60+ Years of Memories!

I moved to Orlando from Western Massachusetts in 1961 as an elementary school student after my father took a job in the defense industry. My mom shortly thereafter was hired as a teacher at Lake Como Elementary School, and we enjoyed strolling up to school together in the mornings from our nearby neighborhood. From those early years I remember Duck and Cover exercises during the Cuban Missile Crisis, learning Spanish on TV with Senoritas Rosita and Conchita, the Alley Cat dance and how to twirl a baton, and being a cheerleader for informal tag football games after school. Taking piano lessons at the Iris Daniel Engel School of Music on Summerlin. Participating in a 100-piano festival at the old, acoustically challenged Orlando Munical Auditorium. (What a difference from what we have now!) Attending Advent Lessons and Carols at Knowles Memorial Chapel on the Rollins College campus at the invitation of one of my teachers who sang in the choir (an event that cemented my determination to sing in the Chapel Choir myself, which I did over a 25-year span during and following my days as a student there). Serving as the Easter Seal Ambassador for Central Florida after attending (and learning to swim!) at Camp Challenge, then Florida's only summer camp for kids with handicaps/disabilities/special needs, in 1962.

I have other vivid memories from this time that will probably stay with me forever. The delicate scents of orange blossoms and night-blooming jasmine. The iconic neon signs at the Orange Court Hotel downtown, the Western Way Shopping Center on West Colonial Drive and the Merita Bread bakery on Kaley (oh, that smell, too!). Lovely Leu Gardens. The T. G. Lee cow pasture abutting the dairy in the Milk District and the hubbub when the pasture was sold for development of an extension of the old Colonial Plaza strip mall, anchored by the (4 stories high!) Jordan Marsh store. The 360-degree view of solid orange groves from the top of the Citrus Tower in Clermont. The sounds of the carillon Tower at the peaceful and serene Historic Bok Sanctuary in Lake Wales. Eating from the kid's menu at Ronnie's Restaurant, and its iconic sign, as well!) Visiting one of many freshwater springs nearby (Rock Springs was a favorite). And, of course, the beaches on either coast, so easily reached from our central location in the state. The morphing of Lake Barton Road into State Road 436 and the buildling of I-4. AND the grand opening of Walt Disney World, at which I sang in the massed choir during my freshman year at Rollins.

After college and grad school I returned to Orlando, singing with the first Orlando Opera Performing Studio, the Messiah Choral Society, the Bach Festival and others, and serving several churches as organist and choirmaster, including one that started out as a fledgling congregation meeting in an Elk's lodge and at a downtown storefront before building their forever home in East Winter Park.

Flashing forward a number of years, I practiced law at several of the historic locations - The State Bank of Orlando building at 1 North Orange, the Empire Hotel Building on Central and the Tinker building on Pine Street. Court hearings were held at the old downtown post office, the former courthouse that now houses the Orange County HIstorical Museum and the old Angebilt Hotel on Orange - and I musn't forget traffic court at the former J.C. Penney's building at Orange and Jefferson!

I was also privileged to be one of the founders of and the legal advisor for the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and its predecessor, Music Orlando, during the 1990s, and to serve as an initial stakeholder and board member of the Healthy Community Initiative of Greater Orlando, as well as on other boards in the area.

And now I'm privileged to live in almost century-old home in a beautiful old neighborhood (with live oaks!) near SODO and to enjoy strolling around one of the city's many lovely nearby parks with my husband. A couple of years ago we even took the maiden voyage of Lake Eola's new wheelchair-accessible swan boat, during which we got a(n unintended but fun!) up-close and personal look at workers cleaning and maintaining the fountain whose colored lights mesmerized that elementary school kid years ago during evenings when ner parents would drive downtown for a look. I also now have my psychotherapy practice in one of the older downtown neighborhood, close to home.

Add to all of this the many friends (plus the afore-mentioned husband!) I met here over the years and there's a story of a life happily lived in Orlando. I'm looking forward to my next adventure in The City Beautiful - I wonder what it will be!