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Present at the creation, again
A Clearwater woman helped open the first bridge in 1927 and she'll be on hand Saturday to help christen the new one.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published August 26, 2005
The celebration to open the new Clearwater Memorial Causeway bridge has been a long time in the making. But for Ethel Palmer, it's old hat.
You see, Ethel's in that grainy photo, the 6-year-old girl with the devilish grin and flower in her hair, center stage at the opening of the first Clearwater bridge in 1927. She's not rubbing her eyes, or watching someone rub their eyes. She's not focused on the grass or puckering her lips. She's smiling.
She'll be smiling Saturday, too (even if there's wind and rain), when she helps christen the new bridge.
Ethel remembers the day she opened the first bridge to the beach, 78 years ago:
"It's pretty remarkable to see what the waterfront looked like that day. The bridge was a dock, a flat dock, all the way across.
"When it was time to open the bridge, I think it was in May. I guess it was Memorial Day. Anyway, the girls from North Ward Elementary dressed up in their little pretty dresses. I was so poor I didn't have white shoes, I had socks.
"Anyway, there was a group from North Ward, and a group from South Ward. We acted as a gate, and when they told us, we opened up the bridge."
Ethel moved to Clearwater in 1924 from Gainesville, where her father had been a dairy farmer. Later, she attended Clearwater High School and then Florida State College for Women.
She joined the Army during World War II: platoon commander, company commander - "those types of things," she said.
After the war, she came back to Clearwater and has been here ever since.
And as a veteran of these bridge openings, Ethel will participate in Saturday's ceremony heralding the $69.3-million project.
"The new bridge is beautiful. It ought to be beautiful," said Ethel, who now volunteers at the Clearwater Beach visitors center.
"There is, of course, a problem: It's going to get traffic across the causeway, but unless something drastic is done about the parking on Clearwater Beach, there's not going to be anywhere for the traffic to go."
[Last modified August 26, 2005, 01:36:21]
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