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FISHWEIR AND BEYOND ( RIVERSIDE MEMORIES ) Copyrighted 03/25/2008 edition Raymond H. King (352) -861-1903 graycek@embarqmail.com Ocala, Florida
FISHWEIR
PREFACE In the city of Jacksonville, Florida, there have sprouted a sizeable number of little acorns, which began maturing toward becoming mighty oaks, while yet retaining quite a bit of the nuttiness along the way. The two decades between about 1938 to about 1958 was a wonderful time to be children in these two square miles of humanity called the Avondale community, located in the heart of the district served by R. E. Lee High School. What follows will be a recalling of the culture of that half-generation within which we youngsters went from childhood toward adulthood - experiencing the freedoms and opportunities, the stability of discipline, the triumphs, failures, joys, and laments of those important formative years. The story here begins in the halls of the Fishweir Elementary School where I attended and then expands through several degrees of association. This current edition has expanded quite beyond the initial thirteen- page text sent to some classmates in the summer of 2005. The “Beyond” of the title has been not only in locale, but also in time. This is attributed to those subsequent contributions of many which have then had a catalytic feedback effect on our mutual recollections. The many shared photos and clippings, besides being nostalgic, have likewise been the stimuli for further inquiry and participation. So now, here are the recollections offered by thoughtful and interesting people who have likewise experienced that culture of “the” Avondale, which began for most of us at the elementary schools of Fishweir and West Riverside and which were then supplemented by Ortega. Acknowledgments are throughout and at the close of the text. FOR OVER NINETY YEARS (Not us; them. ) The Fishweir Open House, celebrating its Ninetieth Anniversary was on the Sunday afternoon of April 29, 2007. Eleven hundred attended including fifteen of our sixth grade class of 1946. Our friend, John Layton served as the MC for the very entertaining and informative “Open Mike” session later on that afternoon when the photos were made.
FISHWEIR CLASS OF 1946 RETURNS Neese Ostner Goodling, Sarah Boone Slade, Larry Moshell, Patty Burton Owens, Eunice Cellar (Mert) Murray, Ray King, Julie Lindblad, Pokey Smith, Bob Sanders
MIXED ALUMNI OF SISTERS AND WIVES Ray, Kay King Conoly ‘50, Meredith ‘50,Tyler, Jane Moshell, Pokey, Larry, Bob Those of ‘46 attending, but not photographed this day: Dr. Peter McCranie, Mildred Barrett Sheppard, Larry Moore, Verna Lois McLain Schoonmaker
John Layton and Sarah Towers Van Cleve (Sarah T) were in a class before ours. Sarah recollects, “My first memory of Fishweir is of lining up outside according to classes. This was a solemn ceremony with no talking. We all said the pledge of allegiance after the patrol boys had raised the flag on the pole in front of the school and I think we sang the national anthem. Then we all marched up an incredibly long flight of stairs to our classrooms as Mrs. Bogart played a Sousa march on one of those wind-up 78 rpm phonographs with the big horn. Mind you, this was done in silence and we all filed into our classrooms in an orderly fashion. Maybe some of you can imagine my amazement years later when my children attended Fishweir and I walked up those long stairs again. Now they were just an ordinary flight of steps.” Thanks, Sarah. As I recall we had moved inside to the classrooms for the Flag pledges when I started school in September 1940. I know for sure that we were doing the Lord's Prayer inside the classrooms then because Mrs. DeGraffenreid hollered at me one time for peeking around when our eyes were supposed to be closed. That was 67 years ago and I have dared not to peek ever since.
GOING HOME I had gone by Fishweir Elementary School in March, 2005, and first met Andrea Akers, the current Principal who has been there since 2002. And then classmate Julie Lindblad, Eleanor King (Mom) and I visited again around Thanksgiving season. Mrs. Akers was exceptionally cordial and showed us all around the school which has been expanded considerably since we were students there over sixty years ago. She told us that Fishweir, Public School #20, was built as a four-room building and first used in 1917. There was an identical school built at the same time. Fishweir had already expanded to the “U” shape comprising the additional two, long classroom wings plus three auxiliaries when most of us arrived there around the early 1940s. It has obviously expanded since then including front extensions, the library, the cafeteria at the back and the band room. Fishweir, Ruth N. Upson and Central Riverside Schools all celebrated their Ninetieth Anniversaries in 2007. Fishweir is now a Magnet School in the Visual and Performing Arts for not only the Riverside community, but it also draws young students from several surrounding Counties of both Florida and Georgia. This supplemental, specialized curriculum includes band and stringed music, dance, dramatics and graphic arts. The Fishweir Elementary School band has even been playing at high school football games. There is a special program for the visually and hearing impaired. There is an educational service for pre-school children.
THE PRINCIPAL IN CONFERENCE
It is very encouraging to visit this center of primary education, not just because of the fine facilities, but especially because the teachers and the administration do cherish those little children Mrs. Annie McLean who had been our miniature Principal with the big heart retired after 1950. She had been preceded by Mrs. Elizabeth Bogart who was the initial Principal in 1917 and for twenty-two years served until her retirement in 1939, the year before my class entered. Mrs. Lucille Ross, who was a teacher while we were there, became a Principal at Fishweir for fourteen years. Miss Callie Coody became Principal at another school on the South Side. We called her Miss“ Cooty” and until just recently I even spelled her name that way. No disrespect intended, just ignorance. Kay remembers that Miss Coody had a large, granny-style rocking chair in her classroom. Often if a child misbehaved, especially a bad little fifth grade boy, they had to sit in her lap and she would rock them like a baby. The horror! I wonder if she took the chair with her across town?
PAPER HATS AND SANDI had previously given Mrs. Akers a set of those 1941 and 1942 first and second grade photographs that so many of us are in. The few teachers I saw at Fishweir during the earlier visit were intrigued by the costumes we were wearing in that particular first grade photo. This classroom comprised the “Rhythm Band“.
FISHWEIR FIRST GRADE CLASS 1-A ( “Rhythm Band “) , 1940-41
Our hats were painted paper plates like those from the school lunch table which was set up daily in the south hall as a concession run by a Mrs. Parsons. Kay still remembers the red rice and I still remember the English peas in the pot, and they really did look “nine days old“. On top of the hats were wooden or pressed paper spoons and forks. This was in 1941 BP (before plastic). Someone wondered if the capes had been made right in the classroom and cut-out from crepe paper. I don't remember. But in the photo they look somewhat more substantial than that. Perhaps this was not their only use. I wonder if there were there rhythm bands at other times? Now, Fishweir has that amazing band performing at those football games and I am miffed. Nobody else ever asked our Rhythm Band to play anywhere - not even at touch football games.
The photo shows our rhythm instruments to be cymbals, triangles, maracas, bells and bamboo -type sticks - a bit primitive considering what is being played by the current students. Louise "Neese" Ostner Goodling says that she was so jealous of Murlene Whitten because she got to play the triangle and Neese was stuck with the sticks. Life is just not fair. Some of us little boys had a crush on Murlene. Can you blame us? Just look at that pretty little girl on the first row smiling with the long blond, curly hair.
There was another photo also made on the front steps of the school of the second- first grade class of that year. A copy may be found in the Snapshot Section toward the back of the 1949 Highlights - the Lake Shore School Annual. We could recognize only Sarah Boone and Nancy Hartman standing together middle-right. But then Mert Murray knew that on the front row 5th from the left is Sandra Merritt and on the very top row, on crutches is Harvey Jordan (he had polio) His family lived and worked at Matthews Lumber Yard on St. Johns Ave. across from the ice plant; and in the middle is Mary Henderson, the one smiling so brightly with Betty Barber the third girl to the left of her.
