HAVEN July 2022 by HAVEN & LKLD Magazines

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Polk State College is committed to equal access/equal opportunity in its programs, activities, and employment. For additional information, visit polk.edu/equity.

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St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation presents

Christmas in July D O N AT I O N

D R I V E

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Letter From the Editor

590 295

Hello! This issue is very special. I can’t even say how many hours have been spent by Managing Editor Tara Crutchfield researching, interviewing, and more importantly, listening to music from Polk County going back 60 years. I’m in love with what she has written and think it’s one of her best pieces yet. I hope you love it as much as I do and learn as much as I did about the amazing talent from Polk County.

July Only!

This issue is dedicated to the musicians from Polk County, both young and old, new and legendary. I’d also like to dedicate it to the very special people that played a part in the restoration of the historic Derry Down in Winter Haven. We have a gem right here in our own backyard, and it was almost lost forever.

Half off Zoom Chairside Whitening with Trays

I need to give a huge thank you to Anita Strang, Gene Owen, Jon Corneal, Jim Stafford, Kelly Black, Bob Kealing, Jim Lauderdale, Les Dudek, and Jim Carlton. They each gave so much of their time, shared so many of their stories, and were very encouraging and supportive of this project. In the words of Gram Parsons: Twenty thousand roads I went down, down, down And they all led me straight back home to you Thank you Polk County for being home, you’ve made me proud. Amy Sexson Editor/Partner amy@destroyermedia.com

Your Smile is Our Work of Art

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J U LY

CONTENTS

FROM THE EDITOR.......................................................9 LOCAL NEWS.................................................................13 TOP 10................................................................................15 POLK’S MUSICAL SIXTIES ��22 THE GRAM SCHEME OF THINGS 26 JIM STAFFORD.............................................................. 34 LES DUDEK.................................................................... 36 40.............................................................JON CORNEAL 46..................................SAVING THE DERRY DOWN 53...................................................................... COCKTAIL 55........................................................................... BEST OF 57.....................................................................CALENDAR 74...............................................................SOLD HOMES 85................................................................ #KINDACHILL

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JULY 2022 VOLUME 6 ISSUE 10 Publisher Chris Sexson chris@destroyermedia.com Ad Director Christine Campbell christine@destroyermedia.com Editor & Photographer Amy Sexson amy@destroyermedia.com Managing Editor & Writer Tara Crutchfield tara@destroyermedia.com Art & Production Manager Steven Maynard steven@destroyermedia.com Account Representative Jessica Parker jessica@destroyermedia.com Graphic Designer Ella Doyle ella@destroyermedia.com Media Specialist Nate Schaller nate@destroyermedia.com Organizer of Destruction Nicole Nikdel nicole@destroyermedia.com Event Coordinator Lyndsey Venrick lyndsey@destroyermedia.com HAVEN is published twelve times a year by Destroyer Media & Marketing. Haven distributes 16,100 copies a month with 8,600 mailed to homes and 7,500 copies available at select locations throughout east Polk County.

For advertising information please contact: christine@destroyermedia.com Office: PO Box 1607, Winter Haven, Florida 33881 863-225-8658

2017 Best Digital: Social Media 2018 Best Design: Cover Best Redesign 2019 Best Writing: Feature Best Advertisement: For a Client Best Photography: Cover 2020 Best Writing: Humor Best Digital: Social Media 2021 Best Writing: Humor Best Digital: Social Media Best Special Theme Issue Best Writing 2022 Best Digital: Podcast Best Photography: Feature Image 11

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LOCAL NEWS

STATE FARM SCHOLARSHIP

FREE PHYSICALS

RODIN

GREG LITTLETON

Annually, the Winter Haven Chamber Foundation partners with State Farm Insurance to offer college and vocational training scholarships to public high school seniors in the Winter Haven area. In May, State Farm announced Tayler Wright as the winner of the $1,000 scholarship. Wright graduated from Winter Haven High School with a 3.9 GPA and exceptional grades. During her time at WHHS, Tayler was a part of the Pride of Winter Haven band, the soccer team, and the lacrosse team. With the State Farm scholarship, Tayler plans to attend Florida Southern College to pursue Criminology, along with her interests in band and athletics.

AdventHealth clinicians and Bond Clinic in partnership with 10 Polk County high schools provided annual sports physicals to more than 500 pre-registered student-athletes to make sure they were fit and well for their upcoming sports seasons. Providers checked blood pressure, height and weight as well as looked for skeletal, mobility, and muscular issues. All physicals were free for all students in attendance on June 4. If Polk County high school students weren’t able to make it to the event, they can receive a sports physical for $25 by making an appointment at any AdventHealth Medical Group primary care location in Polk County.

The Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College presents “Rodin: Contemplation and Dreams / Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections” on view June 25 through October 30, 2022, in the Museum’s Dorothy Jenkins Gallery, Gallery II, and Perkins Gallery. Featuring more than 40 works by the renowned and celebrated French sculptor Auguste Rodin, this exhibition brings one of art history’s most famous and influential French masters to Central Florida.

Greg Littleton, President, and CEO of Citizens Bank & Trust has been named 2022 Banker of the Year by the Florida Bankers Association (FBA). The award is given to an individual who demonstrates the highest level of commitment to both the banking industry and service to his or her community. Littleton was recognized at the FBA’s annual meeting, held in Orlando. Littleton currently serves as immediate past chair for the BancServ, Inc. Board of Directors and is beginning his second term on the government relations council.

POLK STATE COLLEGE

PCPS IS HIRING

GO OUTDOORS!

PRIDE MONTH

Polk State College achieved its 2022 legislative priorities and estimates it will receive $53.1 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which will begin on July 1. Funding includes $13.8 million for phase one of construction for the Polk State Northeast Ridge Project, a new college campus on U.S. 27 in Haines City; $16.7 million for renovations to the science building on the Winter Haven Campus; and $10.1 million for much-needed deferred maintenance across all campuses. Additionally, the College is expected to net $7.5 million in recurring operational support and $5 million in nonrecurring funds to expand the College’s critical health sciences programs including Respiratory Care, Diagnostic Medical Sonography, Nursing, and more.

Polk County Public Schools starting teacher salary is $45,487 and beginning July 1, the minimum wage for all PCPS employees will increase to $15 per hour. PCPS will also provide health insurance, employee health clinics, Florida Retirement System benefits, generous vacation and leave time, and more. You can browse the current vacancies at polkschoolsfl.com/employmentopenings. For bus driver and attendant jobs, please contact 863-534-7298 or herschel.pipkins@polk-fl.net.

Throughout the summer until September 12, the Florida Department of State and the Florida State Parks are hosting “Real Florida Reader State Park Passes.” Florida library cardholders will be able to check out a park pass that provides admission for up to eight people in a vehicle for dayuse. The Winter Haven Library has two passes available on a first come, first served basis that can be checked out for seven days. Visit their website for more information: mywinterhaven.com/library/realflreaderpass

On Monday, May 23, the City Commission proclaimed June 2022 as LGBTQ + Pride Month in the City of Winter Haven, Florida, in honor of freedom from prejudice and bias in any form, and in recognition and praise of those members of our community who constantly fight the battle for equal treatment for all citizens regardless of sexual organization, gender identity, gender expression, race, color, creed, ethnic origin or religion. Pastor Mel Wilkinson of Christ Promise Church joined commissioners to accept the proclamation.

CLASSIC ROCK LEGACY PRESENTS

ABBEY ROAD ENTIRE ALBUM PERFORMED CUT BY CUT & MORE

JULY 23 - 2:30 pm & 7:30 pm LOCATED AT THE HISTORIC RITZ THEATRE | $25 AT CENTRALFLORIDATIX.COM VOCALS, GUITARS

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DANIEL PEPIN

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JOSH GRIMES

KEITH COVILLE

Come Together • Here Comes the sun • something

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POLK TOP 10 LAKE APPRECIATION DAY CAMP

GET BLOWN AWAY July 2. Visit Hammock Hollow at Bok Tower Gardens with the children in your life for a Bok Outdoor Family Adventure and create wind catchers from materials provided by nature! Select from the items that they have collected around the Gardens to create a natural wind catcher you can take with you to enjoy at home on a breezy day. Allow approximately 20 minutes for your little ones to complete their projects. Supplies will be available from 10am-12pm. 863-676-1408 boktowergardens.org

ROCKIN’ FREEDOM FEST

TREASURE HUNT

ARTIST GARAGE SALE

ABBEY ROAD LIVE

July 16, 11am-2pm in Downtown Winter Haven. Children under the age of 12 will search for LEGO® Minifigures in the participating businesses with a free map! After all stops have been completed, you will turn in your map to be entered into the drawing for one of several prizes. You must reserve one map per child in advance to participate. All children participating in the event must be accompanied by an adult at all times. mainstreetwh.com

July 23, 9am- 4pm at the Bartow Civic Center. This is a cooperative event between the City of Bartow, Bartow Art Guild, and the Lakeland Art Guild allowing artists an opportunity to sell gently used art supplies and older works of art. More info on FB @LkldArtGuild.

July 23 at 2:30 and 7:30pm at the Ritz Theatre. Join Classic Rock Legacy Presents as they perform The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album live, in its entirety. The performance will showcase the utmost love and respect as you celebrate one of the greatest bands. If you are a Beatles fan, this is the show for you! You can’t come in “Through the Bathroom Window,” but we’ll be sure the doors are open. centralfloridatix.com

July 2, 7pm. Join the City of Winter Haven at 5pm as they hold a rededication ceremony of the newly renovated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. This time will be used to honor history and look toward the future. Following the rededication, the annual Rockin’ Freedom Fest celebration will begin. Live music from the Bay Kings Band, food trucks, a ski show honoring the 100th anniversary of water skiing, and a fireworks show will make for a fun family event!

BILL “BULL” OHSE July 8, 8pm. Laugh Out Lounge is proud to present comedian Bill “Bull” Ohse as seen on Last Comic Standing and Amazon Prime. Bill has been on the circuit for years, and is guaranteed to have you laughing all night long! Tickets are just $15 in advance ($20 at the door) and are available now. winterhavenlol.com

July 9, 8:30am at Lake Silver. Participants will learn all about how our lakes serve as valuable fish and wildlife habitats. For ages 13-18 years old, all youth 8-18 are welcome. Topics discussed at the event may be too advanced for youth under 13, but with assistance from a sibling, their parent, or a guardian they may still enjoy the activities. Features kayaking skills, fishing skills, lake health, and watershed protection information. Registration is required. lakesappreciation4-hdaycamp. eventbrite.com

GREASE

HARRY POTTER’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

LUAU BRUNCH

July 30, 2-4 pm at Lakeside Village and Books-A-Million. There is a limited supply of maps available, first-come, first-served, one map per person. An adult must always accompany children. Guests will enjoy: Horcruxes Scavenger Hunt, balloon artist, activity stations, Honeydukes photo op & more. Fans are invited to come dressed as their favorite character from the wizarding world.

July 14-31 at Theatre Winter Haven. Catch the Rydell High’s senior class of 1959: duck-tailed, hot-rodding “Burger Palace Boys” and their gum-snapping, hip-shaking “Pink Ladies” in bobby sox and pedal pushers, evoking the look and sound of the 1950s in this classic musical. Head “greaser” Danny Zuko and new (good) girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive the high romance of their “Summer Nights.” 863-294-7469 theatrewinterhaven.com

July 31, 11am-2pm at Balmoral Bar & Grill. Enjoy brunch and be entertained with luau performers. You will be able to participate in Hula lessons, watch a Tahitian competition, and watch an amazing Samoan fireknife dancer. You wont want to miss the show at 12:30pm. Tickets include luau brunch, luau show, and a pool pass for the day! Purchase tickets at centralfloridatix.com

*Due to the uncertainty of COVID, please double check that the event you’re interested in has not been canceled or rescheduled prior to leaving your house. 15

ORLANDO TOP 10 AN AMERICAN VAUDEVILLE SPECTACULAR July 2, 7:30 pm at the Dr. Phillips Center. A little song, a little dance, and a whole lot of laughter! Join Maestro Rick Kissinger and his 35 piece “A-list” parade of nationally recognized artists for an evening of musical fun. Enjoy cabaret of jazz, klezmer, big band, Latin, broadway pops and movie blockbusters performed by the best Florida musicians. drphillipscenter.org

BLACK PANTHER (2018) July 14, 8 pm at the Winter Park Events Center. Due to limited seating at the Tiedtke Amphitheater, advance tickets are required. This film series features classic films for the whole family. You’re encouraged to bring a blanket, a picnic or snacks, and your family and friends to enjoy the show. Rated PG13. cityofwinterpark.org/events

FIREWORKS AT THE FOUNTAIN July 4, 5 - 10 pm at Lake Eola Park. Join Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer for live entertainment, family-friendly fun, with food and beverages available for purchase from a variety of vendors. At 9:15 pm, the sky will sparkle with a spectacular fireworks finale, set to a live patriotic performance by the Orlando Concert Band. orlando.gov

DISNEY’S HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2 JR. July 15 - 24 at the Orlando Repertory Theatre. This exciting production from the Orlando Repertory Youth Academy allows young people to learn about theatre, and grow as performers and people through collaborating with Orlando area professional directors, designers, choreographers, and stage managers. Purchase tickets in advance. orlandorep.com

WEEKLY WEDNESDAY EVENING RUN

THURSDAY NIGHT HANG

ART DISTILLED

This social group run occurs on Wednesday at 7:00 pm. It will be about 3 miles and open to runners of all ability levels. The mid-week run is a great opportunity to learn about the Orlando Runners Club. Begin at the Cady Way Pool in Winter Park. Bring your own water, public restrooms available. Meet in pavilion to the right as you enter the parking lot. runsignup.com/Club/FL/Orlando/ OrlandoRunnersClub

July 7, 8 pm at the Blue Bamboo Center For the Arts in Winter Park. Featuring Chris Cortez, Walt Hubbard, Doug Mathews, Ed Krout and special guests. The group plays a concert set, which is followed by a jazz jam session. Musicians can bring their instruments and sit in. A guitar amp, bass amp, drums, and piano are provided. Free to the public. bluebambooartcenter.com

July 13, 5:30 - 7 pm at the Orlando Museum of Art. Enjoy an art appreciation presentation, facilitated discussions, gallery connections, and a themed cocktail. Whether you’re a connoisseur or a novice, prepare to analyze and interpret the visual arts in new ways. Limited space, pre-registration is required. Ages 21+ only. omart.org

BLACKBERRY SMOKE

ARSENAL V CHELSEA

LEAKYCON

July 16, 8 pm at the House of Blues. Blackberry Smoke music is a mix of classic rock, blues, country, and folk. Their newest album has easygoing roots rock, Southern rock, as well as strippeddown acoustic numbers. Rich instrumental flourishes, keening fiddle, organ, and bar-band piano add further depth and resonance. houseofblues.com/orlando

July 23, time TBA at Camping World Stadium. Arsenal began in 1886 and has gone on to become one of London’s most successful football clubs and one of the most famous names in modern football. Founded in 1905, Chelsea is London’s most central football club. They lifted the Champions League for the first time in 2012 and have also won the Premier League five times. Purchase tickets in advance. fcseries.com

July 29 - 31 at the Orange County Convention center. Hear from stars and creators of the Harry Potter films about their experiences bringing the magic to life onscreen, explore the LeakyCon Marketplace to find must-have merch and amazing fan treasures, and rock out with some of your favorite Wizard Rock bands, all packed into one unforgettable weekend. Purchase tickets in advance. leakycon.com

*Due to the uncertainty of COVID, please double check that the event you’re interested in has not been canceled or rescheduled prior to leaving your house. 17

Upcoming Shows Independence Day - July 1st

Abbey Road - July 23rd

The Gem Theater presents Flashback Friday: Independence Day (1996).

Burlesque at the Social - July 2nd Classic Burlesque and Vintage Revue. Join them for their Winter Haven show!

Hook - July 8th

Out of the Box Improv - July 30th Out of the Box Improv is bringing improv comedy back to downtown!

Sunday Luau Brunch - July 31st The Gem Theater presents two showings of the beloved pirate villian, Hook, (1991).

90’s Glow Party - July 8th

Have a wonderful brunch while being entertained with our Luau performers! Whistle Stop Winter Haven 2022 - Aug. 4th

Balmoral’s “Summer at the Pool” series continues with their 90’s Glow Party! Fun evening pool party with a guest DJ.

Black or White Party - July 22nd Balmoral’s “Summer at the Pool” series continues with the Black or White party! Wear your best black or white outfits.

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Classic Rock Legacy presents Abbey Road live, in it’s entirety, cut by cut!

Have the opportunity to mingle with qualified local candidates, weeks before the election!

THE U.S. BEE GEES - Sep. 9th THE U.S. BEE GEES are the ultimate salute to the Bee Gee’s in their prime.

TAMPA TOP 10 BOOM BY THE BAY

SUMMER GLOW TOTALLY TIKI TOURS

ST. PETERSBURG SHUFFLEBOARD CLUB

Take a tour of Tampa Bay on a Tiki boat! Watch beautiful Florida sunsets, dolphins, and manatees from aboard the cutest boat. Make a stop mid-tour at a sand bar and take a dip in the water. Up to 13 passengers, BYOB. 2-hour tours are available for sunset or day trips. Schedule in advance, more info at totallytikitours.com.

Built in the 1920s and featured in the movie Cocoon, the Mirror Lake Shuffleboard Club’s complex houses 32 lighted courts (65 total) and an amazing old grandstand. This is the world’s largest shuffleboard club. Play Tuesday & Thursday: 6-9pm; Friday: 7-10pm; Sunday: 9am-noon. stpeteshuffle.com 727-822-2083

4 - 8 pm, Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday through July 30 at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Enjoy live entertainment, familyfriendly activities, festive food, drinks, and the sparkling views of the water. Float away on a free boat tour. Experience a different atmosphere throughout the aquarium and watch as the rescued marine animals interact in new ways. Purchase tickets in advance. cmaquarium.org

ROCK THE PARK

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE

ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER

July 7, 6:30pm at Curtis Hixon Park. Rock the Park Tampa is typically held on the first Thursday of each month. For 11 years, the Tampa Downtown Partnership has produced a free monthly music series showcasing musical talents of all genres. July’s Performers are Fox Royale, Vern Sr., and In The Pocket. Authentic Jamaican food available for purchase from Jam Dish. tampasdowntown.com

July 10, 8pm at Seminole Hard Rock Center. Werq the World Tour returns with an all-new production for 2022. An experiment gone wrong has sent the audience spiraling through time. Join Kameron Michaels, Rose, Vanessa Vanjie, Yvie Oddly, and all finalists from the upcoming 14th season on a journey through iconic periods of history in hopes of finding a way back to 2022. seminolehardrocktampa.com

July 13 - Aug. 7 at the Straz Center. Ilana, a world-renowned origami artist, is going through a divorce and she hasn’t answered her phone in two months. Then, she meets an origami prodigy, folding the plot into complicated turns. A wise and richly layered comedy/ drama, Animals Out of Paper “deals ruthlessly with the fragility of happiness, the tragedy of impulsiveness and the tenuousness of hope,” (NY Times). strazcenter.org

TAMPA BAY ROWDIES

TAMPA BAY ICE CREAM FESTIVAL

The Tampa Bay Rowdies are the professional soccer team in St. Petersburg and are part of the United Soccer League. Games are played at Al Lang Stadium. They will play the Memphis 901 FC on July 2 and the Atlanta United on July 23. Enjoy a special fireworks presentation after the July 2nd game. Reserve tickets in advance. rowdiessoccer.com

July 4, 4 pm. Firework Locations: Bayshore Boulevard, StarSpangled Sparkman, and The Heights District Fourth of July Celebration at Armature Works. This is Tampa’s premier Fourth of July celebration featuring family-friendly activities, live entertainment, a boat parade, and three firework displays, including the largest ever along Tampa’s iconic Bayshore Boulevard. tampasdowntown.com/events/ boom-by-the-bay

BOOZY CAULDRON TAVERN

July 17, 11 am - 8 pm at the St. Pete Pier. Celebrate National Ice Cream Day! Enjoy ice cream and other sweet frozen treats (for purchase) from over a dozen vendors serving their best creations from soft served, craft scoop ice cream, gelatos, popsicles, and more. Be the judge and vote for the first-ever Best Ice Cream in Tampa Bay award. More info on FB @StPetePier.

July 29 & 30 at the Orlo House in Tampa. The Boozy Cauldron Tavern is popping up for a cocktail experience led by Professor Dolohov Draven. You will be taken on a magical journey where you can imbibe on four delicious signature cocktails (including the Tavern’s Famous Butternilla Brew) and hear and feel stories surrounding the famous tavern and the ghosts that still haunt the establishment. Reserve in advance. feverup.com/m/115331

*Due to the uncertainty of COVID, please double check that the event you’re interested in has not been canceled or rescheduled prior to leaving your house. 19

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GRAM PARSONS Polk’s “Uncommonly Musical” Sixties, Gram Parsons, and a Cosmic Collaboration to Save the Derry Down

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WORDS: Tara Crutchfield

The sixties in Polk County, Florida, claimed a transcendental sum total of talent. Some kind of musical magic was in the water, or maybe the stars. It was the birthplace of the Father of Cosmic American Music, Gram Parsons, along with a broad list of other epochal musicians and entertainers who emerged from these sleepy southern towns. Garage band kids from Winter Haven, Auburndale, and Eloise would go on to become acclaimed songwriters, comedians, and performers. Something celestial must have laid at the junction of time and place – in this slice of Florida throughout the sixties – a place Bob Kealing called “uncommonly musical.”

“That was huge for people because it was the dawning of youth culture – it was the dawning of music that was made for teens,” Kealing said. “Rock and roll spoke to a lot of teen yearning and feelings of angst and anxiety.” Musician, comedy writer, and childhood friend to Gram Parsons, Jim Carlton suspects the showbiz spirit of Florida’s first theme park had something to do with it. Before moving from Chicago, Carlton’s parents took him to see a film shot at Cypress Gardens, Easy to Love (1953), starring Esther Williams and Van Johnson, to give their son a glimpse of his new home. “Cypress Gardens was this little hub of show business, a little oasis in the middle of Florida,” he said.

The effects of Elvis Presley and the Beatles can’t be discounted, said Kealing, the author of Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock. They were ubiquitous on the radio, the paramount of celebrity, and spent significant time in the Sunshine State, Presley in 1956 and the Beatles in 1964. Elvis even performed a show at the Polk Theatre in Lakeland on August 6, 1956.

The collaborative culture of band hopping, jam sessions, and playing gigs in youth centers across Central Florida certainly played a role. “My dad always said the best thing you can do is play music with other people,” Carlton said. And he was right. Local garage bands like the Legends, the Dynamics, and the Steppin’ Stones produced prolific musicians, like Jim Stafford, Jon Corneal, and Les Dudek. - CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 -

Photo on left : The Legends from left to right are Jim Stafford, Gram Parsons, Bill Waldrop, and Lamar Braxton. Photo courtesy of Jim Stafford

Early days at The Derry Down. Photo courtesy of Main Street Winter Haven 23

RELIEVING PAIN • CHANGING LIVES

Anissa Hohnstrieter, APRN | Ana D. Lipson, M.D. | Patricia Bayshore, APRN Dr. Lipson has been committed to her patients and the community for 23 years 210 1st Street N, Winter Haven | 863.293.4800 | Fax: 863.293.4410 lipsonpaininstitute.com | havenmagazines.com

Lakeland-born, Auburndale-raised Bobby Braddock was a product of Polk County’s musical pinnacle. A pianist for the Dynamics, Braddock has had a series of No. 1 hit songs spanning five decades. He and Curly Putman co-wrote “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” recorded by Tammy Wynette, and George Jones’s chart-topping classic “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” Braddock paid homage to his hometown in his autobiography Down in Orburndale: A Songwriter’s Youth in Old Florida.

Harris’s induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame decades after Parsons’s death, his enduring memory and mark are present. While introducing Emmylou, Country Music Hall of Fame CEO Kyle Young called Gram the one “who would help [Harris] understand the true power, poetry, purity, and perhaps the political righteousness of country music as the voice of, by, and for the people.” The enigmatic chemistry between Emmylou and Gram is the stuff of legend, living on in perpetuity. Swedish folk duo, First Aid Kit, called their songs “quite the musical revelation.” Inspired by Gram and Emmylou’s relationship and “the joy and magic of singing with someone you love,” the pair released the song “Emmylou” in 2012. Harris gently wiped tears from her cheek during the 2015 Polar Music Prize ceremony as the pair sang “Emmylou.” During the chorus, the sisters lilt:

The late Carl Chambers, who passed away in 2020, was another Auburndale musician and songwriter to make a hit, composing Alabama’s “Close Enough to Perfect.” Kent LaVoie, who performs as Lobo, grew up in Winter Haven. The singer-songwriter has had major chart success with songs like “Me and You and a Dog Named Boo” and “I’d Love You to Want Me.”

