Songs on the beach and new beginnings: 'First Thanksgivings' in Southwest Florida

Most of us don't remember our first Thanksgiving, but some of us do remember the first one we celebrated in Southwest Florida.

I remember mine; I'd only lived here for a few weeks and still didn't know how to dress for the weather. I sweated all night in jeans and a black sweater at a Friendsgiving, nervous among people I'd only met a few days earlier, but excited to be invited. The breeze was soft and warm, waving the tops of the palms planted around my friend's backyard. We ate turkey, green beans, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, and drank coquito one of the guests brought.

Everything was delicious and the no-see-ums stayed far away from our citronella candles, small flames fluttering in the steady stream of air.

Afterwards, I headed to another friend's for a bonfire. We drank local brews and my dog chased the other dogs around the yard so exuberantly that she was a danger to anyone with knees. The night felt like a hug from a new friend: fragile, unexpected and very beautiful.

We asked you to share your first Southwest Florida Thanksgivings with us, and you obliged, calling and emailing to share your memories. Stories have been edited for length and clarity.

Seafood and songs on the beach

From Jenny Herrick, Naples

We had just moved down from Pennsylvania and our grandson was five years old. It was probably 2003. And he came home from Kindergarten, of course, a few days before Thanksgiving with pilgrim and American Indian hats, so I decided we should go out to the beach at Wiggins Pass and have a First Thanksgiving like the pilgrims and the American Indians.

They had grills at Wiggins Pass, so we took shrimp, seafood, sweet potatoes, cranberries and corn on the cob. We just thought how can you have turkey and dressing when it’s so hot? We set up a table and we decorated the table with leaves and acorns and pinecones, and then we sang. We taught my grandson "My County ‘Tis of Thee" and sang that. We had little paper dolls sitting on the table, as well. Two families joined us; they were thrilled with our decorations and they stayed and sang with us.

New beginnings, new traditions

From Christina Naylor, Fort Myers

It’s not a first, but I moved with my husband and daughter to Fort Myers in 1990. I got divorced in 1995, and that was the best thing that ever happened to  me. But the first few years after ‘95 they were very slim, financially. We had to start a whole new ritual. It was a struggle to go through that, but it was worth it. I'm so blessed.

I have always been an avid reader and I picked up a copy of the Bonita Banner in November 1998. There were communities in those papers –– mullet rags, we used to call them. Recipes, police reports. There were births, deaths listed. It was a community.

That edition featured locals who had provided recipes to start holiday traditions. I tried a recipe for sweet potato casserole and I make it every year now. People love it; they ask for the recipe every year. It’s nothing exciting but it’s not like the one everybody else has. There are no marshmallows anywhere. The base of it is cooked sweet potatoes mashed with eggs and seasoning and it’s topped with a crumble. That crunchiness on top with the soufflé goodness underneath, it’s so far superior to the stuff everybody else makes.

When I make it, it reminds me of peace and tranquility in my life. It reminds me of new beginnings, of starting over. On Tuesday I figured I better start making grocery lists and I pulled out that recipe. There it was, that piece of old, ratty newspaper from the Bonita Banner. It’s dog-eared and a little bit yellow, but it’s very well-loved. I have made copies of it and shared it, but it was The News-Press community that shared it with me.

Christina Naylor's favorite sweet potato casserole, as written by Al and Lue Newman, of Naples Park

• 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1/3 cup milk

• 1/2 cup butter, oleo or margarine

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/3 cup flour

• 1/3 cup butter, oleo or margarine

• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the mashed potatoes, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, milk, 1/2 cup butter and the vanilla together until smooth. Place the mixture in a greased two-quart casserole dish.

Crumble together the flour, 1/3 cup butter and walnuts and place on top. Bake until brown.

A first (American) Thanksgiving

From Cathy Goodacre-Lee, Fort Myers Beach

I first arrived in Fort Myers the day before Thanksgiving, 1955.  My parents, sister, and our cat left Canada in September and sailed in our boat down the east coast with the plan of moving permanently to Fort Myers.

This was not only our first Thanksgiving in Fort Myers; it was our very first American Thanksgiving.  We spent that day tied to a dock in the city yacht basin. Our dinner was not turkey since it would have been impossible to cook in the 28-foot boat my father had built.  To be honest, I don't remember what we ate that day!

We later moved out to Fort Myers Beach where my parents spent every Thanksgiving after that first one, eating traditional roast turkey.  I will now have celebrated 68 consecutive Thanksgivings in Lee County.

A Friendsgiving among new friends

From Francine Zabkar, Cape Coral

In the early '80s, there were many new, young nurses for Cape Coral Hospital working at Thanksgiving holiday. Some worked the ICU, some were respiratory therapists, some worked Recovery Room or O.R., but being that Cape Hospital only had 80 beds at that time, we knew just about everyone.

Since we all had to work on the holiday, we all got together at our house on the next day.  We had no family down here, as we had just moved from up north.

About 11 nurses and their spouses all joined in to be a "family." There were nurses from the Philippines who brought their traditional holiday foods, nurses from Hawaii and elsewhere. We had tables full of unusual foods and friendships. We'll never forget the bonding that took place that night.

And all this time later, we still get together. About every three months everyone who can gathers for a lunch out at a restaurant, and, of course, there's always a Christmas dinner.

Kate Cimini is the Florida Investigative Reporter for the USA Today Network-Florida, based at The News-Press and Naples Daily News. Contact her at 239-207-9369 or at kcimini@news-press.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Memories of our 'First Thanksgivings' in Southwest Florida