FISHWEIR FIRST GRADE CLASS -1B , 1940-41 (See text ) Then during the Fishweir Open House the third -first grade class photo of 1940-41 was found. It was Mrs. Stout’s class. Larry Moore had provided that photo and has furnished most of the names. (For Mrs. Stout, see the commentary on the Children’s Museum.)
FISHWEIR FIRST GRADE - MRS. CAROLINE STOUT - 1940-41 (From Back) 1, 2, Tom Jenkins, B.F. Hamilton, Betty Hildebrand, 6, Anne Jeannine Winter, 8 , Gerald ?, Gardiner ?, George Rice, Raleigh Thompson, Dudley Parr , Mitchell ?, 14, A.W. Bates (Front), 17 , Bernice Coulter, Roy Shanks, Larry Moore, Charles Winn, 22 , 23, Betty Ann Wilkinson ?, Gary Lunsford, Monroe Harrell, 27 .
Oh, by the way, I remember counting ten blue crabs in Azalea Creek, which ran through Boone Park while supposedly on the way to school at Fishweir one fine morning. I was so late that the dust had settled on the school yard and that took a while. Yes, that was 10 crabs! Ten! For a young boy, that was bragging rights. See, I am still bragging. Azalea and Willow Branch creeks were sites of many childhood adventures not only from the banks of the surrounding parks, but from within the creeks themselves as we dug holes and built dams to create pools. ( Well, we also swam in the River and survived that, too. )
Pokey also recalls how the schoolyard was a dingy sand dune about “three feet deep“. During the annual Halloween carnival outside (complete with those stage performances inside) there were activity booths for ring toss, baseball throw (at real glass) milk bottles, apple bobbing, etc. It was all in that sand which would fill your shoes. After the carnivals Pokey and Bob Sanders would return with their homemade, wire hardware cloth sifters and filter the sand around the concession spots for loose change. The horizontal exercise bar near the bicycle rack was another profitable mining claim and Sanders staked out a spot near one of the rear doors where lunch money was often lost. Pokey says that it did not put him into a higher tax bracket, but it did pay his way to the Fairfax Theater for a little while.
Shown right below is the former “Rhythm Band Class”, now in the second grade at Fishweir. Naturally there were a few changes among the thirty-four in pupils.
FISHWEIR SECOND GRADE Class 2-A , 1941-42 - MISS LUCY HARRISON
(Front) Hubert Roberts, Betty Mayfield, Nancy Mayfield, Donald Reedy, Bill Gunter, Tuck Peters, Grace Nall, Beverly Haile, Murlene Whitten, Douglas McClure, Carol Edwards, Marion McDaniel, Ann Young, Verna Lois McClain, Paula Rowe
The auditorium had been painted just before our visit and Mrs. Akers had the foresight to see that those fine patriotic “Four Freedoms” posters on the back wall were protected. These posters were acquired and framed in 1943 as a patriotic gift to Fishweir by Mrs. Elizabeth Towers, wife of attorney Daughtry Towers, the parents of Sarah Van Cleve.
Addressing the Congress on January 6, 1941, (eleven months before Pearl Harbor) President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the threat that a Nazi domination of Europe presented to American security. He appealed to the beliefs that Americans hold about the freedoms of speech and worship, and the freedoms to fight against fear and want. Norman Rockwell produced a series of four paintings with American scenes to illustrate those "Four Freedoms." First published by the Saturday Evening Post, the posters were later used by the U.S. government to sell war bonds.” Considering the artist, their large size and their age, I expect they are quite valuable now. Identical posters were said to have been appraised on an "Antiques Road Show" on TV. That estimate is unknown.
FREEDOM FROM WANT FREEDOM OF RELIGION
On my visit I also gave Mrs Akers a photo of Mrs. Frei’s third grade class of 1946-7, which included (Richard A. Smith) Pokey’s sister, Carol and my sister, Kay and Meredith Martin, Georgette Cooper, Jane Sharp. It is shown below and it appears that a parent or another teacher on the back steps of the South hall made the photo. I also gave her a copy of a 1946 photo of a few of us Patrol Boys, shown on later pages. I really wish we had photos of Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Harper’s sixth grade classes. I believe they stopped professionally taking the class pictures at Fishweir during the Big War. But this did not seem to be the case at West Riverside as there are fifth and sixth grade photos there in 1946 -7. There is a 1942 second grade Ortega photo and class photos were also made in 1947-49 at Lake Shore and John Gorrie. (For Miss Mary Frei, see the later commentary on the Childrens Museum.)
FISHWEIR THIRD GRADE - 1947 , MISS. MARY FREI Front -G, Gail Waits, Myron Prevatt, Lloyd Brown, Helen Studstill, Faunce McCulley, David Henn Second- G , Gail Mays, Mike Davidson, Carol Smith, Ohlyne Blackard, Carol Cole, Georgette Cooper, -G-, -G-, Mickey McClurken Third - Virginia Harvard, B, Meredith Martin, Kay King, -G-, Linda Lovett, G, Fourth - Toni -, Jackie Wurn, Jackie or Joyce, Jane Sharp, Joyce or Jackie Top - B, Mrs. Frei
There were two festivals each year, one in the spring and a PTA fundraiser in the fall Which was often a Halloween carnival. West Riverside Elementary School also had a large carnival at Halloween. The spring of '41 at Fishweir is probably when our Rhythm Band actually performed on stage. Classes of various other grades also took part in these Festival performances. I was the “stage manager" in the sixth grade for one Festival - operating the curtain and the lights. There were footlights at the front of the stage then, but they are gone now. I remember because I forgot to turn them on that night for one of the numbers. It is odd that I remember that little detail, but not some of the more important things. (I will leave that to my classmates.) There were other afternoon performances through out the year. A photo I had given to Mrs. Akers was of one of the performances in the auditorium later on in 1947. It was of well-costumed “Penguins” dancing on stage. However, none were recognizable. This was Kay's fourth or fifth grade class with Miss Coody. Our Mom had choreographed it and taught the children to dance the authentic penguin polka and they all wrote her "Thank You" letters, which she has kept all these years. There were surely many other photos taken during those times, but they too are deposited in dusty old albums on closet shelves all across the country.
I mentioned that we were there in Fishweir School for the whole duration of World War II. Pokey later reminded me of the scrap metal and newspaper drives we had at school and in the neighborhoods. This was likewise done at neighboring West Riverside School as well as nationally. All of our class rooms competed for certificates awarded according to who had the largest volumes of papers stacked next to their cloakrooms. One of the judges was usually a uniformed officer from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station (NAS). Yes, Fishweir had cloak rooms in those days; however, I do not recall anyone actually wearing a real cloak, unless he was in the movies, had fangs and said things like, "Goode eeeeveing". Beside storage, the cloakrooms were also used for disciplinary “time-outs". Mrs. Akers relates that visiting alumni always want to see one of the cloakrooms and show it to their families.
I told Mrs. Akers about the air raid drills and how we children all climbed under our school desks. Later when I was at Auburn, we had mock air raid drills during dinnertime in the PIKE fraternity house. Remember, this was the same bunch of "post-war time" kids, but from different states. Someone would shout “AIR RAID” and then most of the freshmen (the pledges) would crawl under the dining room table while others would stand on the chairs to "man" the imaginary “Ack-Ack” guns. They would imitate firing them by oscillating their two index fingers back and forth while making; "Boom Boom Boom Boom" gun noises like (other) little boys do until the “ALL CLEAR”. I somewhat expect that the same thing went on during fraternity dinners all across the nation, but at the more "sophisticated" SAE house at Florida, I believe that they used real guns. Let me explain.
