When you are sitting in an examining room waiting for a doctor the mind will begin to daydream. As the time goes on so does the extent of your thoughts. This happened to me recently as my mind went from doctors to Cypress Gardens to Snapper lawn mowers to Disney World. I am certain I am not the only who takes these strange trips down connecting roads to past memories. Let me explain.
I don’t know that I ever really went to Cypress Gardens but I have had the experience several times and the memories are good. When I was hardly a teenager the Lions Club in Lakeland would bring the Cypress Ski Team for an exhibition on the small lake in the center of town which is fed by the much, much larger Banks Lake. I remember how family and friends would line the lake’s bank and the overflow of the crowd would encroach onto the grass lawns of the homes along the road around the lake. I have never learned to ski but I admire people who can and particularly the ones who do it well. The Cypress skiers were better than good. They would sail over the wood ramp and spin backwards as they landed on the black glassy water. One ski, short skis or no skis, they would slide across the water with ease. My favorite was when five skiers (three men, two women) would hit the water and the two women would pull in near to the men where they would drop their skis as they were lifted to the shoulders of the three men. Amazing! More amazing they did this in such a small lake. More amazing than that was how they would glide to the water’s edge to a flawless landing. What great summer afternoon. These are only doctor office memories now. Today the lake only has an occasional fishing boat. The boat speed of that summer afternoon is now only matched by a couple of remote control hobby boats on a late afternoon. The Cypress Ski Team was there and I am glad that I was too.
A number of years later, I was invited to the 15th anniversary of the opening of Disney World. It was an extraordinary event organized by Disney for the news media. I took our oldest daughter who was in high school to the three-day party. The opening night was at a lake in downtown Orlando. Surrounding the lake’s edge was quite a variety of entertainment. From the Tropicana Girls (my favorite part) to Richard Petty (with his car) to the Florida Symphony and everything you could think of to put in between. Cypress Gardens was there with all of their skiers. They entertained as if they were in the center ring of a big top circus. I learned the next day that Disney might have been the real class act at the show. For the ski performance, Disney planners had dropped the water level of the lake three inches so the water wake from the speeding boats and skiers would not splash onto the spectators who were surrounding the lake as if at a Sunday afternoon picnic. The water also never reached the ground-length dresses of the Southern Belles from Cypress Gardens as they strolled along the bank with the parasols.
I would come in contact in a way with Cypress Gardens a few years later when I bought a house from a doctor (see the connection) who had at one time, while in college, skied with the Cypress Gardens team. When we met, he had a medical practice in Southeast Georgia and was moving to a new home and the beginning of a family. When his son was born, I think he must have seen a world-class skier in his arms. As the young boy began to grow, this father began to think of ways to prepare his son to water ski. What better way to do this than from behind a Snapper lawn mower. As the child began to toddle, he put his feet into his first pair of skis and, with ski rope in hand, he glided across the centipede grass in his yard.
Today this young man holds state, national and world water ski titles and has many, many more in his future. That’s a long way from trailing behind a Snapper but I am sure to him and his father every slide, bump and fall was well worth the ride.
Somehow I can’t help but believe that Cypress Gardens has played a big part in his success just as it has in my memories.
Someday we will have to talk about the amazing Snapper and its place in Southern history and the industrial revolution.
Sandy Sanders is the publisher of The Valdosta Daily Times.
Sandy Sanders
Learning to water ski behind a Snapper
- Sandy Sanders
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