NEIGHBORS

Heroes Grill displays pay tribute to those who serve

BY FLORA REIGADA

The old adage, “if walls could talk” can be applied to the walls at Heroes Grill restaurant in Titusville and its collection of military and firstresponder tributes.

A new addition, the Harvest Market grocery store and deli also honors our nation’s heroes.

The restaurant display includes numerous patches, football jerseys and plaques commemorating each branch of the military and first responders.

The business owners are Reuben and LaShawn Wooten, whose military ties run deep. Sweethearts at Astronaut High School, they enlisted in the Navy together and served eight years.

They passed this patriotism to their sons, both of whom enlisted in the military.

Their achievements are on display. The proud father pointed them out.

“That U.S. Naval Academy football jersey belonged to our son Navy Lt. j.g. Tyris Wooten. He graduated in 2018, a football star in the top 10% of his class,” Reuben Wooten said.

He also pointed out a framed Army jacket with rows of ribbons, belonging to the couple’s son, Sgt. 1st Class DeAndre Wooten.

Nearby, Logan Brooks, a regular customer, was enjoying a hamburger while studying the patches on the wall.

“They are all very unique,” she said, referring to a patch from Georgia and another from police in Iowa. A patch from a U.S. Air Force base in Spain caught her eye.

“It’s a perfect example of people coming here from everywhere,” she said. Wooten spoke of patches from the Vietnam era, the USS West Virginia and agencies such as SpaceX and TSA.

He continued to the adjoining Harvest Market, where the Buffalo Soldiers are honored.

“They were African-American soldiers hired to protect Western territories after the Civil War,” he said.

In the restaurant, a plaque honors our nation’s fallen. It reads, “The nation that forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.”

Titusville’s Heroes Grill and Harvest Market is doing its part to ensure all our heroes are remembered and honored.

For information, go to The Heroes Grill at 1300 South St. in Titusville or check out theheroesgrill.net/. SL

SENIOR LIFE Dan Reigada

Heroes Grill owner and proud father Reuben Wooten is proud of his family’s military service.

SENIOR LIFE Dan Reigada

These football jerseys and service patches help make up the patriotic array at the

Local artist’s display at library to highlight endangered species

BY BETTY PORTER

Rockledge artist Rose Marie Capasso will present her series of paintings of the most endangered species of animals and mammals from 1 to 4 p.m. Friday, May 20 at the Cocoa Public Library at 308 Forrest Ave.

The showing is in advance of National Endangered Species Awareness Day, which is May 28.

The animals and mammals that Capasso paints are listed as endangered by the World Wildlife Foundation. There are 17 critically endangered animals on the list. She will have at least 13 of them on canvas at the event.

Capasso has painted the Red Panda and it will be on display. Native to the Eastern Himalayas and southwestern China, the Red Panda (sometimes referred to as the lesser Panda due to its size) is slightly larger than a house cat but with a big, bushy tail which is about 18 inches long. It uses its ringed tails as wraparound blankets to keep warm in the chilly mountains. It is classified by the WWF as endangered.

Also featured will be the Viquita

Sudoku Solution on page 24

SENIOR LIFE Betty Porter

Rose Marie Capasso paints endangered species including the Red Panda.

Dolphin, which is a shy member of the porpoise family and the most endangered of the world’s marine mammals. They are found in the waters between California and Mexico. Less than 20 remain in the wild. Entanglement in illegal gill nets is driving the species toward extinction.

She has also painted endangered animals such as the manatee and bottlenose dolphin, which are found in Brevard County waters. The Hawksbill Turtle can be found in the tropical waters of the southeastern United States. It primarily eats jellyfish and has been known to confuse plastic in the water for food, which is one of the reasons its numbers are on the decline to the point of making it critically endangered.

Capasso paints with acrylics as her painting medium and some mixed media. She captures on canvas not only the animal or mammal, but also often includes a depiction of the reason for its endangered status.

Capasso has taken some art classes, but is mainly self-taught.

“I started seriously painting in 2019 and am now obsessed,” she said. “I paint nearly everyday. During the COVID restrictions, I found it was a great outlet and stress reducer.

“Since I love painting and I love

ARTIST

BY NANETTE HEBDIGE

Did you ever sneak into your mom’s closet as a little girl to do some rummaging? You might have emerged wearing high heels, smeared red slipstick and the biggest hat she owned, making you feel like a queen.

