Flamingo Magazine

1 week ago | flamingomag.com | Eric Barton

by Eric Barton | May 30, 2025 Barbecue & Beach Days: A Taste of Summer in Florida The first time I truly knew it was summer, I was about 10 years old, holding a sandwich too big for my hands while at the beach. It was nothing more than wheat bread, crunchy peanut butter and homemade jam. My grandmother made the jam herself—raspberries that’d pucker your entire face, blueberries she collected on hikes and strawberries as sweet as rock candy.

1 week ago | flamingomag.com | Jamie Rich

Editor’s Note: Alumna, Mom, Floridian My editor’s notes generally recount fun little stories, usually about something that happened along the route of making the magazine you are holding, something to entice you to keep reading. This time, I’m struggling to find the lighthearted words I need to paint a bright and sunny picture of our state.

2 weeks ago | flamingomag.com | Steve Dollar

by Steve Dollar | May 22, 2025 Iconic Comedians and Directorial Debuts: May in Florida Film Growing up in Sarasota, the young Paul Reubens became obsessed with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which wintered there, and later joined the Asolo Theater, renowned as the largest repertory theater in the Southeast. Years later, Reubens would discover film fame under another guise: bow-tied manic manchild Pee-Wee Herman.

2 weeks ago | flamingomag.com | Helen Bradshaw

by Helen Bradshaw | May 22, 2025 The History of the Vagabond Hotel Miami Construction on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard begins. Buildings begin popping up along Biscayne Boulevard, the main road into Miami. MiMo (Miami Modern), a modernist style of architecture with tropical twists, takes off. People moved to the suburbs and bought cars. More cars meant more travel and the need for motels. The Vagabond Motel, designed by Robert Swartburg, opens on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard.

2 weeks ago | flamingomag.com | Eric Barton

The Return of Florida’s Roadside Motor Lodges and Retro Motels Lynn Acor was 15 when she started as a bellhop at a kitschy roadside motel on the beach in Vero—the Driftwood Inn. She’d park a guest’s car and then pretend to struggle with their bags for extra tips. Back then, in 1985, she called it Zero Beach because there wasn’t anything for a teenager to do. But she immediately loved the Driftwood. It’s fair to say the motel’s first owner was eccentric. Waldo E.