A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words by Lois Bolin, Ph.D., Old Naples Historian

by Lois Bolin
Old Naples Historian

A picture is worth a thousand words unless those words are from a person whose family helped to create the magic in this place, we call home.

This phrase is widely attributed to Frederick R. Barnard, who published a piece in Printer’s Ink, December 1921 on the effectiveness of graphics in advertising, case in point, Life in Naples magazine. While a picture may be worth a thousand words, it only takes one word to send you back in your mind to relive a thousand pictures, moments, and sweet memories.

Step Back in Time
This past month I was invited to step back in time at the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club with our local Questers. The Beach Hotel, which has been owned by the Watkins family since 1946, now has new owners and renovations will be underway soon. (Special thanks to the new owners who had no legal obligation but allowed the public to have input.) Questers is an international organization whose mission is to not only study antiques, but to also promote and develop knowledge of preservation of history. BTW: they invite you to join.

Jean Walker Humphries, daughter of R.L. and Marlys Walker, developers of Aqualane Shores and granddaughter of Rex and Elsie Lehman (think Naples High School Football), led the discussion opening up memories from all who attended their last lunch at HB’s.

A few weeks later while walking through Oakes Farm Market someone asked if I was Lois and we began to exchange pleasantries. As luck would have it, I felt as if I had struck gold in both the pictures and words department.

Pamela McDaniel, like Jean Walker Humphries, share a SWFL lineage that sadly most will never know so it pleases me to tell in picture form with precious few words a little
about Pamela and her new endeavor, Pamela ThroughmyLens McDaniel Photography.

Reflections

Pamela McDaniel

When I interviewed Pamela, my memories were soon flooded with the time spent with descendants of pioneering families. Once they started talking, it was like giving your guest a drink of water through a fire hose.

Strolling down memory lane, like a panther on Red Bull, I was able connect the dots of her family such as: the Weeks (Collier’s first white settlers); the Daniels (boat builder where Tin City is now located), and McDaniel (LaBelle cattle ranchers); as well as her first cousin, the beloved Johnny Morgan, who is still remembered as one of Naples best boat builder. Needless to say, the love of the land, the water and the Everglades runs deep in her veins.

…We pause this reading for this brief memory moment: once in a grocery store parking lot, Jean Humphries walked up to a lady and asked where she was from, who was her mama and daddy. She smiled and said, well then you are my third cousin once removed. I found myself reflecting on this moment as Pamela opened the spigot wide open with one more story on a cousin or an aunt. Now back to our regular reading…

Labor of Love
Before I knew of Pamela’s deep connection to Naples, I followed her wildlife photography on Facebook. While her photographs are impressive, so too is her labor of love to capture these heartfelt connections to her childhood. Loading up their Mountain to Sea electric bikes, they (Win Turner is her trusty guide) head out to places like Myakka River State Park, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge, and Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, where they stop by the Fakahatchee Hilton after crossing Gator Troll Bridge (I made up that name.)

After much cajoling, Pamela has begun the initial process of marketing her photography. It just never crossed her mind. I am so glad this descendent of those magic makers is honoring her family’s legacy through her pictures and sweet memories. Photos by Pamela McDaniel