Marco Island - by Grandpa

In January 1978 Gordon (Margaret's brother) who lived in Canada was off work with a sciatic nerve problem. He and wife Irene were suggesting a visit, and at that the same time Don and Penny Geary, one of our ex-partners, owned a condo on the 6th floor of a high rise building sitting right on the beach in Marco Island. It was a beautiful 2 bedroom/2 bath with balconies overlooking the beach and beautiful Gulf of Mexico.
They were offering it to us free of charge for a couple of weeks, so we jumped at it, inviting Gordon and Irene to go with us.
We met there and spent two great weeks. We were all impressed!
We got home and decided to follow up on the possibility of moving us and the company to Florida. So we rented a house on an adjacent island called Isles of Capri - a three bedroom house on the water.
Margaret's mom (Annie) and her Aunt Peg were visiting us during this time so we took them with us and we occupied one bedroom and Mam and Aunt Peg had one. The third one was used by Bill and Frances, then Leroy and Betty and then by Ralph and June for 10 days each.
During this period of time, we were able to buy a home for ourselves and rent a second story office in downtown Naples (which was 20 miles north of Marco Island). Bill and Frances lined up a house in Naples, as did Leroy and Betty. Ralph and June decided yes to the move, but arranged their home later. So the deed was done - nothing to do but go home, sell and prepare to move. We rented a huge moving truck to accomodate the bulk belongings of all four families and office.
We got possession of our home in June, and Ralph drove my truck down there with some of the lighter possessions. Margaret met him to take actual possession and arrange electric, etc. and Ralph 'camped' there taking care of the house and pool until we arrived in July. It was during this time that he lined up his and June's place to live. By mid July we were all there, settling into our respective homes and setting up the office - quite an undertaking really when we look back on it.
One of the first items on my list was the purchase of a boat. I went to a boat broker in north Naples and found a 30 foot long x 10 foot wide Bayliner with dual 395 engines and air-conditioned cabin. It also had a seven seat fly bridge, did 28 knots/hour and 2 miles to the gallon fuel usage! Cost $30,000. Ralph and I went up the next day to pick it up. Margaret drove us up and then went back home to wait our arrival. Debbie was staying with us at the time. We had about a 25 mile run in the ocean, just off shore, then we came to the northern waterway between Marco Island and the mainland. It was wide, 1/2 - 3/4 mile, and they had posts marking the deep water way. Unfortunately I did not know the rules and did not know which side, left or right, I was supposed to go. So we guessed..... About 2/3 of the way we discovered we had guessed wrong and came to a sudden halt from 24 knots to 0 knots in about 40 feet. Lo and behold, we were sitting on top of a sand bar. This boat required 3-1/2 feet of water and we had 2-1/2 foot max. I checked and the tide was coming in, we were just a little off low tide. Ralph asked what to do. "Get our fishing poles and a couple of beers, pull up a chair and pretend to fish" I said. I didn't want any of the other passing boaters to think we were this dumb!
About 1-1/2 hours later, the tide did rise enough that I was able to wiggle it back into deep water. When we came around the corner into the bay where we lived, Margaret was on the phone with the coast guard. When she saw us approaching, she called off the alert.
We made one 'deep sea' fishing trip - a few guys and I went out about 15 miles and were still only in about 20' of water. I did not realize the Gulf was so shallow. We caught about 3/4 of a gunny sack full of fish, had lunch and spent about 6 hours out. When we got back, nobody wanted the fish - so that was the first and last fishing trip.
This boat turned out to be too large and required so much water that I was too restricted on where I could go so I bought a nice 14 foot outboard, shallow water boat. My dog Buddy was a boat dog and loved both our boats. Finally though we traded both boats in on a Penn-yann (not sure of the spelling). It was 24 foot long and 8 foot wide, one inboard motor with speeds of about 26 knots. But it drew only 14" of water and had what was known as a tunnel prop. The prop was inset into the center bottom of the boat so that it was protected from any damage if it went on a sandbar. We had to hire a diver to go down and repair the prop and driveline on the Bayliner.
Anyway enough about boats, except to add that after the sandbar incident, I did take the Coast Guard course on boating. This helped.
Was there anything besides boats? Oh yes, one evening Margaret advised me that we were signed up for golf lessons starting the next day.
Marco Golf consisted of two courses, the main one on the island which was very nice, fancy and high class and very social minded. The other one was called the Shores. It was just off the island and a very good course (complete with alligator!), but not fancy or social. It had one small bar but no dining room, ballroom, pool, tennis court, etc. We became members of both, bought our equipment and outfits, met with the pro and had our 30 lessons. The Shores was the easier course and our early games were all there. My first round after lessons was about 180 strokes, Margaret did a little better, and after a few more rounds I got my score down to approx. 140 strokes. We were ready to take on the main course! We got our tee time, and started out. The course on Marco Island was water everywhere - and no slopes leading down to the water. It was all man made and each water hole was surrounded by pilings so that the water was four foot below the golfing surface. They had put in steel interlocking pilings and driven them into the ground to form a wall. The #6 hole was a very small green approx. 60' wide, surrounded completely by water except for a narrow cart path leading to it. It was located 160 yards from the men's tee. The final report on this first game on Marco was that we didn't get to finish it. We ran out of golfballs, having started with about 30 between us! The next day we tried it again with some improvement. This time we set out with about the same amount of balls and finished the full 18 holes with one ball to spare! And I found that one en route.
Our golf did improve over the two years, primarily because of the number of games we played. We both played both courses in the men's and ladies' groups. I played Tuesday and Thursday at the Shores and Wednesday and Fridays at Marco Island. Margaret played a similar schedule with the ladies, except just one game each club. We played together in a mixer each Sunday. Add to that games with friends, and company, Margaret played an average of four or five days a week, and mine was more likely six or seven. More sometimes, as Marco's rules were very strict on their mens/ladies groups. If you signed up to play and didn't show, you were penalized by not being allowed to play in the next two tournaments. They always made up the foursomes, intermixing them always, so that you always played with different people - a wonderful way to meet everyone. So whenever we had company who wanted to play (and most did, especially the men), I would play with my group in the mornings and then go out again later with the company.
Both of us played in the lowest divisions, but did progress to the point that both won our championships in those divisions.
We had a couple of well known honorary pros at these clubs. Marco Island had Ken Ventura and the Shores had Gene Sarazen. During our Marco years, we sponsored a lady pro from the Shores. Her name was Maureen something, and we supplied her with $25,000 expense money for one year's tour. Her first contest, the Women's PGA Open, started out well, with her leading after three rounds. She told us later that she had spent the whole evening and half the night before that last day telling herself this can't be true. I'm not that good. And it worked (1) - she totally fell apart on the last day. She then went on a California tour playing several towns including Fresno, Bakersfield, Sacramento, etc. but never made it big and we lost touch with her. She was an excellent golfer and could hit the ball a country mile.
The male pro at the Shores became a good friend, and we financed him in opening a golf shop in Naples. This was not a success either and we had to close it down after a couple of years.