The StoryCorps Mobile Tour returned to Fort Myers in February and March 2024 to record meaningful conversations with people right here in Southwest Florida about their lives.
Each Monday, we’re highlighting some of the compelling stories from our fellow Southwest Florida residents.
In this installment, we hear Sue and Curt Dunham talk about their more than six decades-long relationship, raising children, and their shared adventurous love of boating, which eventually led them to set down roots in Southwest Florida.
Transcript:
SUE DUNHAM: We've been married now for 62 years. So, 62 adventuresome years. We've had a lot of adventures.
CURT DUNHAM: One of the best things was our kids, though. We had two sons. They’re both very smart, and they showed it in different ways. When he was two and younger, Christopher used to practice saying words in his bedroom when he didn't think we could hear. I thought kind of unusual. I've been around kids and I never, never knew anyone that did that. Jason, on the other hand, didn't talk until he was three because he learned to teach us that >grunt sound< meant “I want something different,” and mostly Sue because she was home with him and I was at work, she would respond and get it correctly. And so he had no need to talk. All their needs were being taken care of.
SUE: Actually, I thought he could be deaf, and when I took him to the pediatrician, he said, “Oh no, he's not deaf.” And I wondered, “Why do you know that? He doesn't talk.” I said, “Well, if he doesn't talk by the time he's three,” I said, “Then I'm going to insist on a hearing test.” Well, he started talking, and then he started watching Sesame Street, and by the time he was four, he was reading at a fifth grade level. He had taught himself all the words, but both boys became very successful. Was very good for us.
CURT: At that point, we built our dream house. So, that was good for like, eight years, and then Sue felt something was missing, and we tried all kinds of things, counseling and all, but she's a take charge person, and the answer was, get the divorce, see what happens. And so we were we ended up divorced for two years. I tried to find a partner, and I just kept comparing them to Sue. Nobody can compare. So, I finally gave up on that.
SUE: Well, actually, we did get back together. I didn't like the boat that Curt bought.
CURT: It was a little cramped.
SUE: It was very cramped, but I was interested in learning about boating because I'd grown up on the water. We decided we would start going to the Annapolis Sailboat Show to look at other boats, and that's what we did.
CURT: Sue actually had the bright… she always has all the bright ideas. She said, “Why don't we rent a boat down in the Chesapeake for a week and see what it's like?” Which we did.
SUE: It was a catamaran because catamarans were the kind of boat that you liked, and I certainly felt more comfortable in them because they're very stable.
CURT: Sue decided…
SUE: Let's buy a boat.
CURT: Why don't we buy a boat instead of renting it all the time.
SUE: I said “You should get a Coast Guard license so that we could take people on chartering.” If we chartered a boat for other people, if we had cruises, they would pay us, basically, to keep the boat and all the expenses that we had. We determined that the best place to do that would be New York Harbor. We found a marina. We got a slip there, and then we started advertising. We provided dinner cruises, which was also kind of fun. We did this for eight wonderful years. Then you were retiring, and we decided our aim was always to go south, and you wanted to live either in Miami or Fort Lauderdale in Florida where it would be warm.
CURT: I picked the east coast.
SUE: We had taken our sailboat and did our first trip south, and that was kind of an adventure, because we'd never really left the New Jersey waters before, and everything was new. We bought books on what to expect and places to go and so forth.
CURT: People thought we were adventurous, but we never went anywhere that a ton of people hadn’t been before and written about it. So, we were confident wherever we were going.
SUE: We didn't feel adventuresome, but…
CURT: It looked adventures from the outside.
SUE: I guess so. And we got south, and that first winter, we found a place in Fort Myers to dock the boat for the winter. We cruised for five years, going from New Jersey to Florida and back north in the spring. And then, after five years, I said, “I think we should get jobs so that we can maintain this lifestyle forever. So we did.”
CURT: The Mel Fisher Company, and I will let you look it up, opened up a store/museum on Sanibel Island. So, we drove out and had the interview, and he hired us both. Later on, we asked him why he hired us, and he said, “You were the first two people that didn't come drunk to the interview.” (laughter) Yeah, that's Florida.
SUE: What an endorsement. But we had a great time. I was hired as the office manager, and I had really no experience being an office manager, but that didn't seem to matter.
CURT: The fellow that hired us knew we were on the ball.
SUE: Yeah.
CURT: I think that's our story today.
SUE: I think that is.
CURT: Okay. See you at home. (Shared laughter)
JOHN DAVIS, HOST: That was Kurt Dunham and his wife of more than six decades, Sue Dunham. Their conversation was recorded in Fort Myers through the StoryCorps Mobile Tour.
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