The main picture to bring us into the spirit of the sweet sytem—is from Publix Bakery at the #1428 store at the Springs Plaza,  Longwood, FL 

and the second is from Aroma Coffee Café on 5th Ave West in Mt. Dora.  brings you the first seasonal picture for Christmas….and yes I do do Christmas—if you remember that I like things that do no harm and bring out the fun and good things of life—and tis the season—-I am not excusing excesses done in the name of Christianity, but few religions can say they are free of similar bad moments—so please join me in the season of peace and love at least for me and mine…enjoy the good with me and let’s be jolly.

I have been stating that I am going to do a session or two on Bok Tower Gardens and I figure with all the breaks, holiday detours and the like I’d just get this one in–especially since they do such a lovely job celebrating Christmas here.  The tree below by the way is also Mt. Dora —Julianne’s Coastal Cottage

East 4th Street—she has bunches of tropically themed Christmas items.

Edward W. Bok, Dutch-born publisher and author, editor of The Ladies Home Journal, wanted to make America more beautiful because he had lived in it….he donated to the American people Bok Tower Gardens (…3 miles north of Lakes Wales on Rt 27A).  The tower built of pink and gray Georgia marble and coquina stone from St  Augustine, sits on Iron Mountain, the peninsula’s highest point and once a scared Indian site.  Its 57 bronze bells range in weight from 17 pounds to nearly 12 tons.  There are recitals daily at 3 pm.  Clock music can be heard half-hourly from 10 am.

Exploring Florida

by Anne Ramkin

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Bok Tower Gardens

https://boktowergardens.org/

1151 Tower Blvd,

Lake Wales FL 33853  •

863-676-1408

I have visited Bok Tower off and on for years and though I have enjoyed it all year round—wandering the beautiful grounds is both peaceful but also implants a energy that only the beauty of nature can impart to us  I find it particularly most wonderful during the Christmas season.

Bok is old Florida—the beauty we have hidden behind theme parks—and by passed by interstates and down graded on our lists because they were not electronic or internet generated.  This middle part of the state sets along a ridge and is it’s highest elevations (which for a girl who grew up in W.V doesn’t appear that high)—is impressive for those who have lived their entire life here and there are some interesting views from the mount that the park sets on.

The 128 acre attraction has dozens of gardens that are lush with azaleas, camellias, ferns, magnolias, oaks and 126 bird species.

Adventure Guide to Orlando and Central Florida

One of the highlights to me is the tour of Pinewood that goes on from Nov (23rd this year) thru January 6 (2019).  The house’s entry area above all decked out for Christmas is full of decoration (this is an extra cost Holiday Home Tour Combo ticket pricing: $25 Adult Admission –which is $10 more than for-General Admission Adults $15, Children (5-12) $5, Children under 5 are free.  During the rest of the year you can walk thru the house on your own and the Combo Admission Adults $21, Children (5-12) $10, Children 5 are free.

The house was not originally part of the park but was acquired and open to the public visiting the gardens in 1970 thru efforts of one of Bok’s daughter-in-law Nellie Bok.  It is 20 room (12,900 sq. ft) Mediterranean-style home with many characteristics of an antique villa.  Outside there is even a Spanish Frog fountain that leads into a stone grotto.

as you can see here the entire house is decorated and if the tour doesn’t put you in a holiday spirit I don’t know what will.

Reminiscent of the early 1930s, Pinewood Estates is a 20-room Mediterranean-style home that allows guests of Bok Tower Gardens to go back to Edward Bok’s era and experience the illustrious lifestyle of C. Austin Buck, an early 20th Century industrialist. The sanctuary purchased the home in the 1970s. Guided walking tours are available daily.

Before C. Austin Buck built his home, which is now the Pinewood Estate exhibit, he hired landscape architect William Lyman Phillip, from the same firm as Frederick Law Olmstead Jr., to design a sanctuary garden. While it may seem odd to build a garden before a home, Buck, like Bok, admired the area’s longleaf pines and other native plants. Philip and architect Charles R. Wait collaborated on this home, as well as many other residences in neighboring Mountain Lake Estates, which is a gated and closed to the public.

