Deacon Kiesel provides ‘scoop’ on island past
Long-time Fort Myers Beach resident Charles “Scoop” Kiesel took a standing-room-only crowd at St. Raphael’s Church Parish Hall down memory lane Monday evening as the guest speaker of the Estero Island Historical Society.
Many current islanders may know Kiesel as the 90-year-old deacon of the Church of the Ascension, but few of them were around when “Scoop” (as he is lovingly called) first arrived on the island in 1950.
Businesses like Benny McDowell’s Fish house, Columbia Seafood, Shore’s Shrimp Company, Dixie Fish Company, Dodge Packed Shrimp, Gene Sanders Shipyard and St. George Packing Company were staples back then, according to Kiesel.
“The swing bridge was a continuation of the present Old San Carlos Boulevard,” he said. “It’s hard to describe Fort Myers Beach as north and south. It’s more of a crescent, and at one time I think it was called Crescent Beach.”
After owning a boatyard up in the Long Island area with his two brothers, Kiesel decided to move down to Southwest Florida when he read about a “shrimp discovery” called Pink Gold. He chose Fort Myers Beach ahead of ports in Tampa and Key West and, along with his wife, Lenora, and six-month-old daughter, he stayed at the Red Coconut Trailer Park for two years before moving into their present house.
His first boat was 63-feet long and called ‘Coral Sands’ which he purchased in downtown Fort Myers for $26,000 and sealed the bank deal with scotch and a handshake.
“That sounded reasonable to us,” said Kiesel about the price of the boat. “We looked at the banker who reached under the desk, pulled out three or four paper cups, poured a couple of fingers of good scotch and shook hands. That was the deal.”
Shrimp prices rose quickly once the Pink Gold was discovered.
“As I recalled when we first came down, shrimp was about 37 cents per pound,” said Kiesel. “The numbers described the whole shrimp with the head on, and the head of the shrimp represents about 40 percent of the animal’s body. When I called later, I asked what’s the price now for a medium shrimp (31 to 35 count). She said it was $2.86.”
Kiesel continued to speak about the shrimp industry of old by explaining it cost $1 million to get into the shrimp business. He explained how shrimp were caught back then, how outriggers and netting were used and how stabilizers on the outriggers helped the trade. He would branch off in side stories about how most shrimp boats chose to rest on the fourth night, but some would venture to the city of Campeche on the north side of the Yucatan Peninsula or how shrimpers who wanted to stay longer would rely on the ‘trust method’ of transferring shrimp to other boats that were going back to Fort Myers or how fuel prices jumped from 14 cents to $2.87 per gallon.
While sitting to his right, Scoop’s family -son, Bob; wife, Lenora; daughter, Collette; and son, Scoop, Jr.- would help him remember certain facts about those side stories though one could see it was more a matter of inclusion than memory loss. He mentioned his sons grew up on boats in the Back Bay and, if they experienced problems, they would swim back to shore if needed. They accompanied him on shrimp trips to Texas when they got older.
When the elder Kiesel asked his sons if he missed anything, Scoop, Jr. replied, “In 60 years you probably missed quite a few stories,” which drew a collective chuckle from the audience.
The guest speaker finished off his presentation by asking for questions. He answered where he first tied up his boat (Columbia Seafood); if there was a dredging problem in the channel (yes, always shallow; had to pick high tide); what happened when Hurricane Donna struck (he was in Texas, but many boats would go up the Caloosahatchee River as far as they could); the difference between Florida Pinks and Texas Bounty shrimp (Pinks were and still are best); how he cooks his shrimp (boils them with dipping sauces); and what was the most interesting thing he drug up on a boat (which yielded a couple of more side stories about finding people in the nets).
“You always hope to drag up a discarded chest full of gold,” said Kiesel. “On the full of the moon, shrimp would drop off. Right now, the shrimp are so plentiful out there it doesn’t seem to make much difference. Ninety percent of the shrimping is done at night. A theory is that they burrow into the ground during the day.”
He offered a few final words from a John Masefield poem before walking off stage.
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”