{"id":9671,"date":"2011-09-06T09:13:37","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T13:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=9671"},"modified":"2011-09-06T09:13:37","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T13:13:37","slug":"event-planned-to-recognize-%e2%80%98gay-pappa%e2%80%99-miles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=9671","title":{"rendered":"Event Planned To Recognize \u2018Gay Pappa\u2019 Miles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY LEON B. CREWS<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Sentinel Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the mid-1960s, <strong>Mr. Charles Chester \u201cGay Pappa\u201d Miles<\/strong> was an Algebra teacher at Howard W. Blake High School. He was also very interested in providing students with some kind of recreational outlet after school.<\/p>\n<p>It was during that time <strong>Mr. Miles<\/strong> created teen dances that were held in the gymnasium at Blake. The event was so successful it started drawing bigger crowds, so he moved the teen dances to the Gasparilla Room at Curtis Hixon Hall.<\/p>\n<p>During the early 1970s, <strong>Mr. Miles<\/strong> left Curtis Hixon and opened \u201cThe Psychedelic Shack\u201d in the Tampa Park Plaza on Nebraska Avenue. That later became known as \u201cThe Alien,\u201d and the teen dances continued until the late 1970s.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mr. Miles<\/strong> has since been stricken with Parkinson\u2019s Syndrome, but members of the All Class Reunion group thought this would be the right time to organize a tribute to him and speak on how he effected the lives of a lot of teenagers who might have otherwise turned the wrong way in life.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts are now underway to reunite as many of the performers, DJs, and patrons of that era for this tribute.<\/p>\n<p>Among those who have already pledged to be a part of the tribute are the <strong>Jackson Brothers<\/strong>,<strong> Eddie Durant, Sharon Thompson, Dwight Bolden, Daddy Cool, Floyd \u201cFloyd Joy\u201d Rivers<\/strong>, and some patrons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for <strong>Gay Pappa Miles<\/strong>, there\u2019s no telling how I may have turned out,\u201d said one <strong>Isaac Hayes<\/strong> impersonator.<strong>[private]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Mr. Miles<\/strong> gave us all something to do on Friday nights, and brought together groups from Middleton and Blake in one room where they all got along without any conflicts. It was truly a beautiful thing to see and be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What <strong>Mr. Miles<\/strong> did can\u2019t be duplicated today as evidenced by the number of violent incidents that have occurred at teen gatherings over the years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut, that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t look back and say thank you to the man who paved the way for teenagers to be responsible people and at the same time, display their talents.\u201d said <strong>Mr. C<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for <strong>Mr. Miles<\/strong>, no one would have ever heard of \u201cThe Mighty Good And Strong\u201d Band.\u201d<strong>[\/private]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you were a part of the Curtis Hixon, Psychedelic Shack or Alien history and want to be a part of this tribute, call (813) 743-8779.\u00a0 The\u00a0 tribute has been planned for October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer During the mid-1960s, Mr. Charles Chester \u201cGay Pappa\u201d Miles was an Algebra teacher at Howard W. Blake High School. He was also very interested in providing students with some kind of recreational outlet after school. It was during that time Mr. Miles created teen dances that were held [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}