History of Bok Tower Gardens

May 20, 2014 | South Tampa Magazine

Bok Tower Gardens boasts one of the greatest works of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. The meandering, historic landscape garden was designed to be a contemplative and informal woodland setting offering a series of romantic recesses and tranquil resting spots, picturesque vistas and breathtaking views of the Singing Tower. Acres of ferns, palms, oaks and pines fashion a lush backdrop for flowering foliage and the spectacular seasonal color of azaleas, camellias and magnolias (a highlight of our spring peak bloom season) showcasing an ever-changing work of art.

One of the wonderful attributes of the Gardens and natural habitats is its wildlife population. It includes 126 different species of birds as well as the threatened gopher tortoise and endangered eastern indigo snake. The grounds of Bok Tower Gardens is a designated site on the Great Florida Birding Trail.

From Bok Tower Garden’s Web site

By 1911, the area attracted the attention of a group of Florida businessmen, who subsequently formed the Lake Wales Land Company and purchased 5,000 acres of forested land surrounding Lake Wales.

The Lake Wales Land Company believed the rich wilderness surrounding the lake would serve as an excellent center for the booming lumber and turpentine industries. Additionally, the region’s soil, with its sandy composition, had great potential for growing citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruit, something the area is still known for today.

The city’s (Lake Wales)original settlers arrived that first year and quickly got to work setting down the foundation for a thriving metropolis.

The History of Lake Wales, Florida

National Church’s Residence

It was 49 years ago when I learned about the big bad world—not from books or TV and my lord computers were scary things that took over the Enterprise and the like but weren’t available to mere mortals like me.  I had been raised in a very fundamentalist Church and had attended their schools from third grade on……despite that I had the kind of mind which was not satisfied with pat answers and that I should just have faith in my church and country’s leaders (yeah how’s that worked out for us so many times I can’t count?).  But back to the subject….I had gone to MSU that summer—I lived near by and could take the courses w/out having to pay the room and board, I dated my first out of faith guy, much to the disillusionment of my parents who saw me as marrying in the faith, which generally requires dating.

of further note on the dating subject–I had a minimal of dates with young men who were not usually on my wave length–I actually had one of my girlfriend’s steady (that’s what we called them—if we had been allowed to wear rings they would have had ones—but off the subject again,  Anyway he told me that it was my fault that I didn’t get dates was because I was too smart and if I acted dumb I’d do so much better—Ouch—I found that less religious guys weren’t so fixed on my over zealous brain and several showed interest and I dated regularly and had a nice summer before I returned to college  in the fall and back to not having dates again.

But I was also at a college that didn’t want me dumb or not opiniated and so I got a glimpse of how the rest of the world lived—it was both exhilarating and scary at the same time—but I came from a long line of Highlanders and border Scots not to mention Vikings and Norman warriors—so I was never one to hide behind the excepted norm of my school and church.

The rally featured speeches by antiwar politicians, including Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern and Charles Goodell, the only Republican to take part. It also included musical performances by Peter, Paul and Mary, Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger, who led the crowd in the singing of John Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance.”

New York Times   Nov. 15, 1969 | Anti-Vietnam War Demonstration Held

It was not a planned adventure—-I had two friends—lovely African American ladies—another thing you didn’t see a lot of at my college–close friendships back then between the lighter and darker students—-but I was raised to accept people for who they were and how they treated other so I didn’t have a problem along friend of other faiths, skin colors or political beliefs for that matter.

Yes I wandered off again—-but they had some friends that were interested in attending the big peace demo in DC and at he last possible moment we got released from school—I was 21 so it wasn’t a big deal for me—and first we drove to the Chicago area and picked up some other people….then after a flat tire on our way back and down southward to DC we arrived in DC

The guys we went with had friends in DC —and we stayed along with wall to wall other guests—in the friends of my friends apartments—it was funny but that was one of the things we stressed a lot–making people welcome—accepting them for who they were—and moving along with others to reach our goals of Peace and Love and Accepting differences—we were idealist yes and I have maintained that as much as I could over the years—something that many of my fellow boomers have failed to do—they lost their ideals when they joined the work force I guess and while I also got a job and a life I have continue to write and have adventures and accept people who they are and not for what I expect the to be.  Or at least I try very hard to continue to do so

As the BBC reported, “Some 45,000 Americans had already been killed by the end of 1969. Almost half a million US men and women were deployed in the conflict, and opposition to the war was growing. The Moratorium for the first time brought out America’s middle class and middle-aged voters, in large numbers. Other demonstrations followed in its wake.”

