The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 11

Social Security Be sure to report change of address Pago 5 fin uu Florida's fastest growing county The Tampa Tribune, Sunday, February 26, 1989 Lisa Demer in iiini in i ii yfjo Prehistoric 9 Prime Time Brooksville Spring Mana (SB? lamdlmarks aire doimMe trounlble Dinosaurs tower over U.S. 19 XvAr i 4 k71-" ple," Foxbower said. "But it has been confusing." She said a huge load of fertilizer bags was dumped in the parking lot by a trucker who was told to put the load next to the dinosaur on U.S. 19. The shipment was meant for a nursery next to the other dinosaur the one that houses Harold's Auto Center, a mile and a half north of Foxbower's prehistoric pink reptile, and just south of State Road SO.

Harold's dinosaur, shaped like a bron-tosaurus, is much larger and more practical than the one that guards Foxbower's. The gray structure about a mile south of Weeki Wachee is more than 40 feet tall and about 110 feet long. It's belly serves as home to Harold's Auto Center, a car repair shop run by Harold Hurst for the past 11 years. Because of his peculiar building, Harold's has received more than it's share of publicity. Newspapers have written about it Ripley's Believe It or Not featured it and Charles Kuralt reported about it during his "On the Road" series.

"(The publicity) helps it certainly doesn't hurt," Hurst said. "But we do more business by word of mouth than anything else." Like the Foxbowers, Hurst said he gets his share of people who are lost because they took a turn at the wrong dinosaur. "They're looking for doctor's offices down there by the pink dinosaur and they're up here looking for them but that's people," Hurst said. His creature was also built in 1962, not long after the Foxbower dinosaur. Sinclair Oil built the steel and concrete structure ln the likeness ot their mascot that was widely recognized during the 1960s.

Hurst bought the place and moved his business to Hernando County about 15 years later. He had no qualms about fixing cars in a dinosaur gut he said. "It was unique, different" he said. At least one person every day stops to take pictures. "It's been a landmark for years." j.

'7 I' M' Tonia Surls, of Hudson, visits the with her children, Ryan, left, and 1 I i By JOHN LESTER Tribune Staff Writer SPRING HILL When visitors to Hernando County are told to drive in on U.S. 19, then turn at the dinosaur, it's understandable why people often get lost and confused. They drive along, come upon a dinosaur, and figure this must be the place. Not every county has a dinosaur. Hernando County does.

In fact it has two, both on U.S. 19, and just a couple of miles apart. Both have been attention-getters and confusion-causers for almost 30 years. The first getter was built in 1962, a pink beast marking the spot of the Fox-bower Wildlife Museum. The 18-foot-high stegosaurus has stood outside the museum for almost 30 years.

Jacob Foxbower and his brother George, built the monster with iron reinforcements, steel and a lot of plaster, said Jacob Foxbowers wife, Mary. The dinosaur prompted the Foxbowers to change the name of the museum to Dinosaur Wildlife Museum. Before that they tried Foxbower Wildlife, then Florida Wildlife. Mary Foxbower said nothing was ever right so they changed it back to Foxbower. The museum is an exquisite taxidermy display of more than 1,200 birds, insects and other creatures.

Run by Mary and her son, Gerald, who still does does taxidermy, the museum claims fame to a two-headed calf and a four-legged baby chicken. The Foxbowers also display some rare animals such as albino birds, and the world's smallest goose. They also showcase a baby black bear, a huge moose head and a 10-foot alligator. Foxbower said her late husband and his brother decided to build the dinosaur to attract people to the museum after seeing a picture of the beast in an advertisement. "It's been a landmark for a lot of peo possible, she said, noting that the lost plants had been in the ground for only a week or two when the freeze killed them.

Derrill McAteer said the cold harmed his 13-acre citrus grove off Powell Road, but he wouldn't be able to assess the full extent of the damage for 10 to 14 days. "It doesn't look good," he said. "The grove looks terrible. There is damage, strong damage in some cases." McAteer said the temperature in his grove bottomed out at 21 degrees early Saturday, after staying below 28 degrees for seven hours. It takes temperatures of about 28 degrees and lower for at least four hours to harm trees and fruit 3 1 1 Ji Tribune photograph by FRED BELLET pink dinosaur on U.S.

19 in Spring Hill Tyson, both 4, and Brandon, 1. Essays laud 'My Favorite Older Person9 Think about being a child of the 1980s, about growing up in a world where adulthood comes early and innocence fades quickly. Pressures are bigger, more serious, more real than they were for most of us, but parents are not always there to guide. Families are fractured. Even when there is a mom and a dad, both likely are working.

Nobody is minding the home store. Some children have found solace in old people who become friends, confidants and mentors. In essays for a "My Favorite Older Person" contest, Pasco County fifth-graders wrote about grandparents, neighbors and acquaintances. This is one of several such contests in the Tampa Bay area, most held during Older Americans Month in May. The Area Agency on Aging for West Central Florida started the contests about five years ago to put the spotlight on how older Americans serve as role models and inspiration, said senior planner Janet George.

The children are made to think about aging's positive side, about the wisdom and skills that can come with age. Last week I was one of five judges for the Pasco contest, conducted by the Area Agency on Aging for Pasco and Pinellas. Blind, but independent First-place winner Danielle Van Sickle wrote about her grandfather, Leslie D. Van Sickle. Danielle goes to Gulfside Elementary School in Holiday.

"Have you ever closed your eyes and tried to manage through the day without seeing?" she wrote. "Probably not Well my grandfather has done that for about 10 years. He is blind. I admire him because he is blind and can still do many things. For instance, he bowls in a blind bowlers league." He can play cards and read books in Braille.

