Note to readers: James Middlestead and his family visited Fort Myers Beach for the first time in May 2022, four months before Hurricane Ian crushed the town and many other places in Southwest Florida. In November 2022 Middlestead posted this impassioned plea on the "I love Fort Myers Beach" Facebook page about the beloved Times Square clock that was destroyed. He, like many others, wanted to see the clock replaced to help lift the spirits of the recovering community. Fast forward to May 2024. There is a new clock, Fort Myers Beach is well on its way to recovery, and Middlestead and his family, his wife Stacy and son Evan, enjoyed their first post-Ian Fort Myers Beach vacation in May. They stayed at the Pink Shell. In this essay he shared with the News-Press, Middlestead expressed his thoughts, hopes and love for Fort Myers Beach.
We came here in May 2022. And that was an amazing time. I am so happy I got to see Fort Myers Beach before Ian came through.
The people here are amazing. The restaurants are top notch. The atmosphere was just great across the board. I mean, everything was awesome. And this town really, really landed on my heart. I've never had a town do that and it kind of took me aback a little bit because, I think ... it did because this was such a small town, and it had that small-town feel.
Growing up, I used to go to Clearwater with my family and we vacationed there every year we could. It had that small-town feel. We went there in the late 80s and pretty much through the 90s. And it was like that. It had the little shops. It had the small-town feel.
Well, I went back to Clearwater last year and it didn't feel like that anymore. It had all these super high-rise condos and hotels and just everything lining the beach and you couldn't even see the water anymore. You couldn't even see the beach. You had to go through these little walkways to get to the beach. And it just didn't have that feel anymore.
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Now, Fort Myers Beach had that feel and that's why I'm praying that they don't put up a bunch of high rises because it just it's going lose its small-town feel, and I pray that that doesn't happen.
Now, I say that. But I will say one of the things that makes this town amazing are the people − the amount of love and heart, and just the attention to detail that these people that live here do for people that come visit.
It is amazing across the board.
It's superb.
You know, if you hadn’t known that hurricane had hit here, you couldn't tell from these people. I mean, they are smiling. They are happy. They treat everybody with respect. Just … I can't say enough good things about this town.
You know it's kind of like a metaphor. Because as we visit these places, we've been to − we went back to a lot of the same places that we went the first time. And it's like time stopped. It's like two years ago, is now. It's like two years never happened.
It's amazing.
So, I use that as like a metaphor because the clock got taken out. So, it's almost like when that clock went down, time stopped and seeing the new clock, it did make me cry a little bit. I'm not going lie because it felt like being home again. You know, it was it was so heartbreaking to watch the destruction and the decimation of this paradise on TV from Ohio. And I'm not even going to pretend to know the kind of hell that people are going through here, and they couldn't leave, or didn't get out in time.
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And I know people lost their lives and I prayed for them, because it was absolute hell.
I saw so many things just torn apart and destroyed. I saw it when I went to Times Square to see the new clock. The PierSide Grill and Famous Blowfish Bar was gone. The Dairy Queen. Gone. Just so much that was there that’s not there anymore and replaced by vents and broken concrete. That’s all that is left.
And it really hurt because you just think about what it was and you know what it could have been and in a matter of hours it's just like it never existed. And it just it broke my heart.
But seeing that clock again just made me feel warm inside and made me feel happy.
Because it equals progress. It equaled love. It shows that this town has a big heart. And I don't know I just I love this town. I love the people. I love everything about it. And I hate that they had to go through that but I know they're going bounce back. I know it's going be just as great as it was or maybe better in some aspects. I've tried to help out any way I can. I know I couldn't do much from Ohio. I donated to all the restaurants we ate at to try to help the staff. I donated to Beach Talk Radio. I got this shirt here with the clock on it. “The Return to Paradise.” I love the shirt.
Getting 'teary-eyed' talking about Fort Myers Beach clock
But I was trying to do anything I could to try to help the town. I know, I'm really a nobody. But I felt like I wanted to help in some aspect. That's why I contacted you in the first place because there you contacted me because I wrote a letter or an email to Verdin Clock Company telling them about what had happened to see if we could get something rolling and I don't know if I started something, but I'll tell you what, there's a clock out there now. It's there. And it's it's real. You can touch it. It's there. So, whether I had a part in that or not, I don't know. But I'm glad it's back.
And it meant a lot to me. So, I'm getting a little teary-eyed talking about this. But that's it, man. I mean that's that's what this town means to me. It's just amazing, amazing town. And like I said to see the people bounce back like nothing happened. And I've talked to a few of them.
I've seen you know some of the stuff they've done, like the surf style shop on the corner of Estero Blvd. and whatever that side road is going to Nervous Nellie's.
We were in there today. And I was talking to the lady she saw my shirt and she showed me the mural they have up on the back wall of the old Fort Myers Beach and it still has the Dairy Queen on there and a bunch of stuff. We were in Shipwreck Treasures today getting some souvenirs. And if you look up on the ceiling there, they have pictures of all the hurricane stuff that they went through. So I got some pictures of that.
But it's just amazing that these people have bounced back like they have and you know, I pray that never happens again. But we have no control. I mean, there's no control over Mother Nature. I mean Ian even wasn't even supposed to hit Fort Myers. It was supposed to head up to Clearwater and that area. And I mean it made that massive right turn for no reason. I don't know what happened, but that's what made it bad because nobody knew it was going hit Fort Myers Beach. They thought they were just going to get sideswiped. So, a lot of people didn't leave. And then it made that right turn and hit them head on. And it was it was just absolute hell.
But everything has been wonderful this trip. I'm so happy to be back here. I wish I could stay longer. I really do. We're definitely going to come back here every year because this is our spot. This is our home. This is our summer home − Fort Myers Beach, and especially the Pink Shell. Hands down they are on of the best staffs I have ever dealt with.
That’s what it means to me. That’s what Fort Myers Beach means to me. That’s what seeing the new clock means to me and my family.
