Deborah Work's 2001 book, My Soul Is a Witness: A History of Black Fort Lauderdale, has an interesting quotation from Inez Stubbs Devoe, a woman who was born in Fort Lauderdale in 1915. Ms. Devoe remembers that for black children, the school year was cut short by the need to work in the bean fields.

But we enjoyed school . . . We had no complaints until the time came for us to go pick beans. And we had fun in the bean fields, anyway. It was difficult for our parents, who worked downtown or in someone's home, for us to have to quit school and go to the fields. They worried about us walking down Broward Boulevard to State Road 7, then to Hammondville Road, to the fields and then walk back home. We would get home about 9 p.m. at night. Then we'd be up early the next morning to cook our lunch and get back up Hammondville to the fields.

If Ms. Devoe's memory is correct, this means that she and her friends may have walked over 20 miles, roundtrip, each day!

Today, the distance from Broward Boulevard to Coconut Creek Parkway (née Hammondville Road) along State Road 7 is 8.6 miles.