I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June If you’ll be my Gram and my Johnny too No, I’m not asking much of you Just sing little darling, sing with me

And, of course, there’s Gram Parsons – a country rock cult figure and genre pioneer. He may not have cut his teeth on twang, but Gram certainly became a country music tastemaker and luminary. Parsons’s backstory is imbued with equal measure talent and tragedy. The winsome Winter Haven-born musician carried an earnestness in his voice that endears listeners almost fifty years after his death. Whether he’s bluesy belting “Cry One More Time for You” or giving a subtle Elvis lip snarl and afflicted gaze while singing “Hot Burrito #1,” those who discover Gram don’t soon forget him.

In a 2010 Rolling Stone article listing Gram Parsons as #87 in the list of the “100 Greatest Artists” of all time, friend Keith Richards called Gram “everything you wanted in a singer and a songwriter,” and said, “we can’t know what his full impact could have been. If Buddy Holly hadn’t gotten on that plane, or Eddie Cochran hadn’t turned the wrong corner, think of what stuff we could have looked forward to, and be hearing now. It would be phenomenal.”

Parsons’s renown is most often attributed to his later work with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram and the Fallen Angels, his solo work, and collaborations with Emmylou Harris. One jewel on the crown of his legacy was co-writing “Hickory Wind” with Bob Buchanan, released on the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo album in 1968. The first few guitar twangs of the song are a promise only Parsons can make good on, as he delivers the first line, “In South Carolina…” with his lofty southern sweetness.

Parsons’s former bandmate and “Spiders and Snakes” songwriter, Jim Stafford, shared the sentiment. “He was headed in the right direction if he had lived long enough. The sad part is none of us will ever get to know what he could have accomplished because he really was a gifted young man. He really was.” But, before he would carve out a cosmic career, cement his name in country rock history, and leave the world too soon, Gram Parsons was just another kid from Winter Haven, Florida who loved Elvis.

Two famous friends and collaborators cardinal to his career and personal life were Rolling Stones guitarist and frontman Keith Richards and a young Emmylou Harris, whom author Bob Kealing referred to as Parsons’s “vocal soul mate.” During

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The first few guitar twangs of the song are a promise only Parsons can make good on...

THE GRAM SCHEME OF THINGS Gram Parsons was born Ingram Cecil Connor III in Winter Haven, Florida. The Conners moved to Waycross, Georgia where his father, Cecil “Coon Dog” Conner II, worked in a family box plant. In Waycross, Gram saw an up-and-coming Elvis Presley at the city auditorium in February 1956. Gram Parsons biographer Bob Kealing noted that the effect this had on Gram was “immediate and long-lasting.” The pursuit of music and celebrity would be a fixture in Parsons life from this moment forward.

Legends started in 1961 with Gram playing guitar and piano, Jim Stafford from Eloise on lead guitar, Lamar Braxton on drums, and his friend Jim Carlton on upright bass.

Gram’s maternal grandparents were the exceedingly wealthy Winter Haven citrus family, the Snivelys. Patriarch John Snively was a fertilizer salesman turned real estate investor and citrus millionaire. The Snively mansion can still be seen in LEGOLAND Florida Resort today as John was the one who’d sold the land on which Cypress Gardens was built. This charmed citrus-money lineage guaranteed Gram a rather healthy trust fund.

Jim’s father, Chicago musician Ben Carlton, moved his family to Winter Haven in 1954 to work in-studio for the radio show Florida Calling. Contracted by the Florida Citrus Commission, the show was broadcast five days a week from the Florida Citrus Building.

Jim Carlton met Gram Connor in 1959 when he transferred to St. Joseph Catholic School. “I am not Catholic, and neither was he, but my folks were told I’d get a better education there and I probably did. It was a heck of a lot more fun than public school,” Carlton said.

Within ten minutes of meeting, Jim and Gram became friends, united by a sharp sense of humor. Carlton described Gram as a bright kid, and said, “Even then he was very magnetic.” In a time where boys called one another by their last names, Carlton took notice that for the young Connor boy – everyone just called him Gram.

That trust fund didn’t mean he would be spared tribulation though. Parsons lost his father to suicide on December 23, 1958, and his mother to alcoholism on the day of his high school graduation from the Bolles School. Gram’s own death at 26, in Joshua Tree, California, on September 19, 1973 and the circumstances that followed have unfortunately – at least partially – cast a shadow over his musical contributions.

At school, the nuns would task Gram with watching over younger classes if a teacher had to step out. He was known to tell stories to keep the children entertained. “He was confabulous,” Carlton laughed. “If you believed everything Gram ever said, you were a fool. He spread a lot of his own legend if you will. […] But he was so damn good at it.” In fact, Gram would go on to ‘spread his own legend’ while at Harvard. In a comical turn of events, he convinced the school paper that he and his college band, the Like, had signed with RCA Records, a falsehood picked up by The Boston Globe with even more fabulous claims tacked on – carried further down the line, the following week by The Tampa Tribune.

Kealing felt compelled to tell Gram’s story for this reason. “It really felt like Gram had an unfinished life,” he said. The overemphasis on the morbid circumstances surrounding Parsons’s death in the California desert inspired Kealing to write a book that forwent the macabre for what mattered. During a 2013 book signing at the Winter Haven Public Library, the author said, “I was looking for some sort of redemption in Gram Parsons’s story. Less about the hype and sensationalism, more about the rich fabric of the definative places that he called home. The people with whom he played and those who carry on his legacy. That’s why I wanted my book to be a song of the south — Gram’s story rooted in places like Winter Haven and Waycross — not LA, not Joshua Tree, California.”

Storytelling aside, there was a maturity about Gram, gilded with boyish charm. Carlton described Parsons as a nonjudgmental character who rejected the prejudices that were a hallmark of the 1960s deep south. Adults like Carlton’s father remarked on Gram’s intellect.

In the same spirit, this article will focus on stories from Parsons’s formative years and career – on his contemporaries and friends – those who shaped the music scene within and beyond the orange groves, pine scrub, and murky lakes of Polk County, Florida.

A stylish dresser and ever ‘his own man’ as Carlton described him, Parsons made other boys envious when girls would ogle over him. “He would take that in stride,” his friend said. Gram had even been hit a few times by jealous boyfriends – but he could take a punch. Parsons’s good looks and style would be a point of recognition for the rest of his life. His rhinestone-studded Nudie suit embroidered with naked ladies, pot leaves, pills, and poppies with a bold red cross radiating rainbow rays on the back remains an epic piece music fashion history. During a talk at a Brunswick, Georgia library in 1992 journalist Stanley Booth, who traveled with the Rolling Stones and wrote the book The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, described the first time he saw Gram entering a room with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. Booth, who also grew up in Waycross, Georgia,

Following the death of his father in 1958, Gram moved with his mother, “Big Avis” Connor and younger sister, “Little Avis” back to Winter Haven. It was here that Gram would step into the limelight, and never really leave. The first band Parsons played with was called the Pacers. In 1960, he sang to a crowd of some 50 kids at the Dundee train depot. Gram would eventually move on to start his own band called the Legends. There are several iterations of the band throughout the years seeing members come and go. The

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Tampa Tribune 1965 Newspaper clipping courtesy of Main Street Winter Haven

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remembered Gram as “very handsome” and said he “looked like the sweetheart of the rodeo” with his long brown, frosted blond locks. “The Rolling Stones were famous – they were really famous. They were cool. […] And here’s this guy with them, who’s better looking, he’s got better clothes, he had better everything,” Booth said.

Nora Mayo Hall. “You have to have a place to be bad,” Carlton said. “Often the place to be bad is at teen centers and Holiday Inn lounges.” The Legends made several appearances on WFLA channel 8’s musical television show, Hi-Time, along with other Polk County bands like the Dynamics. “Close Enough to Perfect” songwriter, and cousin to Jesse Chambers, Carl Chambers took a reel-toreel recording of the Legends playing “Rip It Up” and the Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me” during an appearance on the show. The Legends were a hit and won Hi-Time’s Band of the Year.

While young Gram did impress parents and girls, the sharpdressed kid never shied away from a good time. He and pal Jim Carlton much preferred the company of the adults in their lives. “They had the booze, and they had the cigarettes, and they had the parties. It kind of eclipsed our high school friends,” Carlton said. The dynamic duo would put together routines to entertain during get-togethers. Gram would play the banjo or guitar, with Carlton noodling on bass or guitar. “We worked up a Smothers Brothers routine once,” Carlton said. “Gram would have made a tremendous comedy writer. He had a terrific sense of humor – very sarcastic.”

On the heels of his time leading the Legends, Gram entered his folk phase. Lakeland’s Dixieland district was a magnet for musically inclined and interested teens of the 1960s. The city even had its own happening coffeehouse called the Other Room, where folk artists performed. Casswin Music (where Gram got his first Fender Stratocaster guitar) was situated on the same stretch of Florida Avenue, along with Fat Jack’s Deli which opened in 1963.

Carlton would go on to have a noteworthy comedy career of his own. He kept in touch with Legends bandmate, funnyman, and guitar hero, Jim Stafford. Carlton has written with the likes of Stafford, the Smothers Brothers, Gallagher, and Joan Rivers. He traveled all around casino towns and LA as a writer, thanks to Jim Stafford who Carlton called a “tremendous influence” on his career.

“We’d all go over there together and goof off,” said Legends drummer Jon Corneal. He remembered Jay Erwin, part-owner of Casswin Music. Erwin wrote and funded Gram’s single, “Big Country.” Beyond his music store, Erwin’s mark on Lakeland’s music history was indelible. The Casswin Music owner was instrumental in organizing the Lakeland Civic Symphony in 1965, now the Lakeland Symphony Orchestra, even acting as their first conductor.

Gram’s quiet maturity didn’t get in the way of goofing around with his friends either. Like when the Legends would go out of town for a gig and stay at a hotel, they’d stack beer cans in a pyramid against the mirror. Carlton said, “There was an adolescent sense of fun with him around. He loved having people around, loved having pals come over. He’d always have somebody hanging out because I think there was a sadness, and a melancholy to him.”

“He was a bee-bopper […], and he talked cool,” Corneal said of Erwin. “We’d go over there and get cool-talking lessons. It was ‘man this’ and ‘man that.’ He was the first person to ever call me ‘man.’ I was just a teenager – I liked being called ‘man.’” The boys would head over to Fat Jack’s Deli next door, where they’d go for a hot pastrami on rye, and Corneal would eat his weight in kosher pickles.

Stepfather Bob Parsons, whose last name Gram took after Parsons adopted him, was ceaselessly supportive of Gram’s musical aspirations. Bob bought Gram a Volkswagen bus with ‘The Legends’ inscribed along the side before he even had a license. Consequently, older bandmates like Jim Stafford would have to drive them to and from gigs.

The Other Room, a coffeehouse and folkie spot, started by Lakeland guitarist Rick Norcross, was a regular haunt and performance venue for Gram, and a central part of his folk identity of the mid-sixties.

The Legends line-up would shift in 1962 when Gram recruited the Dynamics band members, two boys from Auburndale, Gerald “Jesse” Chambers and Jon Corneal. Gram was on keyboards, guitar, and vocals, with Jim Stafford on lead guitar, Chambers on bass and vocals, and Corneal on drums. Sam Killebrew, now a Florida Representative, was their band manager. He still has the business cards to prove it.

Jim Carlton still has the 45-rpm acetate thought to be Parsons’s earliest studio recording. Gram recorded two acoustic tunes in recording engineer Ernie Garrison’s Lakeland home: “Big Country” and “Racing Myself with the Wind.” “Those were his first efforts at songwriting,” noted Carlton. Well, that, and all his compositions to flatter the girl du jour, songs like “Pam” and “Joan,” which Jon Corneal had accompanied him to record in a modest studio inside Casswin Music.

Corneal appreciated Gram’s ability to land well-paying bookings, like a gig playing a horse show banquet in the ballroom of the Haven Hotel. The Legends played teen centers, holiday parties, hotel lounges, high school dances, and events at

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“Gram would have made a tremendous comedy writer. He had a terrific sense of humor...”

Tampa Tribune 1965 Newspaper clipping courtesy of Main Street Winter Haven

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Like his buddy Gram, Carlton played the folk scene as he joked, through “the folk music scare of the late 60s.” He went on to play on the same circuit and become friends with prolific singersongwriter and “Florida Troubadour,” Gamble Rogers. He later joined a show trio called Solomon, Carlton and Jones which performed shows around Disney. The group was a regional darling with regular photos and write-ups in the newspaper.

Jim Carlton described the opening of the Derry Down, on December 20, 1964, as an affair attracting Winter Haven’s well-to-do socialites – the elbow rubbers and friends of Gram’s moneyed mother “Big Avis.” Carlton said, “Opening night was a soiree for the ‘e-lite and the po-lite’ as we’d call it in Winter Haven.” Both Carlton’s mother and Big Avis donned fur stoles for the event.

Gram joined his first professional band, a Greenville, South Carolina group called the Shilos, in 1963. Later the band would record “Big Country” together.

Radio station WINT was on-site to simulcast the Shilos performance from the grand opening, and Carlton sat stageside with a reel-to-reel recorder for the concert. He still has the recordings.

In April of 1964, the Shilos made a trip to Chicago on the dime of Cypress Gardens owner Dick Pope, tasked to make promotional recordings for the park in preparation for a visit from King Hussein of Jordan. Author Bob Kealing spoke with Shilos’ banjo player, Paul Surratt, about the trip in his book:

Jon Corneal remembers the espresso machine Gram brought into the Derry Down – an almost alien luxury in 1960s Winter Haven, rumored to be the first of its kind here. “I’d never heard of an espresso machine,” Corneal said. The Derry Down building on Fifth Street would later become the Pied Piper, and the Derry Down teen club moved to Cypress Gardens Boulevard.

Surratt remembered the Shilos recording five or six songs in Chicago, including “Julie-Anne,” a New Christy Minstrels song Gram convinced his confederates he’d written. There was also a jaunty tune Gram actually did write as a kind of Cypress Gardens theme, “Surfinanny,” patterned closely after a song called “Raise a Ruckus Tonight.” It kills Surratt to this day that the other songs recorded were left at the studio and apparently lost to history.

By the summer of 1965, Gram had graduated high school, his mother had died, and the Beatles wave had crashed into the United States, ebbing the folk era out to sea. Parsons had left the Shilos and found himself at a career crossroads. That summer, between his time in Greenwich Village and Harvard, a dejected Gram shared his frustrations with Jim Stafford at his Winter Haven home. “Everybody that I knew was trying to figure out where our place was in all of this,” remembered Stafford. “He was a little bummed out.”

The Shilo’s returned to Winter Haven later that year for another special occasion – the opening of the Derry Down. Bob Parsons wanted to gift his stepson a space he and his buddies could play whenever he was in town. Gram’s very own club was hosted in a nondescript warehouse on Fifth Street in Winter Haven. “He and Avis encouraged Gram’s musical pursuits,” Kealing said. “It was far from perfect in their own home and in a sense, Gram was raising himself. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that they opened the Derry Down as a teen club to encourage Gram’s musical talent.”

There, Stafford gave Gram the advice that would change his musical trajectory. “I said it without an ounce of thought,” Stafford said. He told Gram that with his long hair and good singing voice, “Well, you should be a country Beatle.”

The club’s name and theme were Old English-inspired. The Derry Down menu included Derryburgers and Downdogs, prepared by Gram’s stepdad. “Bob Parsons was cheffing. He loved to do that more than just about anything,” Carlton said. The teen club served up nonalcoholic beverages befitting the Old English motif including a Wales Sunset, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Hotspur.

Modest about his role in Gram’s subsequent genre migration, Stafford laughed and said, “He probably thought that was stupid. […] At the moment, I don’t think that sounded so hot to him.” Gram must have mulled that over harder than Stafford realized at the time, because he would later tell Jim Carlton, that advice was a catalyst for his country rock career.

In a Tampa Tribune article Gram commented, “We were really going to go old English, but the trouble is nobody here understands it. Even Hotspur is pretty far out for Winter Haven. All they want to know is what’s in it.”

“Gram wanted to be a celebrity, that was first and foremost,” Carlton said. After learning to play “Steel Guitar Rag,” a twangy tune by country western crooner Bob Wills, he played it for Gram at his house. Gram said, ‘Carlton, what are you doing?’ and sat down at the piano to play some Floyd Cramer country licks, poking fun at his pal. “So, he didn’t give a damn about country music then,” Carlton said. “But he was grooming himself to be a celebrity of some kind. […] Somebody had said that if he’d have grown up in Minnesota, he would have figured out a way to make polka music hip.”

The article notes that kids would pay “a dollar a head to hear Gram Parsons and the Shilos, a merry band of teen-age folk singers with surprising talent.” Derry Down patrons had to show identification at the front door to prove they were under 21 to get in. The stage was set up along the right wall as guests walked in. There was a small kitchen for Bob Parsons to cook the burgers and hot dogs. In the ladies bathroom was a vanity table and chair for girls to powder their noses.

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“We were really going to go old English, but the trouble is nobody here understands it.”

1LT Jim Weaver Platoon Leader in support of the 11th Armored Cav., Vietnam.

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Where someone like Jim Stafford would spend hours a day mastering his guitar, Gram was more unabashedly interested in the star power of it all. Not to say the music wasn’t important to him, just if being a country Beatle was going to bring him fame and acclaim, a country Beatle he would be. “Gram, as I used to say, he’s about as countryfied as Gore Vidal,” Carlton said. “Nevertheless, he became a wonderful exponent of country music.” The day after Christmas, 1965, Gram Parsons picked up an acoustic guitar for an impromptu recording session at Jim Carlton’s house. The latter had received a Sony 500 reel-to-reel recorder from a Pan Am pilot friend who brought it over from Tokyo. “It was the best toy train set a musically inclined boy ever had,” he said. Gram wanted to share music he’d pick up from his time in Greenwich Village and a few songs he’d written. “He’d come home with these terrific songs by Fred Neil or [....] Bob Dylan,” Carlton said. “He had these terrific songs and wanted to share them with somebody who would appreciate it. They certainly weren’t going to make their way to Winter Haven.” These recordings would be some of the last vestiges of Gram Parsons’s folkie persona. In 2000, Carlton co-produced the album Gram Parsons: Another Side of This Life, with Bob Irwin on Sundazed Records. “What’s significant is that these were during his folk music era,” he said. These “lost recordings of Gram Parsons” as the album cover reads, include music from those 1965 recordings, along with some from the year following, including tracks “Another Side of This Life,” “Codine,” and “Brass Buttons.” The album has sold over 20,000 copies worldwide and continues to garner interest from “completionist” Gram fans and the music industry the world over. “It is beautiful,” said Parsons fan and founding father of the Derry Down Project, Gene Owen. “It’s a transitional Gram.” Gram could play a country tune like “Together Again” or “Love Hurts” and inspire goosebumps if not tears. Carlton said, “Give it to Gram and he brought something special to it that would touch people, and in a nutshell that was his magic. He was very soulful, and it was genuine.” Perhaps this is what Jim Lauderdale experienced the first time he heard Gram. Cosmically gifted in his own right, two-time

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale looks at Gram Parsons‘s like the sun. The soul and sincerity permeating Parsons’ catalog is nothing short of spiritual for the musician who has written for George Strait, Patty Loveless, George Jones, the Dixie Chicks, Gary Allen, and Elvis Costello.

Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)

Of Parsons, Lauderdale said, “It was an important musical event when I first heard him – like hearing the Beatles for the first time or George Jones or Ralph Stanley – those musical moments where you remember exactly where you were and what you felt the first time you heard them.” The first album Lauderdale picked up with Gram’s soulful country sound was Grievous Angel. He said, “From the very first song, all through the album, I was transfixed.” Eager to get his hands on anything Parsons was involved with, Lauderdale sought out his other music from GP to Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Gilded Palace of Sin. He read interviews with Gram and those associated with him, and biographies of the late musician – the first of which would go on to inspire the song, “King of Broken Hearts.”

The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969)

Lauderdale wrote “King of Broken Hearts” as a tribute to Gram Parsons and George Jones after reading Gram Parsons: A Musical Biography by Sid Griffin. Lauderdale said, “I read about a party that Gram was at. He was playing George Jones records, and he started crying, and he said, ‘That’s the king of broken hearts.’” He released the song, produced by Rodney Crowell and John Leventhal on his 1991 Planet of Love album. The following year, George Strait included it, as well as another of Lauderdale’s songs, “Where the Sidewalk Ends” on his record, Pure Country. Jim Lauderdale sings “King of Broken Hearts” at just about every show. “I think about Gram when I’m singing it.”

GP (1973)

Lauderdale would get the chance to sing that song and think about Gram in a place that has become sacred to his legacy and his hometown – Gram Parsons Derry Down. But first it would need to be resurrected. Gram Parsons remains a holy man for those who worship at the altar of good, honest music. But, he wasn’t the only one of his friends and contemporaries to make it out of Winter Haven, or to make music history, for that matter.

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Grievous Angel (1974)

“...he brought something special to it that would touch people, and in a nutshell that was his magic.” Gram Parsons: Another Side of This Life (2000) 33

“SPIDERS AND SNAKES” & JIM STAFFORD

“If you don’t know it – practice, practice, practice. That’s what I did when I was a kid. All the other boys would be out practicing football, but I practiced the guitar, and I’m glad I did because it paid off… I can kick this guitar 60 yards,” Jim Stafford said to a roar of laughter from the audience during an appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. In another performance, jokes are peppered between flinger-blurring licks of “Malaguena” and “Flight of the Bumblebee” with giggles and applause in no short supply. A renaissance man, if ever there was one, Stafford is a maestro of hair-raising guitar picking and side-splitting comedy routines. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, he plays fiddle, piano, banjo, organ, and harmonica. However, Stafford’s main instrument remains his trusty guitar. “I was really serious about the guitar,” Stafford said, “and I still am.” His musical career began at his home in Eloise. He can still remember his neighbor and friend Wayne Simmons getting a beautiful red guitar from his brother, who’d brought it back from Germany. The two would play together – Stafford on his dad’s guitar. Wayne Simmons would go on to write the song “Gibson Girl” on the Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed album, Sneakin’ Around. He may have joked around about practicing, but it was something he did religiously. Stafford kept a guitar on hand at Quality Cleaners, the family dry cleaning business, in Eloise, where he worked for his dad. He learned to read music from Jim Carlton’s father, Ben, at their family music store, Carlton Music Center. “I wanted to learn how to read music, and Ben Carlton was a studio musician, a quality musician who came to Florida with a band,” he said. Stafford’s intuition on the guitar and drive to practice earned the admiration of his peers. Even guitar teacher Ben Carlton was in awe of the young musician. Jim Carlton remembered that his dad didn’t particularly have the time or want to teach, but he made an exception for Stafford. “He saw that Jim Stafford was such a talented kid he couldn’t help himself,” Jim Carlton said. “In fact, he didn’t even charge money for the first several lessons.” Stafford was in a few garage bands with other young Polk County musicians of the ‘60s, including several iterations of the Legends. Kids like Gram Parsons and Jim Carlton looked up to Stafford. “He was our avuncular older brother,” said Carlton.

(1974)

In Calling Me Home author Bob Kealing refers to these Polk County musicians whom Gram “befriended and benefited from” as “a constellation of singers, songwriters, and entertainers on the rise.” The self-effacing Stafford was but one of the stars in that mellifluous constellation of charisma and knack. He reflected on his garage band days, “Sometimes we’d be playing

“That’s a simple song, but I worked on it for quite a while because I knew there was something catchy about it.”

with a couple of guys from Auburndale, a couple of guys from Winter Haven. There were some good people over there.” He tipped his hat to the talent of Bobby Braddock as well as Carl Chambers, calling his song “Close Enough to Perfect,” “one of the best country songs I’ve ever heard.”

In 1974, Stafford would release a song he wrote called “Swamp Witch” on his self-titled album, co-produced by another Winter Haven native, Kent ‘Lobo’ LaVoie. The single would spend one week on the U.S. top 40 charts, peaking at No. 39. Stafford followed this ‘moderate’ chart success with his version of David Bellamy’s, “Spiders and Snakes,” which he re-wrote in the bedroom of his childhood home in Inwood. The song was a hit.

In high school, Stafford and his buddies would often rehearse in his living room, and on Friday and Saturday nights, they’d load into someone’s car or Gram’s VW bus to play a Central Florida teen center. Back then, Stafford said, “I could play guitar alright, and a couple of the guys in the band would sing. It wasn’t the kind of band that we got together often and worked up complex arrangements or any of that kind of stuff. […] It was almost like kids pretending to be a band.”

“That’s a simple song, but I worked on it for quite a while because I knew there was something catchy about it,” he said. That song, which he would perform in 1976 alongside Dolly Parton on her nationally syndicated television show, went on to chart at No. 3 and sell 2.5 million copies. Stafford credits “Spiders and Snakes” for launching him onto stages across Reno and Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, opening for musical icons from Bruce Springsteen and the Earl Scruggs Revue to Ike and Tina Turner.

Playing in bands was fun for Stafford, but he was more interested in being an entertainer than a rockstar. He often went to Christy’s Sundown Restaurant in Winter Haven to watch piano bar comics. “They’re fellas who sit at a piano, and they talk to the audience and sing songs and tell jokes,” he said. One of his favorites was Tampa-based comedian Pat Henry.

“Looking back on it, it was thrilling because I started off in these little lounges, trying to write songs and do funny things and play the guitar as good as I could,” he said. “I kept at it and kept at it and got good enough to attract the attention of record people. Next thing I know, I had some records that did very well and moved out to LA.”

