So, in 1977, author John McDonald wrote this pretty cool novel called Condominium. The setting in the theme, it was set in a fictional Florida community named Fiddler Key, Clearwater Beach. Okay? And it was the Allure and the Pearls of Coastal Development.
McDonald wrote about all of the builders that were coming in and about that time, by the way, on Clearwater Beach, not Fiddler's Key. They were building these tall condominiums like you would not believe. I remember on Sand Key, on Clearwater Beach. When I was a kid, when I was in high school, that's where we'd take our girls out to go make out.
You know what I'm saying? Or we would all go out there and have bonfires and parties. We'd drive our cars out there, our motorcycles out there, it was like, it was all woods and then the ocean. It was wonderful.
And the city of Clearwater had a chance to buy that property, a piece of property for a million bucks and they turned it down. And I think U.S. deal or somebody bought it and started developing all of these condominiums. And you know, it was in the book, by the way, talks about environmental warnings, about how this was, you know, just terrible things were going to happen.
Anyway, this is a podcast called The Daily Grateful and I'm talking about this damn book. So this is The Daily Grateful. I'm Michael Croes. We will continue after the music and I take a sip of soda.
So one of the interesting things about this book that John McDonald wrote, and I was having a chat today with my first wife, Michelle, about this because in 1977, we remember this book came out. She still has it as a matter of fact. All right. But I remember reading it.
In the book, they even talk about a local weatherman in the Tampa Bay area named Roy Leop, who is long since passed away, but the best weatherman ever in this part of Florida. Okay. We've got some pretty cool people now, but Roy Leop was the granddaddy. And anyway, after all this development and they're building all these tall buildings, and I at Fillersky, which was really Samkey, I remember, I remember driving by all these buildings so tall and I said to myself, what would happen if a hurricane came through here?
Wonder what would happen if a hurricane came through here? So everybody's buying up these condos. And in those days, some of these waterfront condos we're going for as much as, as much as $35,000 to $50,000, they're all over a million dollars now, they're all over a million dollars. And what happened in the book is that a hurricane came, came right through Fiddler's Key, Clear Water Beach, and those big beautiful condominiums that all these people spent all this money on came tumbling down.
And I thought about that because I am recording this on Sunday, October 6. And on Wednesday, we got us a hurricane that is heading right to us. I mean, it is coming right to us. Yep.
That sucker is pointed right at us. That's why I'm trying to record a bunch of these in advance now, because I'm just going bad that we're going to lose power. I have no idea what's going to happen, but I'm pretty darn sure that we're going to lose power. So you're getting a bunch of abbreviated podcasts.
But you know, the thought of that book just came into my mind and I texted Michelle about it today. And she said, Oh, I love that book. I still have it. And, you know, it was, it was really good.
It was published, like I say, in 77, but the theme remains relevant today. It addresses on, you know, ongoing issues like, Oh, what is that thing? Climate change. You know, the one that nobody's talking about or some people aren't talking about, although a week and a half ago, we had us a big ass hurricane that didn't even come on shore here.
It was a hundred miles out in the Gulf, but we were on the bad side of the storm and we had flooding. And my good friend Jennifer, who have been my friend since eighth grade, lost her home, lost her car, a ton of people did. I mean, there was damage everywhere. And I'm lucky that I'm in a, I'm pretty smart about how I buy houses.
I got to say, and I'm not smart. Other people are smart who taught me all of this. And I'm smart enough to have listened to them. But yeah, Jennifer and I have a mutual friend who lives in a big condominium on Fiddler's Key, which is really San Key, Clearwater Beach.
So I'm hoping the best for her, you know, I'm definitely hoping the best for her. Oh, well, I'm grateful for what I have. I'm going to hunker down and stay here because my grandkids are staying here. I was ready to pack up and leave and I wanted my daughter to pack up and leave and bring the kids, but she decided to hunker down and stay at her mother's house in my old house with her husband.
Not my daughter's husband, my ex wife's husband and three dogs, about a hundred snakes, about forty tortoises, a bunch of rats that feed the snakes and about three hundred pounds worth of big dogs. That should be fun. I'm going to stay close and hunker down. Well, I'll talk to you later.
We'll know how this all wraps up by the time I get back on your live.