Bartow, FL: Old School Hipster or Young Hippy hangout?

Is there an Old School Hipster demographic? Let’s assume it’s a wide strange world and such a thing might be possible. This basic assumption–which is akin to the “primitive notion” that a point defines an exact location in space, according to Wikipedia– leads us inexorably to Bartow, FL.

(See previous blog about Climate Change–A Memoir. It explains my habit of typing clichés in boldface.)

Bartow is the county seat of  Polk County.  It was incorporated in 1861 shortly after FL seceded from the Union in the Civil War. After the county provided food for the Confederate Army, it went on to be called Imperial Polk because powerful agriculture and phosphate mining interests provided employment for many in Central Florida.  Agriculture and mining have brought  money, and the county’s white conservative base has had influence on the Florida Legislature for generations.

My source for some of this information is https://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/bartow-florida.html

Bartow can’t be reached by an interstate although it’s at the crossroads of State Road 60 and US 17.  If a traveler is going from east to west in FL. Highway 60 is the Yellow Brick Road that leads through Florida’s agricultural heart.

The last time I was in Bartow was a dark night in 1973 when the alternator in my long black 1967 Ford Galaxy gave out as I was heading home from USF in Tampa to home in Ft. Lauderdale.

The stars were out.  Light pollution wasn’t a thing in Central Florida in those days. The silence was only broken by the soft murmurs of a disinterested gas station attendant who indicated that alternator replacement wasn’t a thing either. After a call to my soon-to-be-husband who drove three hours, got the car running in the dark and drove home very slowly with me and a very pissed off young woman who had given up a ride in a chartered plane to ride with me.

Of course, I vowed never to go to Bartow again.  A couple free tickets from a friend’s son for some great seats in Raymond James stadium to watch USF play UF changed my mind and we stopped in Bartow for lunch.

Unfiltered, a coffee shop in Bartow, FL

We found Unfiltered, a restaurant and vintage clothing store, on the recommendation of my daughter-in-law who searches out the great old houses that phosphate mining honchos  built back in the day while my son stays happily in an excellent comic book store that is also located near Broadway (cool name!).  Lunch was great, and while the young hippy vibe was there (see Alice in Wonderland décor detail above), I am tending toward Old School Hipster because there wasn’t a sprout in sight.  As I remember food back in the Summer of Love, sprouts, whole wheat and chopping down the wood to heat the sandwich were all part of the vibe.

 

The yellow and blue house (above) was featured in My Girl, a 1991 Macaulay Culkin movie that one reviewer called “representative of the decade” although that seems to be freewheelin’ description because the decade was only a year old at the time.  If you were to drive by, stop and run up the stairs (which I don’t recommend because you could get shot given Polk County’s rock hard rural history), you would see a Culkin cut out in the window by the door.

I don’t have a clue about the middle house except that is close to Unfiltered and a myriad of  candle stores, vintage emporiums and other quirky shops.

So Bartow has changed and improved in the ensuing years since the Galaxy gave up the ghost.

If you are looking for a superhero, a pleasant dining experience or perhaps a great scented candle, stop by.  Bartow may be  best be seen by the hipsters and hippies who are just passing through, but that’s another story.