A young Jim Stafford would pick up the piano comics’ souvenir albums and listen to them again and again. “I learned quite a bit about how to talk to an audience, how to tell a joke, how to play a song they might like, how to get them to sing along – all of the things I could possibly learn about being an entertaining guitar comic. I guess that might have been what I was,” he said.

The “Spiders and Snakes” songsmith’s talents weren’t relegated to music and comedy. “Whenever there was some aspect of entertainment that I could get my hands on or figure out how to do myself, I would do it,” he said. Stafford had quite a few film roles over the years, including Any Which Way You Can (1980) starring Clint Eastwood (for which he wrote the song “Cow Patti’’), cult horror-comedy Blood Suckers from Outer Space (1984), Kid Colter (1984), Gordy (1994), and guest appearances in television series The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Stafford made 26 appearances on The Tonight Show and hosted the ABC summer variety series The Jim Stafford Show as well as Those Amazing Animals with co-hosts Burgess Meredith and Priscilla Presley.

Stafford said he worked much harder afterward on becoming a single act. “I was always trying to write songs and jokes.” He thought if he could entertain, tell a few jokes, and play his guitar well, he might be able to make a living playing bars and restaurants and lounges. “That’s when I put my guitar in the back of my dad’s cleaning truck and drove out to the Dundee Holiday Inn and got a job playing with my guitar. I really never looked back after that,” he said. Time spent performing at bars and hotel lounges sharpened Stafford’s comedic and musical abilities. “The perfect thing for me was to find places where I could work just about every night of the week so I could try my material.” Stafford would record his performances and listen back to his delivery to make adjustments.“My guitar playing was pretty good, and I worked on funny songs because I wasn’t much of a singer, so I thought I’d just do these little talking songs.”

In 1990 Stafford opened The Jim Stafford Theatre in Branson, Missouri, where he brought in other first-rate musical acts and serenaded, wise-cracked, and played some of his greatest hits like “My Girl Bill” and “Wildwood Weed” to crowds for decades. He continues to do live performances, shining on audiences across the Sunshine State.

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AN AUBURNDALE RAMBLIN’ MAN Born on the naval base at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, Les Dudek moved to Auburndale, Florida, the year he turned seven. For Dudek, the move was marked by Buddy Holly’s plane crash. “That’s all I heard on my little nine-volt transistor radio,” he said. Orange blossoms, pine trees, and guitar chords made up the ethos of Dudek’s upbringing in the south. He remembers trips to Carlton Music and getting out of school to smudge pot orange groves when temperatures threatened to drop.

Gentleman that Beatle George Harrison played. Dudek had spotted it in a Sears and Roebuck catalog and had to have it. It was a Christmas gift from his parents that year. “I have a picture of my mom and me on Christmas morning with that guitar – it’s a fond picture,” he said. The future guitar great eventually discovered Carlton Music Center, a music mecca of 1960s Polk County. “I can remember hanging out at Carlton Music Center, running into Gram Parsons and Jim Stafford, Jon Corneal. We were all kind of a product of music back in those days.”

His sister was about four years older than Les. “She was always up on the latest and greatest” when it came to music, he said. He’d hear what she was listening to through their bedroom walls. As a result, Dudek was raised on a steady diet of Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys. As her musical tastes shifted towards the “Stupid Cupid” and “Lipstick on Your Collar” pop songstress Connie Francis, Dudek drifted to the guitar-heavy sounds of the Ventures and the unequaled songwriting and harmonies of the Everly Brothers and the Beatles. The British Invasion gifted Les with the Who, the Rolling Stones, and Cream.

Later he’d go to other Florida music stores like Thoroughbred Music in Tampa and the Music Mart in Orlando, where he got a sunburst Mosrite Ventures electric guitar. He remembers showing it off to Carl Chambers. When Chambers leaned down to look at it, a Zippo lighter tumbled from his pocket. “It was like slow motion, how it drifted all the way down my guitar and put a big dent in it,” he said. Chambers felt terrible, but there was no harm done, Dudek was able to trade it out for a black one. Les would go on to do the same to Jim Carlton’s bass with his belt buckle. Jim still teases him about it.

By then, music was heavy on his mind. “I was about ten years old when I got the guitar bug,” Dudek said. He still has his first twenty-dollar 1965 Silvertone 604 acoustic guitar hanging on his wall. Disaster struck when he attempted to tune it for the first time. “I was turning the keys too high until I popped the string, and I thought it was the end of the world.” It turned out to be an easy fix. Taylor’s Drug Store in Auburndale stocked Black Diamond guitar strings right behind the counter.

The first band Dudek played with was a group of other local boys. “I don’t even think we put a name on it. It was just a bunch of kids in the neighborhood,” he said. Ricky Erickson was on lead vocals with Butch Buchanan on lead guitar, Rick Burnett on drums, and Gerald Enfinger on bass. He referred to this group as the ‘Marjorie Avenue Bunch.’ Erickson’s mother was the manager for the Dale Drive-In, where the boys would rehearse in the concession stand. A man walked up to the boys at the drive-

His first electric guitar was a Silvertone 1446L hollow-body. It had black and white trim, reminiscent of the Gretsch Country

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Steppin’ Stones 1966 Photo courtesy of Les Dudek havenmagazines.com

Ronnie Montrose, Boz Scaggs, and Less Dudek 1973 Photo courtesy of Les Dudek 36

“We were all kind of a product of music back in those days.”

in one day and said, ‘Hey! How’d you guys like to make some money doing that?’

The Polk County music scene was like a game of musical chairs with young musicians changing bands, forming new ones, and joining established ones – and Les was no different. “We were kids forming bands and playing teen centers and frat houses,” he said. “It was better than doing anything else criminal.” However, they would occasionally steal colored flood lights from motels to illuminate their band. They had a makeshift light bar where they’d screw in their freshly lifted flood lights.

He owned a trailer sales business next to what was Club 92. “The guy wanted us to set up in front of his trailer sales so we would attract people coming and going by the freeway there,” Dudek said. “He paid us each five bucks – that was our first gig.” The young guitarist graduated to another band, the Steppin’ Stones, with David Shoemate on drums, Chuck Corneal (brother of drummer Jon Corneal and former mayor of Auburndale) on guitar, Butch Buchanan on lead guitar, and Dudek on bass.

After the Derry Down moved to Cypress Gardens Boulevard, the original building became the Pied Piper for a time. Les remembers playing the Pied Piper. The building had no air conditioning. “I remember it being a hot box,” he said.

He hopped out of the Steppin’ Stones into United Sounds, a ‘mirror image band’ of another Auburndale garage band turned legends – Ron and the Starfires. Dudek’s first mentor was an original member of United Sounds, Mitchell Smith. He would go watch Smith play with the band at the Auburndale teen center. After the show, Smith would show him things on the guitar and eventually taught him how to play “Johnny B. Goode” on his 1964 white SG Custom.

The last time he saw Gram Parsons was outside the Pied Piper. “I could tell from the way he was looking at the Derry Down he was kind of reminiscing what it was like when it was his place,” he said. Les, some six years Gram’s junior, struck up a conversation with the older musician. Dudek moved on from the United Sounds to Blue Truth, followed by the third or fourth iteration of the band Power, playing high school dances, frat houses, and the Florida teen center circuit that was white-hot with rising stars. Back in the day, Florida “was like the east coast version of California, but not quite as hip yet,” he said.

Carl Chambers was another local musician he looked up to. Dudek would skip school, pick up cheeseburgers from Taylor’s Drug Store, and show up at Chambers’ house. “I’d trade him burgers for some guitar licks,” he said.

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Les Dudek and Cher on the set of Mask 1984 Photo courtesy of Les Dudek

Dudek, Finnigan and Krueger Band 1978 Photo courtesy of Les Dudek 37

UPCOMING SHOWS JULY 2

SHOWTIME AT THE RITZ Community talent showcase! Once a month we will be showcasing local talent. Grab your $10 ticket and support locals as they take our stage for a chance to showcase their talents. Show will begin at 8:00pm.

JULY 23

CLASSIC ROCK LEGACY PRESENTS “Come Together” for this one night only event as a stellar cast of musicians will perform this classic album cut by cut with an encore of greatest hits! The performance will showcase the utmost love and respect as we celebrate one of the greatest bands. If you are a Beatles fan, this is the show for you! You can’t come in “Through the Bathroom Window,” but we’ll be sure the doors are open.

JULY 30

OUT OF THE BOX IMPROV Out of The Box Improv group and the Historic Ritz Theatre, two Winter Haven originals, are teaming together to bring improv comedy back to downtown Winter Haven! A cast of talented young actors create ‘slice of life’ theatre based on the audience’s script scenarios. Fun for the whole family! Grab your $10 online or at the door.

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Following Duane Allman’s death in a 1971 motorcycle crash, a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts, called on Dudek to play with him. Eventually, Betts and Dudek linked back up with the Allman Brothers Band, and Les played guitar for their hit song, “Ramblin’ Man.” He co-wrote and played some acoustic guitar on the song “Jessica” for the same 1973 Allman Brothers Band album, Brothers and Sisters. The success of “Ramblin’ Man,” which ascended to No. 2 on the Billboard charts, ignited Dudek’s career.

Dudek recorded five albums with Columbia – four solo and one with a band. In the late 70s, he linked up with Mike Finnigan and Jim Krueger. The two had been working with Dave Mason. Krueger wrote the song “We Just Disagree” for Mason. Their band would be called the Dudek, Finnigan, and Krueger Band (DFK). The promotion for this band was a bit ‘ass backward,’ as Dudek would say. Instead of cutting a record together and touring to promote it, the three were each promoting their solo albums. “It was really a confusing thing for the audience,” he said. DFK did go on tour with Kansas for about four months and worked with artists like Kenny Loggins and Dave Mason. “Then we got the bright idea – why don’t we do a DFK album,” Dudek said. The Dudek, Finnigan, and Krueger Band released their first and only self-titled album with Columbia Records in 1980.

Dudek thinks back on that night in front of the Pied Piper occasionally. “I wonder if Gram got a chance to hear me play on “Ramblin’ Man” before he died.” The single was released in August 1973, and Gram died in September. In 1973, Dudek met Boz Scaggs and went on tour with him for about five years, later playing on his 1976 album, Silk Degrees. At the end of their The Joker tour, the Steve Miller Band tapped Dudek to work with them in Seattle. There, the band and Dudek cut songs that would end up on albums Fly Like an Eagle, Book of Dreams, and Living in the 20th Century.

While on hiatus with DFK, after he’d cut his third record, Gypsy Ride, Dudek got a call to go to an audition for Cher. The Goddess of Pop was looking to start a rock band called Black Rose. DFK’s Mike Finnigan turned up at the auditions along with Steven Stills of supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young fame. “We turned it into a big jam session,” Dudek remembered.

The Steve Miller Band even covered the song “Sacrifice,” which Dudek had co-written with guitarist James Curley Cooke. “Sacrifice” made it onto the Book of Dreams album and Dudek’s first solo self-titled album, produced by Boz Scaggs and released on Columbia Records in 1976. This wouldn’t be the last of his songwriting successes either. Dudek co-wrote “Sister Honey” with Stevie Nicks for her 1985 Rock a Little album. The two also co-wrote the song “Freestyle” together, which Dudek would go on to name his 2003 solo record with E Flat Productions.

After the auditions, Cher invited them all for dinner at Nick’s Fishmarket in Beverly Hills. She asked Dudek if he was serious about helping her start a band. Sure, he told her. “I wasn’t doing anything else.” Les Dudek became the Black Rose band leader and recommended esteemed composer James Newton Howard, whom he had worked with on the DFK album, to produce the Black Rose record. In the interim, Cher and Les (or LD as she sometimes called him) began dating. “We had already been dating, and she said, ‘LD, why don’t you just move in?’” Dudek said. He lived with her for the better part of three years.

While living in California circa-early-70s, another offer would come Dudek’s way. Manager and musician Herbie Herbert approached the guitarist about a new band he was forming. Herbert told Dudek, ‘I want to get the two guitar heroes from the San Francisco Bay area to be in the same band.’ Dudek thanked him for the compliment and asked who the other guitar player was. It was none other than Neal Schon, guitarist, for Santana, along with bassist Ross Valory.

Dudek named the founder and president of Casablanca Records Neil Bogart as the short-lived band’s biggest champion. Black Rose would release one self-titled album in 1980, appear on The Merv Griffin Show, and host The Midnight Special alongside the Rolling Stones and the Everly Brothers the same year. Cher also appeared on Tom Snyder’s Celebrity Spotlight to promote the record. Black Rose wilted following Bogart’s death and Dudek and Cher’s breakup in 1982.

Dudek was set to meet the other would-be members at a rehearsal hall called Studio Instrument Rental in San Francisco. He received a call from Columbia Records’ A&R department requesting a meeting at one of their studios which happened to be right across the street from the rehearsal hall. “I was going to be on that side of town anyway that day rehearsing with this new band called Journey,” he said.

According to Dudek, he encouraged Cher to pursue acting post-Black Rose. A few years after parting company, she called him up and said, ‘Hey Les, I’m doing a new movie, and they’re looking for a guy that’s got long hair, sings, plays guitar, and rides a motorcycle. Do you know anybody like that?’ That’s how Les Dudek got his first film role as Bone in director Peter Bogdanovich’s 1985 movie, Mask. Dudek followed that up with a television movie, Streets of Justice, released the same year.

Two hours into the Journey jam sesh, Dudek stepped across the street to take the meeting with Columbia Records. He was offered a solo deal on the spot. Weighing his options, Dudek decided to go solo. He laughed, recounting the story, “It turns out I was one of the founding members of Journey for about two hours.”

The highly sought-after southern rock guitar god continued to tour around Europe and the United States in the 1990s. He released three albums through his own record label, E Flat Productions, including Deeper Shades of Blues in 2001, Freestyle in 2003, and Delta Breeze in 2013. He still tours around Florida, including appearances at Gram Parsons Derry Down.

Following his debut album, Dudek worked on Say No More with audio engineer and record producer Bruce Botnick, famous for his work with the Doors, the Beach Boys, and Eddie Money. This era of Dudek’s career garnered him offers from various artists and bands, including the band Chicago after the 1978 death of member Terry Kath. The manager for Little Feat offered Dudek the job when Lowell George passed away in 1979. Around the same time, Bob Dylan and Eddie Money also sought out Dudek, but he was already immersed in his own projects.

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NUDIE SUITS IN NASHVILLE “All I wanted to do was play drums,” said The Legendary Jon Corneal, pioneer of country rock drumming. He started as a little boy from Auburndale who hated playing the baritone his parents rented him for ten dollars a year.

His days in the Dynamics were numbered when Gram Parsons scouted him at the Auburndale municipality building. “That’s where we were rehearsing that afternoon,” Corneal said. “He liked Gerald [“Jesse” Chambers] and my playing, and he needed to replace a bass player and a drummer, so he got our numbers.”

When he was four, Corneal’s ‘momma’ took him to watch the Winter Haven High School Marching Band. He told her then that he wanted to play the ‘dwums.’ (This was before he’d taken three years of speech therapy.) “I ruined a lot of furniture with knives or forks beating on it,” he said. Corneal told his parents that if they’d permit him to play drums, they could save their ten dollars a year because he’d buy his own. The Corneals relented, perhaps more to save their furniture and silverware than the money. Jon’s father owned a lumberyard, and the family lived in a spacious brick Tudor-style home on Lake Juliana, built in 1925. “It’s as nice as any Snively house,” he said. Corneal had his own garage apartment when he was twelve.

Gram called up Chambers and Corneal, and they met up and “started running some tunes together.” In 1962, Chambers and Corneal officially became Legends with Jim Stafford on lead guitar and Gram Parsons on keyboards, guitar, and vocals. One appeal Gram had for Corneal was his ability to secure paid bookings for the band like that horse show banquet, where the Legends played in the ballroom of the Haven Hotel. That year between the banquet, Christmas parties, and New Year’s Eve gigs, the boys made more than a little scratch. “Growing up in Auburndale, the coaches hated musicians. If you were a musician, you were so less than – way, way down low on the totem,” he said. When they returned to school following the holidays, the coach started giving him grief. Corneal laughed as he told the story. “I said, ‘Hey coach! How much money did you make last week?’ He wouldn’t tell me. I said, ‘Well, if you didn’t make $300, I made more than you did.’ And he never called me a sissy again.”

When the decision was made to drop his baritone and pick up drum sticks, Corneal had to return to the beginner band. His band director, Mr. Miller, would take Jon from Auburndale Junior High to Auburndale Primary School in his 1956 Chevrolet. He started all over with drums, but within a month or two, Corneal had caught up and returned to the intermediate band at the junior high. Though he learned how to read music, Corneal didn’t put too much stock in it. He mentioned a line by The Country Gentleman, Chet Atkins, who once said when asked if he read music, “I do, but not enough to hurt my playing.”

Corneal appeared on WFLA channel 8’s, Hi-Time with the Dynamics and later with the Legends, winning Hi-Time’s Band of the Year.

Jon set up a drum kit to practice in his apartment above the garage of the Corneal home. When he wasn’t working for his father at the lumberyard, a young Jon Corneal played that drum kit with zeal, practicing until 10 pm on school nights, prompting his mother to beat on the garage ceiling with a shovel and yell, ‘You got school tomorrow, you need to quit!’

In early July 1964, fresh out of high school, a 17-year-old Jon Corneal and Eloise guitarist Jim Stafford put Polk County in the rear view, pulling a 13-foot Scotty camper. A few days later, they pulled into an RV park, spot E15, Corneal still remembers, in Nashville, Tennessee. The two would eventually split company to pursue their individual entertainment aspirations. One of Corneal’s Nashville neighbors, bass player for Flatt and Scruggs and The Foggy Mountain Boys, Jake Tullock, lent him the money to join a musician’s union that August.

Later, when Corneal played with the Legends, they’d occasionally practice in that garage apartment. “We’d either rehearse at my place or in Gram’s room,” he said. Before joining the Legends with Gram and the gang, Corneal was in a band called the Dynamics alongside Carl and Gerald Chambers. The Dynamics, like most garage bands of the era, would add and change members, including Bobby Braddock, Aaron Hancock, Buddie Canova, Randy Green, and Billy Joe Chambers. The band would travel to play at different Central Florida teen centers. “My momma would let me borrow her Oldsmobile. […] You could put all the drums and all our gear in the Olds because they were big cars, so that was real handy.” Corneal remembered taking his mother’s Olds to a show in Kissimmee where each boy earned $10. “We were happy to get it, boy. We were making that money,” he chuckled. “Those were the days.”

Most of the country acts of the time didn’t care for Corneal’s brand of drumming. He referred to himself as a ‘fancy solo drummer’ in addition to the group work he played. “When I played with the Legends, I’d do a ten-minute drum solo, and they’d all leave the bandstand,” he said. The newly-graduated teenager was often surrounded by artists twice his age in the Music City. “They’d turn to me and say, ‘Keep it country boy, keep it country! Stick and a brush!’ You never told a rock and roll drummer not to play with two sticks,” he said. “I decided if that’s all I could do, I’d learn how to keep time that was better than a metronome. I learned where the pocket is, for sure.”

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Jon Corneal 2022 Photo by Amy Sexson

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In 1965, Corneal got the part of a drummer in the Nashville musical film, Music City U.S.A. (1966). According to Corneal, he got fellow Auburndale native and Dynamics bandmate Bobby Braddock a part playing piano for the movie. Corneal said, “He told the makeup lady to just do the back of his ears because they had him playing an upright piano, and he wasn’t facing the camera. I thought that was funny.”

in rock and roll didn’t like country, thought it was less than.” Gram would reproachfully ask Corneal, ‘What are you doing playing that country?’

It was through Music City U.S.A. that Corneal met country music duo the Wilburn Brothers and legendary singer-songwriter and future Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Loretta Lynn, who were featured stars in the film. The former would go on to offer Corneal a job, and he spent the whole of 1966 as the drummer for the Wilburn Brothers. The band was in high demand, packing out the most prominent music halls, theaters, and auditoriums throughout Texas and the southeast. “Back then, they’d still turn 2,000 [people] away,” Corneal said. The Wilburn Brothers played with Loretta Lynn plenty around this time as she was signed with their agency, the Wil-Helm Agency. “Back then, she had her own band, so we backed her up on a lot of shows.” Describing her with a drawn-out emphasis as ‘cooooun-try,’ he added, “She was a darlin’ – she was the sweetest thing.” That year, Corneal played on Lynn’s Christmas album, Country Christmas.

On the same trip home, Gram asked Jon to join the International Submarine Band in California with the agreement that Jon could sing and play some of his songs. “They flew me out first class, so I got steak and lobster and champagne twice – out of Tampa and out of New Orleans. I was feeling no pain when I got there,” Corneal said, smiling.

“That’s where the work was, and that’s why I took it,” Corneal confessed. “I went up there [to Nashville] hoping I could get with the Everly Brothers or Roy Orbison.”

Los Angeles would prove a big shock for this southern Bibleraised Boy Scout. One morning Gram invited Jon over to actor Peter Fonda’s house for a swim. Sure, he’d go, he said. “As it turned out, I was the only one that had a bathing suit. […] I’d never seen anything like it.” Asked if he’d slipped off his skivvies to join in on the skinning dipping, Jon said in his unhurried southern drawl, “No, ma’am, I didn’t take it off.” As it would turn out, Gram’s promise to give Corneal some time out front remained unfulfilled. A fight over this prompted Corneal to part ways with the International Submarine Band – that ship had sunk, and Corneal was stranded. LA proved a hard place to adapt for Corneal, who described the city as ‘a different world.’ “There was a few years of struggle there.”

So, there he was, on the road playing with some of the best country musicians of the time. “But I was frustrated,” he said. “When I’d come home, I’d borrow a guitar and start writing songs, working on my singing more and more.” In 1966, Corneal saved up the $100 per week salary he was making with the Wilburn Brothers to book other musicians and record five of the songs he had written at Bradley’s Barn in Nashville. That was his seminal country rock session.

Corneal would go on to record percussion for the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, with his name listed alongside drummer Kevin Kelley in the album credits. Less than two years after playing with the International Submarine Band, Corneal would answer Gram’s call again, this time to play with his band following the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers. After arriving in California, Corneal would hop from Gram’s couch to ‘Burrito Manor.’ The first Flying Burrito Brothers album, The Gilded Palace of Sin, features Corneal’s percussion on five songs. He left the band shortly after recording the album and returned to Nashville. He still has the Nudie suit to show for his time with the Flying Burrito Brothers. “We went to Nudie’s and got measured. I told him I wanted a red suit with an Edwardian collar, with palm trees and all kinds of rhinestones, gold alligators, and on the back was a riverboat,” he said.

His country rock roots and connection to former bandmate Gram Parsons would soon bring him to the glitz and grit of Los Angeles. Every so often, Corneal, a true-blue Florida boy, would head south to the Sunshine State to drive the old dirt roads. “I used to come home to smell the orange blossoms,” he said. During one 1967 trip home, Gram was also in town from California, where he’d been pursuing music post-Harvard. He asked Corneal to come over so he could play him some new music he’d discovered. On a Robert’s reel-to-reel recorder, Gram played Jon a compilation tape he’d made with the country croonings of Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and Loretta Lynn.

These rodeo and rhinestone Nudie suits were designed by Nudie Cohn, founder of Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors in North Hollywood. Elvis, Gram, Dolly, Porter, Buck, Cher, Sly – Nudie suits have been the flashy regalia of country-western and pop culture royalty, then and since.

It was surprising to Jon that Gram had ‘discovered’ this sound. “I’d been playing it for a couple of years already and making records and playing on people’s recordings […] making a living playing music,” Corneal said. The spring prior, Corneal said Gram had given him a hard time about the country music he was playing. “He had this attitude about me playing country. People

Corneal must have felt like the picture of snaz, rhinestones reflecting in infinite directions. “That’s the magic of those things. - CONTINUED ON PAGE 45 -

“I used to come home to smell the orange blossoms.”

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Jon Corneal at the Grand Ole Opry Photo courtesy of Jon Corneal

Debbie and Jon Corneal Photo courtesy of Jon Corneal

When you walk out on stage wearing those things, you’re like more than human. There’s something extra going on there. It’s so showbiz-y, it ain’t even funny.”

Now, every Friday at ‘high noon’ at Hillcrest Coffee in Lakeland, The Legendary Jon Corneal and His Compadres play a live two-hour set in which Jon sits front and center. They live stream with people tuning in from all over the world to see a world-class band, headed up by Corneal on drums and rhythm guitar, improvise a set of classics and original music. “I always tell people, his recordings, yeah, they’re pretty damn good, but you’ve got to come see him,” Gene Owen said.

Earlier this year, in February, Corneal’s friend and Derry Down Project champion Gene Owen accompanied him to Nashville to deliver the garments to the Country Music Hall of Fame to be included in a future exhibit at the museum. The official loan document lists: “Nudie costume jacket with submarine imagery plus nudie jacket with riverboat imagery and accompanying pants worn by Jon Corneal.” The Nudie jacket with submarine imagery was Gram’s from the International Submarine Band, worn during a cameo in The Trip (1967) starring Peter Fonda. Gram gave it to Corneal in 1972 when the percussionist drove to LA to fill in during rehearsals for Gram’s band, the Fallen Angels.

