Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

“The Pier” has been a landmark of downtown St. Petersburg since 1899 when Peter Demens connected the Orange Belt Railroad to a half-mile wharf. D. F. Brantley started the first Pier Pavilion in 1895, and a “Municipal Pier” debuted in 1913.  But it is the 1926 “Million Dollar Pier” (postcarded here) that long-time residents remember.

The Million Dollar Pier was the place to be - whether it was for a veteran’s meeting, a high school dance or a just getting a Coke at the drive-in. In the days before air conditioning, the way to cool off was to take a drive out to this community center pier. Cruise boats docked at the pier and during World War II so did the military ships.

The city began tearing down Million Dollar Pier in 1967, and opened today’s inverted pyramid structure in 1973.  In 1978, the city installed a laser on the third floor of the inverted pyramid, sending a “beam of green” up the pier to downtown.  It never really worked great, and was removed in the mid 80s.

The Pier got a $12 million makeover in 1988, with a lovely shade of turquoise contrasting the pale yellow building.

You may have noticed that The Pier Aquarium is looking to move off The Pier, and over to Baywalk.  It seems that after 35 years, The Pier and the building at the end of it are falling apart.  So now the city is looking for ideas on what to do with The Pier.

To do it right, some have suggested we look at other piers across the nation, such as Chicago’s Navy Pier (pictures), Santa Monica Pier (pics), and San Francisco’s Pier 39 (pics).

But maybe we ought to knock it down and replace it with a bridge to Ruskin.

You got any ideas?

Starting a discussion about what makes a “real” Cuban sandwich can elicit strong opinions and unearth longstanding feuds. There is one ingredient on which all the sandwich sectarians agree. It’s not a Cuban sandwich without authentic Cuban bread. The ingredients are simple enough; flour, water, salt, yeast and lard. But the result cannot be duplicated outside the family owned bakeries of Tampa and Miami; a crusty torpedo that would make any Frenchman envious.

My introduction to the staple came at age six, when I entered the Hillsborough County school system from more Northern climes. I doubt the recipe has changed much in 25 years. The public school version of the Cuban sandwich consists of one or two thin slices of cheap boiled ham and salami, one slice of stinky government cheese, pale neon green pickles and mustard on five to six inches of semi-fresh Cuban bread; a logic defying composition, MUCH GREATER than the sum of it’s parts.

The bread was so hard and chewy that it often led to the lunchtime extraction of the last of my baby teeth. New teeth grew in, almost as fast as I grew an appetite for that most Cuban of confections. At least once a week, and later as a daily option, the Cuban sandwich was the heart of the school lunch menu. As bland and unassuming as it sounds, that simple chewy sandwich was a welcome relief from the reheated Salisbury steak and chicken nuggets. Throughout our school years, my classmates and I consumed millions.

More than just a meal, the Cuban sandwich was my introduction to the history and cultural identity of Tampa Bay. The sandwich was a bridge that connected me to the Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, the mysterious minarets of the Plant Hotel, cigar factory workers of Ybor and the Diaspora of communist Cuba’s refugees; some of whom were my classmates.

I’d like to think that the Cuban sandwich has given me a certain kind of cultural identity, something that everyone who has grown up in Tampa Bay has in some part shared. As I’ve traveled to and lived in other cities across the country, I’ve sampled many imitation Cubans. Their similarity to and difference from the five inch version that I had in school fondly reminds me of bay area and that culture and history that we’ve all shared.

That’s why it saddens me to read that Pinellas County schools will no longer be serving locally baked Cuban bread in their cafeterias. For the students and staff, who will now dine on soft and starchy instant-bake rolls of the frozen variety, it’s not just a culinary tragedy. It’s a cultural tragedy.

Here’s hoping that Hillsborough schools will not follow suit. For pennies on the dollar, Cuban bread is worth a little extra dough.

To any forebears of the Tocobaga,

Please check to make sure you have all your belongings. It looks like you may have dropped a knife some 6,000 years ago:

A city work crew installing a new shelter at a park unearthed an Indian knife blade estimated to be more than 6,000 years old.

The workers found the knife on Monday at Marshall Street Park, said city spokesman Brad Purdy. A curator of archaeology from the Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History is on the site continuing an examination of the artifact.

The blade is made of stone and is about 4 inches long.

You have 60 days to claim the lost knife, at which time it will likely end up in someone’s junk drawer.

Marshall Street Park is in Safety Harbor, less than a mile west of Phillipe Park, home to the Tampa Bay area’s largest Indian Mound.

Florida singer/songwriter/guitarist Danny Roberts has worked with Tom Petty, Derek Trucks, Billy Joe Royal, Robert Nix, Denny Cordell, Phil Seymour and many more fantastic musicians. He also played in JGLB, and in other bands with current and former JGLB guys like Ray Blade, Rob Stoney, “Count” Arthur Basie, Will Perish and Johnny G Lyon.

Danny is recovering from injuries sustained in a serious car accident. Please join us Sunday July 13 at 5 PM at Skipper’s Smokehouse for a great concert to help out our bro Dan-Bob:

Danny and Tom Petty worked together in “Mudcrutch” for 2 ½ years, from 1972-74. Danny wasn’t just a sideman, he wrote and sang lead on many of the band’s songs. Danny was with the band on their famous trip to L.A. An excellent bio can be found at http://www.thoseguys.com/bio_danny.html.

At the other end of his resume, Danny also played with JGLB, and in other bands with guys that were in our band. We’ve been fans of Danny since the 70’s, when he played in the hottest band (The Bad News Boys) in the hottest club in Lakeland (The Lakeland Lounge, which was actually in Hillsborough County, just across the county line).

