Finding Huck

<p>The island was ours far from the cities bordered by the Gulf of Mexico and ancient Estero Bay. </p><p></p><p>We were free. Settled among seven miles of sugar sand beach palm and pine forests waters full of fish and a population small enough to know each face each name. It was the fifties and America was at peace nowhere more so than on this skinny dead-end island blessed with clean tropic breezes and the best of neighbors. A time before street lights and stop lights and highrise buildings and hucksters peddling fantasies of utopia. </p><p></p><p>Single moms were pioneering a fledgling business community a few famous actors athletes and aspiring authors were sheltering for privacy and a young family from norther Illinois was learning this strange new land required patience. </p><p></p><p>This is the island's memoir who we were how we lived in a time long since replaced by a crush of traffic unabated development and overwhelmed by a government and tourist industry unwilling to slow the chaos. A time long before the island's soul vanished in the mutiny.</p>