Jon’s Compadres are a floating cast with a nucleus of regular players. “We have patrons that have been faithfully contributing and supportive. It kind of amazes me,” Corneal said. He may have been a ‘road dog’ as a young man, but Corneal is glad to have a home base in Hillcrest Coffee. “Having a place to play once a week and not having to travel is pretty neat.”

“We don’t often in our lives get treated special,” Corneal said of his time delivering his Nudie suit and sitting for an interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame. “But they treated us special.” In addition to the loan of garments, Corneal is contingent on making appearances at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

The country rock drummer recorded his most recent album, High Country, in 2019. The record is a mix of American classics and Corneal’s original music. The first song on that album, “Used To Do,” was a rendition of one of Corneal’s 1965 formative country rock recordings. On the album’s inside cover, Jon thanks many people, including pal Gene Owen, Compadre Buster Cousins, wife Debbie, “Brian Goding, and all my friends and family at Hillcrest Coffee,” and “my Lord and Savior who has given me the way.” In addition to his Friday concerts with the Compadres, Corneal hosts a weekly Bible study at the Lakeland coffee shop.

Following his work with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Corneal played on Warren Zevon’s Wanted Dead or Alive album and then with ex-Byrd Gene Clark in the band Dillard & Clark on their second LP, Through the Morning, Through the Night. He went on to tour and record with the Glaser Brothers and eventually broke out on his own in 1973, releasing Jon Corneal & the Orange Blossom Special in 1974. He has performed around Florida in his group Limousine Cowboys and for some 30 years with his wife in their act, the Jon & Debbie Corneal Show.

A former Legend, now legendary, Jon Corneal continues to make music. At 75, his drumming is still meticulously in-time – ‘better than a metronome.’ When he catches a show at the Derry Down, he’ll graciously regale Gram fans with stories about the cosmic icon, also inviting them to see him play sometime. Between his appearances at the Derry Down, Hillcrest Coffee, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the ubiquity of social media, the pioneer of country rock drumming said, “Finally, people are starting to figure out my contribution.”

“I dreamed about being a star and having my own bus and playing all these places on my own instead of working behind the star,” Corneal said. “I’ve had all kinds of people standing in front of me, doing their thing, and I’m just back in the back playing the drums, wishing I could be upfront singing.”

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SAVING THE DERRY DOWN In 1964 Gram Parsons would open a teen club in a little building on Winter Haven’s Fifth Street. By 2012, the defunct Derry Down had become a warehouse lost to time. The relic of Polk County’s musical paramount was in disrepair and being used for storage. Not everyone had forgotten it, though. The convergence of an author, a persistent Gram fan, a nonprofit, a private developer, and the Winter Haven community would save this cultural landmark in the eleventh hour.

investigating novelist Jack Kerouac. He learned about a thendilapidated Orlando cottage Kerouac shared with his mother in 1957 and 1958. In 1997, Kealing penned a four-thousand-word article about the cottage for The Orlando Sentinel, sparking what would become the Kerouac Project. An all but forgotten abode twenty-something years ago, the Kerouac house is now a fully restored home on the National Register of Historic Places. An ongoing writers-in-residence program is hosted there. In 2004, Kealing published the book Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends.

Ten years ago, Bob Kealing released his book, Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock. The author, an Edward R. Murrow and four-time Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, is no stranger to writing about Florida figures and history – it’s kind of his thing. “My raison d’être is preDisney history. When I got here 30 years ago, I really started to bristle at this notion that Central Florida has no history or culture that predates Walt Disney,” he said.

Throughout the four-and-half-year process of researching and writing Calling Me Home, Kealing traveled from Waycross to Winter Haven, visiting sites relevant to Gram’s story. He interviewed Gram’s best friend, Jim Carlton, for an early background on the country rock pioneer. “I’ll never forget Jim standing in Gram’s old room and just going, ‘Oh my God, the memories are just coming flooding back,’” Kealing said. It was the first time in 40 years Carlton had been back there.

In the mid-nineties working as a freelance writer and reporter with the Orlando NBC television affiliate, Kealing began

The Derry Down before renovation Photo courtesy of Main Street Winter Haven havenmagazines.com

The Derry Down 2022 Photo by Amy Sexson

Kealing had heard about this Derry Down place – Gram’s old teen club. Carlton offered to show him where it was, just a minute or so walk from his family store, now owned by his cousin Glen, Carlton Music Center.

The universe must have read that passage loud and clear. Certainly, self-described mega-Gram fan and local music historian Gene Owen did. “I think Gene Owen was an important catalyst in bringing all of it together,” Kealing said.

The author looked through a side window of the derelict Derry Down. The building was in shambles and filled with junk. Looking inside “triggered a lot of memories” for Gram’s childhood friend. Carlton still had the reel-to-reel recordings he’d taken when the Derry Down opened in 1964. He shared those with Kealing too.

In August 1968, Owen bought the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo record. He put it on the turntable at his Lakeland home, and by the end of the fifth song, “You’re Still on My Mind,” Owen was a Parsons devotee. “It was like something from outer space to me,” Owen said – an apt description of Parsons’s Cosmic American Music. “I just got chills even thinking about that day.” He had no idea that Parsons grew up not 15 miles from there.

An entire chapter is dedicated to Gram’s senior year and the opening of the Derry Down in Kealing’s book. Only a few paragraphs into that chapter, he wrote:

Owen would also get a chance to look in the Derry Down by way of former Legends drummer, Jon Corneal. The two met in 1977 when Owen and a friend were driving along Highway 92 in Lakeland and spotted a sign promoting a show for Jon Corneal and the Limousine Cowboys. Owen had seen Corneal’s name in the credits for Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Gilded Palace of Sin and had to stop to see him play. Jon and the band were outside taking a break when they pulled up. The two got to talking and have been friends ever since, sharing an interest in music and cars.

It’s surprising there isn’t already a more permanent memorial here. For fans of cultural tourism, the corridor between Winter Haven, Auburndale, and Lakeland would be an ideal place to create some sort of tribute to all the musicians who called this area home in the 1960s. Kealing included a photo of the former Derry Down. The shabby warehouse was in rough shape and demolition seemed inevitable.

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Bob Kealing and Chris Hillman backstage at The Derry Down Photo courtesy of Bob Kealing

After that celestial experience listening to Gram, Owen consumed as much media and music related to the musician as existed. “I had read all the Gram books probably twice by the time Bob’s book came out,” he said.

Motivated by the historical significance and potential of the Derry Down, Gene Owen reached out to Kealing. He asked the author to do a book signing in Winter Haven. Owen told Kealing, “Listen, there’s some pent-up demand for Gram in Winter Haven. You’ve got to know this.” The Calling Me Home author agreed, and Owen coordinated a book signing to be held on February 16, 2013, at the Winter Haven Public Library.

One day, after reading Bob Kealing’s book, Owen picked up Jon Corneal to show him a 1970 Mercedes sedan. Corneal got in the car, and Owen told him about the book and the Derry Down. Corneal knew right where it was – he’d already been there fortysomething years earlier.

Owen was right about the ‘pent-up demand for Gram’ as some 200 people packed into the library to hear Kealing, Jon Corneal, and Jim Carlton speak. A community that knew Gram, or grew up on his music and mythos, hung on every word. Main Street Winter Haven Director Anita Strang was there too.

When they rolled up to the Fifth Street warehouse, the Cosmic American Music gods smiled down on them. A Six/Ten employee happened to be at the building. He shuffled through his ring of keys and let Owen and Corneal have a look inside. “I had out-ofbody travel, I swear,” Owen said.

“The fact that there were so many people at that book signing was an indication that everybody thought, ‘Hey, we’ve got something here,’” Kealing said.

Around the same time, Six/Ten President and Secretary Kerry Wilson was on a bus, reading the book. Wilson later relayed to Kealing that he saw the warehouse and thought, ‘Wait a minute, we own that building!’

After the signing, about half the crowd walked from the library to the Derry Down. “I was a little taken by how many people had come to this,” Strang said. A man walked up and asked if the building had a plug because he had something to play – it was Gram’s friend, Jim Carlton. In the dilapidated Fifth Street warehouse – attendees listened to a reel-to-reel recording of the Shilos performing during the 1964 opening day of the Derry Down. “You could hear this super sweet southern voice talking and playing,” Strang remembered.

When Main Street Winter Haven Director, now President and CEO, Anita Strang caught wind of the Derry Down site, she rushed to The Shop to get a copy of the book.

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Jim Lauderdale at the Country Music Hall of Fame Photo by Amy Sexson

“It’s equally important to go back to the very early roots.”

Standing by the door as people made their way through the building two at a time, she heard folks sharing their memories – a first kiss here or a dance over there. “It was really apparent that whatever this was, meant so much to people here,” she said. “Time goes by, maybe about a month, and then the visits start from Gene Owen.”

was time to start fundraising. It needed a lot of work. “Three of the trusses had fallen, and it was taking on water – the building was coming apart,” Strang said. The first dollars raised for the restoration weren’t even within the city. A Parsons fan from Atlanta caught wind of the project online and set up a fundraising show with multiple concerts to save the Derry Down. Strang attended the event.

“I’m a relentless kind of a character,” Owen said. He’d stuck his neck out already by inviting Kealing to speak. Members of the Chamber of Commerce, commissioners, and city officials had attended the book signing. He remembered thinking, “If this doesn’t happen, I’m going to have to move.”

People from around the world would send amounts large and small. Strang remembered receiving a $10 donation from Thailand – a testament to Gram’s cosmic reach and impact.

Owen wanted Strang to do something to preserve the Derry Down within her capacity as Main Street Winter Haven director, but her hands were tied. The building was privately owned. She encouraged Bob Kealing, who was also advocating to save the Derry Down, to set up a meeting with Six/Ten. Over lunch, he laid out a case for the building’s historical value and convinced them not to demolish it.

Main Street hosted a series of open houses, promotional events, fundraisers, and workdays to restore the historic site. The first big event was held on December 20, 2014, exactly 50 years from when a young Gram Parsons took the stage with the Shilos and sang “Big Country” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” on the Derry Down’s opening day. A stage was erected in the middle of Fifth Street where former Legends members Jon Corneal, Jim Carlton, and Jim Stafford performed as a group at the Derry Down for the first time ever. “King of Broken Hearts” singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale headlined the event.

Inspired by the idea of the Derry Down as an avenue for cultural tourism, Strang began digging further into Gram Parsons’s life and his ties to Winter Haven. She sought the guidance of state and national coordinators for Main Street to determine if this project was even within her organization’s scope. “I wanted to make sure, from the Main Street perspective, that this could benefit downtown in multiple ways, more than just saving this building and having a place for [Gram’s] legacy,” Strang said. “Could this become something good for our downtown?”

In 1985, Lauderdale moved to Los Angeles on a sort of Parsons pilgrimage. “I wanted to play at some of the same places, be in the atmosphere that he had been in, walk the streets he had walked, drive the roads he’d driven, and try to soak up more about him,” he said.

Emphatically, yes was the answer from Main Street. It was worth the time and energy to save, but the building had to be donated. After negotiations between Main Street Winter Haven and Six/Ten, the acquisition proceeded. The building would be donated but deed-restricted for the use of music and music education, along with the ability to rent it out to offset costs.

Already aware of the Derry Down through reading various Gram biographies, when Lauderdale learned it was being restored, he jumped at the chance to be involved – another stop on that pilgrimage. The building wasn’t ready for show occupancy on that day in 2014, but Lauderdale got to peek inside. “For me, who’s such a huge fan of Gram’s, that just was so important to me to get to be in that space where he had performed,” he said. While Parsons’s contributions to music with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and as a solo artist are important, Lauderdale said, “It’s equally important to go back to the very early roots.”

“We knew the current board understood all of this,” Strang said. “We were looking to protect the building long-term, to make sure that 10 or 15 years from now, that board of directors knew they had to use this building for the right reasons.” Around the time of the building’s donation, Strang remembers meeting with Kealing, who accompanied her to his first project, the Jack Kerouac House. The trip was motivating for Strang. The revived cottage was emblematic of the transformation that was about to take place on Fifth Street – what a vision of that magnitude realized could look like.

Winter Haven guitar genius Les Dudek also pitched in his musical talent, playing the Derry Down to raise money at various events. “When they got all excited about it, so did we. We were all, ‘Let’s save the Derry Down!’” he said. At the open houses and fundraisers, Strang dedicated a place for guests to write down their memories from the teen club. It was essential to the Main Street Winter Haven director to preserve the Derry Down – bones and soul – to collect these stories for posterity along with the building’s physical restoration. Strang has held onto these handwritten echoes from the sixties in a box for safe-keeping.

The Derry Down Project commenced on June 20, 2014. It would take two-and-a-half years to restore Gram Parsons’s teen club to its 1964 glory. With the building donated and everyone united for the cause, it

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“When I say that building belongs to the community – it belongs to the community.” Winter Haven photographer Mike Potthast produced a video featuring Bob Kealing, a musician who grew up with Gram, Jerry Mincey, and Anita Strang, summarizing the project for a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign, unfortunately, did not meet its goal, which meant the Derry Down Project received zero of the funds pledged. But, Main Street Winter Haven, Bob Kealing, Gene Owen, Six/Ten, and the community of Winter Haven pressed on.

in the Flying Burrito Brothers and Byrds bassist, Chris Hillman. Gene Owen described Hillman’s April 30, 2017, Derry Down appearance as a “tremendous, redemptive, rejoiceful day.”

“When I say that building belongs to the community – it belongs to the community,” Strang said. She was stunned by the local business and individuals who offered up money, time, and resources.

Kealing reflected, “These people – all out of Gram’s life and story – came there to play music. You had this wonderful feeling like a mission accomplished. We don’t get his musical legacy which had sort of been mired out in the desert.”

Gene Owen, a founding father of the Derry Down Project, said, “I’m heart warmed by the whole thing.” He couldn’t have predicted the community commitment to seeing the project come to fruition. While donations came in from around the world, the brunt of the time, love, and labor came from Gram’s hometown. Companies and organizations like New Electric, Whitehead Construction, Burns Flooring and Kitchen Design, SJMS Plumbing, Six/Ten, and the City of Winter Haven were wholly involved “head and heart” in the Derry Down Project.

Even Gram’s family has embraced this preservation of his Winter Haven legacy, including his sister. Daughter Polly Parsons and Gram’s granddaughter Harper “Lee” visited in March of this year. And that won’t be the end of Parsons VIPs who come to the Derry Down, vowed Owen. “Emmylou [Harris] and Keith [Richards] will walk through the door at the Derry Down one day. I’m telling you. We work really hard on things like that. We’ll have Emmylou in the next year for sure.”

Multi-Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell has even taken the Derry Down stage. He worked closely with Emmylou Harris after Gram died. “Rodney being in the building was just ethereal,” Owen said.

The Derry Down has become a regular haunt for Jim Lauderdale too. The “King of Broken Hearts” lyricist and 2014 fundraiser headliner has played Gram’s place quite a few times since it opened, a “highlight of my year and life” for the musician.

During the restoration, Strang pushed to preserve aspects of the original structure. Exterior lights were specially made to replicate the originals. The red interior paint color hadn’t been touched since the Derry Down opened. They were able to take a chip off the wall and color-match it. And Strang has that color on good authority – she talked to the man who painted it over a few beers, some weed, and gospel music with Parsons himself in 1964.

“I get very emotional to be in that building, performing,” Lauderdale said. “I think people who are fans of Gram will share that feeling with me.”

The Derry Down was located next to the Gilmore Pontiac dealership in 1964. It had a life as a car shop after it was Gram’s teen club. According to the Main Street director, the central beam was used to hoist motors from cars, adding weight to the roof, which would need to be repaired, or, as was argued to Strang, replaced. “The wood roof – that is the character,” she said in opposition to replacing the original roof. The community stepped in yet again when Winter Haven company Mechanical Dynamics found a solution to save it.

He even took the stage at a November 5, 2021, event celebrating Parsons’s 75th birthday, where he performed alongside the legendary Jon Corneal. “That was so touching to me to be on the stage with Jon. He just brought the house down,” Lauderdale said. Corneal was only going to play a song or two, but Lauderdale said, “I kept him up there because the crowd was going nuts. They loved him. For me and the fellas in the band – he’s a legend.” Lauderdale is thankful for this connection to Gram – a sentiment he said other artists who’ve played the historic venue share. “It sounds so great in there. It’s a very welcoming, warm, comfortable place to play and one of my favorite places to play – a place that I hope to keep going back to for the rest of my life, as long as they’ll have me.”

When all was said and done, over $160,000 was raised by the Main Street Winter Haven Board of Directors and the Derry Down Committee. In-kind labor and materials were estimated at $185,000. The Derry Down received a historical marker from the Florida Department of Historic Resources on November 5, 2015. Gram Parsons Derry Down opened with an official ribbon cutting on September 2, 2016.

The Derry Down has become a driver for cultural tourism in Winter Haven. Strang noted that an average of 40 percent of tickets are purchased outside the county. “It is that one thing that is really authentic to our downtown,” said the Main Street Winter Haven CEO, “It feels like a good anchor.” Those out-of-town concert-goers often shop, dine, and lodge in the city while they’re here.

In 2017, Main Street Winter Haven was awarded the Outstanding Florida Main Street Rehabilitation Project from the Secretary of State for the Derry Down Project. Cherished Polk County musicians like Jim Stafford, Jim Carlton, Jon Corneal, Gerald “Jesse” Chambers, and Les Dudek have played at the Derry Down since its 2016 reopening, some multiple times. Other figures from Gram’s career have also made it a point to perform at the venue, like International Submarine Band bass player Ian Dunlop and Parsons’s songwriting partner

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The building is proof that “History is alive, and it can be harnessed,” Kealing said, “and now the Derry Down is this key for economic redevelopment in the urban core of the city.” “It’s become a real hub. I think it’s been so important for Winter Haven,” Jim Carlton said.

As for Kealing, whose reporting was inexpressibly pivotal in saving the Derry Down, he followed up his book on Parsons with Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire (2016) and Elvis Ignited: The Rise of an Icon in Florida (2017). His newest project, a book about the Beatles in 1964 Florida, is scheduled to release early next year. In addition to an abundance of transcripts, letters, and primary-source interviews, the book will delve into the band’s residency at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, where they performed to a live television audience of 70 million and wrote songs for their A Hard Day’s Night album. “I would argue it’s one of the top two or three Beatles landmarks in the United States,” said the author. The Deauville Hotel is slated for demolition, and in true Kealing fashion, he’s fighting to save it.

Commemorative engraved bricks are available for purchase. They pave the walkway to Gram’s Derry Down, bound in perpetuity to this piece of his legacy. As she looks toward the future, Strang said, “I want to brand and market [Winter Haven] in the future as a place for music. We’ve got so many stages.” From the Derry Down and Nora Mayo Hall to the Ritz Theatre, Jesse’s, Grove Roots Brewing, and the outdoor stage at Lake Silver, Strang envisions an event where attendees could go from venue to venue to enjoy live music. Ten years after Bob Kealing published his book, Gene Owen took a car ride with Jon Corneal, Kerry Wilson flipped the page to historic real estate, and Anita Strang overheard stories of dancing and first kisses – the Derry Down is alive again. The heart of this landmark Fifth Street listening room beats to the rhythm of Gram Parsons’s buddies and bandmates, to country stars who were and remain inspired by him, and up-and-coming musicians who just need a place to play, like Gram did.

Main Street Winter Haven has big plans for the Derry Down, including another Cosmic American Music Festival (or Cypress Exchange if Strang has her way). The latter name is in reference to Winter Haven’s downtown switchboard back in the day. The only hold on those plans is hotel capacity. A six-story, 108-room Staybridge Suites Hotel is currently under construction on Fifth Street and is expected to open in summer 2023.

“Gram, like the greatest artists, writers, singers, put so much feeling into his music,” said Jim Lauderdale. “Consequently, I feel so much being in the Derry Down. […] It opens up my spirit.”

Around $33K is still owed for the renovation of the Derry Down, and Main Street Winter Haven welcomes donations.

Rodney Crowell at The Derry Down 2022 Photo by Amy Sexson 51

WHY DINING LOCAL MATTERS Support the diversity of our neighbors enriching our community through food. Support local restaurants

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Steven’s Summer Buzz 4 cans summer shandy (Leinenkugel preferred) 2 cups tequila 1 cup honey 1 12-ounce frozen lemonade concentrate Fresh mint (optional) In a small saucepan, gently heat tequila and honey until honey is dissolved. Add sprigs of mint to the mixture, cover, and let sit for 30 minutes. In a large pitcher, add lemonade concentrate, summer shandy, and tequila mixture. Stir, serve over ice with a fresh mint garnish. Please drink responsibly, 21+.

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BEST OF 2022 VOTE NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE This is the 5th year for our Best Of Haven awards! Every year we ask YOU, our readers, to vote for your favorite small businesses. From pizza to plumbing, we want to know who you think is the best in east Polk County. We tally the votes in August and announce the winners in a special September issue of Haven. Good luck to all! Don’t see a category you think should be on the ballot? Let us know. However, we tend to stay away from businesses where we can’t fill a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Why do we do this? To celebrate the entrepreneurs, the dreamers, the doers, the people that make our community great! There are no nominations. This is a people’s choice award; simply fill in the blank with your choice. You have to fill in at least 20 questions with legitimate choices. Each IP address can vote up to four times, ballot stuffers will be tossed. Own a business? Encourage your customers to vote for you! Voting goes from June 1 to July 31.

HAVENMAGAZINES.COM VOTE JUNE 1 - JULY 31

JUNE • JULY • AUGUST

SUMMER HOURS EVERY SATURDAY 8:30 am - 11:30 am

Join us every Saturday morning to celebrate a healthy and connected community supporting small, local businesses. The Winter Haven Farmers Market features a wide variety of locally-grown food, artisan food vendors, fresh produce, bakers, seafood, flowers, and a curated group of makers. Grab a bite from the food trucks and eat at the tables under the trees. Follow us on Facebook for weekly vendor updates. The market is located in the BB&T Bank lot across from Grove Roots Brewery on the NE corner of 3rd St and Ave C SW in Downtown Winter Haven. Interested vendors must apply online.

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JULY CALENDAR 2022 *Due to the uncertainty of COVID, please double check that the event you’re interested in has not been canceled or rescheduled prior to leaving your house.

4 SQUARED MAKERS When: July 01 - 29, 2022 Where: Mulberry Cultural Center 103 E Canal St., Mulberry 4 Squared Makers - Annual Themed (4 x 4) Small Works Art Show! Featuring 40 Artists “Cultivating Cultural Gardens.” 863-354-6570 SUMMER ART CAMP When: Jul. 01, 2022 Where: Polk Museum of Art 800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland polkmuseumofart.org/summercamp Give your children (ages 7 to 13) a safe, creative, and open atmosphere to develop their love and appreciation for the arts. Our engaging Summer Camp program fosters the freedom of exploration through a wide array of creative processes, media, and techniques with the guidance and support of our certified art teachers. Campers will have access to endless inspiration by developing studio habits, visiting art-filled galleries, and taking supervised strolls to Lake Morton, Florida Southern College, and Hollis Gardens. Session #3: July 5 to 15. Session #4: July 18 to 29. Maximum capacity for classes is 15 to 20 students, more details online. 863-688-7743 COLOR OF THE WEEK When: July 01, 2022 | 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Where: Salvation Army Family Thrift Store 927 6th Street NW, Winter Haven salvationarmyflorida.org/winterhaven Every week a new color!! Get great discounts on already great prices. Even our furniture, antiques, collectables, and rare finds area are included. Week 1 : Red Tag - 50% off entire week for red tag - 75% off red tag on Saturday. Week 2 : Green Tag - 50% off entire week for green tag - 75% off green tag on Saturday. Week 3 : Blue Tag - 50% off entire week for blue tag - 75% off blue tag on Saturday. Week 4 : Yellow Tag - 50% off entire week for yellow tag - 75% off yellow tag on Saturday. Any month that has a 5th week and Saturday is Mystery Week... At the Salvation Army Family Store in Winter Haven, you will find great deals on clothing, furniture, household goods, books, electronics and much more! Your purchase and donations directly funds our programs. (Women’s & Children Shelter, Community Feedings, Youth & Character-Building Programs, etc.) We thank you for shopping at the Salvation Army! WINTER HAVEN COFFEE, TEA, AND TREATS TOUR When: July 01, 2022 Where: Winter Haven Parking Garage 220 Ave A NW, Winter Haven winterhavenfoodtours.com Our coffee and tea tour features our local coffee shops where you can expect pastries, fresh coffee, teas, and a presentation

sample delicious dishes. Get to know why Winter Haven is where we live, work, and play. Tickets must be purchased 48 hours in advance. Contact us for more info. info@ winterhavenfoodtours.com. Price Varies

from our local coffee shop Haven Coffee Roasters.*Monday to Friday only starts at 10 AM. All tours are 3 hrs long. *Merchandise add on’s available. Got questions? Feel free to email (info@winterhavenfoodtours.com) or text us 863-288-0038. Price varies.

