*******Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps*******

Maybe you didn’t know…..

…..but…just up the road from our swamp…is where Johnny Weissmuller’s “Tarzan” movies were filmed back in the 1930’s and ’40’s…..

*****(Johnny Weissmuller)*****

I grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey books…..

*****(Edgar Rice Burroughs)*****

We had all of my Dad’s old books…and for a slow reader…I read them voraciously…..

They were great…..

*****(Zane Grey)*****

My childhood games were fashioned around Zane Grey’s Old West and Edgar’s African Jungles…..

I spent Saturday mornings in northern Ohio (in the winter) watching Tarzan movies…..

Who would’ve ever thought I’d end up living near the same “jungles” as Tarzan(?)…..

*****(Silver Springs—Just Up The Road)*****

But you know…after wandering around our own backyard…it does look like the set of an early Tarzan movie…..

The different fixtures where I’ve ridden horses and Fox Hunted also have the same flora and fauna…just like a Johnny Weissmuller movie…..

*****(Tarzan’s Monkeys)*****

I read that there are three different types of monkeys in Florida…not only the ones who were introduced for the filming of the Tarzan movies…..

…..fortunately…we don’t have any swinging around in the swamp behind us…yet…..

Also…everybody’s high school required reading (or at least mine)…..was “The Yearling”…..

And it was based just up the road…in and around the Ocala National Forest…..

*****(The Yearling)*****

*****(More History on “The Yearling”)*****

*****(Ocala National Forest—I’m starting to feel like a tourist guide)*****

It’s hard enough living in sub-tropical Florida now…I can’t imagine what it was like as an early settler…the humidity alone is enough to kill you…..

*****(Wakulla Springs Lodge)*****

*****(Another Dystopian Abandoned Tourist Attraction)*****

I hope the “indiscriminate developers” of Florida will stop putting up more zero-lot-line homes with more car washes and mini storage units…..

…..(but that’s what seems to be happening between the local politicians and builders)…(maybe if developers were charged higher impact fees…that might slow them down?)…..

If Florida isn’t careful…this peninsula of sand (which is not that far above sea level to begin with)…is going to sink right into the sea…with the weight of all the extra convenient stores and particle-board buildings…..

Joni Mitchell had it right:  “Tear down Paradise and put up a Parking Lot”…..

…..sad…but currently true…where Florida is concerned…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Infamous Tarzan Call~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

#bigyellowtaxi #

#silverspringsflorida #floridacounciloftourism #edgarriceburroughs #zanegrey #tarzan #jonimitchell

#johnnyweissmuller #marjoriekinnanrawlings #dystopia #wakullaspringslodgeflorida #theyearling