Garden
of Eden
Mrs. Sue Spears Bennett
Garden
of Eden
Mrs. Sue Spears Bennett
Susie Mae Spears was born in her home on Anderson Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) in 1911. Her grandparents and parents came to the area in 1908 from Bartow, Florida. Her family has been in Florida since the 1850s and lived in an area called Orange Springs, near Ocala. Here Grandfather was a dentist and a preacher and "figured there would be more opportunities here," so they made the journey south. Her father was an engineer with the railroad and followed it down not too long after Sue's grandparents came here. Sue said it was like the "last frontier down in this area."
Cattle played an important role in early Fort Myers history. Cattle drivers moved the herds from Immokalee to the docks at Punta Rassa. Sue remembers the cattle going down Anderson avenue in front of her house on their way to Punta Rassa.
Sue attended the Gwynne Institute and "enjoyed every moment of going to school." She played basketball, was a cheerleader, and was on the swimming team. There were 68 people in here graduating class in 1929 and she received her diploma from Thomas A. Edison, while Mrs. Edison gave the commencement speech.
When Sue was small and still could not read very well, her father would take her to the Arcade theater to watch silent movies. She said no one wanted to sit next to them because she would always ask her father what the words on the screen said. She had an aunt who was one of the piano players at the theater. Before sound in the movies, the piano player would have to keep watching the movie in order to change the tempo of the music to go along with the action on the screen.
On some Saturday nights during the winter months, some streets downtown were closed in the evening to make room for dancing. They would play music that everybody could dance to and they "were almost certainly playing 'Let me call you sweetheart'". Mrs. Bennett loved to dance and still loves to dance. The Saturday night dances lost popularity when they paved the roads and made dancing a little less comfortable.
Evans Park on the northwest corner of the intersection of Heitman Street and McGregor Boulevard was the "center of the community recreation activities in the 1920s and 30s." The Pleasure Pier was at the end of the street that separated the community pool and the tennis courts. ( Barnes and Weidenbach.Early Fort Myers: Tales of Two Sisters,73) Mrs. Bennett remembers many entertainment programs at The Pier (as it was commonly called) including dancing and singing, and she performed many solo performances at The Pier to the delight of many. The Pier deteriorated and was torn down before the beginning of World War II.
Another popular activity amongst the locals was the beach. Unlike the wall to wall buildings seen today, the beaches were practically deserted and open to everyone. Every Sunday afternoon during the summer, her family and others would take a picnic dinner to the beach after church. They would park right on the beach and "enjoy the beach and life."
Mrs. Bennett has fond memories of the Royal Palm Hotel, where the Amtel hotel know stands. She took dancing lessons there when she was younger and remembers that "it was always full of tourists during the winter." Many people would go to the hotel to simply walk around the grounds and marvel at the beautiful landscaping. After walking around the grounds, people would go and walk around downtown, which was referred to simply as "town" back them.
Everyone would come to town on a Saturday night when all the stores were open until 10:00 p.m. People would come from outside of town, park their cars on First street, and then walk around town to shop, visit, and get ice cream at Candy Kitchen Smith's.
Mrs. Bennett does not remember the food lines that were a common site in cities across the US during the Great depression. "There was always the river and it was always full of fish." In addition to the abundance of fish, there were groves full of fruit and friendly folks willing to help people in need.
Before, during, or after the depression people would help those in need. A person who was traveling and hungry would knock on a door and always be fed.
On March 12, 1924, the first bridge was erected over the Caloosahatchee river. It was a narrow wooden structure that only one car at a time could cross. Every so often on the bridge would be a cut out so if you saw a car coming you could move over and allow it to pass. Mrs. Bennett drove across the bridge the day it opened with her parents.
In 1928, the Tamiami Trail opened allowing quicker passage to the east coast. Not long after it opened, Sue and a few friends braved the trail to go to Miami and buy decorations for their Junior/Senior prom. They saw an abundance of wildlife including birds, deer, and alligator. Between here and Miami there was absolutely nothing, so if you broke down you had to rely on the kindness on another intrepid driver to assist you. In retrospect, Sue marvels at her bravery: "We were daring . . . . What were we thinking!"
After Sue's mother died, she and her father moved into her grandmother's home on Monroe street. Across the street lived Dr. Stanley Hanson, who was the Seminole Indians "white friend". Dr. Hanson spoke their language and spent much time amongst them in the Everglades. Dr. Hanson had an empty lot next to his house where the Indians would build thatched huts and live for brief periods of time. Mrs. Bennett remembers how beautiful their traditional clothing was. The men wore knee length skirts; the women wore full length skirts; and "never any shoes". She noted that when a Seminole man did something that the tribe considered wrong, a part of his skirt was ripped off the bottom. When his skirt got too short, he was banished from the tribe and made to live in the Everglades alone and away from the tribe.
Not everything that happened in the area was joyful. In the past few decades, the southwest coast of Florida has been spared devastating hurricanes. But in the first half of the century, hurricanes were a fact of life. She remembers when she was a small girl, standing in waist deep water in front of her grandmother's house on Monroe street after a hurricane came through. She recalls when several young men from her high school went to Clewiston to assist the town find survivors and clean up after the "Okeechobee hurricane" of 1928 that killed almost 3,000 people when the water blew out of the lake. After that, large dikes were built to contain the water in case of another hurricane.
During the early part of the war, she lived in Valdosta, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, where her husband had been transferred with his company S.H. Crest, a "5 and 10 store". She met her husband Cecil while he was working at the Crest in town and they married in 1931. When they moved back to the area during the later part of the war, they bought a home but were not allowed to live in it. All available living space had to go to the overflowing numbers of service men stationed here. The small town had a hard time coping with the increased numbers of service men and their families swarming the area. Sue and Cecil started a food stand simply referred to as "The Chicken Stand," which sold fried chicken dinners. Cecil's batter recipe was very popular, but he would not give his secret recipe to anyone.
Mrs. Sue Bennett had the fortunate opportunity to experience early southwest Florida before development engulfed most of the natural habitat that made the area so special. She feels very lucky to have had the opportunity to grow up here and to also have her children grow up here. To her and the early settlers of the area, Fort Myers was a "Garden of Eden."
Interviewee: Mrs. Sue Bennett
Interviewer: Cheryl Schmidt
Interview Date: November 29,1999
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