The May-Stringer House in downtown Brooksville, better known as the Hernando Historical Museum, is a treasure trove of artifacts. It lays out the history of not just the families that lived in the house, but also of Hernando County. Unfortunately, because of Covid-19, the museum has been closed for several months, but they hope to re-open soon.
Long lines are getting to be the norm all over the United States nowadays. Whether it’s to be tested for Covid-19 or to receive free food, people are learning the virtue of patience as they sit in their cars in 90º weather to receive free goods and services during this pandemic. Saturday, July 25, unaware travelers on California Street in Brooksville encountered a back-up of cars and sheriff’s deputies directing traffic. The reason – a free backpack giveaway at Nature Coast Technical High School.
by SARAH NACHIN
Hernando Sun Community Reporter
Brooksville resident, Ms. Mable Sims, is an “encyclopedia” of knowledge about Hernando County – including the early days of its checkered past and more recent events. The seventy-three-year-old mother of four, grandmother to fourteen, and great-grandmother to fourteen children is the keeper of her family’s history and a scholar of how the Black community and the White community interacted – sometimes successfully and sometimes not.
At age eighty-nine, Benedita Vaz (“Dita” to her friends), looks at least ten years younger and has the energy of someone half her age. She wakes up every morning at about 5:00 and is in her garden by 7:30 tending the many varied plants that she grows there. The avid gardener takes cuttings, roots them and then transplants the cuttings. Benedita avows that the secret to her “green thumb” is talking to the plants.
Steve Jobs developed the Apple computer in his garage. The Wright brothers built the first successful airplane in their bicycle repair shop. Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook in his college dorm room. Many others have invented useful items in their basements. Seventeen-year-old Braden Krueger produces his Germ Buffers on his mother’s sewing machine in his parents’ dining room.
Each spring, middle school and high school students, along with their history teachers, look forward to History Day. After many students had spent hours on their projects, they feared that History Day would be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus. However, teachers around the state “put their heads together” to find a way to continue the tradition. With the help of Trampas Alderman, Curator of Education and Public Engagement at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee, the anticipated event was able to take place.
They began to gather around 2:45 p.m. on Friday, June 5 at Hernando Park on Ft. Dade Ave, just east of the downtown library. Their purpose was to protest the death of George Floyd. The main theme was Black Lives Matter, but there was more to the demonstration. The people gathered there were concerned about the larger issue of inequality and injustice in the United States.
Connie Gordon always loved children and when she was told that she would never have any of her own, she knew she needed to find a way to share her love with someone who needed it. In 1991 she fostered a six-week-old baby girl and adopted her two years later.
