2nd Avenue North, St. Petersburg, FL
In 1994 my husband and I moved to St. Petersburg, FL. We were interested in moving to a warm climate and starting our own business. We bought into a cruise only travel program. Then we bought our house, and opened our Exclusively Cruises, travel agency. We operated it out of our office that we made out of our garage. We made a lot of business type friends and joined the Home Based Business Association in St. Petersburg.
During all this time we were employed by Home Shopping Network, as they had plenty of jobs available back then. My husband was a Telecommunications Operator, and I worked as a network call representative. Our hours though, were really long and was mostly night shift work. I changed jobs and went to work at a CPA firm near my home. Computers were part of our life, but the internet had not come into its own yet, and was not that easy to work with back then.
He visited us almost daily for a hand fed snack!
Having been raised in Florida myself, I had a special bond with the sunshine state. My husband of course, loved the warm weather and the water. He is certified scuba diver and loves the beach.
Our cute little house that we bought on a camping trip to FL!
We bought a very small house, and then our kids all wanted to live in Florida with us. We really had no room for them and a business too. It was a hardship having just moved somewhere to start a business, and have three kids move in on us. It is not like they were little kids, that would have been completely different. The two of us know how and can sacrifice when the need arrives, but not our kids. So it wasn't easy for a time.
The scenery in FL can not be beat!
Luckily, going to the beach was pretty much free. All we had to pay for was the parking! Can't beat that. We spent many days off languishing on the white sandy beaches around St. Petersburg.
Larry & Hollie exploring one of the many marinas.
There were other things to do around St. Petersburg. We would go shopping at the beautiful malls. Visit us the nearby marinas and just being around the water was so refreshing. We loved eating at Morrison's Cafeteria, it was one place we went to almost every week. Two other places we liked to get food from was Church's Chicken, and for hamburgers, without a doubt, was Checkers. We still miss those places. We hardly ever go out to eat anymore. But back then we were not into the homesteading lifestyle yet.
Miss those beaches of the Gulf!
We have not been back to Florida since we left in 1995. Having pets and horses sort of keeps us at home now. We talk of getting a "snow bird" house in Florida someday. With the oil spill business we aren't too sure about that at the moment. We will see what happens in the future. We have thought of getting one in the area I grew up, in Crescent City as I have found so many of my old friends from there. It would be really nice to have a place to go, to get away from the cold and snow of NY, in the coldest months. For now..............I will just dream..............
Updated 2021
Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
. This morning I did just that. I got up at 3:00 AM so I could view 
Earth. I visited my friend Cynthia's house in 
. I couldn't remember the exact address, but surprisingly remembered how to get there. Not bad when you consider that we moved from there in 1967! I was able to see the street view which makes you able to see the houses, the cars in the driveways and the plants in the yards. It brought back memories for me. Remembering the time Cynthia and I were skate boarding down the hill that goes toward
I fell off and broke my capped tooth that I had already broke a previous time doing something else. But my parents had just had a new cap put on. So my mother said the dentist felt sorry for her having to replace the new one so soon, and only charged her his cost of ten bucks for it.
. The St. John's River is actually why my parents moved my brother, Mickey and me there in 1962 to begin with. The area is known as the "the bass capital of the world" and that was the key to my parents choosing to move there to begin with. We were a fishing family, my parents' very favorite thing to do with the exception of swimming. Water sports. Our house was a mile from the river and it was a good life. I always wished we had never moved from there. That was my favorite house.
is that you can view the address you are looking for just like you are walking down the street. I looked at my old house in
and saw how big the little plants had become that my husband and I planted in 1994. You could see the details of the house to match it with the way the house looked when we lived there. Completely changed! Sometimes the address Earth Google puts up is not exact. It showed a different address for our house but I was able to look at details that were the same and of course, the houses across the street and next door.
decorations in those windows. We used to meet her at work many times after school and go swimming in Lake Stella. I viewed
also. Wonderful place for swimming back in the 60's. Don't know how it is now.