WINTER HAVEN HAPPY HOUR WALKING TOUR When: July 01, 2022 | 4:30-7 p.m. Where: Winter Haven Parking Garage 220 Ave A NW, Winter Haven winterhavenfoodtours.com Where do the locals hangout? Come join us for Happy Hour and find out! The happy hour tour only focuses on bars and restaurants that host Happy Hours. Specifically for the happy hour it will visit a whiskey bar, union taproom, a few other pubs, and then end at Grove Roots brewery.This tour is different then our others. It’s only offered during the week and samples different foods from different restaurants that celebrate Happy Hour.Must be 21 with ID to attend.Tours must be purchased 48 hours in advance. Contact us for more info. info@winterhavenfoodtours. com. Price varies.

RODIN: CONTEMPLATION AND DREAMS When: July 01 - Oct. 30, 2022 Where: Polk Museum of Art 800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland polkmuseumofart.org Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections. Celebrated as the greatest sculptor of the 19th century, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) revived for the modern world a new appreciation for the ageless beauty of bronze sculpture, mastering and modernizing a technique long associated with ancient Greek art. At the same time, with works like The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, he breathed new emotional and psychic life into the human figure as never seen before in sculpture. The largest installation of sculptures in the Museum’s history — with more than 40 of Rodin’s works filling the Museum’s main galleries — this incredible exhibition brings one of art history’s most famous and most renowned French masters to Florida. 863-688-7743

FIRST FRIDAY: BIKE NIGHT When: July 01, 2022 | 6-9 p.m. Where: Downtown Lakeland downtownlkld.com Lakeland Harley-Davidson will have a motorcycle show, raffles, and entertainment by South of the Blues band in Munn Park. Downtown shops and restaurants will be open late. Don’t miss the Makers Market, featuring local artists and creators, on North Kentucky Avenue and the Classy Car Show on Main St. Streets are closed to vehicles, so come prepared to walk about! First Friday is a family-friendly event held in the streets of Downtown Lakeland between Lemon St. and Oak St. along Kentucky Ave. On-street parking begins to close in the event area at 3pm to allow us to clear the streets and set up the exhibitors and vendors. Parking in all permitted and metered locations is free after 5pm and all day on the weekends.

“SUMMERTIME CITRUS” When: July 01 - Aug. 27, 2022 Where: Lake Wales Depot Museum and Cultural Center, 325 S Scenic Hwy, Lake Wales cityoflakewales.com This exhibit will be a timeline of the important development of the citrus industry in Lake Wales, along with a citrus and crate label showcase. Memorabilia, industrial machines, professional items, and citrus labels from the Lake Wales History Museum, and collection of twenty-four citrus labels from the Museum of Florida History that represent the thousands used in Florida between the late 1800s and the 1960s will be on display. 863-676-1759 CIRO’S SWEET TOOTH DESSERT TOUR When: July 01, 2022 | 10:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Winter Haven Parking Garage 220 Ave A NW, Winter Haven winterhavenfoodtours.com Get ready to taste delicious desserts showcased at our amazing restaurants and stores. This tour is perfect for kids of all ages! Get your sweet tooth ready! 48 hours advance ticket purchase is required in order for the tour to run. Contact us for more info. info@winterhavenfoodtours.com Price varies.

INDEPENDANCE DAY When: July 01, 2022 | 7 p.m. Where: Gem Theater 104 NW 1st Ave, Mulberry centralfloridatix.com The Gem Theater presents Flashback Friday: Independence Day. Independence Day is a summer blockbuster classic featuring aliens determined to destroy the planet. It’s up to a mathematician, fighter pilot, and U.S. president to save us all.Tickets are $5.00. The Gem Theater is a restored film and performing arts space in downtown Mulberry.

FAMILY FILM & POPCORN When: July 01, 2022 | 2 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Disney’s The Little Mermaid (rated G, 83 min.) Disney Studios’ adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s story of a mermaid who gives up her voice in order to become human.

SILVERBACK When: July 01, 2022 | 7-10 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Enjoy a rockin’ night with Silverback at 7 playing your favorite classic rock songs from the 60s & 70s. WINTER HAVEN BEER SPIRITS AND GHOST WALKING TOUR When: Jul. 01, 2022 | 7-10 p.m. Where: Winter Haven Parking Garage 220 Ave A NW, Winter Haven winterhavenfoodtours.com Enjoy beer, spirits, and spooky stories on this haunted ghost walking tour in downtown

AFTERNOON FLAVORS OF WINTER HAVEN FOOD TOUR When: July 01, 2022 | 2-4:30 p.m. Where: Winter Haven Parking Garage 220 Ave A NW, Winter Haven winterhavenfoodtours.com Your friendly tour guide will share history of food and the award winning city all while you

Winter Haven. We will visit a Vaudeville theatre, and a few restaurants and bars who’s owners and patrons have unfinished business. Learn about the ghosts of Polk County and enjoy delicious beer/whiskey samples and small plated appetizers.*Monday to Friday only starts at 7 PM. All tours are 3 hrs long. Got questions? Feel free to email (info@ winterhavenfoodtours.com) or text us (863) 288-0038. Price varies. GID POOL When: July 01, 2022 | 8 p.m. Where: Laugh Out Lounge Comedy Club 19 3rd St. NW, Winter Haven winterhavenlol.com Laugh Out Lounge proudly presents comedian Gid Pool as seen on the Today Show, Carnival, and Celebrity Cruises! Gid is a crowd pleaser with hilarious stories from his life that any audience can relate to! Tickets are just $15 in advance ($20 at the door), and are available now! Get yours before they’re gone! DOWNTOWN LAKELAND FARMERS CURB MARKET When: July 02, 2022 | 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Downtown Lakeland Shop fresh produce, plants and local handcrafted items. The 11-month Market (closed in August) is a showcase for the talents and the work of local artisans and local growers. The Downtown Farmers Curb Market is a project of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA). WINTER HAVEN FARMERS MARKET SUMMER SEASON When: July 02, 2022 | 8:30-11:30 a.m. Where: 250 Magnolia Ave., Winter Haven winterhavenfarmersmarket.com The Market features a wide variety of artisan food vendors, plants, and a sprinkling of crafts. Enjoy a strong selection of “ready-toeat” foods and freshly picked produce. Enjoy live music and food trucks, pet friendly. The summer season lasts June - August. Located across from Grove Roots in the parking lot of the BB&T Bank building on the NE corner of Third St. and Ave C SW in downtown Winter Haven every Saturday. YOGA When: July 02, 2022 | 9-10 a.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Join us for a morning of bending, breathing and relaxing. This inclusive class includes gentle yoga movements that move our spine in all directions, breathing techniques and extended relaxation infused with a sprinkling of yoga philosophy. All levels are welcome. Beginners are encouraged to attend.$10 members/ $15 non-members, registration required. 863-676-1408 GET BLOWN AWAY BY NATURE When: July 02, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales Join us in Hammock Hollow with the children in your life for a Bok Outdoor Family Adventure and create wind catchers from materials provided by nature! Select from the items that we have collected around the Gardens to create a natural wind catcher - CONTINUED ON PAGE 58 -

you can take with you to enjoy at home on a breezy day. Allow approximately 20 minutes for your little ones to complete their projects. Supplies will be available from 10am-12pm. 863-676-1408. PIONEER DAY When: July 02, 2022 | 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Lake Wales Depot Museum and Cultural Center, 325 S Scenic Hwy, Lake Wales lakewaleshistory.org/programs-events Come learn about our Pioneers and the history of Lake Wales with the Lake Wales History Museum. Learn to make a family tree, yarn doll, butter making, scavenger hunt and more. 863-676-1759 RED, WHITE & BOOM When: July 02 - 04, 2022 | 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Where: LEGOLAND Florida 1 LEGOLAND Way, Winter Haven legoland.com/florida Watch the sky fill with stunning fireworks spectacular to end your day at the Park. Find your seat early to catch the sunset over beautiful Lake Eloise before the show begins. Make sure to grab a pair of specialty viewing glasses on your way to your seat for an additional brick-tastic experience, as these glasses turn fireworks into what appears to be LEGO bricks! Included with daily tickets. GYPSY WIND TRIO When: July 02, 2022 | 2-5 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Americana Bluegrass tunes to start your patriotic weekend - Gypsy Wind trio will hit all the right notes!

ROCKIN’ FREEDOM FEST When: July 02, 2022 | 5 p.m. Where: MLK Jr. Park, 199 E Lake Silver Dr. NE, Winter Haven Join the City of Winter Haven at 5:00 as they hold a re-dedication ceremony of the newly renovated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. This time will be used to honor history and look toward the future. Following the rededication, the annual Rockin’ Freedom Fest celebration will begin. Live music from the Bay Kings Band, food trucks, a ski show honoring the 100th anniversary of water ski, and a fireworks show will make for a fun family event!

RED, WHITE & BREWS: JACK SPROUSE When: July 03, 2022 | 2-5 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Red, White, and the Brews continues with Jack Sprouse at 2 pm, and Chubby Wubby’s all day to feed you! RED, WHITE & KABOOM When: July 03, 2022 | 6-9:15 p.m. Where: Lake Mirror Frances Langford Promenade, 121 S. Lake Avenue, Lakeland lakelandgov.net The event beings with a live concert featuring Andrew Luv & the Franchise Players. Andrew Luv & the Franchise Players will bring their unique blend of Soul, Pop, Smooth Jazz, and Hip Hop to the Red, White & Kaboom center stage. A variety of food trucks will be parked along Lake Mirror during the event. You may also want bring a blanket and chairs as there is plenty of room to spread out and enjoy the evening’s festivities. A breathtaking fireworks display will dazzle the crowd at 9:00 p.m. Rather than charging admission, T. Mims Corporation and the City of Lakeland asks everyone attending to bring at least one non-perishable food item. When you arrive, you will see volunteers collecting canned food items that will be donated to Volunteers in Service to the Elderly (VISTE).

GEORGE MORRIS BAND When: July 02, 2022 | 7-10 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Straight from Bartow, the George Morris Band, is coming back with some jammin’ music! CLASSIC BURLESQUE & VINTAGE REVUE When: July 02, 2022 | 8 & 10 p.m. Where: The Social Cocktail Lounge 356 3rd Street Northwest Winter Haven centralfloridatix.com Join us on July second for our show in Winter Haven! We will have two shows one at 8 pm and one at 10 pm, space is limited, buy tickets in advance.

RED, WHITE & BREWS: JOEY & THE STRAIN When: July 03, 2022 | 7-10 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Fireworks downtown and Joey & The Strain is on hand to make it more delightful!

Chubby Wubby’s will bring the awesome Independence Celebration foods! LET FREEDOM FLOW WITH JHO When: July 04, 2022 | 10 a.m. Where: Inside Out Yoga (new location) 219 5th St. SW, Winter Haven ioyogastudio.com Join Jho and Let the FREEDOM Flow. 863224-2311 RED, WHITE & BREWS: KEITH ROBINETTE When: July 04, 2022 | 2-5 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Red, White & the Brews continues with Keith Robinette at the mic at 2 and Big Baby Bitez with the food! Beer specials abound! THUNDER ON THE RIDGE When: July 04, 2022 | 3-10 p.m. Where: Lake Eva Park 555 Ledwith Ave., Haines City hainescity.com With the title of Polk County’s largest firework display, Haines City strives to make this a memorable event for the entire family. They will have plenty of cold beer, food, live entertainment, children’s activities, and much more.The event takes place at Lake Eva Park which has a lot of green space and multiple play areas for kids. While the park as a lot of picnic pavilions throughout, we would suggest that you bring chairs and blankets. Please do not bring pets to this event.

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polkmuseumofart.org/summercamp Summer Art Camp (ages 7-13)Sessions available June 6 - July 29Give your children (ages 7 to 13) a safe, creative, and open atmosphere to develop their love and appreciation for the arts. Our engaging Summer Camp program fosters the freedom of exploration through a wide array of creative processes, media, and techniques with the guidance and support of our certified art teachers. Campers will have access to endless inspiration by developing studio habits, visiting art-filled galleries, and taking supervised strolls to Lake Morton, Florida Southern College, and Hollis Gardens. Session #3: July 5 to 15. Maximum capacity for classes is 15 to 20 students, more details online. 863-688-7743

4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION When: July 04, 2022 | 3-9:45 p.m. Where: Lewis Mathews Sports Complex 400 Palm Street, Davenport mydavenport.org Come join us for the City of Davenport’s Annual July 4th Celebration! Fireworks begin at 9:15 pm. Don’t forget to bring you own lawn chair! There will be live entertainment, food, craft vendors and the largest firework display in Polk County! FLYING TIGERS VS. BRADENTON MARAUDERS When: July 04, 2022 | 5 p.m. Where: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland milb.com/lakeland/schedule/2022-07 Single-A Affiliate baseball. Following the game, the Sofa Kings will entertain with live music (time permitting), followed by the best fireworks display in town. FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS When: July 04, 2022 | 9-10 p.m. Where: Lake Ariana Park 2215 Lake Ariana Blvd. Auburndale auburndalefl.com/parks-recreation Bring chairs or a blanket and enjoy the show! UAW MID FLORIDA RETIREE COUNCIL When: July 05, 2022 | 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: UAW Drop In Center 209 Avenue O SW, Winter Haven There will be no UAW Mid Florida Retiree Council monthly meetings in July and August. They will resume in September and will be held on the third Friday of every month at the

UAW retired members are welcome to take advantage of this drop in center. Please bring all pertinent paperwork in order to resolve any problems. Please pass this info along to any UAW retired members you know who may not get this publication.

Knights of Columbus hall located at 3308 Avenue W, NW in Winter Haven. We hope to have guest speakers once again but this will depend on the COVID situation.The UAW Mid Florida Retiree Council’s drop in center in Winter Haven is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. The office is located in the Hope Plaza strip mall (off Hwy 17 by the WAWA and across the street from Big Lots). Please contact us at (863) 293-5556 or drop by with any problems you have with your benefits. All

SUMMER ART CAMP When: July 05, 2022 | 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Where: Polk Museum of Art 800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland

CAMEO WRITERS When: July 05, 2022 | 2-4 p.m. Where: Winter Haven Public Library 325 Avenue A NW, Winter Haven mywinterhaven.com/library Cameo Writers welcomes writers of varying ability, genre, and experience. Receive knowledgeable, appreciative support and encouragement. Questions please contact Beverly Lerner at bevlerner@aol.com. CW meets on the first Tuesday of each month. 863-291-5880 BINGO When: July 05, 2022 | 5 p.m. Where: GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales 275 E Park Ave, Lake Wales . The GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales hosts a weekly bingo. Food is available. Doors open at 3:30, games start at 5. - CONTINUED ON PAGE 61 -

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FUN RUN & MUSIC BINGO When: July 05, 2022 | 5:30 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Fun Run, Music Bingo and Seasoned Greens Food Truck! Run at 5:30, play games for free at 6:30, and enjoy the awesome food. TRIVIA TUESDAYS When: July 05, 2022 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Grove Roots Brewing Co. 302 3rd St. SW, Winter Haven Gather up those teams to test your general knowledge for Trivia Tuesdays at GRB! Triviosity Live Events will host trivia in the Packing House.Teams may range between 1-8 players. All minors must be accompanied and actively supervised by a parent or guardian at all times TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER When: July 05, 2022 | 7-11 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven High Stax Poker hosts Poker Night at Barrel 239 every Tuesday night! Check dates for updates. The first game starts at 7pm and if enough players attended the 7pm session there will also be a 9pm session. This event is 21 & up. CHAIR YOGA When: July 06, 2022 | 10-11 a.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Practice gentle yoga poses while seated in your chair. This class is appropriate for beginners, those with limited mobility, or anyone who has wanted to try yoga but

NOVELS AFTER NOON When: July 06, 2022 | 3-4 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Do you like to read? Do enjoy lively discussions about books? Then join along as our book discussion group reads a new book each month and then meets to review the book and share their individual opinions and feelings. The book we are discussing this month is “The Professor and the Mad Man” by Charles Belfoure.

felt intimidated. The program is designed to assist in quieting the mind, moving our bodies, breathing deeply and practicing mindfulness. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one. Registration required. 863-6761408 SUPER SUMMER SHOW: GATORLAND When: July 06, 2022 | 10-11 a.m. Where: Bartow Civic Center 2250 S Floral Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net An educational animal show featuring lizards, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, and - of course - alligators.

TOM HANKS MOVIE TRIVIA NIGHT When: July 06, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland You know all the movies - and there has been a bunch! Come play for free!

LUNCH & LEARN: BENEFICIAL INSECTS When: July 06, 2022 | 12 p.m. Where: Lakeland Electric 501 E Lemon St., Lakeland beneficialinsectsjuly2022.eventbrite.com Join UF/IFAS Extension Polk County and Lakeland Water Utilities for a class on beneficial insects in the garden and landscape! Learn how to scout and identify these helpers in the garden along with their many advantages for a healthy garden and landscape.This class is available to attend inperson or online. Pre-registration is required. Space is limited to the first 40 registrations for in-person attendance. *Free lunch for preregistered, in-person attendees thanks to the City of Lakeland Water Utilities. To attend in-person, register online. To attend online, register for the webinar on Zoom at: https:// go.ufl.edu/beneficialinsectsjuly2022.

FLYING TIGERS VS. BRADENTON MARAUDERS When: July 06, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Where: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland milb.com/lakeland/schedule/2022-07 Single-A Affiliate baseball. 2022 WAWA SUMMER FUN DAY When: July 07 & 08, 2022 | 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Enjoy complimentary admission the first Thursday and Friday of the month May through September compliments of Wawa. Pre-registration is required for this complimentary offer. This complimentary

offer is limited to four visitors per registration, and admission for the day is limited to assist with capacity issues. All members of the party visiting on Wawa Summer Fun Days will need to have a ticket to enter. Complimentary Admission- Registration required POINT OF VIEW GALLERY TALK: FSC SUMMER INTERNS When: July 07, 2022 | 12-1 p.m. Where: Polk Museum of Art 800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland polkmuseumofart.org As a culminating experience of their summers at the Museum, undergraduate interns in the Polk Museum Summer Internship Program will lecture in the galleries on specialized topics, offering visitors a unique and fresh perspective on current exhibitions. Come support our academic programming and future museum professionals! 863-688-7743 PUPPETRY WORKSHOP When: July 07, 2022 | 3-4:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net/departments-services/ library/children-s-programs Learn about different kinds of puppets, puppeteers, and make a different kind of puppet each week - ending with a puppet show you put on for your friends and family! Preregistration is suggested, ages 9-12.

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SWANSATIONAL SUMMER SOCIAL When: July 07, 2022 | 6-8 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland emergelakeland.org Formerly known as a “Pack the Bar” event (COVID ruined the branding of that one), this is one of our most popular events as we safely socializing with fellow young professionals while supporting a local business. Be sure to bring a business card to enter our giveaway. You’ll also receive a free drink ticket so you can enjoy a drink on us.This is NOT a membership only event. Feel free to bring a friend! The EMERGE young professionals group is FULL of welcoming members who want to get to know you and help you succeed. This is also a great chance to learn about all the upcoming fun and volunteer opportunities we have planned for the year! FLYING TIGERS VS. BRADENTON MARAUDERS When: July 07, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Where: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland milb.com/lakeland/schedule/2022-07 Single-A Affiliate baseball. BINGO When: July 07, 2022 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Front Page Brewing Co. 190 S Florida Ave., Bartow Join Front Page Brewing every Thursday for nine rounds of BINGO! Prizes for each round range from a free pint to a free Crowler. Must be 21 to play.Absolutely free to play, you can join in at any time for as many or as few rounds as you’d like.

COMIN’ HOME When: July 07, 2022 | 7-10 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland A unique blend of acoustic blues, folk and rock with strong female vocals and harmonies. We are an acoustic husband and wife duo and are singer songwriters.

summer reading theme of “Oceans of Possibilities”, the Gem Theater presents two showings of the literature’s beloved pirate villain, Hook. The matinee showing of “Hook” is a special price of $2, and the evening show is $5. We encourage guests to check out the library’s many deep sea adventures after viewing this beloved classic. Hook is the story of a grown up Peter Pan who has forgotten his childhood story. His Neverland nemesis, Captain Hook, kidnaps Pan’s young children, forcing him to return to Neverland, the lost boys, and to believe. The Gem Theater is a restored film and performing arts space in downtown Mulberry.

THURSDAY TRIVIA NIGHT When: July 07, 2022 | 7-9 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven Every Thursday is General Knowledge except the 3rd Thursday of the month, which is a themed show/movie series.Teams of no more than 6 players. Check-in starts at 6:30pm, questions start at 7:00pm.*this event is 21 and up.

FAMILY FILM & POPCORN When: July 08, 2022 | 2 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net “Andre”(rated G, 94 min.) Live action. The true story of a seal who each spring, swam hundreds of miles to visit the human family who rescued him when he was an orphaned pup.

POINT OF VIEW GALLERY TALK: FSC SUMMER INTERNS When: July 08, 2022 | 12-1 p.m. Where: Polk Museum of Art 800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland polkmuseumofart.org As a culminating experience of their summers at the Museum, undergraduate interns in the Polk Museum Summer Internship Program will lecture in the galleries on specialized topics, offering visitors a unique and fresh perspective on current exhibitions. Come support our academic programming and future museum professionals! 863-688-7743

FLYING TIGERS VS. BRADENTON MARAUDERS When: July 08, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Where: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland milb.com/lakeland/schedule/2022-07 Single-A Affiliate baseball.

HOOK (1991) When: July 08, 2022 | 2 p.m. & 7 p.m. Where: Gem Theater 104 NW 1st Ave, Mulberry centralfloridatix.com Inspired by the Mulberry Public Library’s

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SUMMER AT THE POOL SERIES: 90’S GLOW PARTY When: July 08, 2022 | 7-11 p.m. Where: Balmoral Bar and Grill 124 Kenny Blvd., Haines City centralfloridatix.com Balmoral’s Summer At The Pool Series continues with our 90’s Glow Party. Put on your Glow Paint and win a chance for a $50 Bar Tab! We will have Specialty Drinks all night long while you listen to 90”s Mix Music poolside. Purchase tickets in advance. SIXX L SIXX When: July 08, 2022 | 7-10 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Rock out with Sixx L Sixx. THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL When: July 08 - 24, 2022 Where: Lakeland Community Theatre 121 S Lake Avenue, Lakeland lakelandcommunitytheatre.com The stakes are higher than ever in this dynamic stage musical, as SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage. The power of optimism really can save the world! 863-6037529 BILL “BULL” OHSE When: July 08, 2022 | 8 p.m. Where: Laugh Out Lounge Comedy Club 19 3rd St. NW, Winter Haven winterhavenlol.com Laugh Out Lounge is proud to present comedian Bill “Bull” Ohse as seen on Last

Comic Standing and Amazon Prime! Bill has been on the circuit for years, and is guaranteed to have yo laughing all night long! Tickets are just $15 in advance ($20 at the door) and are available now! DOWNTOWN LAKELAND FARMERS CURB MARKET When: July 09, 2022 | 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Downtown Lakeland Shop fresh produce, plants and local handcrafted items. The 11-month Market (closed in August) is a showcase for the talents and the work of local artisans and local growers. The Downtown Farmers Curb Market is a project of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA). LAKES APPRECIATION DAY CAMP When: July 09, 2022 | 8:30 a.m. Where: MLK Jr. Park, 199 E Lake Silver Dr. NE, Winter Haven lakesappreciation4-hdaycamp.eventbrite. com You do not need to be a 4-H member to participate. Participants will learn all about how our lakes serve as valuable fish and wildlife habitat, how aquatic plants influence lake health, and how activities in our yards and cities impact local lakes.This educational and fun day camp is intended for youth ages 13-18 years old, but all youth 8-18 are welcome. Topics discussed at the event may be too advanced for youth under 13, but with assistance from a sibling, their parent, or a guardian they may still enjoy the activities. Participants will rotate through hands-on learning stations featuring kayaking skills, fishing skills, lake health, and watershed protection information. Registration is required.

WINTER HAVEN FARMERS MARKET SUMMER SEASON When: July 09, 2022 | 8:30-11:30 a.m. Where: 250 Magnolia Ave., Winter Haven winterhavenfarmersmarket.com The Market features a wide variety of artisan food vendors, plants, and a sprinkling of crafts. Enjoy a strong selection of “ready-toeat” foods and freshly picked produce. Enjoy live music and food trucks, pet friendly. The summer season lasts June - August. Located across from Grove Roots in the parking lot of the BB&T Bank building on the NE corner of Third St. and Ave C SW in downtown Winter Haven every Saturday.

