I grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. I am a good bit younger than you are.... when we got our fresh shrimp straight off the boats it was $.50 per lb. for jumbo. I not so fondly remember that they were still alive and I had to help dehead and shell them for the freezer.
To this day I do not like shrimp.
We always went tent camping in the Ocala National Forest at a place called Alexander Springs. I remember snorkling and coming face to face with aligator gars, canoeing, seeing the monkeys that had escaped from the filming of the Tarzan movies and feeding Pete, the alligator, marshmallows.
Alexander Springs