Heirlooms and Heritage: Carefree Days in Miamuh!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Carefree Days in Miamuh!

Mildred and D.C. Thomas
Miami Beach, FL

"Miamuh," if you've got any history there then you will recognize that pronunciation of the word Miami, the crown jewel of South Florida in the 1920s and 30s. That's how the old-timers and natives (not many left I'm afraid) still pronounce it. All four of my grandparents were transplants to the Magic City. On the maternal side, a young couple from rural south Georgia who, in the mid-1920s wanted to leave the farming communities of their ancestors behind for life in the "big city." On the paternal side, around 1935, the striking Sicilian whose family had settled in New York after arriving at Ellis Island and his wife, the fashionable young lady from Ohio, along with their two children. Both couples moved to Miami to establish their homes which, in the end, happened to be just one block from each other.

These photos of carefree days in Miami Beach were taken during the days after the 1926 hurricane, after the bursting of the real estate bubble in Miami, and after the Great Depression. These were fun times when dreams for young people like my grandparents were beginning to come true again!