He gets around on his own and helps neighbors with chores even house painting, she wrote. I've talked to him about being blind and he says it's not so bad except he can't see me," Danielle wrote. Joseph Lavin, a student at Richey Fundamental Elementary School in New Port Richey, won second place by writing about a neighbor, Kay Hammett He wrote that she had lost her husband and has cancer and arthritis, but she stays independent She helps out others working as a community volunteer, baking cookies for children and giving Joseph newspapers and cans for the Boy Scouts, the essay says. "She is very understanding," Joseph wrote. "She likes people, especially children.

Even though she has no children she understands them. When other neighbors complain about the noise in the neighborhood, Kay says they are children and they have to play and make noise." Page Batton of Hudson won third place for her creative approach. The Northwest Elementary School student wrote about her grandmother, Deana Welsbrought cup Grandmotherly Love, 2 tea-spoons Caring, I cup Giving, and a pinch of Sharing, The Love that she gives when 1 need it most. The Caring that she shows when I'm all alone. The Giving that she gives when I need someone to care.

And the Sharing that combined makes my grand Grandma!" 'Slightly worn Honorable mention went to Melissa Miller of Cypress Elementary School In New Port Richey. She wrote about her great-grandfather, Harold Brockstorm. "This man is slightly worn, but still very strong, yet there is a gentle side to him too, like when he feeds and talks with the animals both tame and wild, or the way be could always calm a crying baby," she wrote. I especially liked two others, though they did not win awards. Angela Ricclardl of Calusa Elementary School in New Port Richey wrote about ber neighbor, Theresa Accardl.

"I miss what a lot of kids have and take for granted. I don't have any grandparents. I want to be spoiled and fussed over by my own grandparents. Theresa gives me that extra attention." And Constantia Vergos, another Gulf-side Elementary School student, wrote about a whole group of old people, those who frequent her parents' business, Universal Plaza Restaurant She knows many by name and chats with them daily. "They all make me wonder why are they so lonely? Why do the smiles on these old faces have to be so rare?" she asks.

Write to Lisa Demer at P.O. Box IM, Land 0' Lakes, Fla. S463. Growers fear damage to melons, berries Pamela Gilmore, of Dade City-based Gil-more Fruit said she and her husband, Bill, hadn't toured their 210 acres of citrus Saturday in Hernando County. "We're awfully tired," she said.

"We're too tired to drive up and look." She said she and her husband spent Friday night and early Saturday keeping watch over their nursery in Pasco County. "We lost the little oranges and the bloom and the new growth that is on the trees." she said. (But) it didn't do any really big, bad, major damage." Temperatures in Brooksville warmed to the mld-50s Saturday afternoon under sunny skies, but the air was still brisk. "It doesn't look like any problem for citrus, but it certainly does for the strawberry people, the vegetable people if they have anything left" said Chuck Eggleton of the National Weather Service in Ruskin. Highs today are expected to reach the upper-60s, but the warming trend comes too late for the Battens.

Unlike citrus growers, who can insulate their crops with a glaze of ice or warm them with smudge pots, watermelon growers can do nothing to fight below-freezing temperatures. "Once it gets below freezing for about an hour, that's it They're dead," Batten said. The family plans to replant as soon as By DOUG STANLEY Tribune Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE The Batten family could do nothing to fight back when winter took an icy jab at their 40-acre watermelon patch In south central Hernando County. "I think we were totally wiped out last night" Sue Batten said Saturday. The county's citrus groves fared better, but growers reported some damage from temperatures that slid to about 20 degrees early Saturday In some parts of the county.

Hernando County farmers hoped Saturday that the worst of the cold snap had passed. The forecast called for warmer overnight temperatures, with lows In the low- to mld-30s. WW Expanded review of teachers blasted 1 1 ii ft ded checks as a simpler way of smoking out possible sorcerers without building a public bonfire. The dispute stems from the School Board's approval Tuesday night of instituting a 90-day probationary period for all new teachers, pending the outcome of an expansive background check. Previously, backgrounds of new teachers were to be researched before they were offered a contract and there was no probationary period.

See SCHOOL, Page 2 By CHRIS KAUFFMANN Tribune Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE Top teacher union official Carl Harner didn't spare the metaphors after the School Board agreed to expand background checks on new school employees. He blasted the expanded review process as a "witch hunt" presided over by a "kangaroo court" meaning school administrators. School Superintendent Dan Mc-Intyre, however, views the expan MJ It t1 A- it .1 I (XrJ Tribune photograph by TIM JACKSON 'If For some residents, 'city' of Spring Hill has nice ring i were mailed this weekend to local voters, explaining the benefits and reasons for Incorporating Spring Hill. The issue was already put to the vote once In September 1986 and defeated by a 3-1 margin. But Carello wants a second See COMMUNITY, Page 2 By JOHN LESTER Tribune Staff Writer SPRING HILL Leaders of the Committee for Self-Government for Spring Hill are trying again to convince residents that their unincorporated community needs to be a city.

Francis Carello, who leads the group, said about 19,000 letters Weaving some magic Robert Roush of Brooksville looks on as Mary McVicker, also of Brooksville, works the shuttlecock through the warp of a 100-year-old loom at the Heritage Day festivities at the Hernando County Heritage Mu- seum on Saturday. About 40 artisans and several hundred visitors gathered at the museum for Hernando County's 146th birthday. McVicker was weaving strips of old socks Into rugs. 1.