Despite The Bitter Cold, I Don't See Florida As An Option, Darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 Back in the Sixties, darlings there were these TV ads by a man named Jim Dooley ,(who I think had had something to do with sports) who would espouse the glories of Florida, saying, famously, "Come on down!"  Thousands of my parents generation were seduced by Dooley's depiction of the Sunshine State as a living mecca,  and one of those was my late Uncle Tom, who, with his wife, and three children, moved to Florida, in the summer of 1968.  As my Aunt Agnes' siblings all got older, and retired, most of them (not my Uncle Jack, who, sadly died at a young 64 in 1980) made their way to Florida, eventually settling into a condo development, wherein they all dwelt, houses away from each other.

                                 So, against my choice, Florida was a part of my life for a long time.  It ended in the fall of 2011, when my father moved up north to Pennsylvania, at a facility near my sister's.

                                  In the face of this freezing cold weather, I have heard several pedestrians pining for Florida, but you want to know something?  I don't!  I admit the sun can be enjoyable (though unbearable in the Summer) but, if you are used to Northeastern life, there is no sophistication--no real culture, no anything, just miles of strip malls with ersatz summer wear.  Cuisine?  Forget it!!!!   You think you can get good Chinese Food in Florida???? Or Italian???? You are doing real good at home, with a can of Franco-American, compared to how they cook down there!

                                   Swaying palm trees???? Ocean breezes?  Darlings, if you thought Sandy was bad, think of the hurricanes they get down there--and yet people are still foolish enough (or maybe rich!!!!!!) to build, again and again, on the water.

                                      Jim Dooley was a bullshit quack, who sold a particular generation a precise Bill of Goods.  I cannot call it false, since countless flocked, and thought it was the greatest. But I cannot help noticing  how children of this "Florida Generation" do not follow in their parents wake, by going there.  When that generation goes, and, ultimately the Baby Boomers (some of whom keep up the myth!!!!!) I wonder what will happen to Florida?????  They keep talking about, writing songs about, California sinking into the sea, but, truth is, that state has more to offer.  Maybe when we are all gone, Florida will sink, or just drift off from the mainland, and by that time no one will be around to bemoan it.

                                          So, despite this bitter cold we are having, I will take it, over Florida!

                                           I know Connie Francis sang that was "Where The Boys Are," but she was talking about a two week, vacation limited, period, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not a life sentence!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            Besides, the state used to be associated with Anita Bryant! Enough said!!!!!!!!!