Dr. Mormino

Here's more from Gary Mormino, the professor of history at USF-St. Petersburg, an authority on Florida history and author of Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams. He is an inveterate reader of old newspapers -- God bless the man! -- and is always dropping off ecletic clippings from the past. These are from the late 1950s:

Gender history: "And Just Why Shouldn't The City of Tampa Have A Woman Mayor?" asks a patronizing 1959 headline. But a 1959 news article claims that most young women wanted a career as a homemaker -- a rebellion against their World War II-era working mothers!

Sports history: A former governor causes quite a flap by calling the University of Florida football team a "disgrace" after a loss. Meanwhile, did you ever hear of Don Larsen's perfect game pitched in the 1957 World Series? Here was his reward: a $6,000 raise the next spring.

The more things change: One of my predecesors as a Times columnist, Dick Bothwell, tours the beaches and bemoans the conversion from old cottages to a street lined with motels. These days, we're nostalgic for the mom-and-pop motels and bemoan their conversion to condos! And on the right, the Times editorial page muses about whether Pinellas County needs a consolidated government. Hah!

How quaint: the Times seriously proposes using tunnels beneath Tampa Bay as fallout shelters. And on the right, we predict a booming future for the area of St. Petersburg now known as Midtown.