Hats have been in vogue for decades and are making a serious revival.

During the Middle Ages, women wore headgear since it was considered to be a sign of royalty. In Europe, ladies started to don hats in the 1600s and, in the 18th century, every woman painted by Thomas Gainsborough modeled an enormous hat.

By the 19th century, milliners were bombarded by bonnet orders, using more yards of ribbon than in corsets. Hats adorned with taffeta, velvet and felt were embellished with theatrical ensembles of feathers, flowers and even fruits to make them as dramatic and eye catching as possible.

In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, hats, gloves and girdles were de rigueur in taking Hollywood by storm. Hats were proclaimed to be a high-fashion, high-dollar item. No lady would consider an outing without her hat and gloves.

Indeed, outlandish hats have been a longtime tradition at the Kentucky Derby and the races at Ascot — the more outlandish, the better.

For decades, sophisticated hats were the piece de resistance. Just like today’s fashions, each outfit had to be styled alongside every hat. Even fedoras became popular during the women’s activist movements.

The Queen of England has worn them since she was a young girl; Jacqui O made a simple pillbox look good and Greta Garbo’s headgear accentuated the symmetrical, haunting beauty of her face.

Beanies and knit caps aren’t just designed to keep your ears warm

SENIOR LIFE/Shutterstock

Stylish and outlandish hats are in vogue and making a revival.

and fuzzy. A cap could hide a bad hair day, but today’s celebrities and supermodels like to flaunt floppy and casual woven creations that enhance the most casual outfits.

Now, women are prancing around sporting the edgiest and swankiest hats. And you better believe that they also illustrate a mood — sexy, prim or proper.

Popular belief has the hat fitting women of a certain age, and that’s not true. You either enjoy wearing them or not. Hats are ageless and a class act. It doesn’t matter what time of year or what the weather holds to show one off.

Gloves can be somewhat picayune in fashion nowadays, but hats have made a steadfast revival and are here to stay. SL

Friends enjoy the thrill of their first skydive

BY BRENDA EGGERT BRADER

As a young child, Lynn Anderson would watch the planes take off from Putnam County Airport in Greencastle, Indiana. Occasionally, they would have groups of people skydiving.

“I would sit for hours watching, always wanting to do it,” she said. ”At age 70, I finally got to skydive. It was such a rush and yes, I will do it again.”

There were no apprehensions, no fear of heights, no trust issues when Lynn Anderson and Marsha Smith recently went skydiving. The close friends, both residing in Melbourne, discovered the force with which a jump from an airplane could have on their minds and bodies.

Their skydiving begins with signing paperwork for the trip, each woman getting her outfit of straps and goggles, then meeting the skydivers to whom they will be strapped for the ride.

The event was from 13,000 feet up or 2.46 miles in the air, Smith said.

“You are going 120 miles an hour until your parachute comes open on the way down,” Anderson said. “He (the skydiver) opens the parachute and you jerk up really fast. If you want to stay up or go fast depends on how you face the wind. With the wind behind you, that is when you drop. Marsha and I were the first out of the plane and she and I were still up there with the two guys looking around. We were the last two to land.

“I didn’t feel afraid,” Smith said. “You have this guy on your back and he knows what he is doing, and you could just put your faith in him. It becomes really, really quiet when the parachute comes out and I could hear his heartbeat. It was really awesome.”

It was a thrill floating and being able to see far below.

“To me, it was such a rush to actually be up that high,” Anderson said. “Being up that high, it made me wish I could see my mom and dad.”

“Our faces looked like you really needed to have a face lift,” Smith laughed, discussing the fall through the wind, “or what you would look like if you had a skinny face.”

And what did they see?

“We saw the ocean, the (Indian) river and lots of boats, a subdivision and a car backing out of the garage,” Anderson said.

“We saw people in swimming pools and people on a golf course waving at us,” Smith added.

What is the next bucket list adventure? A ride in a hot-air balloon.

SENIOR LIFE Courtesy of Lynn Anderson

Lynn Anderson enjoys her skydiving view over Sebastian, which took place13,000 feet up in the air.

SENIOR LIFE Courtesy of Marsha Smith

Marsha Smith looks up underneath the airplane from which she jumped during a skydiving adventure. SL