Panama City Beach

I first went to Panama City Beach in 1987. We didn’t go before then because two of my uncles (bad boys) told us it was a bad place. They told us there was a lot of drinking and drugs on the strip and it was not a place that we should go.

My vision had gone from 20/20 to 20/50 in a matter of days. I had a large, black hole in the center of my left eye. After seeing four doctors in one day, I was diagnosed with optic neuritis and told that my problem could be anything from a brain tumor to multiple sclerosis. I was afraid that I was going blind. I was seventeen years old and very frightened. My mind never processed anything after brain tumor until the day I was diagnosed with MS. Since I love the beach and ocean so much, my mother, who so very much wanted to ease my troubled mind, took me to Panama City Beach for the first time.

We were pleasantly surprised at the atmosphere. It seemed to me the only places you could find drinking and drugs must have been where you would expect them to be. We didn’t see any where we were.

We had a great time. We went to King Neptune’s shop and bought seashells. We ate at an all-you-can-eat seafood bar called the Seven Seas. We played putt-putt golf across the street from the public pier and we shopped at Alvin’s Magic Mountain Mall. The most fun though was the funhouse at the Miracle Strip Amusement Park.

Since that first trip I’ve spent many short vacations there. To begin with my mom took me often. After my husband and I had been married a couple of years his sister moved to PCB and once again I found myself spending a lot of time down there. That was when we found Back Beach Road and learned the advantages of knowing the quickest way down the strip.

Now the beach has been overtaken by tall condominium buildings and you can’t even see the beach for the first several miles of the strip. The Miracle Strip Amusement Park went out of business. I know time marches on but it sure is sad what you have to leave behind.