Posted: 4/14/2020
Happy Tuesday! My
name is Jessie Drossos and this is my first blog. I am considered desk staff when the museums
are open and would be working the front desk when you enter any of the downtown
museums. I am not a student, but I am a
semi-retired devotee of history. I have
been a ghost tour guide for over 15 years (way before UWF took over the downtown
museums). I absolutely love my job! I get to welcome people from all over the
world. Literally I’ve meet people from England, Japan, Australia, France,
Slovenia, Canada and, of course, from all over the United States. I get to
share my love of history and Pensacola. I’m not a native though my dad is from one of the pioneer families of
Santa Rosa County. I was originally born
in Marietta, Georgia, but I married a native and absolutely think there isn’t a
better place to be. I’m always surprised
when “locals” come by and have never been to any of our museums. Hopefully, one
of the “good” things that have come out of this time that we have had to slow
down and stay home is more people will learn about the gem known as the
“Historic Pensacola Village.
Now the museums are not open
right now, but I want to talk to you about our gift shops. We have gift shops in four of our
museums: T.T. Wentworth, Pensacola
Museum of Art, Pensacola Children’s Museum and Tivoli High House. These are great places to pick up some fun
and different items. I want to tell you
about two such items we have for sale.
The first one is one of my favorites. As many of may not know, we are number
one! That’s right! We were the first settlement in North American. Tristian DeLuna landed here in 1559. Now many of you may shake your heads and say
wait, what about St. Augustine? Well yes, St. Augustine’s is considered to be
the first “permanent settlement” in North America, but they weren’t the first
settlement. And we have an awesome
t-shit that says just that. It’s says “1. Pensacola. 2. St. Augustine.” It is black and we have it in short sleeves
or long sleeves.
Now I love to read and love
books. And we have some great books in
our gift shops. One of the books is
named “Lost in Heaven”. It is a book about James Polkinghorne, Jr.. Mr.
Polknghorne grew up in Pensacola. He was
a bellhop at the famous San Carlos Hotel and graduated from B. T. Washington
High School. He was attending college at
Florida A & M when he enlisted n the army.
He was sent to Tuskegee where he became one of the famous Tuskegee
Airman. His plane disappeared over Italy
in 1944. He was 22 years old.
The writer
of the book, Leo Murphy, who also served as an instructor at NAS and has
written books about naval aviation history in Pensacola was asked by an
interviewer if he knew anything about the history of black aviators. He did recall seeing an old photograph and a
1944 story in the Pensacola News Journal with the headline, “Lost Negro Aviator
Dead”. So Mr. Murphy began to research
the story about James Polkinghorne who grew up on Reus Street. The story
includes interviews with James’ sister, Maggie and will introduce to a very
inspirational young man.
Stay safe and hope to see you
soon.
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