Danny was in a bad car wreck recently. Although he was seriously injured, he’s recovering rapidly. A bunch of us are hooking up to help out a brother in need, if you will.

The performers are a mix of Danny’s old Lakeland buddies, guys he played with in Tampa, and guys who just wanna help out.

Take Five is Danny’s Lakeland buddies. They’re Allman Bros-esque, featuring two outstanding drummers. Guitarist Larry Berwald and drummer Johnny Rhodes played in “Fat Chance,” one of Florida’s top bands in the early to mid 70’s. Rhodes also played with Danny Roberts in a notable early 70’s Florida rock band, “Power.”

Tampa guys is us, Johnny G Lyon & JGLB (or Johnny G Lyon Band). We played with Danny in “The Purple Gang” in 1984, and Danny did a stint with JGLB in 1997.

Guys who just wanna help out: our buddy Damon Fowler. A few years ago, Damon was in a car wreck, and received a lot of support when he needed it from the musician community. As a result he’s happy to help out in situations like this. He’ll be jamming with both Take Five and JGLB.

Also playing: Charlie Souza of St Pete also played in Mudcrutch after Danny left. He’s with “The New Rascals” now, and he’s also been working with Danny on a project called “The Mudbreakers.”

“Count” Arthur Basie, now living in Tampa, is originally from Lakeland. He’s a versatile veteran of the bay area music scene, having played in JGLB among many other bands, including “Perfect Stranger” with Danny Roberts in 1976.

For more information about the show, head to downtownwestevents.com.  I encourage you to come help take are of your local musicians and have a good time while doing it.

Hank Ballard wrote “The Twist” in 1958 after seeing a bunch of Tampa kids doing the dance in one of the clubs on Central Av.

Chubby Checker covered the song, and made it a number one hit in 1960 and again in 1962.

Jack Harris wrote about the Twist in a recent column:

… the origin of the iconic tune was chronicled in the liner notes to Ballard’s album, “1960: Still Rockin.” which was given to me by a friend, Charles Knight. It said, “When Hank Ballard and the Midnighters released the single, ‘Teardrops on Your Letter’ in early 1959, they had no idea they were about to launch the biggest dance craze in pop history. The single’s flip side was ‘The Twist,’ which Ballard wrote after seeing kids doing the pelvis-swiveling maneuver in Tampa, Florida.” This was also reaffirmed by a radio interview with the artist, which was sent to me by a radio listener.

Ballard and the Midnighters were known to have made at least a couple of appearances at nightspots on the then vibrant Central Avenue, which was the heart of black social and cultural life until urban renewal and I-4 came along and destroyed it.

So unbeknownst to most, the Twist was the creation of some young African-Americans dancing in the street on Central Avenue. Apparently they shall forever remain anonymous, and the fame associated with creating arguably the most powerful dance tune of all time will forever belong entirely to Chubby and Hank.

You can also watch local musician Ronnie Elliott in a performance highlighting that the Twist was born in Tampa.

Back in April 2005, the TBBJ told us that the Hotel Floridan was purchased with plans for renovations. We too were excited about Tampa’s long dormant historic landmark getting fixed up, too.

But some people have remained skeptical that the Hotel Floridan would truly be renovated and restored to former glory. Even after renovation started, some of the readers here said they didn’t believe it would happen unless they saw dumpsters outside filling up with debris.

To be sure, other than Fox 13 airing a video report of the internal work ongoing at the Floridan in August of 2007, there has not been many tell tale signs of the reconstruction under way at the Hotel Floridan. Though you may or may not have noticed the facade and window restorations/repairs from the last few months, besides that, there hasn’t been much of anything..

We now, however, submit to you Exhibit C of the restoration in progress: The sign atop the old building identifying it as HOTEL FLORIDAN has once again been erected on the southwest corner of the hotel.

A bunch of local fans of urban development and architecture hang out at Skyscraper City’s Tampa/St. Petersburg forums, and have been watching exterior renovations through the Skypoint construction webcam. Forum contributor and all-around good guy Cavernw works nearby, and took this fantastic photo of the completed sign. Nice shot, Cavernw!

You can also see the completed sign and watch other ongoing exterior renovations by visiting the Skypoint webcam and zooming in on the Floridan building in the upper right portion of the camera’s viewing range.

For further discussion on the restoration of the Floridan, come hang out with us at SKyscrapercity.com.

Over at the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida, they have collected a bunch of historical maps of the state of Florida, and planted them online.

This is a map of Hillsborough County in 1845:

Yeah, it stretched from today’s Marion County down to Lake Okechobee. If you want to line it up with a current map view, go there, scroll down and download the Google Earth file. If you don’t have it, you can also download Google Earth for free.

Matt Stout is a reporter for the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin. He was following the UConn basketball team for the Final Four, and gave his blog readers some Tampa Tidbits on his Matt’s UConn Men’s Basketball Blog:

downtown Tampa seems relatively clean and safe (My hotel is about a mile away from where myself and some of the other writers grabbed dinner last night, and my walk back alone was uneventful). There are a few restaurants and bars, too, and two blocks down from the St. Pete’s Times Forum, there is an outdoor mall-like area that has stores, a Bennigans, a Thai place, a Hooters, etc. Included in there, interestingly enough, is a place called Banana Joe’s, the infamous spot of the Carolina Panther cheerleader incident a few years back.

Glad he felt safe here, but it’s sorta a bummer to read that Banana Joe’s is a notable landmark.