I began college at Auburn and transferred to U of F where I finally graduated (Lawde How Come). The transfer of universities was a culture shock. For instance, at quaint little Auburn, before the Saturday midnight movies, we would pass the time by unrolling a toilet paper roll (single- ply) to make a continuous steamer - passed along, back and forth and criss- crossing several times thru the student audience. If it broke someone would yell, "Stop" and "Back up," and it would be gingerly repaired (single-ply, remember). Then we would then continue our quest to empty the whole roll before the movie started. But, during a Saturday midnight movie in raucous Gainesville, about half way through a Dracula flick, someone on the front row turned loose a sack full of live bats. At quaint little Auburn the SAE fraternity lion statue in their front yard got paint-splattered nearly every other night, but very early one morning at Gainesville, someone blew the head off of that one with dynamite.
WEST RIVERSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Photos made in 1940-41 of two -first grade and of a second grade 1942 class at West Riverside Elementary School have been provided by Bill Boling. These are of the same class year as those in the Fishweir class photos described above. They would all then be of the same, future Senior classes of 1952 at Robert E. Lee, Bolles and elsewhere.
WEST RIVERSIDE FIRST GRADE, 1941 - Ms. RUTH HOPE Front Row - John Owens, 2, 3, 4, Emily King Frankford, Bebe Brown Ira, Virginia Dew, Gerry Moore Pearson, Gordon Hardage Middle Row - : Sonny Hastings, Jerry Hawkins, Reid Harden, Hudson Hale, Walter Coleman, Charles Grant, Bill Boling, Jimmy Barfield, Jack Gaillard, Bobby Jacks, David Miller Top Row - 1, John MacGowan, Mac Hendee, Ted Pearson
Linda Cleveland Wilson came along a year later, but shares many of the same memories. The principal was Miss Florence Hughes, and she had been there since Cowford. “She put the fear of God and especially of herself into every student !” But on the other hand Jack Gaillard fondly remembers his first teacher. “ Miss Hope, what a great name for a first grade teacher. She had a post office set-up for her classes so that we could send and receive mail among our classmates. “ Jack moved to Ortega during the second grade.
But Jack Galliard still remembers that, “Miss Madge Wallace, our 2nd grade teacher, was one of the (three) actual founders of the original Jacksonville Children’s Museum. The other teachers were Miss Mary Frei, and Mrs. Caroline Stout of Fishweir. Likely a carry- over from all of their imaginative classroom presentations, table-top science displays were initially hosted by the Barnett Bank in the lobby and in window displays to the public. This attracted the attention of some other prominent and proactive citizens. In 1944, when enough support was raised by the Jacksonville Junior League for the mini- museum to develop into something more comprehensive it was moved into the nearby Armory. Miss. Madaline B. Sawyer became its first Director. Assisted by the original Hornaday Foundation it again expanded into a house in Riverside. Through the tireless efforts of the Jacksonville Women’s Guild and the community funding , in late 1969 it reopened in a new building on the South Side near the Main Street (Alsop) Bridge. In 1988 it expanded again and with a 60 foot domed planetarium it would become known as the present Museum of Science and History, still located in the current Freedom Park. The ongoing philosophy of the entire enterprise, beginning with the three teachers, became the motto of the museum; "Curiosity is the Beginning of Wisdom".
Bill Boling says, “Once we were studying silkworms which ate the leaves from mulberry trees. Miss Wallace had one in her yard and we did too so I got to take them home to feed them, but I left them on our dining room table. ‘Well, isn‘t that where you eat?’ But they did survive young the Boling, and they did make their silk cocoons on schedule for the class. Another of her students was young Bill Slye who would later win a Science Achievement award at Bolles. Miss Madge Wallace was seeing to it that many other solid foundations were going to be built as well and for a long time to come. Just look at her Museum now. Just look at whom most of her progeny of young student have become.
WEST RIVERSIDE FIRST GRADE CLASS June 1941 MISS GREGORY
First Row - 1, 2, 3, Carol (Bunny) Canaday, 5, Marry Morrow Drake, 7, 8 Second Row - 1, John Marshall, Richard Cauley, 4, 5, Bobby Paul, 7 , Sharon Russell Howell Top Row : 1, Joe Rabb, 3, 4, 5
WEST RIVERSIDE SECOND GRADE CLASS, 1942 , MISS WALLACE
Front Row- Bill Boling, 2, 3, Mary Truluck Vann, 5, 6,7, Virginia Dew, Priscilla Morgan, David Miller Second Row: Jimmy Barfield, 2, Ida Puldy Cramner, 4, 5, Richard Cauley, BobbyPaul, Barbara Brett, Carol Augur Bedenbaugh, Carol Ann (Bunny) Canaday Brown Top Row- Joe Rabb, Bill Slye, 3, John Marshall, Betsy Yoakley Sturgeon, Mary Morrow Drake, 7, Charlton (Jug) Wilson
Geri (Gerry) Moore Pearson (See first photo) adds her memories of the good ole days. “I also had Mrs. Wallace, Edna Krause, and Mrs. Cooper for the 4th grade. But my memories are mostly about the recess period. On some days we would all bring bags of jacks with a golf ball. At the recess time all the sidewalks on the girls side would be filled with groups of 2, 3 or 4 playing games of jacks. On other days we would bring jump ropes. The street on the playground side would be closed to traffic and the street would be filled with jump rope groups jumping just for the fun of it. The corner of the playground was planted with small bushes and trees, which served as a backdrop or scenery for plays and "talent shows". Many days there would be a spontaneous skit or talent show with singers, dancers, or poetry recitals. We were so gifted! We had no TV's, much less iPods, cell phones or computer games but we had great recesses nevertheless. I also remember that after school the neighborhood kids would gather in our sun room and listen to Superman on the radio. The show was so exciting.”
Bill continues. “In the sixth grade we began changing classes in anticipation of doing so in John Gorrie Junior High. We had three teachers: Mrs. McKinnon, Mrs. Donner and Mrs. Cash. Mrs. McKinnon taught English. She had a poetry contest and we were called upon to recite something we had memorized. Boling can still remember some of those poems: "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, into the valley of death rode the - - er, uh, - the antiseptic baby and the prophylactic pup, were playing in the garden when the bunny ambled up - -”. (Don’t worry Bill, I won’t tell anyone.) “One day she went around and had each of us compose a one sentence prayer. Mine was for our team to win (I was on the sixth grade football team. Surprised? ) She told me that you should not pray to win. Since then I have never prayed to win and it works; I never have won.”
Bunny has told how much she liked Miss McKinnon too. “She helped me to write with my left hand when I fell off a horse and had my right one in a cast.”
In Mrs. Donner‘s class, we did an operetta entitled "Cuba Libre." Orville Tyler was the lead boy who had stunned us in audition by belting-out, ‘A capital ship on an ocean trip - - -.’ He was awesome.” Orville and Larry Moshell, the other regional voice of acclaim, were in the Good Shepherd Boys Choir. “And then one late spring day, about the end of the school year Mrs. Donner told us that she had noticed the class was becoming a bit ‘pungent‘. That was our introduction to a new vocabulary word and to deodorant.”
