Every 4^th of July we can not help but think of the huge over the top 4^th of July parties at the SunCoast Resort in St. Petersburg. It was to us the center of the Gay Universe. We owned and operated 2 stores there. Mark aka Tea Cup also performed there on stilts and bartended for The Judy B Goode & Paul Thomas Show. The 4^th of July fire works were incredible!!! As you can see in the photo behind the build, next to the interstate was a 2-story parking garage. It was very old and the second floor was not safe to park cars on. There were 4 tennis court here. During one of the fireworks displays a rocket came down and started a small fire. The firemen were so excited to show off the new firetruck and raced up the ramp onto the 2^nd floor. OMG!!! OMG!!! When told it was not safe the firemen actually looked scared. Over the next 2 hours they very carefully backed the truck down. There were firemen talking on radios with the ones below where it was safe to move the truck. Finally, it was down and everyone was safe. Just one of the crazy SunCoast Resort Memories. Happy July 4^th to everyone!!!  Feel free to share your photos here. https://www.facebook.com/suncoast.resortmemories

The 2 Brick Homes

Over 20+ years ago our dear friend and antique dealer, Marie Hall, told us a story about the 2 brick homes on 7^th Ave & 25^th Street. Marie told us that the homes were owned by a couple who also owned a funeral parlor in Tampa. The wife loved to collect Hummel Figurines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummel_figurines Her collecting grew so large that, the husband purchased the home next door to them just to hold the collection. Then the collection went crazy, 10’s of thousands of figurines, filling the whole house. After their deaths the collection was auctioned off. Marie said it could have easily been the largest Hummel Figurines auction in America.

Has anyone else in East Ybor-Gary heard of this?

From Fran Costantino

Yes, that was Mrs. Burks and those were her 2 homes that I sold way back when! Mr. Burks was huge in Democratic circles and guided the Black community in all civic affairs and held huge BBQ’s for candidates from those 2 houses! Mr. and Mrs. Burks never had children of their own but were “foster parents” to dozens over time. He gave her nothing but the best and she had a huge collection of Hummel’s and of Louis Vuitton luggage – every piece – even the big foot locker which she never used because she was afraid to travel! I loved that woman! She had a heart of gold! She moved to Gary near your house – I’ll go by and get the address for you – I don’t know if any of the children are still there! And I never heard her say anything about a funeral home as Mr. Burks had long passed away!❤️❤️❤️om

We were at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. If you have not been there, it is the smaller airport. In terminal A there are only 9 gates. We were sitting there waiting for our Southwest flight back to Tampa. There were also 2 fights going to Texas. The PA system was not working, so the gate attendants were yelling out announcements. Suddenly the people next to us started to get excited and pulling out the camera phones. It was Senator Ted Cruse of Texas and Senator John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana. I took a photo from my seat. Of course, Carrie, being the photographer in our family, jumped up and took a good photo. The open seating for the plane started and John Kennedy walked to the front of the line and Ted was 24. This plane finished loading and I noticed a 3rd Senator waiting for the other plane. It was Senator John Cornyn of Texas with his wife. His plane started to load and John walked to the front of the line. His wife was in line way back. The plane stared to load and John walked on leaving his wife in the back. Humm… If Carrie did that to me, I would have been a very unhappy camper. LOL, I posted these photos on Facebook with the caption “Too close for comfort.” There were 100’s of negative comments.