The Gavins grew up on Sanibel Island and are now in their early 80s. Their grandparents were among the first Black families to settle on Sanibel. Kenneth Gavin described how their grandparents chose the island.
"Isiah and Hannah Gavin came here to Sanibel around 1917. At that time, Sanibel was known for farming tomatoes and collard greens and beans and potatoes and things like that," he said. "And then, of course, you had the hurricanes that destroyed Sanibel for farming. So, then my dad and everybody else had to do something different, but they still stayed on Sanibel."
The brothers have rich memories of island life. Eugene shared a funny holiday story from a time before the Sanibel Causeway existed, when Sanibel was linked to Fort Myers by ferry.
"Do you remember the year that Mother and Daddy went to Fort Myers? (They) were gonna go to Fort Myers at the last minute to get Christmas presents. And they missed the ferry. And they said, 'No Christmas presents this year, Santa Claus fell on the electric wire.'"
"I remember that tale," replied Kenneth.
"Well, it may be the truth, but I remember it being told."
"No, that's the truth," Eugene affirmed. "From mother's mouth. I remember that 'cause we used to tell the little children about Santa Claus and then we started telling them that there was no Santa Claus and that was the last year we got a Christmas presents."
Kenneth added, "I remember we used to make our own toys at Christmas time, yes."
"I remember that," said Eugene.
Their parents, Edmond and Elnora Gavin, worked hard to provide and care for the large family. Eugene was the fifth of 20 children. Kenneth was the fourth.
"As I recall, the home on SanCap Road, that one had three bedrooms. Mom and dad, the baby, lived in one room," recalled Kenneth. "The girls lived in one room and the boys lived in one room. And I can remember four boys being in one room, one bed, two heads down here and two heads down here. We had to deal with stinky feet. And I do remember that."
"We didn't, because we didn't have tennis shoes", chimed in Eugene.
"We still, you know, still had to deal with one another's feet," laughed Kenneth.
Their pioneering family played a critical role in developing Sanibel. Their mother came from the Walker family, also early island residents of color.
"The Gavins originally here established respectful relationships with other islanders, and as people came to the island they needed workers. They needed someone to keep that lot up if they were going to build. They needed someone to clean away trees and stuff," recalled Kenneth. "And so they knew that the Gavins did that type of work, or whatever type of work you needed that you couldn't do yourself. Of course, you find a Gavin to do it. And then the Walkers came to the island then. Now there's two families that they do the same type of work. And so they made those kind of contributions in terms of developing the island and making sure that the island was a place where people would want to come."
A longer version of the Gavin Brothers conversation will air on WGCU in the coming months.