An Interview with Louise Mitchell

Louise Mitchell is a very early resident of The Meadows. She lives in Woodmans Chart. She is 103 years old. The following interview was conducted by Jo Evans, Claire Coyle, Tom Bondur, and Claire’s dog, Spencer, at Claire’s home on July 9, 2023.

TB:

We are here speaking with Louise Mitchell about her memories of living in The Meadows in the early days of the community.

LM:

We were originally from California. I grew up in La Jolla, California. Most of our relatives are in England. My father-in-law was an Anglican clergyman. They are first-generation Americans.

TB:

How did you come to live in Florida?

LM:

After the war [WW II], Doug was going to law school when he was approached by friends with a new proposal which he said would be just for a year. We thought it sounded like fun and a chance to see the world so off we went to live in Bermuda. We never returned to our little California house.

Doug became involved with airline start-ups, including El Al, and eventually wound up with US Steel, Orinoco Mining, Venezuela, where we lived for several years, spending part of each summer with friends on Longboat Key. They suggested we might find a new development [The Meadows] interesting. Indeed we did. It was love at first sight. We bought in 1977 and for three years, we went back and forth, moving permanently for Thanksgiving 1980.

JE:

When you came into The Meadows there was a sales office at the 17th Street entrance. Do remember the sales office?

LM:

Yes. The entrance was a dirt road then. The sales office was a wooden building. That's the roundabout now.

JE:

If you remember, it was built kind of high.

LM:

Oh yes. Do you remember people standing around on the porch watching us play on the [Woodmans Chart] tennis court?

JE:

They had a big sales model of The Meadows. Do you remember when you walked in the entrance, the big room? They had a large table and it was the layout of The Meadows.

LM:

Wasn't that clever? It was beautiful. It was all very persuasive.

JE:

Yes, because you could see what their vision was. And you know, I guess we must have checked out Taylor Woodrow, but they were okay. I mean, even the first people put their faith in them.

Taylor Woodrow must have had 8-900 acres. They bought the property in 1974. They bought two different tracks of property. And the only thing on the property was the horse stables. Remember the horse stables?

LM:

Oh, yes. Wasn’t that wonderful. We could go pet the horses. Take our grandchildren. Oh, that was fun.

JE:

A family by the name of Greenwood owned those stables.

LM:

And they used to give lessons to children.

JE:

Yes. I found out just the other day the reason they got rid of it. Because when people were riding the horses, you could get a horse and take a ride, they had to clean up after when they were riding through The Meadows. That's why they decided they had to get rid of it. Trying to keep the walking paths clean, even the roads.

When they bought this land, you could get to the stables from 47th Street or DeSoto Road, either one. That’s how people got into the stables. It was well known-- Greenwood Stables. That's how they were getting there at that time. Before Taylor Woodrow closed it off.

TB:

There is still a Greenwood Stables Road that you enter from 47th Street. It’s a private road. There are some commercial properties near the entrance at 47th Street. Further down the road there are five-acre, residential properties built in the early 1970’s. It dead-ends at The Meadows property line above Hadfield Road.

JE:

Yes. It was fun living in The Meadows in those early years. We were a partying age group. I don't know. As other people started moving in, they just didn't party like we did.

LM:

It was a wonderful time for my generation. For my age group. Because we were retiring. And it was like going to school. Our first time away from home.

When we first moved here, we all volunteered. I still keep in touch with the teachers from Gocio [Elementary School]. I worked with a first-grade teacher at Gocio and to this day she sends me Christmas cards.

JE:

I tutored at Alta Vista Elementary on Euclid Avenue for quite a while.

CC:

I volunteered at Gocio when I first came here. I liked it.

LM:

It was fun. I loved the children.

JE:

Do you remember Monica Seles? She lived just down the street from me. They were here quite a while. She played at the club courts. That's where they practiced. She, her dad, and brother. You could go down and watch them as long as you didn’t talk.

