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Letter to the editor

Old-timer recalls when citrus ruled area

The veteran citrus man says developers aren't frequent visitors any more.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES, Times Correspondent
Published November 23, 2007

A vintage postcard shows Orange Blossom Groves in Seminole. Al Repetto still owns the land this store and the sister store occupy.
	[Courtesy of Al Repetto]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times (2005)] Al Repetto, who lives in Seminole, spends his days mending fences, building corrals and taking care of a few remaining acres of groves in Clearwater and Seminole. He still owns the property where both stores sit. Citrus Country Groves has taken over the operations.

Back when land was cheap and travel was on a dirt road, citrus was king in Pinellas County.

And Al Repetto was the king of the citrus shippers.

Last week, about 150 history buffs showed up at the Largo Feed Store to hear Repetto, 83, reminisce about the land and orange blossoms he loved.

Repetto was introduced as someone as big and strong as an ox, who could hold three grapefruit in one hand. His nickname was the "Fruit Hog" because he was so adept at picking.

In his down-home drawl, he recalled the days when orange groves blanketed the county. He said that sometimes they'd use 38-foot ladders to reach the tops of the fruit trees. He remembered how pickers would get hernias loading fruit and how orange juice was squeezed by hand.

It was a time when folks knew just about everybody there was to know.

"There weren't too many strangers," he said.

His biggest seller was navel oranges. Among grapefruit, the sweet and juicy Duncan ruled.

Then "we had the '62 freeze and we went to the east coast pickin' red grapefruit over there," he said. "When we brought that back, they didn't want no more Duncans."

The crowd roared with laughter.

Besides fruit, the citrus farmers ate a wide and varied diet.

"There wasn't nothing that crawled or walked on the land that people didn't eat," he said.

Repetto was born in Pinellas in 1924. In 1946, after serving in the Navy, he and his brother-in-law bought a citrus grove on Seminole Boulevard. They called it Orange Blossom Groves.

A few years later, they bought some land at U.S. 19 N and Belleair Road from Repetto's father.

They sold fruit at small stands, which evolved into stores and packing plants where people came for orange ice cream, grapefruit candy, and boxes of fruit to take or ship home.

At the height of his business, he employed about 300.

A few of his hires have been around for 40 or 50 years. They help him take care of a herd of 400 Black Angus cattle in Manatee County.

"They got old like me but don't know enough to quit," he said.

Repetto, who lives in Seminole, and his fellow old-timers spend their days mending fences, building corrals and taking care of a few remaining acres of groves in Clearwater and Seminole. He still owns the property where both stores sit. Citrus Country Groves has taken over the operations.

Someone asked about the future of the citrus industry in Florida.

"It doesn't look real good," he said citing threats like canker, development, periodic freezes and hurricanes, and now "greening," a bacterium that can kill the trees.

"At one time we had about 900,000 acres of citrus in the state," he said. "They're down to something less than 500,000 now."

Until a couple of years ago, he was getting monthly offers on his property.

"The developers are kind of quieted down," he said. "They aren't out there looking for land too much right now."

The audience cracked up.

Terri Bryce Reeves can be reached at treeves@tampabay.rr.com.

[Last modified November 22, 2007, 22:22:10]