My final Reflections

I loved this class so much.  It is one I hate to see end.  I am sure I have mentioned before that I hated living here when I first moved here and after a while I settled in to acceptance, but now I genuinely like living here.  Knowing somethnig about the area makes me feel more like a part of the community I live in.  Makes it feel more like home.  I am sorry I missed the canoe trip!  If I could make any changes in the course, I might make it longer- like 2 semesters.  so much more to see, do, learn and be a part of.  I am sure not everyone would agree but it was an awesome experience for me. 
The only thing  I didnt like was all the various forms of technology we had to use.  I do understand it looks great on a resume, but I am afraid to put Wiki on any because I do not want anyone to assume that it is in any way an area I have mastered.   I love the blog and I think it would have been awesome for us to have jopined each others blogs to share thoughts and ideas.    I loved the Land Before Time.  I plan to keep the book and reread it again someday when I have time, now that I can actally visualize the settings as they would have seen it.  I struggled with understanding some of the hardships because I did not know what a land hammock was among other things.  I finished the book shortly after the semester started so I didnt have a clear memory of how it fell in sequence during the testing. 
I would toss the Colloquim reader out the door!  I say laughingly.  There were some things that I found interesting but some of the reading was so over my head or so dry that I needed a glass of milk with it to get it down.  I think I would have felt better about it, if I did not have to look up every other word in some of the readings.  It is hard to enjoy what you do not understand. 

I wish we could have went on a swamp buggy ride to see some of the wild life in its natural habitat.  I have to say laughingly, that I would add this just because I want to do it myself and I am sure that seeing the living nature would inhance ones appreciation for preserving their habitiat!

I am an Island!

There isnt too much left to tell about my family and very few people left to tell it, but I will give the readers digest version of what I do know and what I could find out by talking to my dad.   My dad's dad or my grandfather was Antonio Hernandez.  He was from Santa Somewhere Mexico- to many Santa to guess which and no one knows for sure since Antonio left that all behind when he was a teenager and fled to the US in search of a better life.  He got a job with the railroad.  This took him into the state of Kentucky where he met and married my grandmother, Mary.  They moved North with the Railroad and ended up in Rome New York where they raised 8 chidlren until Mary passed away. My grandfather remained a very illegal alien until he passed away in the late 60's.  He aquired some sort of wealth that he carried around in cash everywhere he went.  I guess he could not really invest in anything since he made his money raising, selling and fighting roosters.  He had a home in New York and a home in Plant City Florida that he would travel back and forth on a whim via greyhound bus until he passed.  I remember he would give me dollars for everything I could say in Spanish.  My older sister taught me what I knew.  Boy I wish I had retained that since it is so essential to be bilingual these days.
 My dad joined the Marine corp at a very young age, ended up in North Carolina where he met and married my mother.  My mother was originally from a small town named Blackhawk  or something like that.  I didnt know that until after she passed away in 1997.  Her father had passed away before I was born and her mother passed when I was 3 or 4 years old.  I never got to know my dads family because we live so far away and although I did get to meet, spend time with and love people on my mothers side of the family.  It has been a long time since I have given any of this any thought.  I am the only surviving female in my immediate family.  No one on my mothers side of the family lives beyond the early 50's.  I can not think of one person who lived to see 55 years of age.  Cancer has taken all the females and it didnt bother to skip a generation.  I lost my grandmother, my mother, my sister, my first cousin, and 90% of the remaining females in our family to the same cancers.  We were just a family that didnt have a lot of family events or attachements due to distance, decease and death.   To add to the distance, I am here in Fort Myers Florida with my 8 year old and we are all the family each of us has here.  We are a long way from what  family remains and well, it is hard to say where home is when your heart has been broken so many times over the loss of loved ones. 
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My Sense of Place Part Two

I was born May 23rd 1964.  Black and white photography was not a novelty then, it was the way it was because it was significantly less expensive than color.  It wasnt until the 70's that color became an affordable option for everyday photography. 

These pictures were taken at Christmas ( a holiday) with all my moms family present.  I was about 1 1/2 years old so 1966??? The interesting thing is the details in the photos like to color linolium flooring, the old clothes and shoes, the puppy slinky and the rockum sockum robots.  In the bottem picture, if you look just behind me you will see that big brown thing behind me.  I think it was the only heat sourse in the house.   Notice the fire place is covered or closed up.   Oh and the hair styles definatly date the photos. 

This is the first snow I ever remember in my life.  We lived so close to the Atlantic coast that it only snows like this about once a decade.  This was in the 70's.  On the left, me and the family dog a German Shepard pup named Ceazar.  This is the back yard, notice all we had was pine tree. The right is my mother playing in the front yard, just across the road (that you can not see) beyond the mail box, notice again a line of thick woods full of Pine trees. 

This is a picture of my daughter in 1985.  She would be flattered to know I added her to my blog but I am posting the picture to show the TV in the background.  HAHAHA, Notice that is still has dials to change the channel.  I think that big box on top of it was the first cable boxes.  Yes I was born about 15 years before cable became a big deal for everyone to have.  That is when MTV really was MUSIC television.  



The top photo is of the intercoastal waterway on the sound side of Emerald Isle NC.  It was the back yard from our 32 ft Camper.  I loved it there.  The bottem photo is me roughing it in the Kitchen of our camper.  It had a bathroom, a bedroom, a color TV with cable and the dock was right out the doors to the rear of the camper.  I sure miss that camper.   I think the helicopter flying in the air of the top photo is Pedro, a search and rescue copter from Cherry Point Marine corp base just about 30 miles down the road. 