In Mrs. Cash's class we were studying the geography of Egypt and the Nile. She had a rectangular table on which we had laid out the Nile as it runs through Egypt. She wanted to make the point that the Nile runs north, like the St. Johns, so she picked up one end of the table. It was such a wonderful graphic demonstration that I remember it clearly today.
Linda remembers going with a date to the Patrol Boys Dance at the George Washington Hotel ballroom and that the West Riverside sixth graders had a "graduation banquet".
W. RIVERSIDE SIXTH GRADE - MRS. CASH , 1947 Front row- Sandy Hicklin , Clarice Coleman , Alice - , Irving Cohen , Sarah Monroe , Dibby McIlrath Second Row- Beverly Jones , Sandra Herman , Joanne - , Waldo Latham , Milton LeGate, Jan Morrow Third Row- Judy Emerson, Gloria Nasrallah , Kay Pafford , Suzie Alberti , Bobby Hendee , Betty - Fourth/Fiffth Row- Richard Heinz, Nicky - , Webb Olliphant , Jimmy Warren , Roy Walker, Billy Katibah, Tommy -, John Cavavagh
TRUSTWORTHY, LOYAL, HELPFUL, FRIENDLY, COURTEOUS, KIND, OBEDIENT , CHEERFUL, THRIFTY, BRAVE, CLEAN AND REVERENT
Front Row David MaKenzie, Pokey, (Am. Flag) David Miller, B, (Flag), Dudley Norman, Bill Corley, B, Cliff Chambliss, B Second Row B, B, Gordon Perkins, (Am. Flag) M, (Flag) ,- - - B Third Row B, Jimmy Barefield, B, Norman Cole, (Am. Flag), B, B, (Flag) B, Bob Braswell, Jim Roane, Richard Roseborough Top Row Mr Perkins- Scoutmaster, (Am. Flag) B, B, (Flag), M
As with those of the Avondale Methodist , Riverside Presbyterian and other churches the Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting programs , beside teaching skills and citizenship, were places where the boys of the regional schools could mix apart from sporting activities. Cub Pack 8 of Avondale Methodist shown here around 1944 was a mix of Fishweir and West Riverside, Gorrie and Lee. The Boy Scout assistants are in the lighter colored uniforms. There were Brownie Scouting activities for the younger girls and a few Girl Scouts whom I hope did more than just sell cookies. But like with most of the organized school and community programs for girls, it stopped about there.
KINDERGARTEN A much older photo is of youngsters sitting on porch steps and is a kindergarten group in the Avondale /Riverside area, which was run by “Miss Virginia.” She later became Virginia Ellington. (We can't remember her maiden name.) This photo would be circa. 1938. Other than top center, Scott Moore, and myself bottom, I did not know who the other children were. The boy on the bottom left looks like he could have been Nick Burbridge, but they lived way over on the Southside. Mom did not remember who they were either and she is probably one of the few the surviving moms of the bunch. I sent the photo to Nancy Hartman and to Neese and they determined that two of the girls could be Gerry Moore Pearson (Green Cove Springs) and Mary Truluck Vann. From reunion records Neese located Mary in Huntsville, Alabama and sent her a copy. Mary confirmed that she was indeed in it. And now we also know that they were indeed Nick and Gerry and also Bunny Canaday Brown (Clyde, N.C.). But, we still do not know who the other five were. Maybe it can be passed around at the next Lee reunion. Sanders and Pokey mention another kindergarten run by Mrs. Sisk over in the Geraldine Street area. There were also kindergartens by Mrs. Milam and Mrs. Archebald. Mary Vann has mentioned the kindergarten at the Good Shepherd Church where she had attended with Bill Bowling and Miss Mary Morrow Drake.
A KINDERGARTEN 1938, MISS VIRGINIA (?) G, Gerry (Geri) Moore Pearson, Mary Trueluck Vann, Ray King, G, B, Nick Burbridge, G, Scott Moore , Bunny Canaday Brown , B
I have retained the searching for names episode as described above to again emphasize how this history has been a cooperative effort. My name may be on the title page, but without the contributions of all these friends as noted above and throughout, it would still be only about thirteen pages long and of somewhat limited interest.
EXHIBITIONISTS IN A PICTURE (Similarity to a classic musical score is coincidental) Here is a photo taken at my birthday party in April 1941, when I was in the first grade. We lived in the (then) yellow house on the corner of Riverside Avenue and Dancy Street near the edge of the Avondale shopping center. This photograph will be the starting point for quite an extensive set of recollections about those fine people shown in it and about those fine people involved with those fine people shown in it, as you will soon see - -.
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY RIVERSIDE AVENUE, 1941 (See text)
From left-to right in the picture are: first- Scott Moore, grimacing with the six-shooter. His mother, Elvee Swain Moore, had a dance studio where they lived on the corner of Oak and King Streets before they moved to Neptune Beach. There, Elvee opened another studio and she also helped the Fletcher High School majorettes develop some “style”. People moved to the beaches because they were usually cooler in the summer than the inland city. This was B.A., before air conditioning. (I say that a lot.)
This studio on Oak Street was the same location where Thelma Johnson Baggs, Beverly Baggs Rogers‘s mother, subsequently had her dance studio. This is where many of us Riverside kids learned ballroom dancing - the fox trot (“slow, slow, quick- quick”) and the rumba (“box step“). Also, for many years the Riverside girls took ballet lessons there. Thelma initiated the production of "The Nutcracker" ballet during the Christmas holidays and the performance has become a Jacksonville tradition ever since. Thelma's dance studio building and the large residence in front are long-gone. Mom still has a couple of the ballet dance recital programs from 1943 and 1945, one held at the Women’s Club and one at John Gorrie Junior High School. The Cummer Art Gallery next door to the Women’s Club on the Riverside Avenue waterfront, has since purchased the Women’s Club building. Louise Ostner (Neese) is named in one of the dance programs and also Meredith, Kay, Julie Ingram, Fran Childress, Sherwood and Margaret Drew, Carol Edwards, Blythe Bibbens, Beverly Jean, Gail Wood, Carol Hoffner, Connie Stewart and so many others. The lists are quite large and many names I did not know.
Mildred Barrett Sheppard recalls how she and Sherwood Drew Robinson were good friends and how - - “ Sherwood’s parents would take a bunch of us out to their horse farm in Orange Park when there was a birthday party. We had been laughing about when we were dancing as children. I did tap and Sherwood did ballet. For some of those programs we were in, she got to wear a real tutu and I just wore a crepe paper costume.” Life is still not fair.
Linda Wilson recalls that, “ The Junior Assembly was begun during those years by a bunch of our mamas in late 1948 and still is in existence under the name of the Cotillion. During the 7th through 9th grades we participated in the four dances a year either at the Friday Musicale, Yacht Club or Timuquana. Here we had to demonstrate all we had learned from those Thelma Baggs classes. Some dances were formal, some casual, and some semi-formal. They were well attended and fun! There was some horse-play, of course, but parent chaperones kept it in line. In addition to Thelma Baggs ballet classes, a lot of us boys and girls had previously attended (Katherine) Bagley's Juvenile Theater down on Stockton St. for tap dancing classes or dramatic classes. Some of us were also there for kindergarten.”
