Before Disney World existed...

[catrancher]

As I'm sure many of you may know, Florida was a tourist haven long before Disney came to town and turned sleepy little Orlando into the tourist mecca that it is now.

Growing up in Florida during the 50's and 60's, I have fond memories of many of these before Disney (would that be BD?) tourist traps. In fact, the father of a boy in my neighborhood used to be a supplier of all the strange tourist trinkets you would find in these shops (ever seen the alligator salt and pepper shakers?). Anyway, his garage served as his storage room and it was a paradise for curious 8 and 9 year olds.

But I digress. I thought all of you might find a little Florida tourism history interesting, so when I ran across this page:

Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions

I thought I would share it with you. Just try not to laugh too hard at what passed for attractions in those days.

And... please be sure to visit the link about "Webb City". That was in the town where I grew up and I still have fond memories of my grandfather taking me down there to get a haircut!

Tom (... reminiscing a little today!)

[daveann]

thought the bit about selling $ bills for 95c was funny

[Shellyamc]

As I'm sure many of you may know, Florida was a tourist haven long before Disney came to town and turned sleepy little Orlando into the tourist mecca that it is now.

Growing up in Florida during the 50's and 60's, I have fond memories of many of these before Disney (would that be BD?) tourist traps. In fact, the father of a boy in my neighborhood used to be a supplier of all the strange tourist trinkets you would find in these shops (ever seen the alligator salt and pepper shakers?). Anyway, his garage served as his storage room and it was a paradise for curious 8 and 9 year olds.

But I digress. I thought all of you might find a little Florida tourism history interesting, so when I ran across this page:

Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions

I thought I would share it with you. Just try not to laugh too hard at what passed for attractions in those days.

And... please be sure to visit the link about "Webb City". That was in the town where I grew up and I still have fond memories of my grandfather taking me down there to get a haircut!

Tom (... reminiscing a little today!)

My Mom and Dad had that gator S&P shaker!! I used to play with it all the time as a kid