By TB Reporter

The St. Petersburg Museum of History continues Happy Hour with the Historian on Thursday (March 9).

ST. PETERSBURG — Florida. That name. That combination of sounds. Three simple syllables, and yet packing so many mixed messages. To some people, it’s a paradise. To others, it’s a punchline.

As author and award-winning journalist Craig Pittman will reveal Thursday (March 9), when the Happy Hour with the Historian series returns to the St. Petersburg Museum of History, it’s both of these.

To outsiders, Florida seems baffling. It’s a state where voters went for Barack Obama twice, yet elected a Tea Party candidate as governor. Touted as a care-free paradise, yet the state is also known for its perils — alligators, sinkholes, pythons, hurricanes, and sharks, to name a few.  

Pittman will share these stories and more from his latest book, Oh, Florida! How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country.

A native Floridian, Pittman was born in Pensacola, and graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.”

Admission to Happy Hour with the Historian is a suggested donation of $5 and seating is limited. Doors for the series open at 6:30 p.m. and the program will start at 7.

Celebrating its 95th year of sharing the stories of the Sunshine City, the St. Petersburg Museum of History is at 335 Second Ave. NE on the Pier Approach. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and Noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, call (727) 894-1052 or visit the museum web site. 

Photo Courtesy of St. Petersburg Museum of History

St. Petersburg | Books | Oh! Florida | Museum of History | TB Reporter

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