Tood's Town XII
One day in May 1957, I decided that I had spent enough winters in Northern Ohio. I decided the solution was to move to Florida.
Someone suggested that Tampa - St. Petersburg was a nice area. I bought a round trip ticket on Greyhound bus to Tampa Florida for $60 and left home the morning after my high school graduation ceremony. My plan was to live permanently in Florida or some other location with a less severe winter climate than Northern Ohio.
I lived with a sister (can’t remember her name) of Tood's Town residents Harold (Wansfelt Wonder of the Wasteland), Lowell (Hoppy) and Charles Jennings (former Marine, too big, serious and intimidating to have a nickname) in Bradenton, Florida.
I looked for work every day for 6 weeks. I also spent a lot of time in the Bradenton city park on the Manitee River talking to retirees from the North and watching Manitees which were fairly common in those days. Most of the retirees recommended that I return to Ohio because of the absence of industry and jobs in the Tampa area.
I finally found a job. However, the job was working in the freezer of a frozen orange juice plant.
I did not report to work. In another quickly reached decision, I decided that it was better to live in Northern Ohio and suffer 6 months of winter than to work 300 days, 8 hours a day in – 40 degree Fahrenheit freezer forever. I used the return portion of my ticket, got on a Greyhound bus the next morning and came back to Tood's Town. I didn’t leave again until I got married, graduated from engineering and law school and moved to Southfield, Michigan for a job as a patent liaison/attorney with the Eaton Research Center located on the Northwestern Highway between 10 1/2 Mile and Lahser Roads.
Dillard Farnsworth
Someone suggested that Tampa - St. Petersburg was a nice area. I bought a round trip ticket on Greyhound bus to Tampa Florida for $60 and left home the morning after my high school graduation ceremony. My plan was to live permanently in Florida or some other location with a less severe winter climate than Northern Ohio.
I lived with a sister (can’t remember her name) of Tood's Town residents Harold (Wansfelt Wonder of the Wasteland), Lowell (Hoppy) and Charles Jennings (former Marine, too big, serious and intimidating to have a nickname) in Bradenton, Florida.
I looked for work every day for 6 weeks. I also spent a lot of time in the Bradenton city park on the Manitee River talking to retirees from the North and watching Manitees which were fairly common in those days. Most of the retirees recommended that I return to Ohio because of the absence of industry and jobs in the Tampa area.
I finally found a job. However, the job was working in the freezer of a frozen orange juice plant.
I did not report to work. In another quickly reached decision, I decided that it was better to live in Northern Ohio and suffer 6 months of winter than to work 300 days, 8 hours a day in – 40 degree Fahrenheit freezer forever. I used the return portion of my ticket, got on a Greyhound bus the next morning and came back to Tood's Town. I didn’t leave again until I got married, graduated from engineering and law school and moved to Southfield, Michigan for a job as a patent liaison/attorney with the Eaton Research Center located on the Northwestern Highway between 10 1/2 Mile and Lahser Roads.
Dillard Farnsworth
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