Mom (Eleanor) has a copy of the Christmas Pop Concert performance program of the Junior Symphony Orchestra from 1952. She also has a 1945 piano recital program from the Conniff sisters, Julia and Rosa, up on Riverside Ave. and one later from James Crosland on the South Side. Mary Ann Wilson, Carolyn Fant, John Dykers, Ray King, Scott Moore, Connie Lee Stewart and Jerry Slade are among the lists of nimble fingered performers. These annual piano recitals were done at the Friday Musicale, which I refer to this day as "The House of Terror". To really appreciate the metaphor you have to have been a student performer, sweating it out back stage, waiting for your turn to "die" However, Mildred remembers the recitals as the opportunity for a new gown, hand-made by her mother and the corsages which made her feel pretty. The Friday Musicale burned down a few years ago and was then identically rebuilt so that the ghosts of those dreaded performances - past and those nice memories of pretty little girls could be recalled.
Thelma , Elvee and my mom, Eleanor Haight King, used to dance with a professional company on the stage of the Florida Theater in the 1920‘s. Mom got early release from school so she could go to work where she did her homework between performances. She was taught to dance the Highland Fling when she was six by her mother who, as a child, was a Scottish immigrant from Dundee. Mom has been well involved with the performing arts in Jacksonville ever since either on- stage, at-school, or in- committee. She was still dancing the Fling on her seventy-fifth birthday. She went to the Florida State College for Women, (FSU) utilizing her earnings from dancing. While there she taught Tap Dance for the P.E. Department. She left college to become a wife and mother and then some.
THE CAFETERIA LADY While her two children were going to Fishweir it had no regular cafeteria. Then when Eleanor King became the PTA President, they all decided that a decent cafeteria was needed and so she became the prime mover and chief advocate to get a real one built. Due to her persistence, she became known to the School Board as “The Cafeteria Lady”. It was completed in 1950, the year we moved to Arlington and she never saw it much less ate in it. Now residing back in the Avondale neighborhood, she was recently escorted back to Fishweir by two of its alumni and after 56 years, accompanied by Mrs. Akers she finally saw her cafeteria. (Photo) And they were still serving those English peas. When Dr. King died in 1987, she had returned to college and, surviving Algebra, was awarded a Bachelor's degree in Literature by the University of North Florida. She was a very newsworthy 79 years old and was well recognized by the University, and by all.
FRANK Next in the BIRTHDAY PARTY PHOTO (remember that?) , wearing the Army jacket, is Frank Martin. Frank was my friend as long as I can remember having friends. After graduation from Bolles School he went to Georgia Tech in the Naval ROTC program and immediately upon graduation married his long-time, red-headed, sweetheart, Betty Hobson, a former Landon High School Majorette. For a while, Betty was a substitute teacher in the same school where Mrs. Coody had become Principal. Frank made a career in the Navy and for a while he flew helicopters in Key West. The Navy then paid him to go back to school where he earned a Masters in Physics. After the Naval Postgraduate School, Frank became a Weapons Engineering Duty Officer and was sent to London and he and his family spent three years there. When he retired from the Navy, CDR Martin was hired by ERDA (later to become DOE) as a Chief Inspector for all DOE Nuclear Weapons manufacturing and research sites in the States. Frank left the DOE to take a position at Sandia Laboratories and he and Betty and their 3 boys then settled in Albuquerque. He worked at Sandia for more than 25 years until his retirement. Meredith Potterfield is Frank's sister.
You may note that the Weapon of Mass Destruction that young Frank is brandishing in the photo was not an ordinary six-shooter. Frank was not an ordinary boy. It was a Buck Rogers death ray gun. I think it was the only one in Duval County at the time. Tyler Potterfield did not rejoin us in Avondale until later; otherwise he could have been in the picture too. He showed back up around the fifth grade. I tell Tyler that he was lucky because he did not get “zapped” by Frank‘s gene-splitting Buck Rogers device of doom and we did. Now, in our later years we all look like unrecognizable old fossils while Tyler still looks young and pretty. When Tyler moved back to town, he came into Mrs. Hussy’s fifth grade in Fishweir and introduced himself to the class. Then he sang a little ditty, which tune you know: “ Shave and a haircut, two bits. Who you gonna marry, Tom Mix. What’s he gonna sleep on, hard bricks. Wha’cha gonna feed him, fried ticks.“ Everybody laughed and Tyler was “in”. Tyler has been getting “in” ever since.
Later on Frank put aside this destructive device of make believe for another fiendish instrument of pure evil - a hand cranked telephone generator his granddaddy Martin Gave him. Frank was one of the few kids our age that was interested in electricity. And so if Frank was not slowly, micro- disintegrating our DNA with his toy death ray gun for the fun of it, he was quickly “rejuvenating” us with his fiendish generator for the Hell of it. This machine had two carbon rods wired to the crank-box. If you held them both and someone cranked it slowly, you could not let go. It didn't hurt (much), but you really had to trust the person on that crank. At times those extended wires were found somehow positioned at tactical places (or would that be tactile places) around the house and a couple times at the Lake Shore School laying in wait for the next innocent victim.
While in high school Frank became a herpetologist and, accompanied by Johnny McCranie acquired a large collection of herpes, Ooops, I mean snakes from Azalea, Fishweir and the other local creeks and rivers. One afternoon he had to "give" his little boat to an unexpectedly strong and very angry water moccasin he had ensnared and brought aboard. The snake took command of the rowboat while Frank ended up in the water. Frank would entertain his mother's Bridge Club with snake cannibalism demonstrations. Now these reptile-feeding exhibits were done upon the expressed wishes of those ladies. Just as Frank was not the ordinary boy, they were obviously not your ordinary Bridge Club. These were our Mothers, if that gives you some insight about us. One summer Frank went to North Carolina for a month and Gwen Martin hired some of the neighborhood kids to catch mice and bugs and whatever else it is that snakes eat and saw to it that her son's snake collection was well taken care of. When Frank went to college he gave the snake collection to the Jacksonville Children’s Museum. There is a photo (not here) of that Bridge Club where the ladies, obviously posed, were all prim and proper, thank you. But don't let that fool you. There was a notable duration a few years earlier when several of them were pregnant. Those were the days before air conditioning, remember? Well to cool off, the gravid gamers peeled down to the essentials and played cards in their skivvies at the Martin house. There was no posed photograph for that, but among them was Nelle Hull with a gifted pen and a long memory
One of Frank's teachers at Bolles, during study hall, reached casually into his desk drawer intending to lean back and peruse the prurient publication known by a few of the cadets to be kept there. But instead he pulled out a live, brown water snake. I will leave the rest to your imagination. Nobody was able to figure out what had prompted that creature to crawl up from the banks of the St. Johns and into that desk. But there is some conjecture from a reliable source that he had actually "migrated” from Fishweir Creek.
In November 2006, Commander Frank P. Martin died in Albuquerque.
TOOIE , DUDLEY, AND LELAND The next person in the photo is Stewart (Tooie) Knower. Tooie and I were very good friends. He had an older brother named Barry and they lived next door to Radford Lovett . This was at the foot of Avondale Ave. on the big river. I learned how to play football in Tooie’s back yard with his brother and Radford . But before that, Tooie and I were enthralled by " The Batman" of the Fairfax Theater Saturday afternoon movie serial genre. In 1999 I wrote a review of the serial, “The Batman- 1943” and it is posted in the International Movie Data Base web site. Compared to the comic book version, we was a wuss. He didn’t swing down into the melee utilizing his Authentic Batman Utility Belt, he was driven to the site in a 1938 Buick touring car by Alfred the Butler. Considering how our hero the Bat Person got his “clock cleaned” every Saturday afternoon for fourteen straight weeks by those mean men, I am amazed that we grew up with any self- esteem at all. But on week fifteen he finally won; that’s the way it was with those serials. A couple years later I wrote another review regarding the “Jungle Girl - 1941” , that great serial which played about the same time. Tooie moved sometime around the sixth grade. In the movie reviews I mention how some of us made Batman and Robin costumes to play in. I did not realize it until he recently told me , but Pokey had also made a costume.
