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Guest Author – Anonymous from MN

Ft. Myers Beach…This is a place that has grown to be our second home during the Christmas & New Years holiday seasons. My grandparents bought a lot on Jefferson near the channel and built a small retirement home in 1956. My first visit was in 1961 when I was 6. My brother and I would explore the area all the time which in those days was still “jungle” like. Since that first trip in 1965, we have been coming to FMB every other season and almost yearly since the early 80’s.

In the early days we drove down. I can remember sitting in traffic outside the island’s welcoming arches waiting for the boats to pass under the swing bridge. In fact on one trip while waiting in traffic, we went into a local establishment and had a cool beverage before the bridge closed. Traffic was bad but for some reason, it wasn’t like traffic back home. I remember going down to the fishing docks (where Snug Harbor now stands) at 5:00 to watch the boats come in with there catch. The captain’s would clean them and feed the dozens of pelicans floating around the dock looking for a free dinner.

During the 70’s we would rent the same beach house near Alva Ave. In fact, this was next door to where the Lani Kai is today. Back then, it was a resort with a hand full of beach cottages. Staying in the beach house was great. Having the beach just steps from the door was awesome for us northerners… Our Aunts, Uncles & cousins would rent close by as well. The island has helped build special family memories – island walks, beach volleyball, football, baseball and of course riding the waves of the gulf. The house still stands today but needs a lot of TLC.

Times have changed the Times Square area as well. I can remember when there was a one way road down to almost the pier and turning left past the shops and restaurants before joining the rest of the traffic just past the Spiniker. If I remember right, the road may have even been a sand road. The Dairy Queen has been a constant forever. I remember going there in the early 70’s and putting a pin in the map showing where everyone was from. The map is long gone but not the memory of a cone on a hot December beach day.

In 1978 we bought a timeshare since we were going down so frequently. Then in1983, we introduced this special FMB to the “next generation” – our newest family member. We now have three kids (bought another timeshare for more space) who have spent just about every holiday season in FMB. They love it as much as the three generations before them. Two of the three got married this year and they plan to keep FMB in their family’s future as well. Retirement brought the first generation to FMB it also brought the second. My retirement is not too far off and FMB will be a winter haven for us.

FMB, so many good memories. The waves of time change the landscape a bit but have not changed the special meaning FMB has brought to our family for the last four generations.

FMB, we will see you again December 15th…

Editor’s note: Thank you for your contribution with this enjoyable look back on the history of Fort Myers Beach as you experienced it.

If you would like to be a guest author, please send your article (any Fort Myers Beach related topic) through our contact form on the website. If you have a website, you will be linked to for some nice link juice also!

Do you have something interesting to say about Fort Myers Beach? Information about the area, a story from its history or something coming up in the future that you would like to discuss? We are inviting members, past visitors and anyone else that would like to have a featured article presented on the new Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce website.

It is not only a great opportunity to excersise your writing skills and to provide valuable information or an itneresting story, but it will also give your business and your website some nice exposure and free advertising (not to mention the link juice that we will give by linking to your site!).

So, get your ideas together and submit them to webmaster [ at ] fmbchamber [ dot ] com. (email address typed out this way so that spam bots cannot read it as an email address **members, you should do this on your site also.**

Thanks, and we look forward to your contribution! Do you have a question? Please fill out the comment form below if you would like to comment or ask a question about this post.

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The day has arrived! Today, we have officially launched our brand new website! The design is stunning, the functionality is useful, and the information is plentiful, and we could not be more delighted to have it up and running. A big thank you to Brian Yerkes, and his excellent team at Brian Joseph Studios for creating this site for us and developing so many great features for our visitors and members. We highly recommend Brian Joseph Studios if you are looking for top quality web design, logo design or internet marketing services.

Our investment in the website is an important part in continuing to ensure that our members grow and succeed in our business community and we believe that this new powerful online advertising tool will provide them with new ways of doing business with our Fort Myers Beach visitors.

Our new website is now the Premier Fort Myers Beach Information portal and we will continue to develop the website and its features. If you have any recommendations, please send them to us by contacting us here

NEW SITE FEATURES:

• Custom interface design
• Interactive Area Info Map
• Full Fort Myers Beach Business/Accommodations Directory
• Upcoming Events Calendar
• Member Accounts / Private Member Section
• Private Admin Section
• Blogging Tool for Latest News and General Information
• Banner Advertising Management System Integrated

We will be adding more features all the time so check back often, better yet, subscribe to our website for free and receive updates from us in your favorite RSS reader!

Not sure what RSS is? Have a quick look at this video to learn about RSS

There are many advertising opportunities to get involved in as Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce Members, we are happy to discuss these with you.  Several powerful banner spots have been purchased already but they are not all gone yet. Hurry and grab your chance at advertising on the #1 Fort Myers Beach Information Resource. Where else can you get over 200,000 potential customers to look at your business or website?! This is the place, FortMyersBeach.org!

Welcome to our new site, and we hope you enjoy your stay on Fort Myers Beach, whenever that may be!

Photo captured during the 21st Annual Sandsculpting Festival in 2007 on Fort Myers Beach

The 22nd Sandsculpting Festival will be held on Fort Myers Beach again this year, and as always, it is a wonderful few days out for the all the family. It runs from November 5th – 9th 2008. Did not make it to the Festival last year? Have a look at some of the photos from the event in 2007.

For more information on this event, check out the Official Sandsculpting Website

On August 30th-31st, 2008 the Summerset Sailboat Regatta is set to be held once again at Fort Myers Beach Pier, Fort Myers Beach. This is always a couple of fun filled days out on the beach and we hope to see you there!

For more information or if you have any questions please call 239-936-0857

Welcome to our brand new website and blog!  We are excited to present this site to you and to provide some powerful advertising tools for our Chamber members.

On August 14th, Brian Yerkes of Brian Joseph Studios, will be guest speaking at the Chamber Luncheon, where he will be discussing the features of our new site along with the advertising opportunities.

We will be updating this blog regularly so please bookmark it or even better yet, if you are familiar with RSS feeds, subscribe for free to our RSS feed here