One of the many ways that we are raising money to restore and maintain the water tower, is by selling t-shirts. Gil Watson, local artist and gallery owner, created this beautiful depiction of the Old Homosassa Water Tower.
Gil donated the painting to the OHHC co-chair, Marian MacRae.
The t-shirt will be white with a screen-print of Gil’s interpretation of the water tower on the back. A small OHHC logo will be on the front.
The donation is $18.35 for the t-shirt. (1835 is the year that Old Homosassa was established)
My favorite parade of the entire year! The weather was great. The turnout was fantastic. And how many golf carts does Homosassa actually have?
Since this is a “local” parade and a lot of the participants are from right here in Old Homosassa, I’m putting up a lot of pictures!
First Terry and I stopped at the Old Homosassa Heritage Council’sbooth at the festival to make a donation and pick up our freshly printed t-shirts!
Terry is modeling the back of the t-shirt.Got any donations, just pop them into the newly created replica of the Old Homosassa water tower!
This is the first year that we actually went to the staging area for the parade. That place was crazy cakes!
Craziness at The Old Mill TavernWhat?Wilma MacRae and Bo AndersonAnne and Carly getting ready to get in their golf cart and hand out beads.
We usually stand in front of the Starting Gate cafe to watch the parade but this time we stayed in the shade right at the beginning of the parade under the beautiful oaks on Yulee Drive.
Always like to throw a pic or two of the tree canopy in.
Someone forgot to stop the traffic and it was a little entertaining to watch vehicles pull up, drivers curse and then turn around and attempt to find a different way out of Homosassa. Really, this is the FOURTH annual Shrimpapalooza and it’s very well advertised. There are people standing along the parade route plus Mason Creek Road is blocked off. How any one that was back in Old Homosassa on Saturday morning not know that there might be a traffic issue?
Rosie and Clyde, they must have forgotten to bring Bloody Mary’s for Terry and me!
And then the parade started!
I do not know this little girl but she is adorable and so excited to be in the parade!Looks like a cooler with ingredients and beer… but for what?OH NO! It’s a Shrimp Boil!
We not only have a bunch of golf carts and shrimp in this parade, we have dogs.
It’s a PUPALOOZA!
After the parade we headed over to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park to check out Homosassa Heritage Day. DeeDee Pierce Wilcox, a co-chair of the Old Homosassa Heritage Council, was promoting the new organization and had a bunch of her own personal treasures from the early days of Homosassa.
That’s DeeDee on the left , her mom Judy Pierce in the middle and her daughter Caitlin Wilcox on the right.
We had a very exciting town hall meeting with District Two County Commissioner Ron Kitchen yesterday.
Exciting because there were so many attendees and our new commissioner seemed eager to talk about Homosassa’s unique issues.
I’m guessing we had over 60 people for this meeting. And most of them were from the Homosassa River area. Much better than the “meet and greet” we went to with J.J. Kenney last July. I think there were 8 concerned citizens for that one. The sidewalk meeting the same month drew about 30 people.
Commissioner Kitchen opened this meeting by saying he could not talk about the Halls River Project–a 110 room hotel being planned right across the street from the site of the former Marguerita Grille. This was a disappointment to the audience since many came just for that purpose. The commissioner could not discuss it because of the public hearing that is coming up on April 14th. He did invite us all to come to the hearing and I think just about everybody in that room will be there.
Commissioner Ron Kitchen
The commissioner was assisted by Toby Phillips, County Information Officer. She listed all of our questions and issues on the wall–26 bullet points with the really important items starred. Randy Oliver, the county administrator, was also present.
Since the majority of the people attending the meeting were from the Homosassa River area, that’s what most of the questions were about. From traffic on Halls River Road, to what was going on with our sidewalks and trees, and how do we get the county to focus on Old Homosassa?
The area is not incorporated, we have no merchant organization, our main community groups are the Civic Club, the River Alliance, and The Old Homosassa Heritage Council and we have no common voice between these three groups. Commissioner Kitchen stated several times that the more meetings we attend and the more noise we make, the more we will get in return.
So let’s make some noise!
On a side note, don’t forget the Shrimpaplooza on Saturday. I said earilier this week that the parade starts at 10:30 which is what I pulled off of the Rotary’s website. Today’s paper lists the time at 10 am. The Old Homosassa Heritage Council (OHHC) will have a booth on Mason Creek. Stop by and say hi, buy a t-shirt, or/and make a donation to help us with our current project–buying, restoring, and maintaining the Water Tower.
DeeDee Wilcox, co-chair of the OHHC, will be at the Visitor Center of the Homosassa Wildlife Park for Homosassa Heritage Days on Saturday. Besides handouts and information, DeeDee will have an original painting by Gil Watson of the Water Tower on display.
One of the many ways that we are raising money to restore and maintain the water tower, is by selling t-shirts. Gil Watson, local artist and gallery owner, created this beautiful depiction of the Old Homosassa Water Tower.
The t-shirt will be white with a screen-print of Gil’s interpretation of the water tower on the back. A small OHHC logo will be on the front. 
We not only have a bunch of golf carts and shrimp in this parade, we have dogs. 
