My family moved to Tampa from Georgia in 1948 when I was a young child. We lived in the Hyde Park area and there was no Town `N Country. In fact there was not very much north of Hillsborough Avenue except woods and orange groves.

When I attended Plant High School the boys who loved to drag race would drive up to Hillsborough Avenue to race on the open road.

Memorial Highway was a beautiful street with a tunnel of over hanging oak trees on both sides that went by Rocky Point Golf Course by the Courtney Campbell Causeway and ended at Grand Central Avenue (currently Kennedy Boulevard).

Sometime in the late `50's while visiting my parents in Tampa, my mother told me she wanted to show me a new area where they were building some nice homes. We drove out Hillsborough Avenue and I could not believe all the construction going on around the "drag race area."

Dirt was being pushed aside and smoothed out for a new road that is now Hanley Road.

We moved to Town `N Country in April 1968 with 4 young children, ages 8, 6, 5 and 3 on Halifax Drive just north of Hillsborough Avenue. There were 2 huge empty lots on both sides of Halifax north of Hillsborough Avenue. My husband took our children along with the neighborhood children to the lot to play sandlot baseball.

It was like, "If you build it, they will come" because soon children were coming from south of Hillsborough Avenue and many blocks around to play. Mr. Holmes, who lived across the street and was a trainer for the Winter Haven Red Sox, donated used baseballs from the Boston Red Sox Winter Haven minor league team.

There were 3 places to eat in Town `N Country, The Ranch House, McDonald's and Davenport Drug Store [next to the current U-Save on Hillsborough Avenue].

Our home on Halifax Drive faced Gateway Drive and there was a wooded area just west of Gateway Drive which our children were not allowed to go to. There was also a ditch that ran behind McDonald's they were not allowed to be near because of the alligators. Later when they were adults they felt brave enough to tell me, they told me they sneaked into the woods with neighborhood children and built a fort and our youngest child went across a pipe over the ditch and fell in.

My children volunteered me for everything. It was not unusual to find out I was Home Room Mother for 2 or 3 classes at the same time at Town `N Country Elementary School, which opened in 1962. Knowing my husband would help me out, I could never say, "no." At that time Town `N Country Elementary School was not air conditioned so the PTA raised money to air condition the classrooms starting with the 6th grade and down to the other grades.

We were allowed in those years to have parties for Christmas, Halloween and end of the year. There were wonderful programs put on for the parents like talent shows and other great entertainment.

Our 3 daughters played softball in the Town `N Country Leagurettes for girls ages 9-16. I was president in 1976 which was a great experience. Since it was the bicentennial year all 300 Leagurettes received a trophy with an American flag.

Our children walked or rode their bikes to Town 'N Country Elementary School and Webb Junior High School which opened in 1967. My brother, Jim Matthews, was a coach and history teacher at Webb from the time it opened until his death in 1986.

We moved to our current home on Webb Road north of Jackson Springs Road in the Morgan Woods section on Town `N Country Park in 1974 as my eldest daughter entered Leto Comprehensive High School which opened in 1965. My husband and I were involved in the Leto Athletic Booster Club. During those years Leto won the "All Sports Award" for Hillsborough County 3 years in a row. All four of our children were on double sessions at Webb Junior High School and Leto Comprehensive High School during the `70s and early '80s.

Other schools that opened in the area are Dickinson Elementary (1963), Morgan Woods (1967), Bay Crest and Woodbridge Elementary Schools (1971) and the new Jefferson High School (1973). Now we have another high school being built on Pistol Range Road.

It was a wonderful hometown feeling to go to the Leto football games because students and parents attended the games and pulled for the team as a group.

In the past 32 years I have seen so much growth in our area. Sometimes it is overwhelming but I would not want to live anywhere else. We have enjoyed living in the area, rearing our children and now retiring in the area. What a great place to live!!

Down Memory Lane...
From the Newsletter 2000