PIECES OF THE PAST: Centennial Celebration

M.F. Coombs and friend in an orange grove

By Brenda Eubanks Burnette

Frostproof will celebrate its 100^th year beginning at noon on Sept. 1, 2018. The Frostproof Centennial Committee has been posting a number of articles on its Facebook page in honor of the celebration.

One of the articles noted how Frostproof was incorporated. On June 18, 1918, at 3:00 p.m., 47 Frostproof men met in the Thompson Building. By a vote of 27 to 20, Frostproof was incorporated. This was followed by a unanimous vote to name the town “Frostproof.”

The article below, which was printed in Highland News on Oct. 18, 1917, reminds me of the new fruit season opening every year and the problems our industry has always had with people who try to be the first with fruit in the market:

“Mr. Ried Robson, of Lakeland, Citrus Fruit Inspector, was here Tuesday inspecting two cars of fruit ready for packing at the Gentile packing house. The fruit averaged above the lawful requirements and was passed.

“Mr. Robson requests us to state, however, that “fruit is too scarce to waste this year,” which, in plain language, simply means do not attempt green shipments or evasion of the laws. It is directly to the interest of every grower and shipper that the reputation of Florida fruit be built up and maintained. This can never be accomplished by the shipping of green or otherwise unmarketable fruit, through lax grading or through ill packing, and there is no time like NOW to get to work in dead earnest to overcome a reputation that has been made none too savory by unscrupulous growers and shippers.”

I wish Frostproof a very happy birthday and hope for a season filled with good fruit, good friends and good decisions!

Brenda Eubanks Burnette is executive director of the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame. Pieces of the Past is presented in partnership with Florida Southern College’s McKay Archives Center in Lakeland.