The latest issue of Tampa Bay History includes a good review of Going, Going . . . Almost Gone: Life in Early Lutz and Central Pasco County by Elizabeth and Susan MacManus. “If the authors’ purpose is to save and savor a past—unabashedly nostalgic—of a rural Florida lifestyle that has nearly vanished, they succeeded admirably, ” writes historian James M. Denham of Florida Southern College. “The authors vividly depict how settlements that coalesced around villages with names like Nowatney, Drexel, Ehren, Godwin, Greenfield, Tucker, Disston, and Denham (much to the chagrin of this reviewer) slowly disappeared. Taking their place on the map were ‘Land O’ Lakes’ and ‘Lutz’ just to the south.”
Professor Denham’s review points out that “the agrarian-to-suburban shift depicted here was also occurring in other regions of Florida” making this study in some senses representative or archetypal of change in the state. He concludes with appreciation for the hundreds of photographs, documents, and stories gathered in the milestone 700-page work: “Fortunately Elizabeth and Susan MacManus saw fit to capture the images of time and place before they were lost from memory. With pictures and easy-to-read captions on nearly every page, Going, Going . . . Almost Gone is a delight to sample at random or to read from beginning to end.”
Copies of the book are available through our online catalog at this link. Their earlier book about this area, Citrus, Sawmills, Critters, and Crackers: Life in Early Lutz and Central Pasco County, also remains in print and can be ordered online by clicking here.
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