Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Recollecting the days of undeveloped Hillsborough
Before "new people" transform the area, friends who have lived there for decades are sharing their stories.
By LETITIA STEIN
Published April 22, 2005
Once a month, the pioneers of the Gibsonton area gather to gab about old times.
They remember in meticulous detail life before electricity and paved roads, when a few farmers made their homes in remote corners of Hillsborough County called Gibsonton, Gardenville and Adamsville.
"Who else is going to talk about it?" says Edith Illgen, 80, a regional resident for more than five decades. "New people are buying up the land."
Her friend Maxine Easton, 88, noted sadly, "They don't care about it." A lifelong resident of east Hillsborough, Easton is related to the Brandon family, the namesake of today's booming suburb.
The region's pioneers still chuckle at memories of wood stoves and the debut of laundry detergent.
As they reminisce, Jeanie Johnson records every word. She wants to preserve the history of an area rapidly paving over its colorful past.
About 31/2 years ago, Johnson started asking longtime residents to share their memories. Her mother, a longtime Gibsonton resident, had dreamed of compiling a book of its history.
After her mother passed away, Johnson decided to take on the project. She plans to call the book Swamp Cabbage, which is a cheap vegetable that locals relied on for a tasty meal during the cash-starved days of the Great Depression.
"People who grew up here in the Depression never knew they were poor because they ate well," says Johnson, 62, who grew up in Gibsonton.
She hopes to weave such colorful details about local life with a timeline of national events. The book will not go into detail about the carnival workers who long have made their winter homes in the region, because they were not there year-round.
History will not be rushed. Scores of new subdivisions under construction in Gibsonton are likely to be finished before the book is ready for publication. Johnson has begun to type up a few of the stories collected so far from longtime residents.
Her group collects any scrap of history from the region, asking longtime residents to remember the names of children who played in Gibsonton's youth baseball league. And they share laughs at how times have changed.
"Notice that in this phone number are only six digits," Johnson observes, as she passes around photocopies of 40-year-old newspapers. "Lots of changes from '61 to now."
Letitia Stein can be reached at 661-2443 or lstein@sptimes.com
PASS IT ON
If you have history to pass on from the Gibsonton, Adamsville, Gardenville and Riverview areas, contact Jeanie Johnson at 671-3693. A group working on a local history book, called Swamp Cabbage, meets the second Tuesday of each month at Jeanie Johnson's house, 11002 Ekker Road in Gibsonton.
[Last modified April 21, 2005, 08:33:10]
Share your thoughts on this story
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Email editor
