HISTORY OF PASCO COUNTY

Lacoochee

Other Wartime Memories

J. W. Hunnicutt: I recall that a young man who lived next door to the Couey’s down the road from us served in the war and was “shell shocked.” Probably what they call post traumatic war syndrome today. That’s a part of the war we did not hear much about then. Gloria’s dad often told a story about Amelia Earhart spending a couple of weeks at Dewey’s Dairy during the war. She reportedly was accompanied by a man who was not her husband. I asked Marion Dewey about this one day and he had never heard it. Clifford Dewey’s granddaughter, Catrina Misonznick, said when she was a child her grandmother often mentioned Amelia Earhart but Catrina does not know if the story is true.

When rationing was in place I remember Abe using honey instead of sugar in some of his concoctions. I do not remember his using sugar before that. All he ever concocted for me was chop sueys.

I remember the war newsreels at the Vivian Theater. The narrator always spoke with a crisp enunciation which would have made Mary Weyher proud.

Nell Moody Woodcock: I remember the observation tower built on the rise south of the payoffice near Cummer’s water tower. It was manned by volunteers in Lacoochee called “spotters.” They were looking for enemy aircraft overhead.

I remember the black symbols, can’t remember exactly what they looked like, but parents hung them in their windows to signify they had lost sons in the war. Three of the most notable, or I should say sons of people better known than others, were Carmen (Carmon) Thompson and the Lessig twins, Harold and Garold. Their parents had a farm out past Dewey’s Dairy. Mr. Lessig was a blacksmith.