2009/11/03

Franklin Flats: a vanished Bohemia

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago, when we finally had a clear, cool day.

Franklin Flats: a vanished Bohemia

I've had it in mind for a long time to photograph these old apartment buildings on or near Franklin Boulevard and Park Avenue. Back in the '70's, an interesting mix of students, artists, potheads, journalists at WFSU and the Florida Flambeau, new-agers, holistic therapy enthusiasts, radicals and lesbians lived here on the east side of town, on the other side of downtown Tallahassee from FSU. My wife and I lived at 519 East Park Avenue when we were married in 1980. Rents were cheap, and no one had A/C, but they were well-built, and close to downtown and to FSU.

In my captions, I mention people leaving, couples splitting up.  By the late '70's it was becoming obvious even to us diehards that  "The Sixties", the Counterculture, the Revolution, had gone to seed.  The election of Reagan and the murder of John Lennon at the end of 1980 were double-tap pistol shots from Reality.  We weren't young anymore, all of us 30-ish, give or take a few.  We moved on to the rest of our lives.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

But our dream lived on.