LM:

Yes, that was fun. When Monica made a good shot, her father would applaud quietly.

JE:

Yes. No noise. You had to be quiet.

LM:

The men’s singles group were big supporters of hers. And they had regular large luncheons for her and supported her when she played in the area.

JE:

Well, if you remember, we had some pro golf tournaments here and tennis.

TB:

When you first moved here, was there a country club?

LM:

Oh yes. It was already built. It was pretty much the way it is now. Also, the tennis club. The courts were here. I think there were sixteen.

JE:

Yes. I think they had to do that to get the people to move here. That was the drawing card-- the golf and the tennis.

TB:

So, it was Woodmans Chart, a few houses, and the country club. That was all that was here. The road wasn’t even paved when you first moved in.

LM:

Yes. The Highlands 17th hole was here [pointing to the area behind Claire’s house]. I remember walking past that. We could walk from Woodmans Chart to the country club. It was nice just to walk and check everything out. It was open space. And suddenly, three years later, it was built up. It built up rapidly.

JE:

The Meadows was built out by 1990.

LM:

But it was so lovely.

TB:

You must have felt like you were living in the country.

JE:

There was nothing. Well, Glen Oaks was there when I came. Was Glen Oaks there when you came, Louise?

LM:

It was built about the same time. Maybe a few years before.

JE:

Yes. Taylor Woodrow had something to do with that development too.

LM:

Bobby Jones [golf course] was there. There was the little Jewish cemetery [Temple Beth Sholom Cemetery] at the end of the par three course.

TB:

Did the original country club look like it does today?

JE:

Not really. When you go in the Fountain View Lounge now, where you sit along the windows, that was a porch, an open porch. They used it like a cocktail area.

The bar was about as big as a kitchen. You could get about four people in the bar. It was just so tiny. But every night, they opened the porch up for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Everybody was there. I remember they had to stop the hors d'oeuvres because people were eating those because they were free. They weren't staying for dinner.

CC:

What about the Dickens Inn [formerly The Country Tower, later the now-demolished recreational center] that was across the street? When did that open?

JE:

That was here when I came.

LM:

I don't know when it opened. I remember having friends from Pittsburgh arriving and taking them there. And we didn't have to have a reservation. We got there and we got in. I remember that was in the days when you had to wait for a table.

JE:

You could go there and not belong to the club. That was the reason they built the place for people that weren't club members. Because when we came, you couldn't get into the club.

We had to wait six months to join the club because they had full membership. So, we had to wait until someone left. But we could go to the Dickens and eat.

LM:

Yes. I think we paid six or seven thousand dollars to join the Club.

JE:

I think that might have been the cost in the beginning. Our initiation fee was more than that. I still have my certificate. I think it was seventy-five or eighty-five hundred dollars is what we gave.

LM:

I just remember the fun.

JE:

Friday night was Copperfield night. Everybody went there, if you remember, on Friday night because they had a bar in the dining room. Remember in the bar, they had live music, and everybody danced.

LM:

It was a happy time.

CC:

People just gathered. They bumped into each other and that was a gathering.

LM:

And suddenly, we went from maybe 150 or 200 people. We seemed to have thousands of people.

JE:

Yes. It didn't take them long to build out. It seemed like people were ready for a place like this in Sarasota.

LM:

The community grew very quickly. We had so many separate groups. The men had their regular golfing groups on Thursday. The women were on Tuesday.

JE:

You had your nine and dine. Remember that?

TB:

Were you a good golfer?

LM:

I wasn't good. I never got much below a 20 handicap. My husband was a very nice golfer. He always had a low handicap.

LM:

I can't believe we never met [speaking to JE].

JE:

Well, we lived in a different park from where you live. I live in Scarborough Commons. And it's about three miles from here. Where your association was, that was the group you stayed with. Usually.

I had some friends after a while in Muirfield Heath because of playing tennis. And then, you know, you'd go someplace and you'd all gather like a tennis club or something. Then a friend would introduce you to somebody from their association.

