July 6: Up the Scale

I was talking with a close friend about Fort Lauderdale. About its transformation over the past two decades. That's the advantage of having lived here so long - nearly 21 years for me now and counting. This long perspective puts you in a position to watch a place change slowly, as places tend to do. You can see them evolve from one thing to another thing to yet another thing over time. My friend moved here the same year I did: 1989. Sounds like an eon ago, doesn't it? So last night we got into a brief round of reminiscing about the old Lauderdale we each first discovered back then. I'll bet most of you don't know that this town had a topless doughnut shop, huh? And a topless car wash that my newsroom buddies at the time talked about with great amusement.

Even more recently, going back maybe ten years, hot dog carts staffed by buxom babes in revealing outfits were sprinkled around Broward County. One of the best known was just outside our county courthouse. The beach? Hey, the water was the same and so was the sand more or less. But believe me, there was no Ritz-Carlton or W or Hilton anywhere nearby.

That was then. It's fun to look back and remember what we were. And how far we've really come in a relatively short time. This past holiday weekend, folks were streaming to that same beach, many of them from hotels in those very chains I just mentioned. Our water is still clear and lovely and our sand is probably even cleaner now than before. But Fort Lauderdale and environs attract upscale vacationers from around the country and around the world. We have superb restaurants that didn't exist in 1989 or in 1999 for that matter. We have a world-class casino and nightclub complex too, as well as other nightlife that pulls some folks north from Miami on weekends. It truly is a different place in many, many ways than when I moved here. The tacky anything-goes beachfront vibe is part of our history now - a charming era that I nonetheless was glad to see end. I can laugh about that past with friends these days. Perhaps my pals and I will get to share some of these moments at one of Fort Lauderdale's tony hotel bars overlooking the Atlantic, mojitos in hand, trying to recall which beer joint was located in that same spot long ago. My guess is that we won't remember the name of that old place. Or much care.