n 1963, I made my first trip to Miami. I had just graduated from college and was invited to visit by the man who would become my husband, Richard Rosichan. At the time, he lived in Bay Heights with his parents, Arthur and Claire Rosichan. I was young and had lived my whole life as […]

It was the depths of the Depression, 1937, when my parents Manny and Grace LaCalle pulled into Miami with their two girls in the back seat of the car. After many jobs and homes in five other states, my father had an offer from Schenley Distillers. They shipped all their belongings and drove to Miami […]

“In the Everglades there´s a way of life. There´s a way of peace without stress or strife. There´s a natural danger and a man to face. Lincoln Vail of the Everglades, The man on patrol in the Everglades.” Before there was Flipper, before Gentle Ben, way before Miami Vice, there was Lincoln Vail of the […]

I am sitting here in our den and weathering another tropical storm. Fortunately it is one of the smaller, less significant ones, but interestingly enough, it is on the 20th anniversary of Andrew. I was born in Miami and so storms and hurricanes are just some of those things that we have to endure for […]

I started my life insurance career in Norfolk, Va., then transferred to South Florida in early January 1964 to manage my company’s Miami district office. I had previously rented a small, new house in Coral Gables for my wife Barbara and two young daughters, Jane, 7, and Margaret, 5. What we didn’t know was that […]

I’ve been trying to leave Miami for a long time now. Miami was my home after I left Haiti. Creole was in every corner, familiar faces spilled out of supermarkets and Quick Marts, and botanicas haunted every jitney bus and crowded every small church between businesses. I felt at home, lakay as we say in […]

Miami became my home in February 1960 when I was based here as a Delta stewardess. I lived in Miami Springs, on a lake, with three other stewardesses – one from Eastern, one from National, and one from Delta. Other airlines were flourishing at that time, too; there was a large contingent of personnel from […]

I may be the only person who can say they were born on Sesame Street. I did not live with Big Bird, but instead in a house at 1216 Sesame St., in Opa-locka, where I was born in 1934. I lived there with my parents, my brother Danny and my sister Judi until my marriage […]

My Miami experience began in 1958 when we moved from Tampa, which was considered the big city, compared to Miami. Miami was the small town and just a place for tourists to visit, where Tampa, old and established, had it all. In November 1958, we loaded up the ubiquitous ’57 Chevy station wagon and headed […]