This is my post for #freewriters 2318 prompt modernize the town hosted by @mariannewest
For over 100 years the shoreline along the river in my town was lined with fish houses, some next to one another and some a mile apart. In my time there were 5 in a three mile stretch. Fishing was good and most of the people in our town had something to do with the fishing industry.
After Florida passed the ban on gill nets, the fish houses were slowly going out of business. The above 2 photos show the last 2 to keep their doors open. But only for a few years.
In 2005 we had back to back hurricanes, the first one did not do that much damage, we just had a lot to clean up and some repairs to the dock.
But the 2nd hurricane did too much damage to repair and with no insurance, the owners could not do the repairs and ended up selling the land to the County.
The other fish house was hit hard, too but they were able to rebuild and stay open until an ordinary thunderstorm hit. The County had changed the way a ditch flowed and by doing this the water overflowed and ran under the fish house washing away the foundation.
The damage was too bad to be able to fix, they tried but inside the cracks kept growing to where the building was unsafe and the owners sold, closing the last fish house on the river.
Now people want our town to be known as a fishing village but they also want to modernize the town.
The fish houses that were not damaged are now turned into big restaurants and the smaller homes along the river are now being torn down and big homes are being built. Nothing looks like a fishing town, it is looking more and more like some big city where people come to vacation not work on the water.
photos are mine