Couche-Tard, and most stored were rebranded Circle K. Something that has survived the years since Lawson's has left the landscape is Lawson's Chip Dip. I get many hits on this blog from people out of Ohio, I'm thinking former Buckeyes, looking for availability of this chip dip. I had gotten an email from a former resident of Cleveland looking for it. I emailed Circle K about this sometime ago asking if it was possible to send the dip out to those out of state, they said because of quality issues that it was not possible. My only suggestion would be to get in touch with Circle K in your home area and ask them to start stocking this very popular item that seems to make every get-together complete. Now we wil

Sometimes Sports are Just Sports

 This may or may not make the final cut of my book. I was writing about some events this weekend and what had started as a joyous Friday night at my home school district became a weekend of heartbreak in the area after what happened at another school. Sometimes We Need to Realize That Sports are Just Games   Friday nights in late summer and early fall are sometimes a big deal for high school students and their families. As the long-time band announcer for my local high school, it is a time of year I always look forward to. This past Friday night was originally supposed to be the homecoming game for the local high school. The schedule had to be changed a bit because of the uncertainty of the opponents being able to field a team. There was talk around the league that they may have had to forfeit this game, so homecoming for the local school was rescheduled. The opponents, which are rivals of my local school district, were able to field a team and the game was played. The game was