I have a birthday coming up in the first week of August, and generally take some time off each year to enjoy Central Florida in all it's signature heat and humidity. I suspect New Jersey (where I was born) can be just as bad as Florida this time of year, causing one to sweat without moving while sticking to the seat of one's car.
Like the people who actually stayed in Jersey, I've found the best remedy for the mid-summer weather is a day at the beach. Last year, it was New Smyrna, which I talked about in another post. This year, I will probably do the same on one day, and something completely different on another.
I may do the dreaded theme park thing.
For those of you who live in the real world outside of the Sunshine State, you must understand that hitting Disney or Universal Studios, is not something people in Central Florida generally like to do.
It's like touring the Space Needle if you live in Seattle, or standing around the Liberty Bell if you live in Philly.
The locals do it once, and never get around to doing it again.
Sure, there are some who moved here for the very reason that they and the kids would be in close proximity to Cinderella's Castle. They are the one's who buy the annual passes, with the Florida resident discount, and are sure to get their money's worth.
The rest of us are content to go to Mapquest, print out a map, point our visitors towards Interstate 4 (west towards Tampa) and wish them good luck and a good time, while waving from our driveway.
This time, it may be different for me.
I have a free, one day pass, to Universal Studios, courtesy of AARP. To be honest, they sent it to my parents, who would rather not walk around for miles in the summer heat. (The pass expires at the end of September).
So after a quick trip to the ATM outside the Publix grocery store, I will head to Universal. There will still be a need for cash, even if I am actually getting in for free...and the suites at Universal know this.
If all goes well, I may even try to go to (gasp) Walt Disney World!
It has been over 10 years since I've been to anyplace Disney, and would probably prefer EPCOT or Animal Kingdom to the more youth oriented Magic Kingdom.
Still, I've been itching to try one thing, suggested by blogger and sitcom writer Ken Levine.
I want to get one of those mouse ears hats. You know, the black felt ones they write your name on?
I will have them write "Vincent" on the hat.
Then, rip off one of the ears and wear it all day.

I first came to Orlando in 1974.
I had just graduated from High School in Massachusetts, and had never been south of Baltimore when my father was transferred by his company to a land of palm trees, Disney and brutal summer heat. Growing up, I naturally knew of the racial situation in the South, but that had reportedly ended 10 years earlier in places like Mississippi and Alabama. I imagined Florida would be different, and it was...but only by degree.
One of the first jobs I got the summer before I was to enter college, was at a Downtown Orlando department store. A couple of suburban malls had been built, but the J.C. Penney on Orange Avenue was still hanging on, if not exactly thriving.
My first day at work, during an informal orientation, a charming older woman in her 60's, with an accent right out of a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings story, gave me a quick tour and some friendly advice. She noted my own accent, and suggested there were things I might not be aware of, having come from up North.
"Keep your eye on the coloreds, Mr. C.", she said sincerely, "because they'll steal from you as soon as your back is turned."
I fixed a smile on my face and nodded my head, instantly deciding that no comment was needed.
Eventually, I started to notice how older buildings had more bathrooms and more water fountains than seemed necessary. Facilities were generally built in pairs, and were still there long after the "Whites Only" signs had been removed.
Gradually, Orlando, like Atlanta and the rest of the South, became "too busy to hate" and segregation faded into history. Yet some of the old attitudes pop up from time to time.



This photo of the barefoot child was taken at the City owned Dubsdred Country Club in the 1930's.
When the newly remodeled clubhouse decided to hang the shot amidst a number of historical photographs, a controversy developed. Some of Orlando's prominent black residents, including City Commissioner Daisy Lynum, complained the shot was racist. Others thought it simply reflected life in a long-gone era where racism was tolerated, if not officially sanctioned.
Personally, I prefer to think it is what it is...a picture of a child working barefoot in a semi-tropical climate.
Today, the little boy is a seventy-something grown man, also a resident of Altamonte Springs, and has come forward with decidedly mixed feelings. Leroy Royal says he thinks the vintage photo is racist...but admits he isn't exactly sure why.
Racism, especially from what I've seen in a city like Orlando, is often very subtle.
Jim Crow may be legally dead, but personal attitudes are much harder to kill. You may notice it yourself the next time someone tells you they won't vote for Barack Obama...but they can't tell you why.

Anyone who has worked in radio has moved around a bit.
The nature of the business really is like the cautionary tale, sung by the late Harry Chapin (WOLD), where the announcer spends his life bouncing or drifting from one part of the country to another.
With a few exceptions, Radio People are invariably well traveled.
I myself have worked in Alabama, Indiana, New York and Florida.
Ahh...Florida.
There was an old saying in the business, that if you took a job in Florida they would be paying you in sunshine. Florida, as a mostly non-union State, was notorious for hiring radio professionals at less than professional wages. Station owners and managers would point out that there was no State income tax and that the climate was wonderful. I guess it didn't always work, since I never met anyone from San Diego working at a Florida radio station.
Now, they can add one more reason to the "Come work for us in Florida" sales pitch; at least you'll have a job.
According to the US Department of Labor Florida lost 78,100 jobs in the past year.
This may not seem like much, when you consider the state has a total population of 18.25 million, but it indicates a trend. According to the US Census Bureau, the State now ranked fourth in population in the country is expected to pass New York to become number three by 2011.
There will be no new jobs for these new Floridians.
Not even if they'll work for sunshine.



I often wonder what Harry Chapin would be singing about today.
His is a voice this Country could have used about now.

I still can't believe it.
Last weekend, I was heading eastbound on Interstate 4 through Downtown Orlando at around 60 miles per hour. The sun was shining, and the top was down on my '97 Miata, when I was passed by a golf cart.
At least, I thought it was a golf cart.
It turns out, the vehicle that zipped past me on the right like I was standing still was one of these.
They're called "Smart Cars", and they can really move.
On the other hand, I drive a car that acts like a bathtub toy in a heavy rain...so this thing seemed scary to me.
Yet, it was clean and bright and shiny and didn't sound like a motorcycle...or even an old VW beetle, when it slipped past me and exited at Lee road.
The fuel efficiency is good, but not really incredible; ranked fourth behind the Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Honda Insight...and I might hesitate about driving a car first developed by the Swiss company that brought you the Swatch.
But you never know.

So what's your luxury item?
Or, more precisely, what luxury item have you been cutting back on in the current economy?
Do you buy more generic brands at the grocery store? Have you stopped going to the tanning booth or getting your nails done? Did you drop some cable movie channels? (Seriously, does anybody really watch Cinemax anymore?)
Or have you simply told Starbucks to hold the latte?
If you've been saying no to the upscale coffee pusher lately, apparently you're not alone. The company has announced it is closing 600 of its shops nationwide. I've seen no listing of the number of people who will be out of work as a result, but The Huffington Post offers a handy list of closing locations, so you can check if your own neighborhood will soon be Starbucks-Free. For me, the local Altamonte Mall will be losing the "baristas" but they will still be slinging steaming milk and espresso at the shop near the Wal-Mart on 434. The rent per square foot is probably cheaper there.
While I'm not exactly a fan of complicated java drinks, I can't help but feel a sense of regret that the fledgling coffee culture has been strangled before it had a chance to thrive in places like Seymour, Indiana, Pearl, Mississippi and Tridelphia, West Virginia.
In what is a sublime example of the Bush economy, it's nice to know that people with shrinking stock portfolios and Adjustable Rate Mortgages on their McMansions can still find a way to tighten their belts, by simply foregoing their daily grande-half-caf-double-shot-latte.
Especially since swapping that SUV for a Prius is probably out of the question right now.