Dateline Boca Grande . . . brought to you by the Boca Grande Historical Society
Thursday, January 1, 1970Time 12:00 AM
From The Boca Grande Journal of 1949, Vol. 1, #29 dated August 27, 1949:
“Old Timer Visits For First Time Since 1915”
August 27, 1949
Captain Theodore Midgett of Miami and Punta Gorda was a visitor in Boca Grande for a couple of days this week. It was the first time that he had visited here in thirty years.
The Captain said that he thought the town had grown a great deal since that time.
Captain Midgett was born in Punta Gorda about the turn of the century, and went to school there with many of the old timers of Boca Grande, among whom were Kingsmore Johnson, Nat Futch and several others. He was here for the purpose of looking up and visiting with his old schoolmates.
A lot of water has been under the bridge, (literally) since that time, for Captain Midgett has spent his entire life on the sea, since leaving Punta Gorda many years ago. He was captain with a passenger and mail line steamship company out of Frisco for the Hawaiian Island for 27 years.
Captain Midgett is one of the few men that follow the sea that never married, and retired while still in the prime of life. All seamen think that they will do that; but very few ever succeed. The sea gets them and they can’t quit. A number of them quit the sea alright; only to go back again, and quite soon, for it’s in their blood.