The Jones sisters, Andrea Rothwell, Ally Pohle and Deborah Noonan, at the annual Pioneer Club picnic at the Lee Civic Center on Saturday. CHUCK BALLARO

Back in 1949, a man named R.A. Henderson wanted to do something to honor those residents who had lived in Lee County for 50 or more years.

He started the Pioneer Club, began holding an annual picnic at Lions Park and the rest is history.

On Saturday, that tradition continued as more than 700 current and former Lee County residents came to the Lee Civic Center’s Tinsley Pavilion to catch up with old friends and reminisce about the good old days and lament how things have changed so much since they were kids growing up here.

The picnic has been a tradition for decades, except for the two years during the pandemic when it was cancelled. In the three years since its return, the event has become more popular than ever, with people coming from all over the country, including one who was 101 years old.

Pat Mann, president of the Pioneer Club, said this is an event many people look forward to every year, even as everything around them has changed.

Peg Roberts, 101, was the oldest person at the annual Pioneer Picnic Saturday. CHUCK BALLARO

“This is just a get-together of old friends they only get to see once a year and some come from long distances and school will time their reunions with when we hold the picnic,” Mann said.

Members can order a barbecue lunch for $10, which most took advantage of. Mostly, they talked about the old times and remembered what Lee County used to be.

Sherry Middleton, who went to Alva High School, Class of 1967, said things have changed so much.

“I lived in Olga. There were a couple stores, a couple houses in Fort Myers Shores. It was very remote and we went to town once a week,” Middleton said. “There was nothing in Olga, Riverdale was just palmetto bushes. It was much better back then.”

Back in their day, Fort Myers ended at Colonial Boulevard, which was a dirt road back then, and downtown Fort Myers was the social hub of Lee County, with four movie theaters. It was, like in the “Cheers” classic TV show theme song, “where everybody knows your name.”

CHUCK BALLARO

Judy Moore Frank, Fort Myers Class of 1970, said the great thing is that you get to meet people you haven’t seen in 20 years.

“I see some of these people every day, which is also a blessing. It’s great to re-establish friendships,” Frank said. “I’ve been here since 1957 when Cleveland Avenue was a two-lane road. Driving to where the Edison Mall is now was like driving to Naples. From the hospital to where the mall is now was barren.”

Andrea Jones Rothwell was attending her first Pioneer Picnic as a member of the North High Class of 1992, along with her two older sisters and parents, who came here from England.

“It’s exciting. It makes me feel a little old because I finally made the quota of being 50. Now, we have electricity and automobiles,” Jones Rothwell joked. “It’s grown exponentially. It was very small and you knew everybody.”

Loring Strickland has roots in town going back to the 19th century. Her grandfather, Henry, founded Bartley Sporting Goods in 1910 and moved around a little bit before moving to its current location in 1995.

“When I was growing up there was all fishing equipment. During the Depression he sold anything that would sell like candy,” Strickland said. “Now, we do a lot of screen printing, corporate wear and things like that.”

Jinya D’India of North Fort Myers came to the picnic as part of the Fort Myers Class of 1959 Reunion, a weekend long event that included the picnic and dinner at Whiskey Creek. She said it was great to reconnect with old friends and talk about how things were.

“It was a nice little town where everybody knew each other. It was a nice, safe place. Now, it’s the traffic. Everywhere you go out, you go see places where the cows were out and now it’s housing and buildings going up,” D’India said. “Back then, it was us and Dunbar, which was segregated. I was in pigtails.”