TRAIN DAY! When: July 09, 2022 | 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Lake Wales Depot Museum and Cultural Center, 325 S Scenic Hwy, Lake Wales lakewaleshistory.org Come learn about our trains and the history our railroads with the Lake Wales History Museum. Learn with hands-on history and make your own trail snack. 2ND ANNUAL TEDDY BEAR PICNIC When: July 09, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net For children ages 6 and up and their bears! Bring a picnic lunch, a towel or blanket to sit on, and your favorite teddy bear! Prizes will be awarded to the prettiest, most handsome, funniest, and oldest or most loved bears.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY When: July 09, 2022 | 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Terranova Community Eloise Loop Rd., Winter Haven Arts & Crafts Sale! SPICE UP YOUR KITCHEN WITH FIRE CIDER When: July 09, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Join Maggie O’Halloran, Executive Director and Herbalist Educator at Florida School of Holistic Living, as she shares her knowledge about the herbs and ingredients used in making Fire Cider and how this healthy potion can be used in everyday recipes. Registration required. 863-676-1408

CRYSTAL BOWL SOUND BATH WITH BUFFY When: July 09, 2022 | 12-1 p.m. Where: Inside Out Yoga 219 5th St. SW, Winter Haven ioyogastudio.com Register online to save your place. Please bring your own mat and equipment. $25 Investment. Join Cosmic Sound Healer, Buffy La Roux as she facilitates a high vibratory journey of Sound through time and space. During this deeply meditative and transformative experience, Buffy guides us inward through a sound bath of deeply shifting vocal toning, singing, frequencies and quartz crystal singing bowls. This one of a kind experience deletes programming, density in the physical, emotional, mental

and spiritual bodies, activates ancient dormant DNA and moves participants into the expansive state of clarity, growth and purpose. 863-224-2311 BOK TOWER’S PRESCRIBED BURN PROGRAM When: July 09, 2022 | 2-3 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Have you ever wondered why Bok Tower Gardens burns their natural lands? Have you ever thought about how ecological succession can work in the absence of natural controls? Join us as we examine the science and art behind Bok Tower Garden’s work to restore sandhill habitat and the central role fire plays in that mission.Included with general admission or membership. 863-6761408 SG WOOD SOLO When: July 09, 2022 | 2-5 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing, 115 W Pine St., Lakeland All the best tunes by SG! FLYING TIGERS VS. BRADENTON MARAUDERS When: July 09, 2022 | 6 p.m. Where: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland milb.com/lakeland/schedule/2022-07 Single-A Affiliate baseball.

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Dear brother, Do you remember that fabulous wine we drank together my last night visiting you in Tuscany? Well I found this little wine bar in Winter Haven & it brought me back to us sitting on the veranda overlooking the vineyards. Hope to visit soon, but in the meantime find me at Obscure Wine Company.

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BRETT FOSTER TRIO When: July 09, 2022 | 7 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing, 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Brett Foster is bringing his trio tonight to rock your Saturday night! BILL “BULL” OHSE When: July 09, 2022 | 8 p.m. Where: Laugh Out Lounge Comedy Club 19 3rd St. NW, Winter Haven winterhavenlol.com Laugh Out Lounge is proud to present comedian Bill “Bull” Ohse as seen on Last Comic Standing and Amazon Prime! Bill has been on the circuit for years, and is guaranteed to have yo laughing all night long! Tickets are just $15 in advance ($20 at the door) and are available now! FLYING TIGERS VS. BRADENTON MARAUDERS When: July 10, 2022 | 1 p.m. Where: Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Blvd., Lakeland milb.com/lakeland/schedule/2022-07 Single-A Affiliate baseball. THE BIRTHDAY SAPS When: July 10, 2022 | 2-5 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing, 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Home grown fun and young bluegrass from your friends The Birthday Saps!

FLEET FEET FUN RUN & MUSIC BINGO When: July 12, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Where: Swan Brewing 115 W Pine St., Lakeland Run for fun with Fleet Feet starting at 5:30! Then stick around and play Music Bingo for free with SG Wood at 6:30.

BORED TEACHERS COMEDY TOUR When: July 11, 2022 | 4 p.m. Where: Polk Theatre 139 S Florida Avenue, Lakeland polktheatre.org Summer Break is FINALLY here! So by popular demand, the Bored Teachers Comedy Tour will be too. Your favorite BT comedians LIVE together on the same stage.

TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER When: July 12, 2022 | 7-11 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven High Stax Poker hosts Poker Night at Barrel 239 every Tuesday night! Come hang out for some poker and drinks! The first game starts at 7pm and if enough players attended the 7pm session there will also be a 9pm session. This event is 21 & up.

CRAFT BY THE OCEAN When: July 11, 2022 | 6:30-7:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Adult craft time! Create something beautiful while relaxing to the sights and sounds of the ocean.

PAINTING WITH THE COLORS OF THE OCEAN When: July 13, 2022 | 2-4 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Bring a friend, grab a canvas, and start painting! Beginners are welcome! Step-bystep instructions and supplies provided. Ages 12 - 18.

BINGO When: July 12, 2022 | 5 p.m. Where: GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales 275 E Park Ave, Lake Wales The GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales hosts a weekly bingo. Food is available. Doors open at 3:30, games start at 5. TRIVIA TUESDAYS When: July 12, 2022 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Grove Roots Brewing Co. 302 3rd St. SW, Winter Haven Gather up those teams to test your general knowledge for Trivia Tuesdays at GRB! Triviosity Live Events will host trivia in the Packing House.Teams may range between 1-8 players. All minors must be accompanied and actively supervised by a parent or guardian at all times.

TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT INSECTS When: July 14, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org We invite you and your family to join us in Hammock Hollow for a Bok Outdoor Family Adventure as we take a closer look at a variety of small creatures that live in our soil. Insect viewers and bins will be provided for

you and your family to explore the macro world of nature. Items for viewing will be available from 10am-12pm. Plan on allowing approximately 20 minutes for your children to enjoy this closer look at nature. Drop In Between 10:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m. Included with general admission or membership. 863676-1408 PUPPETRY WORKSHOP When: July 14, 2022 | 3-4:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net/departments-services/ library/children-s-programs Learn about different kinds of puppets, puppeteers, and make a different kind of puppet each week - ending with a puppet show you put on for your friends and family! Preregistration is suggested, ages 9-12. LAKELAND FOOD TRUCK RALLY When: July 14, 2022 | 6-9 p.m. Where: Munn Park, Lakeland lakelandgov.net Head downtown for the Lakeland Food Truck Rally on the 2nd Thursday of every month from 6-9 p.m. BINGO When: July 14, 2022 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Front Page Brewing Co. 190 S Florida Ave., Bartow Join Front Page Brewing every Thursday for nine rounds of BINGO! Prizes for each round range from a free pint to a free Crowler. Must be 21 to play. Absolutely free to play, you can join in at any time for as many or as few rounds as you’d like. - CONTINUED ON PAGE 66 -

THURSDAY TRIVIA NIGHT When: July 14, 2022 | 7-9 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven Every Thursday is General Knowledge except the 3rd Thursday of the month, which is a themed show/movie series.Teams of no more than 6 players. Check-in starts at 6:30pm, questions start at 7:00pm. This event is 21 and up. GREASE When: July 14 - 31, 2022 Where: Theatre Winter Haven 210 Cypress Gardens Blvd. Winter Haven theatrewinterhaven.com Here is Rydell High’s senior class of 1959: duck-tailed, hot-rodding “Burger Palace Boys” and their gum-snapping, hip-shaking “Pink Ladies” in bobby sox and pedal pushers, evoking the look and sound of the 1950s in this rollicking musical. Head “greaser” Danny Zuko and new (good) girl Sandy Dumbrowski try to relive the high romance of their “Summer Nights” as the rest of the gang sings and dances its way through such songs as “Greased Lightnin’,” “It’s Raining on Prom Night,” “Alone at the Drive-In Movie” recalling the music of Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley that became the soundtrack of a generation. 863294-7469 THE FANCY FLEA When: July 15, 2022 | 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Where: RP Funding Center 701 Lime Street, Lakeland fancyflea.net Enjoy “Summer in Paris” as The Fancy

Flea returns to Lakeland indoors at the RP Funding Center. Shop till you drop at top vintage vendors, jewelry, clothes, decor, and so much more. Admission is $6 and free parking. Vendor information is available at www.fancyflea.net.

includes some of the band’s most iconic songs like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Baba O’Riley, which were both released as singles. Released in August on 1971, this timeless rock & roll album is a favorite for new and old fans alike! Step back in time for a moment and enjoy note for note, cut for cut recreation of this album live on stage.

BOOK SIGNING: SHARON SAGER When: July 15, 2022 | 3-4 p.m. Where: Winter Haven Public Library 325 Avenue A NW, Winter Haven “Blossoms and Harmony” — A sequel to Living off-grid: A mother’s journey to her daughter & beau’s permaculture farm.”Blossoms and Harmony” is an interactive memoir created around Sharon’s travel journal, written while she visited her daughter on the Big Island of Hawaii.The book’s focus is about increasing personal purpose and intention, exploring our hearts’ desires, and creating more health and harmony.Throughout the book are questions for the reader to consider and space to journal her/his thoughts. Interwoven throughout are ideas for natural health, life strategies, and organic and permaculture gardening to encourage us to lovingly enhance our lives. 3-3:30 p.m. will be author talk/reading, followed by Q&A. Books will be available for purchase and signing, paperback $12.00.

THE BLAZING BASS CHALLENGE When: July 16, 2022 | 12 a.m. Where: Camp Mack River Resort 14900 Camp Mack Rd. Lake Wales bonfireSeries.com Anglers can participate in either the Open Division at $100 / Angler or Family Division of $100 / Team. Team registration will include entry into Big Fish Pot. The Family Division is eligible only to junior anglers who are in elementary/ high school or graduate high school in 2022 and fish with his/her parent or grandparent as a team member. Each of the tournament festivals will have activities and events for anglers and non-anglers to enjoy, with proceeds being donated to support local charities and conservation groups. For full details visit BonfireSeries.com or phone 863-696-1108 DOWNTOWN LAKELAND FARMERS CURB MARKET When: July 16, 2022 | 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Downtown Lakeland Shop fresh produce, plants and local handcrafted items. The 11-month Market (closed in August) is a showcase for the talents and the work of local artisans and local growers. The Downtown Farmers Curb Market is a project of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA).

CLASSIC ALBUMS LIVE: THE WHO WHO’S NEXT When: July 15, 2022 | 7:30 p.m. Where: RP Funding Center 701 Lime Street, Lakeland rpfundingcenter.com When The Who released “Who’s Next” in 1971, it was an immediate success. The album

WINTER HAVEN FARMERS MARKET SUMMER SEASON When: July 16, 2022 | 8:30-11:30 a.m. Where: 250 Magnolia Ave., Winter Haven winterhavenfarmersmarket.com The Market features a wide variety of artisan food vendors, plants, and a sprinkling of crafts. Enjoy a strong selection of “ready-toeat” foods and freshly picked produce. Enjoy live music and food trucks, pet friendly. The summer season lasts June - August. Located across from Grove Roots in the parking lot of the BB&T Bank building on the NE corner of Third St. and Ave C SW in downtown Winter Haven every Saturday. YOGA When: July 16, 2022 | 9-10 a.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Join us for a morning of bending, breathing and relaxing. This inclusive class includes gentle yoga movements that move our spine in all directions, breathing techniques and extended relaxation infused with a sprinkling of yoga philosophy. All levels are welcome. Beginners are encouraged to attend.$10 members/ $15 non-members, registration required. 863-676-1408 THE FANCY FLEA When: July 16, 2022 | 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Where: RP Funding Center 701 Lime Street, Lakeland fancyflea.net Enjoy “Summer in Paris” as The Fancy Flea returns to Lakeland indoors at the RP Funding Center. Shop till you drop at top vintage vendors, jewelry, clothes, decor, and

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so much more. Admission is $6 and free parking. Vendor information is available at www.fancyflea.net. TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT INSECTS When: July 16, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Insect viewers and bins will be provided for you and your family to explore the macro world of nature. Items for viewing will be available from 10am-12pm. Plan on allowing approximately 20 minutes for your children to enjoy this closer look at nature.Drop In Between 10:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.Included with general admission or membership. 863676-1408 CITY DAY When: July 16, 2022 | 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Where: Lake Wales Depot Museum and Cultural Center, 325 S Scenic Hwy, Lake Wales lakewaleshistory.org Special guests from the LWPD, LWFD, and City leaders. 863-676-1759 PAWS TO READ When: July 16, 2022 | 10-11 a.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net We’ve gone to the dogs and they’re anxious to meet you! Spend a few minutes reading aloud to Siren, Kane, or Kolo and receive a friendly lick! For beginning readers and dog lovers of all ages.

ARCHITECTURAL TOUR When: July 16, 2022 | 11 a.m. Where: Polk County History Center 100 E Main St, Bartow polk-county.net Discover the history behind the founding of the county and the design of the brilliant 1908 Courthouse. With a nod to its two predecessors, this tour explores the design, construction, and function of the courthouse. The tour incorporates cross-curricular themes in history and fine arts.This program is also offered on the 3rd Saturday of each month.

engaging Summer Camp program fosters the freedom of exploration through a wide array of creative processes, media, and techniques with the guidance and support of our certified art teachers. Campers will have access to endless inspiration by developing studio habits, visiting art-filled galleries, and taking supervised strolls to Lake Morton, Florida Southern College, and Hollis Gardens. Session #4: July 18 to 29. Maximum capacity for classes is 15 to 20 students, more details online. 863-688-7743 CRAFT BY THE OCEAN When: July 18, 2022 | 6:30-7:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Adult craft time! Create something beautiful while relaxing to the sights and sounds of the ocean.

TREASURE HUNT DOWNTOWN When: July 16, 2022 | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Where: Downtown Winter Haven mainstreetwh.com Main Street Winter Haven, in partnership with our Downtown businesses and LEGOLAND Florida Resort, presents our Annual FREE Treasure Hunt Downtown. Children under the age of 12 will search for LEGO® Minifigures in the participating locations Downtown. After all stops have been completed, you will turn in your map to the treasure chest located in the Chamber of Commerce Breezeway. You must reserve one map per child in advance to participate. All children participating in the event must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

BINGO When: July 19, 2022 | 5 p.m. Where: GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales 275 E Park Ave, Lake Wales The GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales hosts a weekly bingo. Food is available. Doors open at 3:30, games start at 5. TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER When: July 19, 2022 | 7-11 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven Come hang out for some poker and drinks! The first game starts at 7pm and if enough players attended the 7pm session there will also be a 9pm session. Ages 21+ only.

SUMMER ART CAMP When: July 18, 2022 | 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Where: Polk Museum of Art 800 E Palmetto St., Lakeland polkmuseumofart.org/summercamp Give your children (ages 7 to 13) a safe, creative, and open atmosphere to develop their love and appreciation for the arts. Our

CHAIR YOGA When: July 20, 2022 | 10-11 a.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Practice gentle yoga poses while seated in your chair. This class is appropriate for beginners, those with limited mobility, or anyone who has wanted to try yoga but felt intimidated. The program is designed to assist in quieting the mind, moving our bodies, breathing deeply and practicing mindfulness. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one. Registration required. 863-6761408 SUPER SUMMER SHOW: RAPTOR CENTER OF TAMPA BAY When: July 20, 2022 | 10-11 a.m. Where: Bartow Civic Center 2250 S Floral Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Come and learn about our majestic raptors, and the important role that birds of prey play in nature. Meet our Rock Star Puck, the Crested Caracara, and Carmen and Moon Pie our Eastern Screech Owls. MOONLIGHT MARKET When: July 20, 2022 | 6-9 p.m. Where: Grove Roots Brewing Co. 302 3rd St. SW, Winter Haven Join us for some mid-week fun on the 3rd Wednesday of every month from 6-9pm! Shop and Drink Local! There’s something for everyone.The Moonlight Market is comprised of vendors from all over Central Florida, local food trucks, and and live music. - CONTINUED ON PAGE 69 -

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HOW NATURE CONNECTS US When: July 21, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org You and your family will join with other families in creating a mandala. Natural materials selected to inspire your creativity will be provided. These materials, along with materials to create a small mandala for you to take home, will be available from 10am-12pm. Please allow 30 minutes for your children to complete these activities. Drop In Between 10:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.Included with general admission or membership. 863676-1408 NEIGHBORHOOD STORY TIME When: July 21, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Medulla Resource Center 1049 Parker Rd., Lakeland Neighborhood Story Time is a new program from Polk County Parks & Recreation designed to promote family literacy among families with pre-school age children up to 6-years old. July 21 - “If I were a Park Ranger” by Catherine Stier. At each event, an engaging costumed character will read stories from a beloved children’s book. Hands-on activities will follow the readings. Snacks will be provided to celebrate the theme of each children’s book.For more information, please call the Medulla Resource Center at (863) 647-4035. PUPPETRY WORKSHOP When: July 21, 2022 | 3-4:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net/departments-services/ library/children-s-programs Learn about different kinds of puppets,

FAMILY FILM & POPCORN When: July 22, 2022 | 2 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Disney’s 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea(rated G, 127 min.) Live action. Disney Studio’s adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic story.

puppeteers, and make a different kind of puppet each week - ending with a puppet show you put on for your friends and family! Preregistration is suggested, ages 9-12. NOVELS AT NIGHT When: July 21, 2022 | 6:30-7:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net July’s Theme: A book with an ocean or beach theme. Novels at Night is our new evening book club, for those of us who love to read but work most of the day. How to Join: Pick a book inspired by the monthly theme, then bring your book to the club and tell us all about it! Did you love it? Hate it? We want to know!

OPEN SEASON SPORTSMAN’S EXPO When: July 22, 2022 | 2-6 p.m. Where: RP Funding Center 701 Lime Street, Lakeland rpfundingcenter.com Included with your paid admission: Access to hunting seminar sessions & one-on-one with industry experts. Shop hundreds of hunting products & services. Activities & Displays such as the Trophy Deer Contest. Fun filled family experience, including kids archery ranges. Door Prize Entry. Everyone must have a ticket to enter. Children 12 and under are free but do require a ticket.

BINGO When: July 21, 2022 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Front Page Brewing Co. 190 S Florida Ave., Bartow Join Front Page Brewing every Thursday for nine rounds of BINGO! Prizes for each round range from a free pint to a free Crowler. Must be 21 to play.Absolutely free to play, you can join in at any time for as many or as few rounds as you’d like.

SUMMER AT THE POOL SERIES: BLACK OR WHITE PARTY When: July 22, 2022 | 7-11 p.m. Where: Balmoral Bar and Grill 124 Kenny Blvd., Haines City centralfloridatix.com Join in on the fun at our evening pool party featuring a guest DJ. Put on your best black or white outfits and swimsuits and get ready to party! We will have specialty drinks all night long while you listen to your favorite music from our poolside DJ. (Ages 21 and up)

THURSDAY TRIVIA NIGHT When: July 21, 2022 | 7-9 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven Every Thursday is General Knowledge except the 3rd Thursday of the month, which is a themed show/movie series.Teams of no more than 6 players. Check-in starts at 6:30pm, questions start at 7:00pm. This event is 21 and up.

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DOWNTOWN LAKELAND FARMERS CURB MARKET When: Jul7 23, 2022 | 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Downtown Lakeland Shop fresh produce, plants and local handcrafted items. The 11-month Market (closed in August) is a showcase for the talents and the work of local artisans and local growers. The Downtown Farmers Curb Market is a project of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA).

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IN THE HEIGHTS When: July 22, 2022 | 7 p.m. Where: Polk State/Winter Haven 999 Avenue H N.E., Winter Haven polkstate.secure.force.com/ticket With Love Productions is proud to bring to Polk County the first community production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award winning hit musical “In the Heights.” In the Heights tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood — a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. It’s a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind. This show is rated PG13.

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WINTER HAVEN FARMERS MARKET SUMMER SEASON When: July 23, 2022 | 8:30-11:30 a.m. Where: 250 Magnolia Ave., Winter Haven winterhavenfarmersmarket.com The Market features a wide variety of artisan food vendors, plants, and a sprinkling of crafts. Enjoy a strong selection of “ready-toeat” foods and freshly picked produce. Enjoy live music and food trucks, pet friendly. The summer season lasts June - August.Located across from Grove Roots in the parking lot of the BB&T Bank building on the NE corner of Third St. and Ave C SW in downtown Winter Haven every Saturday. GARDEN THEMED JOURNAL BOOKMAKING When: July 23, 2022 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org In this class, you will create your own Coptic Stitch book from start to finish. With stepby-step instructions, you’ll be amazed by the book you take home. With this structure, you can include as many sets of pages as you need. The pages lie flat when opened and the hard cover protects your pages. All materials are supplied. No previous experience necessary.$75 members/ $85 non-members, registration required. 863-676-1408 DRIVE THROUGH BACK TO SCHOOL BASH When: July 23, 2022 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Lake Eva Event Center 799 Johns Avenue, Haines City Drive Through Back to School Bash presented by Unity in the Community. For more information call 863-438-2758. While supplies last.

ARTIST GARAGE SALE When: July 23, 2022 | 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Where: Bartow Civic Center 2250 S Floral Ave, Bartow Artist Garage Sale Bartow Civic Center - a cooperative event between the City of Bartow, Bartow Art Guild, and the Lakeland Art Guild allowing artists an opportunity to sell gently used art supplies and older works of art. More info on FB @LkldArtGuild. OPEN SEASON SPORTSMAN’S EXPO When: July 23, 2022 | 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Where: RP Funding Center 701 Lime Street, Lakeland rpfundingcenter.com Included with your paid admission: Access to hunting seminar sessions & one-on-one with industry experts. Shop hundreds of hunting products & services. Activities & Displays such as the Trophy Deer Contest. Fun filled family experience, including kids archery ranges. Door Prize Entry. Everyone must have a ticket to enter.Children 12 and under are free but do require a ticket. HOW NATURE CONNECTS US When: July 23, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org You and your family will join with other families in creating a mandala. Natural materials selected to inspire your creativity will be provided. These materials, along with materials to create a small mandala for you to take home, will be available from 10am-12pm. Please allow 30 minutes for your children to complete these activities.Drop In Between 10:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m.Included with general admission or membership. 863676-1408

ABBEY ROAD LIVE When: July 23, 2022 | 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. Where: Ritz Theatre 263 W Central Ave, Winter Haven centralfloridatix.com Join Classic Rock Legacy Presents as they perform The Beatles’ Abbey Road album live, in its entirety, cut by cut! ”Come Together” for this one night only event as a stellar cast of musicians will perform this classic album with an encore of greatest hits! The performance will showcase the utmost love and respect as we celebrate one of the greatest bands. If you are a Beatles fan, this is the show for you! You can’t come in “Through the Bathroom

Window”, but we’ll be sure the doors are open by 2:30 pm for the first show and 7:30 pm for the evening show. Classic Rock Legacy Presents includes..Daniel Pepin - Vocals, GuitarBill Dorfschmidt - Vocals, GuitarJessy Rose - Vocals, KeyboardJosh Grimes - Vocals, BassKeith Coville - Vocals, Drums OPM SUMMER FEST US TOUR 2022 When: July 23, 2022 | 7 p.m. Where: RP Funding Center 701 Lime Street, Lakeland rpfundingcenter.com It’s the hottest summer concert of the year!

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Get up close and personal with your favorite Filipino artists Rivermaya, True Faith, Gloc-9, and INTRoVOYS. This is the one event you will not want to miss, with four of the biggest Filipino acts in one show. Bringing you the best kind of summer show for Pinoy rock in the United States! CRAFT BY THE OCEAN When: July 25, 2022 | 6:30-7:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Adult craft time! Create something beautiful while relaxing to the sights and sounds of the ocean. BINGO When: July 26, 2022 | 5 p.m. Where: GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales 275 E Park Ave, Lake Wales The GFWC Woman’s Club of Lake Wales hosts a weekly bingo. Food is available. Doors open at 3:30, games start at 5. SOUND BATH WITH CRYSTAL SINGING BOWLS When: July 26, 2022 | 5:30-6:30 p.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org During the session, Himalayan & Crystal Singing Bowls, tuning forks, and other vibrational tools are used to de-stress, restore balance, and bring well-being to your body, mind & soul. Bring your mat or favorite blanket and pillow.$25 members/ $35 nonmembers, registration required. 863-6761408

DEMOCRATIC WOMEN’S CLUB OF EAST POLK/RIDGE When: July 26, 2022 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. Where: The R-Place Eatery 35523 Hwy 27, Haines City The Democratic Women’s Club of East Polk/Ridge meets every 4th Tuesday. All Democratic women are welcome to join the club, where we discuss shared political views and volunteer for activities that help elect fellow Democrats. Contact: Anne Huffman, Club President (863-242-3230) and annehuffman01@gmail.com

PUPPETRY WORKSHOP When: July 28, 2022 | 3-4:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net/departments-services/ library/children-s-programs Learn about different kinds of puppets, puppeteers, and make a different kind of puppet each week - ending with a puppet show you put on for your friends and family! Preregistration is suggested, ages 9-12. SUMMER MUSIC SERIES When: July 28, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Every month, Bartow Library will feature Polk County’s finest! Listen to great music and enjoy a Q&A with the artist! All performances begin at 6:30 PM and are free to attend.July 28, 2022: Monica Eich, singer and songwriter (EP release party!)

TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER When: July 26, 2022 | 7-11 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven Come hang out for some poker and drinks! The first game starts at 7pm and if enough players attended the 7pm session there will also be a 9pm session. This event is 21 & up. PERCY JACKSON PAJAMA PARTY When: July 27, 2022 | 5-7 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net Part 2: (read books 4-5 beforehand). We seek epic adventurers! Put on your pajamas and join us for a hangout party where we’ll discuss the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan! Ages 12 - 18. Preregistration is suggested so that we know how much food to prepare.

