Bill Barnett shares thoughts and Naples Potpourri

Bill Barnett

Even though I don’t know the results of the Super Bowl yet, I certainly do know that my Buffalo Bills will not be in it! I truly thought this was going to be our year, as did many others, but hope springs eternal and there’s always next year! I promise you not a word will be heard from me about football or the Bills again until next September when the NFL kicks off and then, if they are doing well, you might hear a blurb or two from me.

This is the time of year with the season going full tilt that I like to hibernate, and I do my very best to let the tourists and other visitors soak up every bit of downtown Naples which is absolutely beautiful. Shops galore with great restaurants, great walking, and very easy to get to the beach and the awesome Third Street South shopping and dining areas. I have from May through December to enjoy those same amenities without the crowds, and many locals feel the same way. Also, trying to get reservations at the last minute is impossible and I always warn our visitors to make them well in advance.

It’s an exciting time with our new President being sworn into office. You very rarely hear me talk about national politics, I have always felt more comfortable giving my opinions on city and some county politics. So just a quick word about Donald Trump. I am personally pleased with him being elected and I think he will be good for our nation. I do wish he would give a little more thought to what he is going to say before he says it, but that’s just his nature and, by now, I’m used to it.

Speaking of politics, as I promised a few articles ago, I will try and write a little in each article about early Naples and some of my experiences from the early 70’s and moving forward to today. The year was 1973, my wife and three young children found ourselves, by choice, in Naples and we rented a home with a real pool in Royal Harbor. We were thrilled and although I wasn’t sure what my profession would turn out to be, I knew there would be ample opportunities for a former car salesman who was 33 years old. After doing some research, I realized that there were very few places in Naples to get a car muffler changed and found a great little shop on 4th Avenue North, that used to be a car wash and had two bays in it. I bought it, got a Scotti Muffler Franchise, which was like Midas, only not as well-known and definitely cheaper.

By then my brother-in-law had moved to Naples with his wife and kids around the same age as ours and joined my business venture. We were immediately busy and started meeting the small but wonderful Naples population. Keep in mind there was a total population in the entire county of about 5000 people here. As the muffler shop was being completed I was bored, (and driving my wife crazy) so I got my first job in Naples when a brand new McDonalds opened its doors on US 41 South where it still stands today on the corner of 41 and Bayshore Drive. We didn’t know what McDonalds was back then, the concept was that new. The O’Reilly family owned and ran it, and today still does, and they hired me. I was in charge of cooking the Big Macs, and back then the way I was taught to know when to flip them was to take my thumb and press the center of the burger. It was a very quick way to tell if that burger was done, and for the first week or so you can imagine how quickly I learned how to flip that burger. That job lasted a little over a month and it was great having my kids come in and point at me laughing with glee at their daddy cooking Big Macs! The O’Reilly’s are still friends and never get tired of telling folks over the years about my first job in Naples. More about my early years here in the next issue.

I can’t remember ever seeing cold weather the way it has been the last month. Warm clothes came out of my closet that hadn’t been worn for years. Our heat kicked on nightly, and at first I liked it, but then I got tired of being cold, and now that we are back in the 80’s I’m happy! I know there were some mighty unhappy tourists that had chosen to stay here during January, but the merchants were happy because shopping was always available. No matter what the national average for real estate growth is, it seems that Naples is always oblivious to it. We seem to set our own trends, and they are, on average, above the national level. Don’t talk to me about traffic during the season.

Enjoy this gorgeous weather, and everything else Naples has to offer!

All the Best,
Bill Barnett, Former Mayor
I do respond to e-mails at: mayornaples@gmail.com