What a difference 25 years makes

July 4th festivities in 1884 DeLand. Note the flag
with 13 stars. Photo credit: Florida Memory

I tend to consider the decades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as one lump of time: Florida's pioneer era. Yet within that era people and places grew and evolved, much as we do in modern years. To illustrate, here are comparisons between July 4 celebrations in 1884 and 1909.

This photo depicts the holiday's festivities in DeLand in 1884. The Florida Memory webpage states that the image was captured on the holiday itself - July 4. I'd never seen this photo before and I've seen a lot of vintage DeLand images. At first I was suspect. The scene doesn't look like DeLand. The downtown buildings aren't recognizable to me. But the distant trees in the middle of the road give the photo credence. Early DeLandites did, indeed, plant trees in the middle of the main boulevard.

My guess is that the scene depicts the end of a parade, one that was slim on participation. Nonetheless, it was a legit holiday observance. Note the giant, 13-star flag on display. And how people came out to watch the procession. They're all gathered in the shady spots. What else did townsfolk do that day? Can't say from the photo. Perhaps a picnic. Games and music. Surely something more than one straggly parade.

Now listen to how folks in Pensacola partied on July 4, 1909. In a giant headline on its front page, the July 6 issue of the Pensacola Journal proclaimed that a record-breaking crowd visited Palmetto Beach for the 4th of July. "Pensacola and Pensacolans turned themselves loose in this year's celebration of Independence Day," the article breathlessly proclaims.

A giant picnic hosted by the Knights of Columbus was deemed the crowning feature of hours of festivities. The leading feature was a baseball game played by teams from Pensacola and Fort Barrancas. The city team won, 12-3. "A list of sports of other kinds was also pulled off, to the delight and amusement of hundreds of people," the article says.

The day didn't end there. Dancing, vaudeville, bathing, and music by a "highly efficient orchestra" added to the celebration's luster. Things didn't wind down until the "last moon-lit night hour." The article makes particular note of the smooth, orderly transit of people to and from festivities via the city's "electric line."

I'm not sure what the electric line was; perhaps a trolley. One thing is certain, the 1884 celebration relied on horsepower and solar lighting a la sunshine, not electricity.

Which event was better?  I'd venture to say each was a success. You can't compare the two, really. They're products of their time. In 1884, electricity and the year 1909 belonged to the future. In 1909, nobody thought about a world war soon to loom on the horizon. Still, though a quarter-century apart in years and culture, the celebrants were united in their appreciation of the United States. That sentiment still stands. Happy Fourth of July.

Immigrant, Catholic, and 1-percenter

I jumped to read the 1987 memoir, Panhandle Memories, by poet Adelia Rosasco-Soule. Frontier memoirs are a favorite, and this one was about a pioneer Catholic family.

There aren't as many references about Catholicism as I expected. I wondered why, because Catholicism shapes one's whole being. 

Adelia and her family were minorities: Italian immigrants, Catholic, and members of the region's 1 percent. The mix was certainly unusual. Perhaps Adelia focused only on the big picture in her writing, even when elderly and the Poet of the Panhandle. She was named the first Poet Laureate of the West Florida Panhandle in 1986.

 Also, the book is a compilation from the poet's writings, not a straight memoir. It was edited and published by the West Florida Literary Federation and the Pensacola Press Club.

The memoir is shaped as though written alternately by Adelia and the family's mixed-race housekeeper "Aunt Mariah" Cosey. Adelia was 3 when her family moved from Genoa, Italy, to Bay Point, outside Milton, in 1904. They lived in the waterfront "Big House" and her father was president of the sawmill and a bank. The family also conducted a shipping business.

Tidbits of Catholic history I gleaned are (with page numbers in parentheses):

• Before "Madam" - Adelia's mother, Ermelinda Schiaffino Rosasco -  arrived there was only one other Catholic lady in Santa Rosa County, a German immigrant. (34)

• A Father Fullerton from St. Michael's arrived by boat from Pensacola to christen the first Rosasco born in Bay Point. After that, "all the mission priests were Irish from little St. Anne's in Bagdad."  The German Catholic lady was caretaker of St. Anne's. (34)

• Locals ate gopher gumbo each Friday, "whether Catholic or not." (48)

• On weeks when Mass wasn't said, Adelia's mother had her children say "the Rosary and Litany, all in Latin." (73).

• In 1909-10, and 1911-12, Adelia attended Perpetual Adoration Convent school in Pensacola (today's Sacred Heart Cathedral School). (81-82)

• Faith "was kept alive and nurtured" by Adelia's mother and mission priests from Pensacola. The priests lodged with the family, and were given coffee and sweet buns for the trip home. (95).

• Mass was said once a month in the parlor, and Adelia's mother took care of the altar linens. (134)

• Adelia's mother went on retreat two days a year at the convent. (134) (Historical note: the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration left Pensacola in 1945.) 

What does this all tell me? That we've all been immigrants at one time or another, either in recent generations or in the distant past. At some point in every family's life - even our Native Americans, for they, too traveled here from elsewhere - a generation has been alone in an unfamiliar place. Gradually, each found a way to make the old and new fit together. May we continue to do so today, without animosity, and with love.

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My gratitude to Volusia County Library System for having this book.