O.K., King, back to the birthday photo - -. Dudley Parr , next to Tooie, was often being picked on by the rougher boys. I do hope that they all, at some time in their subsequent years - that they all had to ask him for either a job or for a loan. Some of us have recently mentioned, sadly that we were not the friends he should have had. I lost track of Dudley when we went to Lake Shore and I suppose he went on to John Gorrie Jr. H.S.. ( Dr. John Gorrie invented the first modern air conditioning system. He developed it in the late nineteenth century to be used in his private hospital located at Apolachacola ? Apalachiecooley ? Applecatchacookie ? the Florida panhandle.)
The boy next in line who is hiding behind Dudley, I cannot remember. He moved away a year or so later. Ray King is next in the striped shirt. Alan Mullins is next, behind me. He was a little older and lived across the street in the house with the big porch. He moved from the neighborhood, but I believe he went to Lee. The next is Leland Burpee typically taking aim with his six shooter with both hands. He lived three doors (and one vacant lot) down the street and was also older. He was a contemporary of Morton Lord, Bob Towers, Billy Ketchum, Arch Cassidy, Richard Hellinger. Leland made quite a name for himself taking aim later on , but upon the basketball courts of Robert E. Lee High School. He was also a member of the State Championship Football team in 1949. Leland made a career and raised a family in Jacksonville. He resides in Ortega. On the end of the line, seen through the bushes is Bob Miller who lived next door and moved away shortly after the WWII started that next December. His dad was a Submariner in the regular Navy. Like the Eighth Air Force in Europe and the B-29 bomber crews in the Pacific, and the Merchant Marine in the North Atlantic, that was exceptionally hazardous duty. He was lucky and got a desk job in California for the duration of that war.
THE CONNECTION Bill Roll may have lived in or near the “Potterfield” house on Hedrick St., near the Lindblads the short time he was at Fishweir before moving the Panama City. We might have been in Cub Scouts together. Years later, Bill was among the Fishweir class of 1946 alumni who were also of the Bolles class of 1952, comprising Peter McCranie, Moshell, King, Roll, Frank Martin (absent). We had a photo made and J.B. Waters took an interest in what we were doing. FISHWEIR ’46, BOLLES ‘52, REUNION 2002 (Photo below)
FISHWEIR ’46, BOLLES ‘52, REUNION 2002 Also in that Bolles Class were Andy McCullough and Bill Montgomery of the Ortega group. We had all been at Lake Shore together. Of course J.B.Waters , and Stewart Gregory who resided in Ortega had been at Bolles “forever”. Nearly all were at our Bolles fiftieth reunion in 2002. Barney Dailey was also at Bolles for a while and graduated from Lee. Barney had been a Lee Cheer Leader. He married Anis Ira and they have lived in Jacksonville. Jerry Slade graduated from Bolles the next year, graduated from the University of the South and then married Sarah Boone. They reside in Pinehurst, N.C. in amongst all their grandchildren
I am indebted to Bolles '52 classmate J.B. Waters for telling me at that Bolles reunion about Bob Sanders and Donald (Red Man) Reedy - (TFMKITWW) ( The Former Meanest Kid In The Whole World ), and some of the other Riverside and Ortega old timers who had been meeting at Starbucks on Roosevelt Blvd. around Noon each week. Lunch with Red Reedy ? Unbelievable ! But first , a little background. The Cub Scout units, called Dens , had around six to eight boys and usually had an older Boy Scout assigned to be the leader. In my very first Den I remember that Harland Chadbourn (who denies it to this very day) was our Den Nazi - I mean, our Den Master. Donald Arthur Reedy ( TFMKITWW), (who remembers nothing prior to 1953) was also in that (unforgettable) Den. We met someplace on the other (West) side of Herschel Street. Other than the following incident the only thing (else ) that I think I remember about that Den was that the fellow (who was not Harland ) was a very impressive looking "big boy". That is what we kids called the older boys. And especially that Donald ( TFMKITWW ) recited a naughty little ditty to me about "order in the court", a judge eating beans and a monkey sinking submarines, and I laughed out loud. ( Don't lie about it, you remember the ditty.) Well that got us both into trouble with the fellow who was not - - well you know. That was a typical Reedyism. Red Man (TFMKITWW) was just getting started. It got worse, then much much better. More about that later.
Now, back to this Starbucks. It is on Roosevelt which is fairly close to where my Mom lives. Early in 2005, while I was visiting her I picked up my set of those first and second grade class photos from Fishweir and went over there. I did not know who was going to show-up and I knew they would not recognize me. We had not seen each other since the ninth grade. So I parked out front about ten minutes before anyone arrived and sure enough here comes a fellow that looked a lot like Sanders. I really had to be sure because I had planned what I was going to say. I followed him to Radio Shack just down the block and when he was at the checkout, I walked up next to him. There was that red birthmark on his cheek ; it was Sanders all right and good, he did not recognize me.
So I asked him, " Hey, Buddy, you wanna see some pictures ? " He looked at me like I was nuts. Then I said, "You're in 'em." But before he could get his hands around my throat, I showed him the Fishweir photos which he immediately recognized and then he realized that this dirty old man was a former Fishweir Patrol Boy like him. Then during coffee along with Richard Taylor, Sanders gave me Pokey's phone number and told me about Sherwood Drew Robinson's illness. There were going to be some visits made.
Our sixth grade class at Fishweir had a beach party and some got sunburned. Bob Sanders was badly sunburned , but was allowed to return to school Monday without his shirt on to keep his unbroken attendance record in tact. Sanders finished six years with perfect attendance at Fishweir which stood unchallenged for many years. Mrs. Ruby Williams gave him an award at the Fishweir “Graduation”. He had earned it. However, Frank Martin had been severely burned that day and had large blisters. He was in the bed for a while because he was a very sick boy. I believe that now he would have been hospitalized with an IV as a precaution.
THE PATROL BOYS Yes, some of us were in the School Boy Safety Patrol. We operated at the several school crossings. Now they use adult volunteers who wear bright orange safety vests and have great big, metal reflector STOP signs on a long metal pole. We had a little red flag on a stick. Fishweir was the Color Guard school for the Patrol Boys of the entire City. One of the current teachers said Fishweir may have been so honored for being the first city school to have a Schoolboy Patrol. Being “so honored” meant that we carried the American and Florida State flags marching along during the big Memorial Day parade downtown, leading the other city Patrol Boys, all assembled in white uniforms. Bob Sanders and I were the actual flag bearers. Thank you, Mrs. Bogart, for the honor. The flags were large and we wore cup-harnesses with shoulder straps to carry them. I do not recall if the marshals had moved the horses to the end of the parades by that time or not. I do remember the wind more than any equestrian “land mines“. Bob Smith was the Captain. Pokey was a Lieutenant and Sanders recalls that Frank Skipper was also a Lieutenant. Those two dandy little twirps and the geek in the middle of the photograph didn’t do squat; everybody else got all the rank and Sanders and I had to do all the work. We, like the girls were quickly learning that - “Life is not fair“.
