Florida Memories From A Florida Native By Tom Routzong

FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - How I Remember Cocoa Village As A Kid

10/19/2019

FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - How I Remember Cocoa Village As A Kid

I’m going back a few years and sharing some things I remember about Cocoa Village and surrounding areas.

Every Saturday morning I went with my dad to Farmers Supply Store. It was located between the east and west streets of 520 on Florida Avenue.

I always got lots of attention from Bob Brannin and Pete as they had something special to share with me. Every Easter they sold colored baby chicks and they let me pick out the ones I wanted. Since I loved chickens this was a great time for me.

We always bought our farm animal food from there. I can still smell the citrus pulp that we got for our cows. It was dried citrus ground up.

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - Tom’s Toys

9/28/2019

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - Tom’s Toys

When I was a little kid most of my toys were items that I created. I don’t think I ever had one that required batteries.

My Matchbox Cars were the true matchbox ones. I would take empty match boxes and use them as my cars and trucks. I would scrape dirt to make roads and use pieces of scrap wood as buildings and drive my cars up and down the dirt roads.

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - I Remember Family

8/30/2019

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - I Remember Family

Family memories are things that you might want to pass down so they are not forgotten. Mine run from funny to serious.

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - My Family Banking

8/30/2019

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - My Family Banking

Banking, what’s that? I never thought about how my parents and other family members handled their money until I became an adult.

My parents never had a bank account. They paid cash for everything and any jobs they had paid them cash.

I remember my mother showing me where she kept her money in case something happened to her. She had a drawer in an antique chest where she kept all her sewing patterns. There was one pattern that had a safety pen in the top and that was her bank.

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - Habitat for Humanity Building Blocks 2006

8/20/2019

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - Habitat for Humanity Building Blocks 2006

In October of 2006 I was asked to serve on the board of directors for the Brevard County Habitat for Humanity. One month later the President asked me to represent our chapter as well as the state of Florida at the Building Blocks 2006. This event was held in Nashville, Tennessee and sponsored by Whirlpool and the National Habitat group.

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - My Life In Art

8/14/2019

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - My Life In Art

The photo of my art represents so many things in my life. I am going to tell you about each item and then you can try to find it in the picture.

First would be my bronze baby shoes. Having your baby shoes done like this was very popular during those “dark ages.” I even have my grandmothers and she was born in 1891.

Next comes my years in the 4-H club where I had cows and chickens as my on going projects. It was during that time when I got my one and only horse. I even entered the barrel race at a Bit and Spur Rodeo in West Cocoa. I made it around the first barrel but the second one left my knee scared for life. Needless to say that was the end of my rodeo days.

It is time to find a cash register . This represents my first retail job which was at W. T. Grants in Byrd Plaza which was Cocoa’s only “shopping mall” other than Cocoa Village.

Mrs. McGee was my boss in the Pet and Garden section. I was friends with her two kids Mary Ann and Buddy.

If you look very closely you will see an orchid flower. I was a member of the Brevard Orchid Society and had several hundred orchids I still enjoy growing them today.

I then got the crazy idea to open a tropical fish retail store. I had a friend who also had an interest so my Aunt Lula loaned me the money to set up Fish Land USA. WE rented a building on Clearlake Road just south of the college. We both had other jobs so I ran the business during the day and he ran it at night. That venture didn’t work so I closed the business after two LONG months.

I hope you will be able to locate the next thing I am going to tell you about. The rocket represents my time working in the VAB at Kennedy Space Center. This started in the early part of 1967. I was working at Fremac’s Men’s Store in Byrd Plaza when a friend told me about a job with North American Rockwell. I called the friend’s boss and he hired me over the phone.

During the first month, I got married to Paula. After I worked on the Apollo 11 moon landing, Paula had gotten laid off from a computer company on Cocoa Beach and was going back to college. I had heard that my department was going to lay off one person and it would be the one with the least amount of time. I knew it wouldn’t be me but decided to talk to my boss about letting me the one laid off since I had been accepted at Rollins College. He told me that he would discuss it with his boss and the next day he ask me when I would like to make it my last day. Since my classes started on the next Monday I said I would like next Friday and so that started me going back to college. I finished school in 1971.

I was now a degreed teacher looking for a job. I got my first teaching job at Golfview Elementary in Rockledge thanks to Principal Ralph Beckett. I taught 6th grade until the school board decided to move that grade level to Middle School. I then contacted Principal Jack Kelly at Kennedy Middle School and

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - My Years in 4-H

8/6/2019

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FLORIDA MEMORIES FROM A FLORIDA NATIVE BY TOM ROUTZONG - My Years in 4-H

When I was 10 years old I joined the 4-H Club of Brevard and had many different animal projects - everything from cows to chickens.

My best friend during all these great years was “Billy” Nelson of Melbourne. Bill has served our country in Washington for many years. He was even an astronaut for NASA.

Every summer Bill and I attended the State 4-H Short Course at the University of Florida and were roommates. During this time Bill was elected State President and I was the State Reporter. We both always entered public speaking contests and of course Bill always won first place and most of the time I came in second.

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My father's Hacienda del Sol work

7/28/2019

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MY FATHER'S HACIENDA DEL SOL WORK

My father Harry Routzong worked almost daily for seven years for Mrs. Evelyn Stewart at her south Merritt Island estate called Hacienda del Sol.

The Stewart family built the estate in 1930 on 30 acres overlooking the Indian River. The estate was designed after the Southern California Mission of San Juande Capestrano. The place was nicknamed the White House of the South because of all the dignitaries that were entertained there.

Mrs. Stewart was very pleased with my father’s creative and outstanding work. He built the entrance and exit gates into the estate and spent many years remodeling the home.

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Grandmother Duke and the cocoa Village Rooming House

7/28/2019

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GRANDMOTHER DUKE AND THE COCOA VILLAGE ROOMING HOUSE

In 1933 after moving to the Cocoa area, my grandmother Bess Cole Duke “Mama Duke” decided to open a rooming house in Cocoa Village. She had lived her entire life in Jackson, Georgia and raised her two daughters. Her husband had passed away at a very young age. She chose the Cocoa area because her sister and family lived here.

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Florida Red Cedar Rocking Chair Story

7/28/2019

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Florida Red Cedar Rocking Chair Story

In 1942 my father came home and announced that he had sold our house in Cocoa and had bought 30 acres of land in West Cocoa. We had to be out of the house in 7 days therefore he and one helper built our new home in a week and we moved in.

During the first year of living there many trees were planted but the main one was a small Florida Red Cedar.

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