Wish You Were Here

Things were different on Anna Maria (then pronounced Mar-EYE-ah) Island in the old days. Within the lifetimes of our eldest residents, there was no bridge leading to the Island, and people took a ferry across the Intracoastal Waterway. Even earlier, they arrived at the Anna Maria City Pier by steamship from Tampa. Ladies’ swimsuits included hats. Roads were made of seashells.

But some things remain the same, like the surf, the sand, the sun, and the postcard sentiment, “Wish you were here.”

Postcards donated to the Manatee County Historical Records Library by Rev. Herbert Loomis and in the private collection of Keith Otzen.