OLD DESTIN Through the Eyes of a Child, by Capt. Ben Marler

ISBN-10: 1461098556 ISBN-13: 978-1461098553 From the From the Publisher:


Cut off from mass communications with the rest of the world with nothing but a bridge and not a single telephone or electric light, Destin managed to grow from a remote paradise to a resort area which attracts millions of visitors from all around the world.

Back when some of Florida's fishing boats were handmade and built in captain's back yards, their primitive engines pieced together from automobile motors, the plentiful schools of fish "fathomed out" and snared in seines. Fishing grounds then could be found by nothing more than dead reckoning, timed by a wind up watch, a compass, and the clouds and shore trees. A quiet life began in this particular spot, long the Civil War. But, in 1934, Destin was building a bridge, future WWII pilots were in training, and less than a handful of hardworking fishermen were feeding multitudes of civilians from a tiny fishing village known as Destin. Life was not easy, but it was satisfying and adventurous.
One of Destin's foremost and memorable captains, a fish-catcher and evangelist, opens his families most cherished albums to share pages from Destin's history in the previous century, with photos dating back to 1900.

Capt. Ben seats us around his knees like grandchildren to retell the stories, impressions, descriptions of a small boy's life in Destin, Florida, its' only boy born there in 1938.
Part Tom Sawyer, Part Leave it To Beaver, with a touch of Old Glory and reverence for God, Old Destin Through the Eyes of a Child will be a certain welcome addition to museums and school libraries as well as to those armchair historians who can't get enough of Florida's rich history.
You’ll almost smell the kerosene and sea grasses, and will wish you could go back in time to experience Old Destin.
Even if you were there.


-Heiress Arts Publishers, Destin, Florida