BINGO When: July 28, 2022 | 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Front Page Brewing Co. 190 S Florida Ave., Bartow Join Front Page Brewing every Thursday for nine rounds of BINGO! Prizes for each round range from a free pint to a free Crowler. Must be 21 to play. THURSDAY TRIVIA NIGHT When: July 28, 2022 | 7-9 p.m. Where: Barrel 239 239 3rd St SW, Winter Haven Every Thursday is General Knowledge except the 3rd Thursday of the month, which is a

themed show/movie series.Teams of no more than 6 players. Check-in starts at 6:30pm, questions start at 7:00pm. This event is 21 and up. FAMILY FILM & POPCORN When: July 29, 2022 | 2 p.m. Where: Bartow Public Library 2150 S Broadway Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net “Incredible Mr. Limpet “(rated G, 99 min.) Live action and animation. Henry Limpet loves fish, and when he accidentally falls from a pier at Coney island and becomes one, he uses his new underwater talents to help the U.S. Navy. DOWNTOWN LAKELAND FARMERS CURB MARKET When: July 30, 2022 | 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: Downtown Lakeland Shop fresh produce, plants and local handcrafted items. The 11-month Market (closed in August) is a showcase for the talents and the work of local artisans and local growers. The Downtown Farmers Curb Market is a project of the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority (LDDA). WINTER HAVEN FARMERS MARKET SUMMER SEASON When: July 30, 2022 | 8:30-11:30 a.m. Where: 250 Magnolia Ave., Winter Haven winterhavenfarmersmarket.com The Market features a wide variety of artisan food vendors, plants, and a sprinkling of crafts. Enjoy a strong selection of “ready-to-

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eat” foods and freshly picked produce. Enjoy live music and food trucks, pet friendly. The summer season lasts June - August. Located across from Grove Roots in the parking lot of the BB&T Bank building on the NE corner of Third St. and Ave C SW in downtown Winter Haven every Saturday. NICE CREAM WITH BRITTNEY KIEFFER When: July 30, 2022 | 10-11 a.m. Where: Bok Tower Gardens 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales boktowergardens.org Come join plant-based specialist Brittney Kieffer in the Outdoor Kitchen where you will learn the health benefits of a plantbased lifestyle and learn to make your very own healthy alternative to ice cream, using plants. Brittney will teach you how to make your own cashew milk and use it in a frozen treat combined with bananas, strawberries, and blueberries for you to try. There will be a banana free option as well. Come discover different ways to make your favorite frozen healthy “nice cream.”$10 members/$20 for Non-members. 863-676-1408 BACK 2 SCHOOL BASH When: July 30, 2022 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Where: Wilfred Smith Resource Center 135 Ave Y NE, Winter Haven polk-county.net/parks-and-recreation Kick off the new school year on the right foot! Polk County Parks & Recreation’s Back to School Bash is a free event for children in kindergarten up to fifth grade.This event will feature music, arts & crafts, vendors, prizes, games and free school supplies. Parent and children must be present to receive school

SUPER SUMMER SHOW: RICK MARTIN’S TRICKY DOGS When: July 30, 2022 | 2-3 p.m. Where: Bartow Civic Center 2250 S Floral Ave, Bartow cityofbartow.net A circus style comedy dog act starring five rescue dogs and their pet human, Rick martin. His show is a Bartow favorite and back by popular demand.

supplies. Free School Supplies are limited to 300 backpacks (first come, first served). For more information, please call the Wilfred Smith Resource Center (863) 298-7898. HIGH NOON DRAG SHOW BRUNCH When: July 30, 2022 | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Where: Federal Bar Lakeland 124 S Tennessee Ave, Lakeland Doors open 11am | show starts at NOON! A $10 per person event fee will be added to your tab. $15 bottomless mimosas will be available also during the show along with our delicious brunch menu.To make a reservation please email: Events@federalbarlakeland.com

HARRY POTTER’S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION When: July 30, 2022 | 2-4 p.m. Where: Lakeside Village 1479 Town Center Dr., Lakeland Calling all Muggles, Witches, and Wizards! Lakeside Village and Books-A-Million will transform into the Wizarding World for Harry Potter’s birthday celebration and Florida Back-to-School Tax-Free Week. There is a limited supply of maps available, first come, first served — one map per person. An adult must always accompany children.Guests will enjoy: Horcruxes Scavenger Hunt‚Face Painting‚ Activity Stations‚ Honeydukes Photo Op. Fans are invited to come dressed as their favorite character from the wizarding world (Adults should not wear a masked costume). No reservation is needed, but supplies are limited and first-come, firstserved. On the day of the event, pick up your map between 2- 3 pm by the Lawn at Lakeside Village (located at 1479 Town Center Lakeland, FL 33803).

BACK TO SCHOOL EVENT When: July 30, 2022 | 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: 4715 Florida Ave S, Lakeland Come and visit us to enjoy multiple activities, music, and more! We will be giving away hundreds of backpacks filled with school supplies. Event by Florida Technical College Lakeland.-Free Backpacks with School Supplies! Limited quantities available. Backpacks will be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis. Only one backpack per child. The child must be present to receive the backpack and must be accompanied by an adult/guardian. Important Notice: Tickets are not required to attend the Back to School event. To participate, you must register in person on the day of the event.

RUSSIAN BALLET ORLANDO: LA BAYADRE When: July 30, 2022 | 7 p.m. Where: Polk Theatre 139 S Florida Avenue, Lakeland polktheatre.org Russian Ballet Orlando presents La Bayadre, a story of eternal love, mystery, vengeance, and justice. Celebrating the 145 year history of the most romantic of classical ballets, the story relates the drama of a temple dancer Nikiya, who is loved by Solor, a noble warrior. She is also loved by the High Brahmin, but does not love him in return, as she does Solor. Set to dramatic music by Ludwig Minkus, audiences will be moved as love triumphs in the end. 863-682-7553 LUAU BRUNCH When: July 31, 2022 | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Where: Balmoral Bar and Grill 124 Kenny Blvd., Haines City centralfloridatix.com As you enjoy a wonderful brunch you will be entertained with our Luau Performers.You will be able to participate in Hula Lessons, watch a Tahitian Competition, see an amazing Samoan Fireknife Dancer and the opportunity to get a photo op! Tickets include Luau Show and a pool pass for the day! *Due to the uncertainty of COVID, please double check that the event you’re interested in has not been canceled or rescheduled prior to leaving your house.

Hillman Motors Great Products Better Prices Stingray Boats • Crest Pontoons Misty Harbor Pontoons • Suzuki Outboards info@hillmanmotors.net | hillmanmotors.net 863-967-4628 | 2701 Havendale Blvd, Winter Haven

Questions about MEDICARE? I can help! Kenneth Villegas Villalta 813-539-4081 Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

kvillegasvillalta1@careplus-hp.com Call your licensed CarePlus sales agent TODAY! 73

Have a Safe and Happy Independence Day! Positively impacting our community & environment by providing local businesses with repurposed office furniture.

Systems Furniture Installations || Office Re-configurations || Office Relocations || Case Goods Installations

Experienced professionals… locally owned and veteran operated for over 30 years!

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863.646.7291 || www.eliteofficelogistics.com || eolgroup@aol.com 4779 Dranefield Rd., Lakeland, FL 74

SOLD HOMES

1358 LAUREL GLEN DR.............................................. BARTOW .....................$333,000 433 MACARTHUR ST................................................. BARTOW ..................... $348,700 1947 GRIFFINS GREEN PL........................................... BARTOW .....................$350,000 815 S WILSON AVE..................................................... BARTOW .................... $400,000 1630 TAYLOR LANDING DR....................................... BARTOW .................... $420,000 1990 COUNTRY MANOR ST...................................... BARTOW .....................$433,000

AUBURNDALE

204 CLAYTON RD..............................................AUBURNDALE...................... $100,000 210 CLAYTON RD...............................................AUBURNDALE...................... $100,000 1070 LAKE ARIANA BLVD...................................AUBURNDALE...................... $140,000 104 ANARECE AVE.............................................AUBURNDALE........................$191,500 208 POLK ST.....................................................AUBURNDALE......................$209,000 3005 REITER DR APT A......................................AUBURNDALE....................... $212,500 210 GANDY ST...................................................AUBURNDALE......................$235,000 171 BERGEN CIR..................................................AUBURNDALE...................... $275,200 1486 LOUISE AVE...............................................AUBURNDALE.......................$277,400 118 KINSTLE HILL DR..........................................AUBURNDALE...................... $279,000 1247 MEZZAVALLE WAY.....................................AUBURNDALE......................$286,400 1267 MEZZAVALLE WAY.....................................AUBURNDALE.......................$287,300 133 NEWBERN CIR.............................................AUBURNDALE......................$290,000 223 LAKEVIEW DR.............................................AUBURNDALE......................$298,900 132 HAWTHORNE RD........................................AUBURNDALE..................... $300,000 1494 LOUISE AVE...............................................AUBURNDALE...................... $300,100 1409 MATTIE POINTE LN...................................AUBURNDALE...................... $302,700 1019 BETHPAGE RD............................................AUBURNDALE......................$325,000 481 RIDERS LOOP..............................................AUBURNDALE.......................$331,800 1328 MATTIE POINTE BLVD...............................AUBURNDALE.......................$341,000 213 OAK CROSSING BLVD.................................AUBURNDALE...................... $357,000 344 LAKE MARIANA WAY..................................AUBURNDALE......................$366,500 275 TRAVELERS CREEK DR................................AUBURNDALE...................... $373,500 417 RIDERS LOOP..............................................AUBURNDALE.......................$381,300 238 LAKE VISTA DR...........................................AUBURNDALE........................$411,400 1505 AUBURN OAKS BLVD................................AUBURNDALE.......................$419,900 1259 MYOPIA HUNT CLUB DR...........................AUBURNDALE......................$432,600 431 OPAL AVE....................................................AUBURNDALE......................$455,000 184 MELISSA TRL...............................................AUBURNDALE......................$469,600 115 LAKE ARIETTA CT.........................................AUBURNDALE.......................$471,000

DAVENPORT

568 SARDINIA CIR............................................... DAVENPORT....................... $114,400 567 SYLVAN RAMBLE........................................... DAVENPORT........................$131,000 695 BLOOM TER.................................................. DAVENPORT....................... $137,000 711 BLOOM TER.................................................... DAVENPORT....................... $137,000 683 BLOOM TER................................................. DAVENPORT...................... $150,000 292 JYOTI DR....................................................... DAVENPORT........................$167,700 203 NORTH BLVD................................................ DAVENPORT...................... $190,000 3144 3RD ST......................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $190,000 134 WOODPECKER CT........................................ DAVENPORT.......................$200,100 137 RIDGE VIEW DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$250,000 1536 ASPEN AVE.................................................. DAVENPORT....................... $251,400 1062 BERRY LN..................................................... DAVENPORT.......................$261,800 525 VERONA AVE................................................ DAVENPORT..................... $280,000 215 HIGHLAND MEADOWS AVE.......................... DAVENPORT......................$289,000 285 PRIMROSE DR............................................... DAVENPORT......................$290,000 1103 POMELO ST.................................................. DAVENPORT......................$294,600 1107 POMELO ST.................................................. DAVENPORT......................$294,600 1111 POMELO ST.................................................... DAVENPORT......................$294,600 1115 POMELO ST................................................... DAVENPORT......................$294,600 1119 POMELO ST................................................... DAVENPORT......................$294,600 1123 POMELO ST.................................................. DAVENPORT......................$294,600 819 SYDNEY ST.................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $295,700 1074 BERRY LN..................................................... DAVENPORT..................... $300,000 770 CITRUS RESERVE BLVD................................. DAVENPORT.......................$301,200 446 E OAKPARK LOOP........................................ DAVENPORT......................$305,000 823 SYDNEY ST................................................... DAVENPORT......................$306,300 225 BELVOIR DR................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $307,000 828 ROLLINS DR.................................................. DAVENPORT......................$309,500 856 SYDNEY ST................................................... DAVENPORT......................$309,500 545 GARBERIA DR............................................... DAVENPORT...................... $310,000 652 BLOOM TER.................................................. DAVENPORT.......................$315,800 774 CITRUS RESERVE BLVD................................. DAVENPORT.......................$316,500 851 SYDNEY ST.................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $318,400 816 ANDALUSIA LOOP........................................ DAVENPORT.......................$319,000 836 SYDNEY ST................................................... DAVENPORT......................$320,500 832 SYDNEY ST................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $322,800 3222 HUNTWICKE BLVD..................................... DAVENPORT......................$325,000 1655 ASPEN AVE.................................................. DAVENPORT...................... $326,200 2680 MAGNOLIA AVE......................................... DAVENPORT......................$332,000 228 SUNSET CT................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $333,500 327 LILY LN........................................................... DAVENPORT......................$334,300 347 LILY LN.......................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $335,700 633 BLOOM TER.................................................. DAVENPORT...................... $340,700 1651 ASPEN AVE................................................... DAVENPORT......................$344,300 896 ORCHID GROVE BLVD................................. DAVENPORT......................$345,000

BARTOW

1010 DUDLEY AVE..................................................... BARTOW ..................... $105,000 1010 DUDLEY AVE..................................................... BARTOW ....................... $115,700 5824 ANDERSON RD................................................. BARTOW ......................$125,000 2055 S FLORAL AVE LOT 6........................................ BARTOW ......................$139,900 1295 S SWEARINGEN AVE.......................................... BARTOW ..................... $140,000 7220 THOMAS JEFFERSON CIR................................. BARTOW ..................... $140,000 6901 MAGGIE DR....................................................... BARTOW ......................$150,300 3797 MURPHY RD..................................................... BARTOW ..................... $160,000 1675 FLORAL AVE...................................................... BARTOW ..................... $188,000 580 E MAIN ST........................................................... BARTOW .....................$230,000 690 JACKSON AVE.................................................... BARTOW .....................$230,000 985 DUDLEY AVE...................................................... BARTOW .....................$260,500 1704 VALENCIA BLVD................................................ BARTOW ..................... $275,000 909 WASHINGTON ST.............................................. BARTOW ..................... $278,500 1525 LAKESIDE DR..................................................... BARTOW .....................$290,000 417 MACARTHUR ST.................................................. BARTOW .................... $300,800 2257 BARN OWL AVE................................................. BARTOW .................... $303,000

- CONTINUED ON PAGE 76 -

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Polk County’s Favorite Real Estate Family. Cathy Kluytenaar & Zac Kluytenaar 75

541 CANTABRIA DR.............................................. DAVENPORT......................$350,000 694 CAMPO LN................................................... DAVENPORT......................$350,300 643 ANDALUSIA LOOP....................................... DAVENPORT......................$356,000 817 CITRUS RESERVE BLVD................................. DAVENPORT......................$356,400 134 BALBOA LOOP.............................................. DAVENPORT...................... $357,000 648 BLOOM TER................................................. DAVENPORT.......................$361,200 814 CHINOY RD................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $362,200 2601 MAGNOLIA AVE.......................................... DAVENPORT......................$369,000 609 DISA DR........................................................ DAVENPORT......................$370,000 1039 THEODORE ST............................................ DAVENPORT......................$370,400 656 BLOOM TER.................................................. DAVENPORT...................... $373,700 784 GRAZIE LOOP............................................... DAVENPORT....................... $375,100 2672 MAGNOLIA AVE.......................................... DAVENPORT.......................$377,000 386 HAMLET LOOP............................................. DAVENPORT...................... $378,500 208 JUDITH WAY UNIT 4001............................... DAVENPORT..................... $380,000 511 TAFT DR.......................................................... DAVENPORT..................... $380,000 209 GINA LN........................................................ DAVENPORT......................$382,000 436 LAKE SHORE PKWY...................................... DAVENPORT......................$385,000 524 NICKEN GRV................................................. DAVENPORT......................$388,700 928 AVENAL LN................................................... DAVENPORT..................... $390,400 2609 MAGNOLIA AVE......................................... DAVENPORT.......................$391,400 7573 OAK SPRING LN.......................................... DAVENPORT.......................$399,100 748 GRAZIE LOOP............................................... DAVENPORT......................$403,900 2172 LAKE SIDE AVE............................................. DAVENPORT..................... $405,000 658 FIDDLESTICKS DR........................................ DAVENPORT..................... $409,400 500 LILY LN.......................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $410,000 116 CARRERA AVE................................................ DAVENPORT......................$425,000 281 CITRUS ISLE LOOP........................................ DAVENPORT......................$425,000 412 TISONE LN..................................................... DAVENPORT.......................$430,100 327 GREELEY LOOP............................................. DAVENPORT.......................$431,000 166 AMACA LN.................................................... DAVENPORT..................... $436,000 328 SAHALLI CT.................................................. DAVENPORT..................... $440,000 754 GRAZIE LOOP............................................... DAVENPORT......................$446,900 621 GRAND RESERVE DR..................................... DAVENPORT..................... $485,000 4791 TERRASONESTA DR.................................... DAVENPORT.......................$516,000 4607 TERRASONESTA DR................................... DAVENPORT......................$525,000

1785 BENOIT TER................................................. DAVENPORT......................$530,000 2070 SHERBROOK AVE....................................... DAVENPORT......................$530,000 7869 OAK REFLECTION LOOP............................ DAVENPORT......................$549,600 2113 CROFTON AVE............................................. DAVENPORT...................... $575,000 7312 OAKMOSS LOOP......................................... DAVENPORT..................... $605,000 1143 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1154 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1162 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1163 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1166 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1167 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1170 OAK BLUFF DR............................................. DAVENPORT......................$636,400 1404 OAK MARSH ST........................................... DAVENPORT......................$636,400 4179 OAKTREE DR............................................... DAVENPORT..................... $680,000 7263 OAKMOSS LOOP........................................ DAVENPORT......................$730,000 2580 LANCASTER RIDGE DR............................... DAVENPORT..................... $800,000 6029 BROAD OAK DR......................................... DAVENPORT.....................$1,130,000 1774 OAK BLOSSOM DR...................................... DAVENPORT....................$1,950,000 1485 DISCOVERY ST............................................ DAVENPORT...................... $284,700 1489 DISCOVERY ST............................................ DAVENPORT...................... $297,800 1493 DISCOVERY ST............................................ DAVENPORT......................$303,300 181 ARBOR LAKES DR........................................... DAVENPORT......................$305,000 247 STONEHAVEN DR......................................... DAVENPORT......................$335,000 127 SUNDOWN CT............................................... DAVENPORT......................$343,900 137 HARPERSFIELD ST......................................... DAVENPORT......................$345,000 329 SIESTA VISTA CT........................................... DAVENPORT......................$355,000 298 SIESTA VISTA CT........................................... DAVENPORT......................$364,500 1806 SERENO DR................................................. DAVENPORT......................$365,000 350 SIESTA VISTA CT........................................... DAVENPORT......................$366,600 321 SIESTA VISTA CT............................................ DAVENPORT..................... $368,000 248 CAPTIVA DR................................................. DAVENPORT......................$375,000 273 SIESTA VISTA CT........................................... DAVENPORT......................$382,300 533 BALMORAL DR............................................. DAVENPORT...................... $401,000 337 SIESTA VISTA CT........................................... DAVENPORT...................... $419,800 164 ESSEX PL........................................................ DAVENPORT......................$525,000 1323 YORKSHIRE CT............................................ DAVENPORT......................$585,000

COVERAGE FOR EVERY PART OF THE HOME ■ Insurance you can tailor to meet your needs ■ More options, providing you more discounts ■ Contact me for a free coverage review

Fred Simons Your Local Agent 325 AVENUE C SW, WINTER HAVEN, FL 33880 FSIMONS@FARMERSAGENT.COM https://agents.farmers.com/fsimons

Call 863.259.1826 today! Let me help you get smart about your coverage options.

Restrictions apply. Discounts may vary. Not available in all states. See your agent for details. Insurance is underwritten by Farmers Insurance Exchange and other affiliated insurance companies. Visit farmers.com for a complete listing of companies. Not all insurers are authorized to provide insurance in all states. Coverage is not available in all states.

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HAINES CITY

275 WILLIAMSON DR.......................................... DAVENPORT.......................$105,300 157 KENSINGTON PARK DR................................. DAVENPORT.......................$135,000 113 JACKSON PARK AVE....................................... DAVENPORT.......................$182,000 438 CHELSEA DR................................................ DAVENPORT.......................$213,000 116 ANDROS AVE................................................. DAVENPORT...................... $225,000 1653 CHELSEA DR................................................ DAVENPORT......................$250,000 574 ORCHID DR................................................... DAVENPORT......................$250,000 2298 BELLA VISTA DR.......................................... DAVENPORT...................... $275,500 324 LA MIRAGE ST............................................... DAVENPORT......................$285,000 50989 HIGHWAY 27 LOT 306............................. DAVENPORT......................$298,000 204 CAPRI DR...................................................... DAVENPORT......................$299,000 245 CAMBRIA AVE............................................... DAVENPORT...................... $310,000 131 PALERMO ST.................................................. DAVENPORT......................$335,000 1642 REDDISH EGRET CT.................................... DAVENPORT......................$350,000 1451 FOX SQUIRREL DR....................................... DAVENPORT......................$356,500 5142 TUSCANY LN............................................... DAVENPORT......................$363,600 214 RONA LN....................................................... DAVENPORT...................... $367,000 1626 REDDISH EGRET CT.................................... DAVENPORT......................$370,000 1427 FOX SQUIRREL DR....................................... DAVENPORT....................... $371,500 219 PENRITH ST................................................... DAVENPORT......................$383,000 201 KENSINGTON DR.......................................... DAVENPORT..................... $400,000 310 ARDMORE ST................................................ DAVENPORT........................$401,100 183 THORNE MEADOW PASS.............................. DAVENPORT...................... $410,000 170 LAZY WILLOW DR......................................... DAVENPORT.......................$415,000 5106 TUSCANY LN.............................................. DAVENPORT.......................$415,400 426 ELGIN BLVD.................................................. DAVENPORT.......................$421,000 100 CADIZ LOOP................................................. DAVENPORT......................$435,800 311 TROON CIR.................................................... DAVENPORT......................$455,000 200 LOCKBREEZE DR.......................................... DAVENPORT..................... $460,000 1483 FOX SQUIRREL DR...................................... DAVENPORT......................$465,500 925 DURANGO LOOP ST.................................... DAVENPORT..................... $500,000 3373 LILAC WAY.................................................. DAVENPORT...................... $537,000

507 MAPLE LEAF CT............................................HAINES CITY...................... $100,000 350 BADGER LN..................................................HAINES CITY...................... $105,000 6784 WILBAR LN.................................................HAINES CITY.......................$120,000 115 VICTORIA DR..................................................HAINES CITY...................... $138,000 907 TENNIS WAY.................................................HAINES CITY.......................$140,500 606 OAK TER.......................................................HAINES CITY.......................$159,000 24 HUNTLEY CT..................................................HAINES CITY...................... $190,000 406 DARTMOUTH DR.........................................HAINES CITY.......................$192,000 657 SWEETWATER WAY......................................HAINES CITY...................... $225,000 701 PINNACLE DR................................................HAINES CITY...................... $229,000 4210 SWAN ST.....................................................HAINES CITY.......................$237,000 610 MCLEOD ST..................................................HAINES CITY.......................$241,000 2 PINE RUN..........................................................HAINES CITY......................$245,000 2921 KOKOMO LOOP..........................................HAINES CITY......................$268,000 198 PIAVE ST........................................................HAINES CITY...................... $275,000 74 NOTTINGHAM WAY........................................HAINES CITY...................... $275,000 205 PIAVE ST.......................................................HAINES CITY.......................$281,000 595 TANARO LN..................................................HAINES CITY......................$283,900 1515 LAKE EVA CIR...............................................HAINES CITY......................$290,000 328 BOARDWALK AVE.........................................HAINES CITY......................$294,000 124 ARLINGTON SQUARE CT..............................HAINES CITY..................... $300,300 1153 SAGUARO ST................................................HAINES CITY..................... $300,800 368 BOARDWALK AVE........................................HAINES CITY......................$302,500 372 BOARDWALK AVE.........................................HAINES CITY......................$303,500 400 BOARDWALK AVE........................................HAINES CITY...................... $307,000 116 ROSEVILLE DR................................................HAINES CITY.......................$313,000 1291 LASSEN ST....................................................HAINES CITY......................$334,000 631 FAIRVIEW AVE...............................................HAINES CITY......................$339,000 1507 MCDERMOTT RD........................................HAINES CITY......................$339,400 290 TARPON BAY BLVD.......................................HAINES CITY......................$345,600 1279 LASSEN ST...................................................HAINES CITY..................... $348,800 427 BARLYN AVE..................................................HAINES CITY......................$358,900 136 ARLINGTON SQUARE ST...............................HAINES CITY......................$359,800 2920 SANDERLING ST.........................................HAINES CITY..................... $366,000 - CONTINUED ON PAGE 78 -

