Memories of Panama City, Florida by residents, business owners, vacationers, spring breakers, bands that played there, and beach lovers in general.

While the history of Asian migration to Latin America is well documented, we know little about the contemporary experience of diasporic Asians in this part of the world. Memories of a Future Home offers an intimate look at how diasporic Chinese in Panama construct a home and create a sense of belonging as they inhabit the interstices of several cultural-national formations—Panama, their nation of residence; China/Taiwan, their ethnic homeland; and the United States, the colonial force. Juxtaposing the concepts of diaspora and citizenship, this book offers an innovative framework to help us understand how diasporic subjects engage the politics of cultural and political belonging in a transnational context. It does so by examining the interaction between continually shifting geopolitical dynamics, as well as the maneuvers undertaken by diasporic people to negotiate and transform those conditions. In essence, this book explores the contingent citizenship experienced by diasporic Chinese and their efforts to imagine and construct "home" in diaspora.

Panama City began as three 640-acre homesteads in the late 1800s and was incorporated in 1909. The seat of Bay County, this thriving port city of nearly 156,000 is home to Tyndall Air Force Base and the Naval Coastal Systems Center. This volume contains more than 200 vintage postcard views of Panama City from its earliest years through the 1970s. Scenes of neighboring Panama City Beach include early beach institutions like the Hangout at Long Beach Resort, Jenkins Drive In, Mitties Tavern, and Little Birmingham. Those who remember the FoaCasle Grille at the Verde Mer Cottages in Laguna Beach deserve a gold star.

This is an oral history of the Latin American baseball leagues of the mid-20th century. Interviews with dozens of former major league players, who participated in the winter leagues of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, provide a fascinating view of life in all of these countries during the most nostalgic era of baseball. For the majority of the players, it was the first time in their lives living in a foreign country; some of the more fortunate made trips to the Caribbean Series. The players' recollections range from their experiences on and off the field, to where they lived, what they ate, the ballparks, other players and irrepressible fans. The stories are often juxtaposed against the backdrop of Latin American political history, adding to the unique international flavor.

Considered one of the world's most beautiful beaches for its sugar white sand and emerald blue-green waters, Panama City Beach has, until recently, remained one of Florida's undiscovered treasures. First documented by Spanish explorers in the 1500s and later by the English, the region remained unsettled because of its inaccessibility and marauding renegade inhabitants. At a time when property was valued according to the crops it could grow, the beach was dismissed as a "no man's land" unsuitable for habitation. The early 1930s and the Hathaway Bridge, connecting Panama City Beach to the mainland, marked its "discovery" and the beginning of area tourism.

Since World War II, tourists have flocked to Florida's northwest Gulf Coast and sun and fun spots at Panama City Beach, Fort Walton Beach, and Pensacola Beach. Every year those visitors number in the millions. For those who long to recall how the vacationland appeared thirty, forty, or even fifty years ago, Tim Hollis has written Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast. In a style that informs and entertains, Hollis describes the rise of early developments, such as Long Beach Resort, and major tourist attractions, such as the Gulfarium and the Miracle Strip Amusement Park. With heartfelt nostalgia and a dose of tongue-in-cheek, he reminisces on the motels and tourist cottages; the restaurants, such as Captain Anderson's and Staff's; the elaborate miniature golf courses, such as Goofy Golf and its many imitators. He takes a special delight in recovering the memories of those quirky businesses that now exist only in faded photographs and aging postcards, such wacky tourist traps as Castle Dracula, Petticoat Junction, Tombstone Territory, and the Snake-A-Torium. In the book, Hollis examines how this area became known as the "Miracle Strip," and how the local chambers of commerce got so tired of that image that the name gradually fell into disuse. The book is illustrated with a profusion of vintage photos and advertisements, most of which have not been seen in print since their original appearances. For the nostalgia lover, the snowbird, the tourist seeking yesteryear, Florida's Miracle Strip: From Redneck Riviera to Emerald Coast will be a welcome traveling companion.