Florida Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for Florida trivia? Try our list Florida little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Rachel Veitch, 90, of Orlando, bought her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente new and continues to drive it nearly 600,000 miles later. Veitch takes meticulous care of her car, nicknamed "Chariot," which has outlasted three marriages and gone through eight mufflers, three sets of shocks and at least 17 batteries. Veitch bought a battery with a lifetime guarantee, so she paid only for one.

first appeared: 10/18/2009

In April 2008, Petra Stentz of Bradenton (pop. 49,504) set a milestone when she donated her 100th gallon of blood. She has donated regularly since 1983.

first appeared: 10/4/2009

In the Apalachicola National Forest, some people make a living with a peculiar practice known as worm grunting. Grunters drive wooden stakes into the ground, then rub the tops of the stakes with a metal stick. The resulting vibrations cause earthworms to surface so they easily can be collected for fish bait.

first appeared: 9/20/2009

About 500 cats live in style at Caboodle Ranch, a 30-acre cat sanctuary created by Craig Grant in Madison County (pop. 18,733). The property resembles a mini-city for the kitties with a city hall, police department, chapel, elementary school, Wal-Mart and the Cat Nap Inn with lakefront cabins.

first appeared: 9/6/2009

Built in 1852, the Cape St. George Lighthouse collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico in 2005, but volunteers rallied, rebuilt and relocated the structure on St. George Island (pop. 2,450). The restored lighthouse reopened last year.

first appeared: 8/23/2009

When Jack Davis, 11, of Coconut Grove, learned that restaurants were discarding good food rather than donating it to homeless shelters and charities because of fear of lawsuits, he took action. Jack wrote to state lawmakers and inspired the "Jack Davis Florida Restaurant Lending a Helping Hand Act," passed last year, which eliminates liability risk.

first appeared: 8/9/2009

Since 1972, Ted St. Martin of Jacksonville has held the Guinness World Record for most consecutive free throw shots without a miss and has broken his own record 15 times. In his latest, in 1996, St. Martin made 5,221 free shots before missing. The feat took 7 hours and 20 minutes.

first appeared: 7/26/2009

—Some golfers spend years dreaming of a hole-in-one, but Unni Haskell, 62, hit one on the first swing of the first hole in the first round of golf she ever played. She aced the 100-yard hole in March at Cypress Links in St. Petersburg.

first appeared: 7/12/2009

—After banker Leonard Abess Jr. sold a majority stake in his Miami-based City National Bank last November, he gave $60 million away to the tellers, bookkeepers, clerks and everyone else on the payroll as well as former employees.

first appeared: 6/28/2009

—High school friends Omar Soliman and Nick Friedman spruced up the image of the junk-removal business when they founded College Hunks Hauling Junk in 2005. The Tampa-based franchised business hires clean-cut college kids to move junk and donates a portion of its revenue to scholarships.

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Duval Street in Key West (pop. 25,478) stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

first appeared: 5/31/2009

—The first Red Lobster restaurant opened in 1968 in Lakeland (pop. 78,452). The restaurant chain, headquartered in Orlando, is credited with popularizing popcorn shrimp and introducing snow crab and calamari to landlocked middle America.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—Wall murals, an inlaid mosaic floor and a 40-foot bar lit with gas lamps have made The Palace Saloon in Fernandina Beach (pop. 10,549) a showplace for more than a century. Originally built as a haberdashery in 1878, the building was converted to a saloon in 1903 and is the state's oldest continuously operated bar.

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–Thomas Evans Haile, who built Kanapaha Plantation in Gainesville (pop. 95,447) in 1856, and his family had a peculiar habit of writing on the unpainted walls of their mansion. More than 12,500 words, including personal observations and visitors' names, have been documented.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

—Miami native Isaac Lidsky, 28, is the first blind law clerk to work in the U.S. Supreme Court. Lidsky previously made a name for himself as an actor on the 1990s sitcom Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

first appeared: 4/5/2009

—One of the most famous tee shots in golf is the 17th island hole at the Tournament Players Club Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville. Except for a path to the green, the 132-yard hole is surrounded by water.

first appeared: 3/22/2009

—The world’s largest yo-yo collection, which numbers 4,251, is owned by Dr. John “Lucky” Meisenheimer, an Orlando dermatologist. He is the author of Lucky’s Collectors Guide to 20th Century Yo-Yos.

first appeared: 3/8/2009

—Founded in 1938, the Jacksonville Farmers Market is open 365 days a year and bills itself as the oldest farmers market in the state. About 200 vendors and farmers sell produce and products at the sheltered market.

first appeared: 2/22/2009

—Taintsville in Seminole County is so-named because of a resident who described the village’s location as “t’ain’t in Oviedo” (pop. 26,316) and “t’ain’t in Chuluota” (pop. 1,921).

first appeared: 2/8/2009

—According to one local legend, the settlement of Two Egg was named because local children often visited the Pittman grocery store with eggs to barter for goods. A salesman called it the “two egg store” and the name caught on.

first appeared: 1/11/2009

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