In 1970, a 12-story Holiday Inn opened on Tennessee Street in Tallahassee. I was in 8th grade, a time when most girls were focusing on boys, makeup and popularity.  But my good friend Ginnie and I were busy trying to figure out how to convince our parents (and the hotel) that two 13 year old girls should be allowed to rent a hotel room... for the fun of it. The fact that our parents said yes, tells a lot about how tame or nerdy we were. So one sunny day, Ginnie and I checked into our 11th floor room and unloaded our bags filled with snacks, teen magazines, games, candy cigarettes (for photo ops) plus formalwear for our buffet dinner in the rooftop lounge. I guess the windows must have opened because we spent a lot of time yelling out them to surprise the people on the sidewalks below.  At one point, a group of "boys" hollered back that they had our room number, which meant Ginnie and I freaked and moved our supply of entertainment into the bathroom where we stayed put, until the knocking stopped. The next morning we ordered room service for breakfast and perfected a few gymnastic stunts using the two double beds as trampolines.  In the elevator heading down to check out, we did one more "jump test" to see if we could detect the floor "falling".  

This fine postcard (with an X on our window) is a good reminder of when I first started to enjoy the adventure of hotel/motel living! I drove through Tallahassee a couple years ago and was sad to see the old Inn has not held up well. And I'm pretty sure they never "grew" those mountains that are depicted in the postcard image!

I was 11 in 1969, when my family lived in Florence for a half year. Pensione Ducale, was my family's home for a few days, before we found an apartment. 

The only image I have that shows the hotel, is in an old postcard, showing an Easter celebration. It's one of the buildings, to the left of the exploding cart!  ​

​I also spent some time eavesdropping through the wall. ​I couldn't understand much Italian, but I loved the dramatic hollering of the young woman, who must have been on the phone. There were lots of  Mama Mias and that made me laugh!  ​

Back to The Pensione
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​I may have grumbled about the Pensione, during those first few days in Italy. But, I had nothing but praise a few months later, when we returned to our guest room on Easter morning.

Thank you to Ken, who shared his memory in the comment below. I hope to return one day to Florence and stay at the old Pensione... now called, Palazzo Ruspoli!
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But for a couple of summers, this motel was home to FSU faculty and acting students involved in the Asolo Repertory Theatre. It also was home to my family of 6 since my dad was directing shows at Asolo during the summers.  My memories of this place are a crazy mix of gray-haired folks on the shuffleboard courts and fishing dock... and very entertaining and extroverted acting students hanging around the pool.  My top pool memories are playing Weeki Wachee Mermaids with my sister, Jenni and grumbling over the sign that reminded women to wear swim caps. This was very unfair, because there were numerous male college students who had longer hair than mine. ​

On a couple of rare occasions, our neighbors convinced our family to join theirs for a weekend at this beachside motel.  I think the only time the kids got out of the pool or ocean was to eat or sleep.  That many hours in the sun meant that most of the time our swimsuits were covered in long tee shirts.  Decent sunscreen hadn't been invented yet.

Old Postcard
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I was obsessed with postcard collecting when I was kid. So glad I still have this little gem, to help me recall our fun times at Sandpiper.