Spook Hill

February 18, 2011

From Grandma's diary:
February 17, 1914 - Tues., not feeliing very well yet, read eleven Psalms, had four callers.
February 18, 1914 - Wed., done small washing and ironing, read seven Psalms, had three callers.

We're still in Florida and the weather has continued to warm up and the blue skies are still with us.  The temps the last couple of days has been in the high 70's with a promised 81 today so with this being our last day heree at the time share we think we are just going to veg out and hang around the pool.

Yesterday we drove down to Lake Wales and Lakeland to do a little sightseeing (pictures above).  We went to Bok Tower at Lake Wales which brought childhood memories of going there with my parents.  The Tower was built in 1927-1929 by Edward Bok and is 205 ft. tall.  The tower houses a carillon near the top of 60 bells ranging in weight from 16 lbs to 22,000 lbs.   We learned from the guide that to be called a carillon there has to be at least 30 bells otherwise they're called chimes.

Edward Bok was interesting in that he imigrated to the States with his parents from Copenhagen at a young age.  None of the family spoke English but his father put him in school the day after arriving in New York.  Within three years he was fluent in English and did excellent in school.  He worked in his late teens at a theatre in NY and noticing that the men all went to the lobby at intermission to smoke cigars and drink alcoholic beverages neither of which wives were allowed to do at the time so they were left in the theatre with nothing to do except chit chat.  He came up with the idea of printing a "Playbill" telling about the program and handing them out, which he had gotten permission from the owners to do.  Apparently overnight Playbill's became a sensation and soon he was publishing them for all the theatres.  He was a supporter of women's rights and was the originator of Cosmopolitan after which he became the editor of Ladies Home Journal a position he held for 30 years.  He married the boss's daughter whose father was of Curtis publishing fame.  She was a supporter of music and started the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia.  She was younger than he was and after he died she ended up marrying Efrem Zimbalist senior.  All interesting stuff not to mention that he was a supporter of world peace and was one of the founders of the United Nations.

After Bok Tower we had to go to Spook Hill  but it turned out to not be very Spooky.

The day before we went to another of those tourist things called the "Wonder Works".  Which is right side up below?