Recreation

Recreation. . , Having Fun , Most islanders oriented their lives around family and community. Island pastimes include beach walks, shell collecting, sport fishing, and recreational baseball. Sanibel's Tomato Pickers baseball team won the championship of the Caloosahatchee Valley league in 1910. Baseball games were often held after a community fish fry, a can't-miss social event for local residents. Potluck dinners, often with meals cooked over wood-burning or kerosene stoves, included wild bird and turtle stews, citrus fruits, home-grown vegetables, fish, clams, and oysters. Occasionally, rum acquired from visiting Cuban fishermen was served. Other events, such as weddings and school graduations were attended buy nearly everyone on the island., The Holidays , The holidays are a special time with annual traditions that have brought joy to the Sanibel community for generations. Thanksgiving song and dance recitals were held at the Sanibel School, which was decorated with home grown produce. In December, the Sanibel Community House traditionally hosted a Christmas program. In recent years, an annual community Thanksgiving celebration is held at the Sanibel Community House and, starting in 1984, the island-wide Luminary Festival brings family and friends together to celebrate the holiday season., (captions) , Honeymooners shelling on the beach. , The Sanibel Tomato Pickers baseball team. , Fishing guide Esperanza Woodring and Tom Wood, the first refuge manager, at a coon oyster roast.