Ft. Myers – September To December 71

The Redpaths had let us use the guest house in Ft. Myers Beach for a couple of the fall months as a sort of honeymoon present. The small, one-bedroom cottage was a great place to relax, cook, sort out our domestic roles, discuss the future we wanted (which, in retrospect SHOULD have been done earlier in our relationship) and have a little time to get accustomed to married life.

We weren’t rich, and savings were dwindling fast, so I thought it prudent to “gas up the wallet” if I could. In a conversation with Jim Johnson, I learned that he had a project where I could pick up a few hours of low-end carpentry work, so I signed on with him and his lead carpenter, Red. (I had worked some summers as a framing carpenter, so I knew my way around a hammer and saw.) Nailing up a roof in the Florida sun is no picnic – it fries the brains of those who do it too long, as you’ll know if you meet any veteran Florida roofers!

Steph used the time while I was working to explore some vocations/avocations she was interested in. She spent some of the time writing – poetry, short stories, articles for the local newspapers. And she took a pottery class and tried to learn how to make something beyond molded greenware and simple “tossed” potts.

Daphne

Daphne was with us, a wonderful one-year old. She loved to go swimming, as most Golden Retrievers do. She and Jim’s dog Harley would romp in the surf for hours if we let them.

North Captiva

Ft. Myers Beach is actually just a large sand bar off the coast of the city of Ft. Myers, Florida. It’s one of a series of “barrier islands” along the southwest Florida coast, starting in Naples to the south, coming north across Bonita Beach and Ft. Myers Beach and extending to Sanibel and Captiva on the north.

Sanibel and Capitiva are/ were absolutely gorgeous islands, very well preserved as bird sanctuaries and upscale homes – and a 5 star resort on the northmost tip. Just the other side of a small strait of water on the north tip of Captiva was an almost undeveloped island called North Captiva, accessible only by boat and private planes willing to land on a short, 2000’ grass strip.

I had a pilot’s license that I had gotten the year before, so one day Steph, Daphne and I invited our friends Tom and Marilyn Reymont to fly out to the island for a picnic. Here’s the plane and the picnic:

Because access was so limited, real estate on North Captiva was inexpensive. I was convinced that property on the island would become very, very valuable once a bridge to the island went in. There were some lots for sale and, during law school, I figured out a way to scrape together a down payment and buy two lots on the island. Sadly, when Steph and I got divorced in ’79, we were no longer able to afford the mortgage on them, and we essentially gave them away to friends from law school, George and Sarah Rahdert, who practice First Amendment law in St. Petersburg.

I don’t think the bridge was ever built.

December arrived and the Redpaths needed the guest house back for rentals to the snowbirds headed to Ft. Myers. Reality intruded.  So, we packe up and drove back to New Haven. I ended my “leave of absence” and resumed work with the New Haven Police and applied to graduate school and to law school for admission the following September (’72).