Marc Haze

Throughout this past year, members of WUSF 89.7 and Classical WSMR have been highlighting live music that makes the Tampa Bay Area a little more special as part of our ongoing Art Populi series.

This week on Florida Matters we hear some of those stories.

As far back as ancient Greece, composers have written music to be performed by children. It's a unique sound that adults can't duplicate.

It seems we hear it more often at the holidays, whether it's singers caroling at the mall or providing heavenly backup for an orchestra or pop singer.

When you think of St. Petersburg, what’s the first image that comes to mind? Time once was that answer was likely to be the Pier or the city’s  famous green benches.

Now, that answer might be murals. In the past few years more than 100 murals have been created and more are arriving all the time.

When Beth Buchanan brought her 3rd grade class to the Giraffe Ranch, she knew it meant her students from Monarch Learning Academy in Winter Park would see animals in a completely different way.

“I think it’s a great environment for the kids to learn about animals in a more natural environment than a zoo”’ she said. “The kids loved actually getting to interact with them, and the feedings.”

This week on Florida Matters (Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 a.m.), we’re exploring some of the many beaches around Tampa Bay, with a look at parking, water quality and recollections of beach days gone by.

The vegetation is growing  on the beaches of Treasure Island. Researchers from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium have been told they can no longer use a vehicle to monitor turtle nests.   And the concessionaires that work on the beach, many of whom were previously allowed to use a vehicle, now have to carry their gear and clean their areas on foot.  It's what the Treasure Island City Manager calls "unintended consequences" of a judge's ruling in a lawsuit. Some of the people affected by the new policies say the city is misinterpreting the ruling.

Sometimes all it takes is a single moment to make someone famous.

In the 1989 movie "Field of Dreams," Kevin Costner built a ballpark in his Iowa cornfield, not knowing why.  It turned out it was to re-connect him with his father.

That movie strikes a chord with former Tampa Bay traffic reporter and radio personality Les McDowell.

McDowell is the creator, producer and one of the stars of the cable TV Western series "Dry Creek". The show is shot on his ranch in Manatee County on a set he built himself out of scrap materials.

If you've spent much time around places where alcoholic beverages are sold and consumed, you may have heard the following: "Tequila has to come from Mexico. Champagne has to come from France and bourbon has to come from Kentucky."

That last one is not true.

Bourbon can be made anywhere in the United States, as long as strict rules are followed.

No one has made or sold bourbon legally, using Florida-grown ingredients since before Prohibition.

In this installment of StoryCorps Tampa Bay, Marietta Drucker tells her daughter, Debbie, of her escape from the Nazis when they invaded her native Austria. Drucker was just eight years old. Her parents were not able to get out in time but she was, traveling alone on the Kindertransport-- a train carrying children to England.

She came to the StoryCorps booth with her daughter to share the story of her escape and her journey to America. She begins with the day that changed her life.

Music:

In this installment of StoryCorps Tampa Bay, Cleto “Sundy” Chazares, Principal of the Simmons Career Center in Plant City, tells his friend of 40 years, Ron Wardlow, of his dangerous journey from his tiny Mexican village to the Tampa Bay area and of the act of kindness that changed the direction of his life.

Music:
"Momento Mori" by Bexar Bexar from the album Haralambos

This week's StoryCorps Tampa Bay was produced by Marc Haze.

Every Monday, WUSF 89.7 presents Story Corps Tampa Bay, and this week’s story comes from a recording at the John F. Germany Public Library in Tampa as part of the “StoryCorps @ your library” series.

Today we meet two professional baseball players who played in the Negro Leagues in the 1940's, Clifford "Quack" Brown and Walter "Dirk" Gibbons. Both men grew up in Tampa and they sat down with their friend, Neil J. Armstrong, who asked about those colorful nicknames.

This week's StoryCorps Tampa Bay was produced by Marc Haze.