Special to the News-Sun
AVON PARK -- It could have been a classified ad from the 1920s: "Wanted: adventurous northerners; men, women and children to visit a wonderland of sunshine and sandy beaches, tropical plants and wild animals. All this is yours as you drive your first automobile to Florida. Leave the horse and buggy behind."
Prompting such an ad would have been Henry Ford's Model T, followed by the building of roads and the invention of trailers modified for sleeping. All this resulted in Florida opening its doors as a major tourist destination for the middle-class. They would carry on board their shelter and food, extra gas and all other necessities.
With Model T's costing only $300, the average American could now see those sights and escape the cold. Florida was no longer a destination for just the wealthy who came via the train and stayed in big hotels.
This explosion of newcomers to Florida had an official name: the Tin Can Tourists (TCT), the very first travel club.
This topic will be explored at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 9, at the Avon Park Depot Museum, with Forrest and Jeri Bone of Bradenton presenting the program. After the TCT had been active for 50 years, the couple brought new life to the organization in 1998 by changing it to an "all-make and model vintage trailer and motor coach club."
The Bones will also talk about such topics as life on the road and at the annual "gatherings" in city parks and campgrounds and how the original Tin Can Tourists handled eating, sleeping, running out of gas, flat tires.
The event, sponsored by the Historical Society of Avon Park, is also a reminder of 1938 and 1939, when the TCT gathered in Avon Park.
Admission is free and light refreshments will be served. A photo-op, thanks to the presence of Model Ts, will also be available. For more information, call Elaine Levey, museum director, at 453-3525 or 385-8618.
Sunday, December 02, 2012 - www.newssun.com/120212-tin-can-tourists