Abraham's Drug Store in Lacoochee

Lacoochee was a booming little town while the Cummer Cypress Lumber Company was in business. Besides the commissary, the business section of town consisted of wooden buildings that were joined side by side. I remember a grocery store , a pool hall (my aunt ran the pool hall in later years) and most of all, Abraham's Drug Store. Elias Abraham, affectionately known as Abe, owned and operated the drugstore.

Abe had the only telephone (as I remember.) I'm told he had all kinds of fun on April Fool's Day telling different people in town that they had a phone call. I have a picture of him and his wife in the drug store. When I was a little girl, it seemed so big. Now when I look at the picture, it seems so small.

Abe's daughter, Lorise, told me that my dad took a bag to Abe one day and asked him to save it for him. He stuck it where the ice cream dishes were. When my dad went back to get it, he told Abe that there was $17,000 in it. Abe said had he known he would have put it in the safe.

I was just turning four when we moved to Bradenton, but I remember hearing my parents say, "When the war's over, we're leaving Lacoochee." I came to the conclusion that Lacoochee must be a bad place to be. Looking back, they surely must have seen the handwriting on the wall. Lacoochee would not last forever. The lumber would eventually run out. They were correct. The town, which Cummer had built in 1922, began to diminish in size when the lumber mill closed in 1959. As I said before, many of the people moved to Dade City, but my parents had decided that they would move to Bradenton.

Some years later, there was a fire that destroyed all of the wooden buildings. Some buildings were replaced. Some of the houses that had been built for the employees were bought by them; others were demolished. Two of the houses now stand in the Pioneer Park in Dade City.

Where in the world is Lacoochee?

I chose to call my blog "Lacoochee Kid." Lacoochee happens to be the town in Florida where I was born 64 years ago. Yes, I am a native Floridian. That may not seem remarkable to anyone, but after the "northern invasion" to Florida, a true Florida native is hard to find. I'm quite proud of that fact, and when I meet someone new, I usually mention that I was born in Florida. The comment often is "I've never met a real Florida native before."

Lacoochee is located in Pasco county, a few miles northeast of Tampa. In its heyday, there was a cypress lumbermill there. My father was from Trilby another thriving metropolis close by. My mother moved to Lacoochee to live with her sister. She and my father met and married in 1933. My father worked at the lumber mill, and my mother ran the hotel.

Lacoochee was a company town. The Cummer Lumber Company operated a commissary, had a hotel, and provided housing for its employees. It really was a thriving community. The lumber mill closed in the 50's, and a lot of the people moved to Dade City.

I was born in 1941, in September, just before the United States entered the war in December. We left Lacoochee right before I turned four, but I have faint memories of my life there. I had two little friends, who along with me, were out to kill those ****. Sorry, I guess I have to be politically correct here. I have pictures of us with our wooden rifles.

My daddy volunteered to serve his country, but he was classified 4-F, so he was not able to go. However, in the lumber mill, because of the number of men serving overseas, German prisoners of war were brought over to work. Part of my daddy's job was to guard these prisoners. He became friends with one of them. This particular man had a little boy who was the same age as me. Somewhere among old photos, there is a picture of this little boy.

One other thing about Lacoochee that I remember is the wooden sidewalks. Riding a tricycle over those boards was not the easiest thing...

Enough for one day....more about Lacoochee at another time.

Why am I doing this?

For some weeks now I have been reading blogs. It all started with my son, who shared with me his posts. I clicked on links from his blog and feel like I have traveled the world. I told him that some of what I read is over my head. I read blogs that are for the most part written by young adults, and I find it very interesting to read their thoughts and wonder why I did not have all these profound thoughts in my younger years. Maybe I did and just did not express them.

As I was talking with my son about all the blogs, he encouraged me to think about blogging and to write down some of my memories of my childhood and young adulthood, my experiences as an elementary school teacher, as well as my experiences in Haiti, when I lived there before I was married.

So that is what I shall attempt to do. I find that it is much easier to journal this way than by writing it all about longhand.