Moments in time

1977 — MAY 26. Disruptions and dead lines in telephone communication frustrated many local Siesta Key residents in May 1977. But when a group of irritated neighbors confronted the phone company about the service issues, General Telephone Co. found an interesting reason behind the residents’ phone frustrations: Inside a foot-long cable casing was a nest containing six baby birds that had just hatched. Luckily, the babies were rescued without harm from the dangerously located nest and relocated to a safer environment.

1978 — According to an advertisement in the June 1, 1978, issue of the Pelican Press, Siesta Maintenance Painting offered full house painting for only $150.

1979 — JUNE 5. On June 1, 1979, one unlucky family’s 25-foot Vermont-made sailboat ran aground while they were on a trip from Venice to the Siesta Key; Siesta scavengers then ransacked the boat. The scavengers stripped the boat of all of its possessions and valuables. Asked what he did in the face of such cruel luck, boat’s owner replied, “I said to heck with it and went home.”

2004 — May 29. Siesta Key beach joined other beaches in Florida in implementing a new flag warning system to minimize the risks of drowning or serious injury while swimming in the ocean.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection teamed up with the Florida Beach Patrol Chiefs Association, the U.S. Lifesaving Association and the International Lifesaving Federation to develop the uniform warning system for the beaches, consisting of five color-coded warning flags: double-red, red, yellow, green and purple.

The flag system helped reduce the risk of serious injury or death due to ocean-related incidents.