We were a Liberace family when I was growing up in Miami.

ST. PETERSBURG
As the tree service stripped the limbs from the 80-year-old laurel oak at her day care, Rose Samuels couldn't stand the idea of losing the tree that had shaded the playground at Rosie's Playschool II at 4500 38th Ave. N since she bought the school nine years ago.

ST. PETERSBURG
Every afternoon about 4 p.m., Karen Heaton walks through her house, out the back door, and stands at the top of the wheelchair ramp.
Waiting for Donnie.

Be ready. Pretty soon, billions of cicadas will start crawling out of the earth after 17 years underground and swarm the East Coast, looking to make love. Not with you, probably. This flock of flying nasty has been underground since Bone Thugs-N-Harmony were on the music charts, nursing on tree roots and growing. When …

DUNEDIN — In 1949 when McGuire's Barbershop, then called Taylor's Barbershop, opened at Main Street and Louden Avenue, Dunedin was a quiet little seaside place.

What happens when you send a muggle to a quidditch match? Something magical, of course.

Anniversary
The AuCoins
Eric and Rosalinde AuCoin of New Port Richey celebrated their 50th anniversary on March 16 with friends and family at their home.

We need your news! Hometown publishes Thursdays and Sundays with your good news. Tell us about your club or thank someone for a job well done. Keep it under 100 words. E-mail photos in JPEG format. Contact Hometown news coordinator Gail Diederich at gdiederich@tampabay.com; by phone at (727) 869-6243 or (813) …

SOUTH TAMPA — Two years ago, Clark Jordan-Holmes would have laughed if you told him he'd be hiking —and getting hopelessly lost — in the Ocala National Forest.

TALLAHASSEE
At the close of the work week, when the stars come out and the Christmas lights twinkle on and the headlights start to race through the pines and past the KEEP OUT signs, you'll find Gary Anton in his pop-bottle glasses and hippy hair-halo rushing around the Bradfordville Blues Club like a monk on …
