Family Getaways 2008 - (Page 33) t all started with a simple question: “When does the show start?” A World War II soldier’s question back in 1943 is said to have ignited an idea that would ultimately popularize water-skiing around the world and eventually make Florida its capital. The story goes that a few servicemen showed up at the gates of Cypress Gardens, then a small, struggling lakeside botanical tourist attraction in Water Haven. They said they’d heard about kids practicing on the lake for a ski show and wanted to know when it started. Ski show? There was no official ski show. The children had been introduced to the young sport by their dad, Dick Pope Sr., who had skied for Miami Beach audiences 15 years earlier. The kids slalomed on Lake Eloise just for fun. Their dad was away at war, but mom Julie wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to attract a crowd. She sent for 12-year-old Dick Pope Jr., daughter Adrienne and their skiing buddies at school, and the kids rushed home and put on a makeshift show that afternoon. I Family Getaways 33
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