"The Time of My Life," autobiography of Donald J. Mikler 2002

              The Time of My Life
By: Donald John Mikler
I was born “ in the country near Oviedo, Florida”, 27 December 1931. My father was Michael Mikler who was born in Cleveland, Ohio 23 July 1906. Grandfather Joseph Mikler had immigrated to the Unitrd States in 1904 and settled in Cleveland. He got a job in a barrel factory, earning $1.25 a day. Six months later he sent for his wife in Czechslovakia. They bought a house in Cleveland and Grandmother Mikler ("Bobka", Slovak slang for grandmother) had two more children, Joseph and Katherine. In 1912 they joined a group of Slovaks who had bought land in Florida, sold their house in Cleveland, and moved to Florida. My mother was Mathilda Lamos who was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia 24 February 1908. Her parents had immigrated to the USA in about 1912 and settled in Chicago, then tried farming in Wisconsin, then moved back to Chicago. Mother and Dad were married in Chicago 11 June 1929. After they married, they traveled to Slavia, Florida where dad’s family lived. Slavia, a Slovak community of farmers, is located about four miles south of Oviedo. Oviedo is located about 15 miles northeast of Orlando. My mother’s sister, Marie, accompanied the wedding party for the car trip back to Florida. Grandfather Mikler had a big Studebaker sedan. Must have been tight since grandfather, grandmother, dad, mom, dad’s best man and brother Joe, and Marie, and probably “Big Joe”, dad’s cousin, rode in the car. The road was two-lane blacktop, in the 1920’s, several decades before interstate highways. My mothers sister, Marie, said that mom and dad lived in grandfather Miklers’ house for a while. That must have been interesting in that the house was small and crowded with a growing family. As of this writing, the house still stands on Mikler Road at the edge of Slavia. One of my cousins restored the house in the 90s. By 1929, dad had five younger brothers and four sisters living in the same house. After a short stay with the parents, dad rented a house in a sparsely populated subdivision in Goldenrod, about half-way between Orlando and Oviedo.
In about 1934 dad and his brothers built a "temporary" house in Slavia. It was situated about 150 feet from the state road that ran between Orlando and Oviedo. Our nearest neighbor was Stanko's Store, in Slavia, about a mile north of the house. Slavia was a "wide spot in the road" with maybe 50 residents and a church..My parents are buried in a cemetery adjacent to the Lutheran church there. A mile to the south was Jamestown, where only colored people lived in shacks. Mikler Road joins the state road at Jamestown. The Mikler's and another Slovak family, the Duda's settled and farmed on properties on Mikler Road. As of this writing, the roads are still in place but the farms have been over-run with housing developments.
The house was an ordinary wood frame rectangle and rather small with one bedroom, a living room, and kitchen. The inside walls were unfinished. The floors were ordinary wood planks/lumber and there was no carpet. There was no electricity and we had a hand operated pump for water in the kitchen. We bathed in a large wash-tub in the middle of the kitchen and the water was heated on the wood-burning kitchen stove. Of course there was no air-conditioning. An outhouse was close by behind the house. I don't remember the year, but before dad died electricity was installed in the house..