I am not a Real Floridian. I came down here before 1st grade. I was 4 or 5 when I came down to Florida It has always had its rough places , rough people but every place has those. There is one thing that Florida has and that is warmth  almost all year around . For some it is too warm and those are the people that leave for their "other" home  sometime between Easter and Mother's Day.  But for those of us who call Florida home all year, we note a drastic change in the Real Florida Life Style.

Commercial Fishing has gained presidence over or individual Floridians Right to be able to fish when we want and feed ourselves from the sea without having to pay someone for the pleasure of feeding ourselves. As it is the fresh water fish is so tainted , as is, the fish in salt rivers, so tainted that women of childbearing age are not supposed to eat it.

Down in the Keys they give the locals 2 whole days to dive for Lobster before the Commercial Interests get their mitts in there and deplete the Lobster population.

Fishing off the shore, you are only allowed 2 fish each person( I can't remember which fish that was)

You can't even camp out with out paying someone for the privilege. In my childhood the little islands were the playground of many an adventure filled heart. We built campfires, learned fire safety, water safety and learned not to piss off a wild boar,  Now all of that is forbidden, except for pissing off the boar.

So when did everything get so twisted up to only be about money?

Florida used to be a place you could survive in because you didn't need much money to survive.

That was one of the good things and one of the bad things about Florida. But this money gouging of Florida Citizens isn't stopping the Carpetbagger con men that come down to Florida in the Winter to vacation and pull some scams on retirees and businesses . Yeah, Conmen vacation in the nicest of places. Heck, they can afford to.

In the Summer when the other half of the population goes away. Traffic fines double. The Checkers stops running their Sunday Specials and a great portion of us hold on tight through hurricane season and to the next snowbird influx,

I remember how Cocoa Beach use to become a ghost town in the summer. That was nice , but then I didn't count on the population to feed me and pay my bills as we do now being a small business owner. Back then it was nice because in the summer it was a heck of a lot easier to cross the street.

Now onto my bitch regarding the Sales Tax Authority. Never get on their bad side. Once you do the harrassment never stops. Sure, they are for the small business people...in a rat's eye they are. Certainly they can hassle someone more important that a couple that is barely surviving and a quarter sales tax ticket is under $90.00.Certainlythere are bigger fish to fry. Why are small businesses not as important as small fish?