European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 26, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Tfn., 81, Watche. Over children Kennedy Boulevard Eatonville. Main Freer. Change come lowly to Thi. Florida town which a. Only a few paved Road. Brown and on its bad Days it s seen blood spilled. We be always had quite a mix of people Here says owner . Bing a retired High school principal from Tampa who has Moon lighted As Barkeep for the past 33 years. We have migrant workers and Blue Collar tradesmen teachers doctors and lawyers. There s Only two nightclubs in town so sooner or later most everyone comes through our with 40 workers at his two clubs Bing is the leading employer in Eatonville says mayor Abraham Gordon. Our tax base is so Small it can be difficult to develop new projects Gordon says. But you can see the Progress by just looking at an old photo of our streets. We be gone from no roads to dirt roads and from dirt roads to paved Progress also appear in the form of Costco a huge windowless Concrete wholesale store where the fresh rubber smell of new tires blends with the Sweet sour scent of . Red Smith s vinegar soaked pigs Knuckles. With Access to interstate 4, the store attracts while shoppers from around Orlando and Maitland. I a town employee report or work. Eatonville a. Remained More than 99 percent Black. Eatonville s wealthy neighbor. People think of a Black town and they think it s a Raggedy run Down shanty town town administrator Ronald Rogers said. But that s just not True. We re a thriving part of the Central Florida area. Our Challenge now is to keep growing without becoming just another Maitland began to be in a great Rush. Negroes were found to do the Clearing. There was the continuous Roar of. Axes saws and hammers. On the shores of Lake Maitland Rose stately houses. With glittering carriages behind blooded horses occupied by Well dressed Folk. While the negroes set up their hastily built shacks on St. John s there Are still shacks in Eatonville but they Are outnumbered by Well kept Concrete Block Homes Many done in Bone White and in vivid visual contrast to Lush Green surroundings. Iii became a millionaire i would still live Here said Nolan Pitts. 48, Lor 23 years a social studies teacher at Wymore tech. It s not a fancy place but you know your neighbors and they share their lives. I never found any place else like on this Day the neighbourhood kids Are playing basketball on a dirt driveway shooting at a plywood backboard nailed knee High to a sky bound Pine. The talk on the Street was still of the Martin Luther King or. Celebration a two week festival that began with a Beauty pageant and ended with a gospel soul festival and a candlelight memorial service. Folks there say it takes two weeks Lor the festival because As Zora Neale Hurston knew Long ago Eatonville is a place where heritage and tradition have always mattered. I do not belong to the sobbing school of negro Hood who hold that nature somehow has Given them a Low Down dirty Deal and whose feelings Are All Hurt about it she wrote. Sometimes i feel discriminated against but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company the stars and stripes Page 15 ruary26, 1986