Estuary Press

I spent the first day there with the guy whose apt we were staying and his friend–a hot blonde with a brand new vet (as in cor—not the military kind–for a girl that was too smart I was finding out that maybe I did have a future which included dating….what a kick and an entirely different place for me and that’s saying something.

That evening I was back with my Michigan friends—wearing a borrowed pea jacket from the apartment occupant—we carried candles and marched thru the town—I had never seen DC before—except on TV—what a mind trip for me to see it this way—-we stopped to get warm, rest and get a bit o food and drink at the churches about town who took us in and made us welcome—we where not evil anti-government creatures to them….it made my heart glad….for after all didn’t Jesus protest the status quo?

The big demonstration was amazing—after the night views of the capital it was great to get a day view and be one of 500,000 marchers.  Me and my friends and the marchers we met were not radicals, we did not want to bring down the county, we jus thought (and I believe to this day–in fact I believe that history bore our beliefs out) that this war was killing off young people like us and tearing our country apart due to some agreement of politicians (or disagreement) on how they thought that things should be handled.  I never actually lost any friend in that war–Most of the guys I knew were in college an never had to face the draft.  My brother developed medical problems and one of my few college boyfriends joined up right out of High School and spent time in Europe not Viet Nam…  But the thought of anyone dying over there—or killing people in that country—some bystanders that got in the line of fire of our angry young men in that horrible situation—was just too much for me to suffer gladly—just cause someone doesn’t believe what I do doesn’t mean that they need to be done away with.

While President Richard Nixon was said to have spent the day watching college football inside the White House, to the rest of the world, the protests successfully proved that the antiwar movements comprised more than just politicized youth. The November rallies were part of a string of demonstrations that took place around the world in 1969, with groups from San Francisco to Boston and London petitioning for peace. Despite their cries, the war toiled on for six more years, ending with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

The Last Straw

Moratorium Against the Vietnam War, Nov. 15, 1969

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That was the most important event that I had participated in—I would go on to do other things and have other adventures and support other causes.  I would become an independent woman and down deep I have wondered if that chance to move s far from my home base and all things that knew and understood didn’t make me a better person for the efforts and opened me for more adventures and doing things that many considered a bit off the board.

The pin pictured above was the one I was given during one of the marches and which I have kept for 49 years of school, jobs, marriages, moves, travel, and so much more but given that it will be 50 next years and because it was part of my first commitment to something that was special to me and was to help others not myself it is something that holds a lot of memories and pride.

Thanks John

we miss you

National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations are conducted across the United States involving hundreds of thousands of people. The National Moratorium was an effort by David Hawk and Sam Brown, two antiwar activists, to forge a broad-based movement against the Vietnam War. The organization initially focused its effort on 300 college campuses, but the idea soon grew and spread beyond the colleges and universities. Hawk and Brown were assisted by the New Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, which was instrumental in organizing the nation-wide protest.

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• “You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin'” refers to the United States law requiring registration for the draft at age 18, while the minimum voting age (in all but four states) was 21, until a Constitutional amendment changed it in July 1971.
• “And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'” refers to The War over Water.
• “If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away.” Refers to the threat of a nuclear war at any moment, and the damage that this would cause.
• The song’s mention of Selma, Alabama pertains to the Selma to Montgomery marches and “Bloody Sunday” in March 1965. (The Jan and Dean version substitutes “Watts, California” in the lyrics, in apparent reference to the Watts Riots.)
• “You may leave here for four days in space, but when you return it’s the same old place” refers to the June 1965 mission of Gemini 4, which lasted just over four days.
• The lyric “The pounding of the drums, the pride and disgrace” refers to the November 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination and his funeral, which featured muffled drumming as the casket was slowly taken to Arlington National Cemetery.^[6]

Wikipedia

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