. PATROL BOY COLORS -1946
This Patrol Boy photo had been made downtown before a parade and showed three of us , King, Smith, Sanders with City Police Lt. Herman Gordon, some City officials and a few other boys of different ages and from other schools whom I don't know. Sanders knows one of them. As far as I know this was the only photo taken then. Someone else might have one somewhere of the Fishweir group. The city-wide Patrol Boys also had a rifle drill team. Pokey still has one of the Springfield - type military training rifles. There was also a Jacksonville sponsored Patrol Boy trip to Washington D.C. that year (1946). Bruce Roseboro recalls that another year the City Patrol Boy drill team led by Albert Kissling went to Cuba ( long before Castro). There are currently some photos of several of the Patrol Boy Washington trips in the Fishweir auditorium and one of a downtown City parade including the flags , in a photo album in the School library.
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PATROL BOY WASH. TRIP -1946.
Very Front : M, Tankersly, M,F, Lt. Herman Gordon, Twirp, F, U.S. Rep. Emory Price Very Second Row: B, Twirp II, Geek, B, right end is Frank Skipper First Row: Charlton (Jug) Wilson, Bill Slye, Walter Coleman, Mac Hendee, Framcis Johnson, - - on end is David Miller Second Row: - - seventh is Bill Boling, John Marshall - - - near right end is ? Perritt Third Row: - - fifth is Bob Sanders - - ninth is Orville Tyler Fourth Row: - - eighth is Roy Shanks Fifth Row: - - above Shanks and to right- Larry Moore (peeking over Orville) Sixth Row: - - third from right- Richard (Pokey) Smith - -
These are Patrol Boys were from all over the City of Jacksonville. The few identified had been attending Fishweir and West Riverside. The photo and most of the names were furnished by Bill Boling after the 2007 Fishweir Open House . Some of the rows are not clear, but if you know the person you will find them nearby.
PATROL BOY DANCE 1947 Jimmy Freeman, Fred Rankin, Marilyn Layton, Warren Wilcox ( and Linda C. is in there someplace )
“COMING IN At Fishweir there were probably 12-16 boys in the School Boy Patrol. I do not know upon what basis we were chosen as Patrol Boys. I certainly don't know why I was chosen unless someone just liked the idea of me standing in city traffic twenty times a week. The Patrol Boys also did the raising, lowering and folding of the American Flags at the schools. Many years later, probably since the “Equal Rights” Amendment, it has been called the Safety Patrol with both boys and girls who assist around the schools. Mrs. Akers notes that it would be too dangerous now for the Patrol to do crossing details because the traffic is so much heavier and the drivers are now so unpredictable. However they still take care of the American flag every day at school just as we did three-score and a few years ago. (As shown here, when the girls’ folding is complete, only the star field will show on the then triangular flag .)
SAFETY, HONOR AND RESPECT But at that time, back in the 40’s , because we were the older students in the school - well after all, we were “the Boys “ in “the Sixth Grade” and were “The Chosen” and wore “The Belt ” across the chest with “The Badge“ - we Patrol Boys were usually looked up to by the younger children and therefore were expected to behave a bit more responsibly by the teachers. We usually did, but then there was, “Coming In.”
We got out at 3 PM while the lower grades got out at 2 PM. We had to do the crossing detail for them and then we came back in to our own classes. One afternoon Bobby Smith and I and one other of the paragons of honor were “coming in” when I found a piece of wood trim. You could take the right shape stick and use it to flick pieces of dirt out of the ground. This one was perfect- about two feet long. I found it right next to the bicycle rack just outside Miss. Callie Coody’s room. I was firing away at Bobby - - ( You remember that Callie Coody taught a fifth grade class and the other fifth grade teacher was named Mrs. Dessie Hussy. I think there must have been an odd name stipulation on the fifth grade teachers job description. ) - - anyway, I was firing away dirt clumps at the other two boys and laughing and they were laughing at me. Because you see, when you do the shooting dirt clumps with a stick - thing, and do it rapidly you look like a male dog “humping” somebody's leg , if you get the picture. Then from the large (usually open) window [1] comes the voice of doom, “ What do you boys think you are doing ?“ “ We're just coming in.“ “ Well you boys just 'come in’ right up here to me“, and we did. So here are the three Patrol Boys, including Captain Smith being braced by Sgt. - er, by Miss. Callie Coody, who said, “I bet you wish somebody else had this room, don’t you.“ And I replied, “Yes, Ma'm.” To which everybody started laughing, including her, and Bobby laughed so hard that tears rolled down his cheeks. She just had to let us go.
We all liked Miss. Coody; she was funny. We loved Mrs. Ruby Williams. We adored Miss. Lucy Harrison, our second grade teacher. She was a beautiful fairy princess, a breath of springtime. And she really was. But there was also an extenuating factor which had colored our impressions. You see, most of us youngsters had just spent the previous whole first grade in Room 666 with the Tasmanian devil’s grandmother, Frau. Antionette DeCotts DeGrafenreid. We came out of there shell shocked. After that, the “Wicked Witch of the West” would have been a relief. ( I wonder if she had two cousins at West Riverside ?) However, I am told by Pokey and Sanders to give her a break, because Mrs. “DeGraf.” was another persona when at home in her large garden on Glendale. Classes from Fishweir would take field trips each Spring to see her flowers. Even though a snap dragon in the classroom, she was a sweet pea at home. Pokey gives her credit for getting him straightened -out so that he could become a real student. With some of the rest us it took a little longer. . Kay recalls being in Miss Lucy Harrison’s second grade class in the wooden annex when the “almighty” Patrol Boys came in, by the teacher’s invitation, to do a demonstration. The group of about six of us marched in, faced left and we continued marching in place clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp, until Patrol Boy Captain , Robert S. Smith commanded us to “Halt“. I don't know what else we were suppose to demonstrate, but one of us fainted and another one threw up. So much for Patrol Boy “image“. This was much to the sheer delight of Kay's classmate, David Hull who then proceeded to do his own version of a Patrol Boy “demonstration” during many subsequent recesses; many, many subsequent recesses. I am confident that a few years later, David spent some “lap time” with Mrs. Coody. By the way, David's older sister was Janelle and their Mom was the “historian” in that notorious bridge club. They also moved out to Arlington.
WILD KINGDOM OK, back to “coming in”. One day some workmen had been cleaning out weeds along the edge of Fishweir Creek when I passed over the bridge , “coming in” on the way back to school following the lunch break crossing detail. “Oh, lookie, there is a dead snake up on the bank. That would be great to show off at school.” So down goes Patrol Boy King, with his flag stick and his badge, but without his brain, and picks up the snake , drapes it across the end of the flag stick and marches back to school. It's beyond me how I ever got that far, but I took the dangling monstrosity past the bicycle rack and all the way to the rear entrance of the school . Now, Mrs. Williams’ room was at that back end of the north hall near the outside doors. It was lunchtime and there was not a teacher in sight, not even her - so into her classroom I went to share infernal thing with my classmates. “Hey, guys, come look at this !” Well, for some reason, completely beyond my boyish comprehension all of the girls started screaming , “EEEeeeeeee“ , and were running around like chickens. “What’s wrong, don’t you want to see the dead WATER MOCCASIN ?” "EEEEEEEEEEEEEE !” So I threw it out the large (usually open) window. “Whew, that's a relief “. - - - - But then from outside the window, “Eeeeee!”, there is another bunch of little girls out there screaming and pointing at the snake on the ground. “GET AWAY. IT'S DEAD ! LEAVE IT ALONE !“ “Eeeeee!” "LEAVE IT ALONE !" "Eeeeeeee!" In panic I ran out and brought the snake back into the classroom- "EEEEEEE ! “ So then I ran back out and dumped the snake into the large metal trash can just outside the back door and put on the heavy lid. Wheew, the crisis was over. Still no teacher. And nobody ever told on me. Boy, was I lucky. That was a great bunch of kids, even though they didn't appreciate dead water moccasins. I don't recall if we were still around later that day when the janitor lifted the lid of that trash can or not ; probably not. But if we were, the blood curdling memory has been likewise suppressed into the darker recesses of my id along with the raft incident ( See Bon Voyage). Like with that wild story, I can find no one to confirm this story either and they both did occur.