VOTE NOW ONLY FOUR WEEKS LEFT

BEST OF 2022 HAVENMAGAZINES.COM 77

3010 BARBADOS LN............................................HAINES CITY...................... $367,000 1180 SAGUARO ST...............................................HAINES CITY...................... $367,400 1672 WATERVIEW LOOP......................................HAINES CITY......................$370,000 4071 ALISSA LN....................................................HAINES CITY......................$378,000 4255 SWAN ST.....................................................HAINES CITY......................$378,800 412 WINDBOURNE WAY......................................HAINES CITY...................... $387,000 3046 BARBADOS LN...........................................HAINES CITY..................... $394,800 243 TOWERVIEW DR...........................................HAINES CITY...................... $398,700 218 BROOKE’S PL................................................HAINES CITY..................... $460,000 9045 LAKE HATCHINEHA RD..............................HAINES CITY..................... $700,000 1681 HINSON AVE................................................HAINES CITY...................$2,450,000 401 W FLORIDA AVE............................................HAINES CITY.................. $4,300,000 903 E MAIN ST.....................................................HAINES CITY......................$756,000

5831 TINDEL PL.................................................... LAKE WALES...................... $180,000 3213 LUPINE WAY................................................. LAKE WALES...................... $190,000 3718 ADELL RD.................................................... LAKE WALES...................... $193,000 4912 SAINT HELENA RD....................................... LAKE WALES.......................$215,000 314 GATOR ALLEY............................................... LAKE WALES..................... $240,000 9359 LEMON DR.................................................. LAKE WALES...................... $262,500 5055 VALENCIA ST.............................................. LAKE WALES......................$295,000 874 REDWOOD WAY........................................... LAKE WALES......................$365,000 8890 CYPRESSWOOD DR.................................. LAKE WALES......................$425,000

LAKELAND

519 LAZY LAKE DR.................................................. LAKELAND....................... $110,000 1610 REYNOLDS RD LOT 110................................... LAKELAND........................$115,000 1117 COUNTRY CLUB LN......................................... LAKELAND.......................$124,000 1465 RIDGE LAKE CT.............................................. LAKELAND....................... $125,200 210 FIELDS RD......................................................... LAKELAND...................... $140,000 1610 REYNOLDS RD LOT 333.................................. LAKELAND...................... $150,000 904 MARSHA CIR................................................... LAKELAND...................... $150,000 1022 BILTMORE PL.................................................. LAKELAND...................... $160,000 1012 AVON AVE....................................................... LAKELAND....................... $161,000 1420 HESTER DR..................................................... LAKELAND.......................$170,000 3545 LAZY LAKE DR............................................... LAKELAND.......................$170,000 516 LAZY LAKE DR.................................................. LAKELAND.......................$172,000 535 OAK RIDGE...................................................... LAKELAND.......................$173,000 1880 N CRYSTAL LAKE DR APT 20.......................... LAKELAND...................... $180,000 2023 DAWN HEIGHTS DR....................................... LAKELAND....................... $187,000 545 NORFOLK CIR.................................................. LAKELAND...................... $196,000 1880 CRYSTAL LAKE DR #1...................................... LAKELAND.......................$207,500 2707 SMITHTOWN DR............................................ LAKELAND.......................$227,000 1526 SHORE ACRES DR........................................... LAKELAND......................$230,000 652 CANDYCE AVE................................................. LAKELAND......................$230,000 1806 E ELM RD........................................................ LAKELAND......................$245,000 1522 RICHMOND RD............................................... LAKELAND...................... $273,000 416 ELM RD............................................................. LAKELAND.......................$288,100 1741 HUNTINGTON ST............................................ LAKELAND...................... $310,000 843 LIME ST............................................................ LAKELAND....................... $417,900

LAKE WALES

2054 CONNER RD............................................... LAKE WALES...................... $100,000 421 SESSOMS AVE............................................... LAKE WALES........................ $117,000 620 S 6TH ST....................................................... LAKE WALES.......................$145,000 804 COHASSETT AVE......................................... LAKE WALES.......................$165,000 744 HUNT DR...................................................... LAKE WALES.......................$212,000 225 LINCOLN AVE................................................ LAKE WALES...................... $225,000 843 HILLSIDE AVE............................................... LAKE WALES......................$236,000 6708 ROCKY POINT DR...................................... LAKE WALES......................$298,900 1023 JOYCE RD..................................................... LAKE WALES..................... $300,000 1116 ROBERTA RD................................................. LAKE WALES...................... $310,000 1002 TEQUESTA TRL........................................... LAKE WALES......................$324,900 2755 SAM KEEN RD.............................................. LAKE WALES......................$425,000 4225 COTTAGE HILL ST....................................... LAKE WALES..................... $280,000 4425 STRATHMORE DR....................................... LAKE WALES...................... $310,000 4480 STRATHMORE DR...................................... LAKE WALES...................... $310,000 219 BROOKSHIRE DR........................................... LAKE WALES......................$425,000 128 STALLION LN................................................. LAKE WALES...................... $108,000 274 SADDLE LN.................................................... LAKE WALES.......................$122,000 126 STALLION LN................................................. LAKE WALES.......................$125,000 844 HERROD RD................................................. LAKE WALES...................... $130,000 25307 CANTERBURY DR..................................... LAKE WALES...................... $180,000

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2153 ONTARIO WAY................................................ LAKELAND..................... $450,000 472 EMERALD COVE LOOP.................................... LAKELAND...................... $318,000 141 FERNERY RD APT E7.......................................... LAKELAND.......................$125,000 8126 STUART LN..................................................... LAKELAND...................... $140,000 5455 RIVER ROCK RD............................................. LAKELAND.......................$145,000 203 VILLAGE VIEW LN............................................ LAKELAND.......................$145,800 1008 FOREST LAKE DR........................................... LAKELAND...................... $160,000 1412 CREEKWOOD RUN......................................... LAKELAND...................... $160,000 2015 TRAILSWOOD PATH....................................... LAKELAND...................... $180,000 10834 TRAILS END.................................................. LAKELAND...................... $185,000 940 FENTON AVE APT 20....................................... LAKELAND...................... $198,000 5409 LIMESTONE LN.............................................. LAKELAND.......................$210,000 149 CREEKWOOD RUN.......................................... LAKELAND......................$236,000 6528 CHIPPENDALE RD.......................................... LAKELAND.......................$267,500 333 DAUGHTERY RD.............................................. LAKELAND...................... $287,000 5820 JACARANDA AVE........................................... LAKELAND......................$290,000 1029 AUDUBON WAY............................................. LAKELAND..................... $304,000 6227 PEACOCK RUN.............................................. LAKELAND.......................$315,000 7271 LIBERTY RD..................................................... LAKELAND......................$320,600 1115 TRAILSMAN LN................................................. LAKELAND........................ $321,100 7217 LIBERTY RD..................................................... LAKELAND......................$325,000 7756 MERRILY WAY................................................. LAKELAND......................$330,000 6900 BROMPTON DR............................................ LAKELAND......................$335,000 6902 CATHERINE DR.............................................. LAKELAND......................$349,900 8205 TIMBERIDGE CT............................................ LAKELAND........................$367,100 9133 PINE TREE DR................................................. LAKELAND......................$370,000 6005 CHAMPLAIN PASS......................................... LAKELAND......................$373,000 8725 SCANDINAVIA BLVD...................................... LAKELAND......................$385,000 6817 HUNTERS CROSSING BLVD........................... LAKELAND......................$394,900 1003 TIMBERGREEN DR.......................................... LAKELAND......................$455,000 8027 DARLINGTON CIR.......................................... LAKELAND......................$505,000 1054 WALT WILLIAMS RD....................................... LAKELAND......................$709,600 1527 RITTER RD....................................................... LAKELAND.......................$124,600 2828 WIRE GRASS RD............................................ LAKELAND...................... $150,000 3463 SUTTON HILLS DR......................................... LAKELAND...................... $198,000 2461 PEAVINE CIR................................................... LAKELAND......................$205,000 - CONTINUED ON PAGE 80 -

723 WILSON AVE.................................................... LAKELAND..................... $434,000 2003 N COMBEE RD............................................... LAKELAND......................$505,000 829 SUCCESS AVE.................................................. LAKELAND......................$585,000 107 COMBEE RD..................................................... LAKELAND................... $1,300,000 615 PALENCIA PL.................................................... LAKELAND.......................$155,000 1519 MARINER RD.................................................... LAKELAND..................... $200,000 1712 BAYOU CIR....................................................... LAKELAND..................... $200,000 3016 SANCTUARY CIR............................................ LAKELAND...................... $225,000 1020 FOREST PARK ST............................................ LAKELAND...................... $229,000 2931 ATLANTA AVE................................................. LAKELAND......................$250,000 940 CASTLE WAY................................................... LAKELAND...................... $259,900 3016 SANCTUARY CIR............................................ LAKELAND......................$265,000 3595 RAINTREE WAY.............................................. LAKELAND..................... $280,000 213 CANNON ST..................................................... LAKELAND......................$285,000 302 BELMAR ST...................................................... LAKELAND...................... $307,000 2441 MARION DR.................................................... LAKELAND.......................$315,000 612 PRADO PL......................................................... LAKELAND...................... $322,000 218 W PARK ST........................................................ LAKELAND...................... $342,500 1231 WATERFORD DR.............................................. LAKELAND.......................$357,500 546 PALMEDEN DR................................................. LAKELAND..................... $400,000 1245 EASTON DR.................................................... LAKELAND..................... $440,000 2646 NEWPORT AVE.............................................. LAKELAND..................... $480,000 2812 PRESTWICK DR............................................... LAKELAND..................... $480,000 1807 PAWNEE TRL.................................................. LAKELAND..................... $606,000 2804 CLEVELAND HEIGHTS BLVD......................... LAKELAND..................... $640,000 2636 DELROSE DR.................................................. LAKELAND.......................$125,000 514 W ROBSON ST.................................................. LAKELAND.......................$125,000 223 NORMANDY ST................................................ LAKELAND...................... $140,000 1711 BUSH AVE......................................................... LAKELAND....................... $141,000 706 LOWELL ST...................................................... LAKELAND.......................$210,000 821 CHANNING RD................................................. LAKELAND......................$230,000 1102 MELVILLE AVE................................................. LAKELAND......................$246,000 5713 LACAR WAY.................................................... LAKELAND......................$264,000 5519 MAGGIORE BLVD........................................... LAKELAND...................... $282,500 1902 W LAKE PARKER DR....................................... LAKELAND......................$289,000 6246 MANITOBA DR.............................................. LAKELAND..................... $300,000 6280 GREAT BEAR DR............................................ LAKELAND......................$344,500

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6562 SHEPHERD OAKS ST...................................... LAKELAND.......................$345,100 3910 WINDCHIME LN............................................. LAKELAND......................$350,000 2940 IVY LAKE CT.................................................. LAKELAND......................$369,000 5929 SLATE ROCK DR............................................ LAKELAND......................$389,800 3958 BUTTONBUSH CIR........................................ LAKELAND..................... $390,000 3751 PEREGRINE WAY............................................. LAKELAND......................$395,000 4030 SHEARWATER ST.......................................... LAKELAND..................... $400,300 3867 SPRUCE CREEK DR........................................ LAKELAND........................$414,100 5957 SLATE ROCK DR............................................. LAKELAND......................$432,400 6503 LONGOAK CT............................................... LAKELAND.......................$477,000 454 W PIPKIN RD 101............................................... LAKELAND.................... $1,100,000 6013 EAGLE POINTE DR......................................... LAKELAND...................... $130,000 6061 EAGLE POINTE DR......................................... LAKELAND...................... $130,000 6123 CREWS LAKE RD............................................. LAKELAND...................... $180,000 2680 DELPHI HILLS CT........................................... LAKELAND.......................$189,900 4169 SHADE TREE LN............................................. LAKELAND...................... $225,000 4019 WINDING VINE DR......................................... LAKELAND......................$235,000 6045 EAGLE POINTE DR........................................ LAKELAND......................$295,000 6034 EAGLE POINTE DR........................................ LAKELAND...................... $307,500 3302 PEARLY DR..................................................... LAKELAND......................$369,400 3063 PANTHER DR................................................. LAKELAND......................$375,000 5812 VALENTINO WAY............................................ LAKELAND......................$456,000 2734 GREYHAWK ESTATES LN............................... LAKELAND..................... $540,000 5159 HIGHLANDS BY THE LAKE DR........................ LAKELAND..................... $630,000 3040 HIGHLANDS BY THE LAKE WAY.................... LAKELAND......................$1,717,500 511 W ALAMO DR.................................................... LAKELAND.......................$139,400 1132 WOODLAND OAKS DR................................... LAKELAND.......................$156,000 1232 PINTAIL PL....................................................... LAKELAND.......................$156,000 4454 LAUREL POINTE DR....................................... LAKELAND.......................$170,000 6733 TRAIL RIDGE DR............................................. LAKELAND........................ $179,100 6708 TRAIL RIDGE DR............................................ LAKELAND......................$226,000 6711 LEMON TREE DR............................................. LAKELAND......................$230,000 1907 INDIAN TRAILS CT.......................................... LAKELAND......................$266,000 6477 POLLY LN....................................................... LAKELAND......................$278,000 4146 POLK AVE....................................................... LAKELAND..................... $280,000 6048 HILLSIDE HEIGHTS DR.................................. LAKELAND......................$285,000 6481 POLLY LN........................................................ LAKELAND......................$299,900

3710 N WILLOW WISP DR....................................... LAKELAND...................... $225,000 3405 SLEEPY HILL OAKS ST................................... LAKELAND....................... $241,700 3298 WINCHESTER ESTATES CIR........................... LAKELAND......................$245,000 2051 LONG BOAT DR UNIT 194............................... LAKELAND......................$250,000 1967 LONG BOAT DR.............................................. LAKELAND......................$255,000 3298 WINCHESTER ESTATES CIR........................... LAKELAND......................$265,000 2423 DUFF RD........................................................ LAKELAND.......................$277,000 2929 JENNIFER DR.................................................. LAKELAND...................... $279,000 3274 PEBBLEBROOKE BLVD................................... LAKELAND......................$295,000 3619 WILLOW WISP DR.......................................... LAKELAND......................$325,000 2021 DEERBERRY LN............................................... LAKELAND....................... $325,100 1818 GREY FOX DR.................................................. LAKELAND......................$329,000 3219 W BELLA VISTA ST.......................................... LAKELAND......................$350,000 4084 SOLAMOR ST................................................ LAKELAND..................... $360,000 3041 WESTMORELAND DR.................................... LAKELAND...................... $378,500 6726 KRENSON OAKS CIR...................................... LAKELAND......................$385,000 3720 COVINGTON LN............................................ LAKELAND..................... $390,000 1943 DANES CT...................................................... LAKELAND....................... $392,100 1859 ALTAVISTA CIR................................................ LAKELAND......................$399,000 6703 MOSSY OAK LN............................................. LAKELAND..................... $405,000 4007 PRIMA LAGO CIR........................................... LAKELAND...................... $410,000 7791 LAKE JAMES BLVD........................................... LAKELAND...................... $410,900 2754 BERKFORD CIR.............................................. LAKELAND......................$425,000 6508 US HIGHWAY 98........................................... LAKELAND..................... $508,900 3994 SUNSET LAKE DR.......................................... LAKELAND..................... $680,000 5441 OLD ROAD 37................................................. LAKELAND.......................$120,000 3805 OLD SALEM RD............................................. LAKELAND...................... $185,000 5030 HAYES RD...................................................... LAKELAND....................... $215,500 6403 TORRINGTON CIR......................................... LAKELAND.......................$257,600 6323 TORRINGTON CIR......................................... LAKELAND..................... $280,000 3249 TRIPLE CROWN LN........................................ LAKELAND......................$295,000 5119 WILLOWBROOK LN........................................ LAKELAND......................$295,000 5716 GREY GRANITE WAY...................................... LAKELAND..................... $304,000 2102 CREEKBEND DR.............................................. LAKELAND......................$325,000 6786 GLENBROOK DR........................................... LAKELAND......................$326,600 5932 SLATE ROCK DR............................................ LAKELAND......................$338,000 5171 WHITE EGRET LN............................................. LAKELAND......................$339,600

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3828 WOODBURN LOOP....................................... LAKELAND...................... $301,000 6825 EAGLE RIDGE LOOP...................................... LAKELAND..................... $309,000 1335 ROBINHOOD LN............................................. LAKELAND......................$330,000 6253 HAMPTON POINTE CIR................................. LAKELAND......................$335,000 134 ELM SQ............................................................. LAKELAND......................$345,000 5499 OAKFORD DR................................................ LAKELAND......................$345,000 537 SCOTT LAKE CREEK LN................................... LAKELAND...................... $356,200 2737 HICKORY RIDGE DR....................................... LAKELAND.......................$371,000 1023 LAMPLIGHTER LN.......................................... LAKELAND......................$399,900 3038 PANTHER DR................................................. LAKELAND...................... $419,000 2204 ARROWHEAD BLVD...................................... LAKELAND......................$422,600 6220 PINE LN.......................................................... LAKELAND.......................$451,000 6220 PINE LN.......................................................... LAKELAND.......................$451,000 1319 VALLEY HILL DR.............................................. LAKELAND......................$470,000 2835 SEYMORE ST................................................. LAKELAND..................... $486,000 4723 HIGHLANDS PLACE DR.................................. LAKELAND......................$495,000 6015 CRICKET DR................................................... LAKELAND......................$495,000 5205 SCOTT LAKE RD............................................ LAKELAND.......................$515,000 5440 HIGHLANDS VISTA CIR................................. LAKELAND......................$530,000 2325 CHESTERFIELD CIR........................................ LAKELAND......................$565,000 4058 BERKSHIRE LOOP.......................................... LAKELAND......................$566,000 6750 CRESCENT WOODS CIR................................ LAKELAND....................... $741,000 6538 EAGLE VIEW LOOP........................................ LAKELAND..................... $820,000 1391 CRESCENT WOODS LOOP............................. LAKELAND..................... $980,000 6812 EAGLE RIDGE BLVD........................................ LAKELAND....................$1,320,000 622 CHOCTAW AVE............................................... LAKELAND......................$258,000 809 WASENA AVE.................................................. LAKELAND......................$270,000 811 SIKES BLVD........................................................ LAKELAND..................... $280,000 1126 RUBY ST.......................................................... LAKELAND......................$285,000

708 BYNI RIDGE.............................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$120,500 900 AVENUE Z............................................... WINTER HAVEN........................$127,500 3441 AVENUE F............................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $130,000 264 BERRY RD................................................ WINTER HAVEN...................... $150,000 310 OGDEN ST................................................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$199,900 420 RED HAWK LOOP.................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $200,000 368 LAKE DAISY CIR....................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $232,600 114 5TH ST JPV................................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$235,000 2304 AVENUE C............................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$236,000 504 2ND ST.................................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$244,900 130 AVENUE H................................................ WINTER HAVEN......................$250,000 201 DURRELL CIR............................................ WINTER HAVEN......................$262,600 642 EAGLE LANDING BLVD............................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$268,100 349 HOLLY RIDGE RD..................................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$277,000 1628 WALLACE MANOR BLVD........................ WINTER HAVEN......................$278,000 1204 GOLDEN EAGLE LN................................ WINTER HAVEN..................... $280,000 896 EAGLE ROCK TER.................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$284,500 324 BURROWING OWL LN............................. WINTER HAVEN...................... $287,400 3666 QUEENS COVE BLVD............................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$290,100 1078 NORMANDY HEIGHTS CIR..................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$297,500 545 REDDICKS CIR......................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $301,000 530 SQUIRES GROVE DR............................... WINTER HAVEN......................$302,000 1662 SETH DR................................................. WINTER HAVEN...................... $307,200 1380 AXEL CIR................................................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$318,200 1376 AXEL CIR................................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$327,600 645 SQUIRES GROVE DR............................... WINTER HAVEN......................$330,000 2436 AVENUE D............................................. WINTER HAVEN..................... $340,000 1008 TALON LN.............................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$345,000 2706 AVENUE G............................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$350,000 732 MCCOY ST............................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$354,300 652 SUNWAY LN............................................. WINTER HAVEN........................$357,100 637 SUNWAY LN............................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$358,000 5446 CHANDLER DR...................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $360,000 4626 REYNOSA DR......................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $364,000 1654 SETH DR................................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$365,000 712 MCCOY ST................................................ WINTER HAVEN...................... $369,700 - CONTINUED ON PAGE 83 -

WINTER HAVEN

4407 LIMEWOOD ST...................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $100,000 504 WILLIAM AVE........................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $100,900 148 SW PALM DR............................................ WINTER HAVEN...................... $105,000 707 DOLLY BEN CT......................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $109,000 4107 ROLLING OAKS DR................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$109,900

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821 ORCHID SPRINGS DR............................... WINTER HAVEN........................ $117,000 819 ORCHID SPRINGS DR............................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$123,000 6312 GROVE POINTE DR................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$128,000 6061 SOUTHERN OAKS DR............................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$145,000 6220 KNOTTY PINE DR.................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$145,000 125 STEVENSON RD........................................ WINTER HAVEN...................... $150,000 6410 SE OAK GROVE DR................................ WINTER HAVEN........................$151,500 148 STEVENSON RD....................................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$165,000 505 LAKE ELIZABETH DR................................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$170,000 5884 FOX HAVEN DR..................................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$173,000 5917 GREY FOX DR......................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$205,000 1812 WOODPOINTE DR.................................. WINTER HAVEN...................... $225,000 410 SANDESTIN DR......................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $225,000 1924 BRETTON RIDGE DR............................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$230,100 128 TERRACE DR............................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$238,500 694 WAKULLA DR.......................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$255,000 2012 VARNER CIR............................................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$261,000 4026 CYPRESS LNDG..................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $280,000 1932 CARNOSTIE RD...................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$282,000 2359 BRASSIE CT............................................ WINTER HAVEN......................$282,000 708 LEAH JEAN LN.......................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $288,800 2363 BRASSIE CT............................................ WINTER HAVEN......................$292,000 2215 AUTHOR HILLS ST.................................. WINTER HAVEN..................... $304,000 6224 PINEHURST LOOP................................. WINTER HAVEN...................... $307,800 2219 AUTHOR HILLS ST.................................. WINTER HAVEN..................... $309,000 372 FISH HAWK DR......................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$330,000 6240 PINEHURST LOOP................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$331,800 6297 PINEHURST LOOP................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$339,800 2223 AUTHOR HILLS ST................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$355,000 1423 COLONIAL CT........................................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$356,100 132 FISH HAWK DR.......................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $390,000 269 RUBY LAKE LN......................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $400,000 500 REDDICKS CIR......................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $400,000 2558 PARTRIDGE DR...................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$566,500 106 ODIN DR................................................... WINTER HAVEN....................... $617,500 7368 BENT GRASS DR.................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $764,500 3824 GAINES DR............................................ WINTER HAVEN..................... $950,000

1488 AVENUE I................................................ WINTER HAVEN....................... $392,100 2614 AVENUE G.............................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$399,500 1384 AXEL CIR................................................ WINTER HAVEN..................... $404,000 2104 NW 26TH ST........................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $105,000 1550 11TH ST APT D1........................................ WINTER HAVEN.......................$120,000 1776 6TH ST APT 807...................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $150,000 2609 TRINITY CIR........................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $150,000 911 AVENUE F.................................................. WINTER HAVEN...................... $150,000 2472 HARTRIDGE POINT DR.......................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$175,000 307 PILOT PL.................................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$175,000 2492 HARTRIDGE POINT DR.......................... WINTER HAVEN.......................$199,900 1202 29TH ST.................................................. WINTER HAVEN....................... $213,500 380 NE AVENUE L........................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$220,000 748 16TH ST.................................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$260,000 1375 HAVENDALE BLVD.................................. WINTER HAVEN..................... $280,000 2014 MARILYN AVE......................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$285,000 217 HIBISCUS ST............................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$288,100 5271 REID AVE................................................. WINTER HAVEN.......................$315,000 1451 SALISBURY DR......................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$325,000 5877 WINDRIDGE DR..................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$335,000 1505 N LAKE MIRROR DR................................ WINTER HAVEN..................... $340,000 396 LAKE SMART CIR..................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$355,000 4753 OSPREY WAY......................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $372,000 3946 ISLAND LAKES DR................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$375,000 713 SARNER PASS WAY................................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $378,900 4874 ST JAMES CT.......................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$389,000 5863 ROYAL HILLS CIR................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $396,000 2408 MELROSE ST......................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $400,000 2736 ROCHELLE DR....................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$435,000 1900 HAVENDALE BLVD................................. WINTER HAVEN..................... $450,000 5793 OLD LUCERNE PARK RD........................ WINTER HAVEN..................... $450,000 421 HORSESHOE LN....................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$456,600 4208 HAMMOND DR..................................... WINTER HAVEN..................... $460,000 920 LAKE CANNON DR.................................. WINTER HAVEN......................$550,000 360 3RD ST..................................................... WINTER HAVEN......................$620,000 890 JERSEY RD............................................... WINTER HAVEN....................$1,700,000 6054 SOUTHERN OAKS DR........................... WINTER HAVEN...................... $105,000

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Articles inside

JIM STAFFORD

SAVING THE DERRY DOWN

THE GRAM SCHEME OF THINGS

JON CORNEAL

POLK’S MUSICAL SIXTIES

LOCAL NEWS

LES DUDEK