A century ago, Sanibel Island, Florida, was a rugged tropical outpost.

Few were hearty enough to brave the heat, the isolation and mosquito swarms.

Yet, a husband and wife saw potential in the salty soil.

Isiah and Hannah Gavin came to Sanibel around 1917.

At that time, Sanibel was known for farming tomatoes and collard greens and beans and potatoes.

And then, of course, you had the hurricanes that destroyed Sanibel for farming.

And so then my dad and everybody else had to do something different.

The Gavins were among the first black families to settle on Sanibel.

Another family were the Walkers, Pearl Alice and Harry.

And, of course, the Walkers had several girls.

And my dad married one of them.

Elnora Then after that, there was just a slew of Gavins My name is Kenneth Gavin, and I'm the fourth of what I call the 20 children of Edmond and Elnora Gavin.

Im Eugene Gavin.

I was the fifth child.

We would be considered a founding family.

And even some of the white families that were here on Sanibel, if it wasn't for the Gavins and the Walkers, they wouldn't have been able to stay because we supported them so much.

Edmond Gavin was a hard worker.

He instilled his work ethic in his children.

Before and after school, the Gavin kids collected the island's world-famous seashells to be sold as souvenirs.

When I say the whole family I mean, anyone that was old enough to pick up a shell and put it in a bucket.

Someone from the Shell Factory come over periodically on Saturday, and then we had all these bushels of shells that we had picked up.

However, not all memories were as picturesque.

This was Florida, the segregated South, mid century.

The children of Sanibel went to separate elementary schools, one for whites, another for blacks.

We walked to school and the white kids rode to school on the bus.

At that time, when it rained and there was puddles of water in the road, you could see the bus coming, big yellow coming, and we'd try to get ahead of the water puddle and get off the road so we wouldn't get splashed.

But now the bus driver and her husband were good friends of our family.

But yet she couldn't pick us up and give us a ride.

We couldn't ride on the bus... even though we played together.

But that was the law.

But my dad and Henry Rhodes, they were close.

Theyd kill rabbits and stuff and share fish alligators tails, alligators.

We got along real well.

But being close-knit didn't mean that the children addressed the fathers, Edmond and Henry in the same way.

His kids would call my dad, Edmond.

I had an issue with that.

And so the next time Henry came, I would say, Dad, Henry is out here.

And so after Henry left, Kenneth got a good little whippin.

But now I couldn't call black adults by their first name either But I just, thats, that bothered me.

See it was not a racial thing.

It was the respect that you give to male and female.

If you say, sir, you know it's a male.

Then I guess I just thought that his kids should have honored my parents the same way I honored them.

That's because he challenged certain things that bothers him.

And mine, I let it pass by, pass me by.

And it's okay to say, sir and miss.

Reverend.

I didn't mind saying, sir, but, you know, it's wrong I don't think I should have gotten a whippin for that.

You probably shouldn't of.

Despite segregation, the Gavin brothers said there was a closeness among most islanders.

It's strange the way things were.

Blacks and whites got along fine.

For some reason things were different on Sanibel.

Yet the racism that did exist restricted their freedom, including the ability to acquire wealth.

When I was here, blacks couldn't buy land on Sanibel.

If that was the case, you know, we could have bought land when it was $100 a lot.

The Gavin Brothers left the island and the South to build the kind of lives they dreamed of for themselves.

Kenneth became a lawyer and a pastor.

Eugene joined the Air Force and moved to Colorado.

I said Id never go back to Sanibel.

Mosquitoes, no girls And it just seemed like it was a bad place to be.

Eugene and Kenneth Gavin, now in their eighties, were drawn back to Southwest Florida in their later years.

The brothers and their wives are making new memories.

Boy, you know, we have some fun.

And I'm not kidding.

It's a lot of love here.

Sure, at least once a week were together.

And it was Eugene who chose to live on Sanibel.

Even though the mosquitoes and everything else was here.

And I just decided to come back here.

I feel at home.

I know I'm home.

You know, I respect people and they respect me.

And I think it's love there too.