Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

She feels just fine here, in any season

A retiree loves her lot in life at Americana Cove, during hurricane season - when she seeks shelter - and all other times.

By NICK JOHNSON
Published July 22, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Mobile home living is often thought of as a last resort, when the cost of housing limits the options.

For Virginia Curtis, 88, who has lived in her mobile home for 28 years, it is part of an idyllic Florida lifestyle that she and her husband embraced in retirement.

In October 1979, Virginia and Manley Curtis retired from Niles, Mich., to the Mobile Americana mobile home park, now Americana Cove.

The resident-owned, 55-and-older park, at 7201 First St. N, lies along a series of canals that lead to Riviera Bay.

Virginia's mobile home sits on one of the canals. They once had a dock and a boat. She remembers Manley and their grandchildren fishing and swimming through the canals and bay.

After her husband died in 1995, Curtis sold the boat and eventually had the dock removed to make way for a new seawall, but her love of the community and the fond memories haven't changed.

"I keep telling everybody they're going to carry me out of here when I die," she said. "I love it here."

Curtis feels safe and content here.

Her home, built in 1972, has had additional tiedowns put in as a safety measure. The park has never flooded or endured major damage because of a storm.

If a hurricane is forecast, her solution is simple: She evacuates.

"It's well planned and we have a list of places we can go, hurricane shelters in the area," Curtis said.

As a "block captain," when an evacuation is ordered, she calls a number of residents, who also make calls until everyone in the park has been notified.

"It's called a pyramid calling system, so within five minutes everybody knows that we have to leave," said Dawn Simmons, who manages the park.

Curtis has evacuated a number of times, once to Meadowlawn Middle School, but now would go to her granddaughter's house in Clearwater, she said.

In Michigan, Manley had been a railroad worker and Virginia had worked in the personnel department of a textile company.

After raising seven daughters and three sons, she started spending a good deal of time caring for her aging parents in Florida.

Manley decided that with the amount of time she was spending here, they might as well move south. He told her brother, who lived in Americana Cove, that if a place on the water was available, they would be willing to buy.

When a neighboring mobile home came up for sale that matched what they were looking for, Virginia flew down.

"I came down and bought it. My husband didn't even see it until he moved in," she said.

Their new home was nothing like the mobile homes she was familiar with in Michigan.

"I did know about mobile homes up North, which are nothing like living down here," she said. "They were just mobile homes where the people came and went, but here it's social."

Curtis said that they quickly made friends in the park and that since Manley's death, she has been even more active.

She served as the president of the park's board of directors for six years. She said she doesn't worry about what might happen if a storm were to hit the area. She evacuates every time and said that her life is the only important thing - material possessions can always be replaced.

As long as she is able to live on her own, she plans to stay put.

"What I like about here, too, is that it's close to everything," she said. "I don't think you could live in a better place."

Nick Johnson can be reached at nickjohnson@sptimes.com or 893-8361.

[Last modified July 21, 2007, 23:51:31]