My now ex husband and I both worked at Sprint at this time and we made great money!   This was the time of excess in my life and for all that we had, I wanted to pack it all up to live in this camper that was smaller than 1/2 of the  2 car garage at our 2000 square foot house.  When I think about the stress we lived to maintain that lifestyle and the fact that although we could afford the big house and the waterfront camper on the Island.  We rarely had time to enjoy it.  What a waste!

My sense of Place Part One

 None of my grand parents are still alive so I can not interview them so I am going to blog about my 46 years of life and what I do know about me and my own sense of place.  I did not write this article,  I found it on line and read it learning a few things that I myself did not know about where I came from.  So I am starting my story with it.

MCAS Cherry Point History

It is said that the name “Cherry Point” comes from a post office established in the area for the Blades Lumber people some years ago. The post office was closed in 1935. The original “Point” was on the south side of the Neuse River east of Hancock Creek, and the word “Cherry” came from cherry trees that at one time grew on the point.
Congress authorized Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on
July 9, 1941, with an initial appropriation of $14,990,000 for construction and clearing of an 8,000-acre tract of swamps,
farms and timberland.
Actual clearing of the site began on Aug. 6, 1941, with extensive drainage and malaria control work. Construction began in November just 17 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Cherry Point’s first commanding officer, Lt. Col. Thomas J. Cushman, landed the first plane, a J2F Grumman amphibious biplane, at the air station on March 18, 1942. The air station was commissioned on May 20, 1942, as Cunningham Field, in honor
of the Marine Corp’s first aviator, Lt. Alfred A. Cunningham. In August 1942, one year after land clearing began, the first
Marines arrived.
Cherry Point is one of the world’s largest Marine Corps air stations and one of the best all-weather jet bases in the world. The size of the air station has increased form the original 8,000 acres to more than 13,000 acres at the primary complex, with nearly 16,000 additional acres in associated support locations. In fact, Cherry Point’s runway system is so large that the air station serves as an alternate emergency-landing site for space shuttle launches out of Cape Canaveral, Fla.

militarynewcomers.com/ ©2010 Benchmark Publications, Inc.

({{Information |Source=[http://www.dodmedia.osd.mil/Assets/1982/Marines/DM-SC-82-07671.JPEG ID:DMSC8207671] |Author=Service Depicted: Marines</br>Camera Operator: SSGT JOMP |Description=An air-to-air right side view of a Marine EA-6A Intruder aircraft f)

Downtown Fort Myers

I have to say that I hated Fort Myers when I first moved here.  I didnt know anyone, I didnt know any thing about any place.  Every thing seemed so far away.  As we get down to the last five weeks of class I have to say that taking this course is probably the best thing I could have done to overcome my dislike of the area.  The more we have traveled around learning about the various places and the history of the area, the more I like it and the more beautiful it becomes.  Today was a tour of Downtown Fort Myers. 

Here it is.

Three Friends

A beautiful work of art about three men who did in fact spend time camping with each other.

 Thomas Edison

 Henry Ford and Firestone

 The teacher took my notes, but from what I recall: this statue is of a black soldier in commeneration all the black soldiers sent to Florida during the civil war. 

There was once two air fields here in Fort Myers.  The weather was optimal for training pilots here.

 This is a column from the Sidny Berne Davis Art Museum is made of Limestone and coral reefs from the  Florida Keys

 Formerly a Post Office and later a federal courthouse Fort Myers was once considered  to be Monroe County

 I didnt take a picture of the first high rise in Fort Myers behind this beautiful  front.

 The first concrete sidewalks in Fort Myers were constructed on the site pictured above in 1906. 

 Very interesting to learn  the over hangs that provide shade were a deliberate effort to cause people to seek refuge from the hot sun to stay in front of a business, in hopes that they would wander in to shop.

Bank Holidays - the bank would close for however long, you could not get to your money until it reopened!  Can you imagine that happening?  

 I love that narrow little green building across the street. 

 This is a store from in the Patio De Leon Courtyard. 

Oh I had the best slice of Tomato Basil Pizza at a place right across the yard!

 General Lee made of Tile.  Lee County was named after him.

 This is also a made of Tile.  Amazing to see in person.  It is like a time line of the Fort Myers area. 

 Look a historical Quiznos Sub place-

No just kidding- I mean it is there but no historical significance beyond staving off hunger so you can continue to enjoy touring the beautiful river district area. Looking down the street you can see how beautiful the whole area is!

Caloosahatchee River Bridge

The End!

Pelicans on a feeding frenzy

Random Photos

I was downtown today looking for Art to write about and found it to be such a beautiful place, I got out and walk around a little.  I found a little history and some beautiful trees.

So clean and crisp!

I see a lady laying back on the limbs from the limbs of this tree.  Do you see her?

This Photo - ugly fense = Beautiful Sunset at Lakes Park.

Not from downtown trip, just a nice scene.



ECHO ( Educational Concerns For Hunger Organization)

        Being a Christian or “a follower of Christ” I was so thrilled with this field trip!  ECHO is a non-profit, non denominational Christian organization that simply wants to glorify God by helping poor countries learn self- sustainability.  There are student interns that come here for a year to learn specific ideas using plants and animals that already exist in a particular area to survive

 These Interns share what they have learned to help others exist in the most difficult areas of the world.  There are too many photos for me to describe each and everyone but everything you see is part of the circle of life or a part of the food chain.  Each animal and plant work together to maintain balance in that circle.   

I wonder why we live in such a fruit filled area, yet so many people have no access to it!