My friends and I had a blast growing up in Cocoa, Florida. We used to drag my canoe all over the place to explore, fish, and just screw around.
One place we spent a lot of time at a pond, which was owned by one of my best friend’s grandmother. During our entire youth, this pond was "park-like". Surrounded by manicured St. Augustine grass, plenty of fish, and trees hanging over the water in the back. We built forts in the woods, lost cast nets in the water, and even built a boat which we launched here.
Today I drove by the pond and see this, and I’m left nearly speechless. The water that once flourished with fish is now essentially dead. Plant-life, and I’m sure fish can no longer survive. The banks in which a generation of kids fished from now resembles a toxic waste dump. The most offensive thing that we saw back then, was the occasional shopping chart someone pushed in.
Here is the pond as it was growing up, complete with our homemade boat, the S.S. Tiger.
I’ve tried my best to raise my kids to respect and care for their environment. I hope they never see their memories destroyed like this.