CC:

Do you remember the MCA building over in the shopping center after they tore down the sales center?

LM:

We used to have our bridge games there. That was the community center. Then it moved over here. I hope they are not going to tear that down.

CC:

You played bridge at the shopping center. Did you play bridge anywhere before that? When did you start playing bridge?

LM:

We did, but in one another's homes. We were well organized. We had bridge groups, tennis groups, golfing, and on Sunday, husbands’ and wives’ groups. We had several tournaments.

Everything was informal, but so organized. Bernie Kay organized the groups and planned the parties. He even organized golf tournaments, appointing the hosts and hostesses and getting things together. His wife, Dottie, played in my bridge group. It was a happy time.

JE:

Did you ever play bridge, you know, where Bealls is over at the shopping center?

LM:

Yes. All the tables? Yes.

JE:

You went over there and all The Meadows people would be there. Do you remember that? And the dance place they had behind it?

LM:

Yes. The Dance Club.

JE:

It was behind Bealls. If you went back there, there was a lady who did cakes. And there was the big dance hall back there. Oh, it was huge. How many tables were at that bridge place?

JE:

I've been told you play a great game of bridge.

LM:

Well, I don’t think I play a great game of bridge.

CC:

How many years have you been playing bridge here?

LM:

Well, I've been playing bridge forever. But I mean here. We’ve played the entire time we've been here. We had groups in The Meadows and Woodmans Chart. We had one group we kept going for 20 years until it stopped five or six years ago.

JE:

Did you play bridge at the Dickens? Remember the big room? The men played in the front room? The women played in the back room. We used to go there and play on Wednesdays.

TB:

Did you play mixed bridge?

JE:

I think for fun, but at the club, it was women or men. And then the men also played other cards at the club. I don't know if they still have it or not. But where you go in the club in the front entrance. That room to the left. You know near where the ladies’ locker room is? Well, there was a bar in there and the men played poker. That was kind of an old boy setting. Women didn't go in there.

JE:

If you remember, at the club, some of those women were serious bridge players. I wouldn’t play with people like that because I want to have a good time.

LM:

I like the conventions. I don't like to play elementary.

JE:

I know some of the conventions, but I don't know them all.

TB:

Were you ever on the board or did you serve on the committees?

LM:

No. I never did anything worth a damn [everyone laughing].

TB:

Just played bridge and went to the parties?

LM:

Yes. More or less. Bridge, golf, tennis…

JE:

She was busy.

CC:

She didn't have time to be on committees.

JE:

You know, it used to be tennis, bridge, golf, and after the game, they always ate. Or you went to lunch. At night, they had a couple of nights with men and women playing together. And everyone always ate afterwards. It was a big thing to do.

LM:

We were always busy. We’d have beach parties [out on the Keys]. People had cabanas on short-term leases or owned them. We would go for a weekend and cook out. It was great fun.

And when we were here, I remember that we used to gather after playing golf on the deck overlooking the putting green so we could watch the golfers putt. It was such fun. I remember particularly two young folks who were on our staff who have gone on to make a success for themselves in golf. Scott Dunlop is now on the senior tour after leaving here and going on to a good career in college and a very successful professional career. His sister, Page, went on to play golf in college and won several big tournaments. And they were both such nice young people. Of course, they are grown now.

CC:

Is there anything you miss about the old days?

LM:

It seems that we used to treat each other with compassion and respect and affection that seems to be missing today. We took care of one another and looked out for each other. We were all members of the country club then, but it didn’t really matter. We talked to everyone we met and welcomed them into a new activity. Maybe it’s a question of degrees or just getting bigger, but I miss the old, friendlier days.

TB:

We appreciate you meeting with us.

LM:

Well, it's been a trip down memory lane. Nice meeting you.

JE:

It was very nice meeting you. We've been looking forward to it. It has been very special.

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