MANS' BEST FRIEND One morning in front of Fishweir there was a big commotion right at the Herschel street crossing. The City Department of Discouragement had dispatched a detail of Determined Deputy Dog Detainers who were dashing around after some strays, brandishing a big net on a long pole. But one of the dogs was with Tyler. It was his beloved dog "Shep". Now this mu - -, uh, fine specimen of canine-erie was a curly canvas of various browns with white splotches - a miniature, err, "shepherd", according to Tyler who loved him. I think Tyler found him behind the lint filter at the Avondale laundry. I am not going to risk my friendship with Tyler by saying that the dog was ugly, but I will recollect that he looked like a cross between Todo and a mop. Amid the hollering, pleading, yelping and dashing about, Shep might have escaped. Nether Tyler nor I can remember ; but if not, Tyler got him back anyway. I do hope that he did escape because Shep was a great little dog and in being there it was not his fault, it was his faithfulness. He was just being a real pal. You see, Shep would follow Tyler to school every morning and wait for him by the door of the building all day during school. Tyler would bring him water and Shep would follow him home in the afternoon. Where can you find a devoted companion like that ?
VISITS AND SOME STORIES I was able to visit Sherwood only once in the hospital. We had not seen each other since Lake Shore in 1949 and we made up for a lot of time as we shared a very nice, long afternoon. I hear that Sherwood had some wonderfully loyal friends who assisted her on her way to departure the Summer of 2005. She was deserving as she had shown loyalty to her school friends for decades in the planning of reunions for her Lee Class of ‘52.
I first visited Pokey a couple weeks after seeing Sherwood. Bob Sanders had told me that if I ever visited Pokey to take a soft chair along because he was a real nostalgia buff. Well, I went to Pokey and Doris's home in Clearwater with the intention of spending just part of the afternoon, but we talked on - and on- and on -for 9 hours straight sitting in their kitchen (on a soft chair) going over the good old days. Doris fixed us dinner. I didn't leave until 11 o'clock that night. When I visited them again Doris had learned her lesson; she didn’t feed me. Pokey was delighted that I could confirm some of the things that he has been talking about for many years, but nobody else remembered. It is possible that maybe they just elected not to remember them, especially some of the Boy Scout pranks. For instance, as Pokey recalled, that neophyte Tenderfoot ate about a pint of mustard before he called it quits and went home that night, never to be seen again. That was on the same camping trip where we hiked with full packs out to the Troup 8 "Valhalla", that smoking trash dump in the pine woods way out on Normandy Blvd. This was when Tuck Peters got a bad burn on his leg accidentally resulting from a foolish prank by some of the other boys. One of the funniest skits I ever saw was done at Troup 8 one night. It involved an Arab, a donkey and an impatient person. I have used it many times with much success. Beside the “sheepshank “ which I don’t use very much, that is all I ever learned in the Boy Scouts. Years later in East Tennessee I became a Scout leader and took the boys camping and fishing in the mountains and also on tours including the airport control tower. Remembering some of our boyhood escapades, I also took them on a visit to the Sullivan County Jail.
However, Sanders and I did remember something that even Pokey had forgotten. One day at Lake Shore Jr. H.S. in the Music Class while the teacher, Mrs. Anderson, was out of the room, A.W. Bates began bothering one of the girls, probably Shirley Ryan. I mean bothering her really badly and she was crying. So Pokey Smith and Bill Bailey, who were also neighbors of A.W., threw him out the large (usually open ) window. Fortunately it was on the first floor and A.W. landed in the bushes. Nobody ever told on them - not even A.W.. Maybe Bates considered that some of their other classes were up on the second floor. Why would Pokey not remember that ? I tell the story every chance I get.
BON VOYAGE But on the other hand, someone else has told a story supposedly involving me that I do not remember either. It involved tying a neighborhood nuisance to a chair on a home- made raft with the intention of setting him adrift in Azalea Creek which ran through Boone Park and then into Fishweir Creek, which first had gone by the school and then both joined with the Ortega River to go into the St. Johns , under the bridges and on toward the Mayport jetties - - all with the possibility of this kid eventually making it down to the Falklands. But, I did not remember it and so I did not remember who else may have been involved. Pokey, Sanders and Dick Kemen were always floating around on something and Tuck and I had made a raft from some milk cans we had acquired from the alley behind Woodrow's . I do not remember where we stole - uh, where we got the wood. Anyway, the loading and launching supposedly happened in a supposedly “quiet” neighborhood and maybe near Bobby Smith's house because his was near the creek like some others. Frank Martin did likewise plead innocence because he did not remember it either. McCranie may not have moved into the neighborhood yet. Anyway, the story goes that the brat kid screamed and hollered so much that he was let go. Again, nobody mentioned it until 55 years later. It seems this anonymous witness who also claims to have been a lawyer , must have figured that the statute of limitations was long past and so it was safe to tell. So I tell the Patrol Boy snake story that nobody remembers but me, Sanders and I tell the A.W. Bates assisted window -exit story which Pokey forgets and then someone else tells the raft story which I forget. Oh, by the way, he has recently retracted his testimony that I may have even been there at all. Aw, shucks, I have already gone and talked myself into believing that I was. Well, just look at it this way, if I had been there - I would have. But now the former mouth piece has just fingered the ever -sinister Harry (The Squeeker) Hoffner, one of the other neighborhood ruffians, as being implicated in that foul deed. Oh, when will it end ? When will it ever-ever end ?
AT THE 5 &10 CENT STORE As Pokey and I recall, the Saturday movie at the Fairfax was always a double feature and cost either nine cents or eleven cents. For some unknown reason it was not simply just a dime. Maybe the proprietor was secretly "laundering" pennies for the Mafia. A box of popcorn cost a nickel, and also a bottled soft drink , BC ( before cans) , and so did a pay phone, and ice cream cone, and so did a city bus ride. You could ride all over town for only a nickel because transfers were free. You dropped the nickel in the box and it went “ding”. A Postage Stamp was 3 cents. Those little Crystal hamburgers cost three for a dime. When you shopped downtown with your mother and the store clerk needed the manager, she had a little bell like the teachers had that went “ding ”. I do not remember what gasoline cost, but it was close to 20 cents. Those service stations were indeed full service and some gas pumps were manually operated with a push- pull lever. There was a 5&10 cent store in the shopping center. It was called The 5&10 Cent Store and oddly enough , items cost 5 & 10 cents. When you walked in, the door went “ding”. Out next door neighbor even had a dog named “Ding”. When Kay and I were playing in the neighborhood, Mom called us using a bell that went “din- - nope, “dang“ Anywhere you needed to go as a kid, to school or the store, the Park or a friend’s house you could just walk the half mile or so or else just stay home. To go farther than a mile you took the bus if you could, walked or just stayed home. Your Dad had the only car. But then you might have a bicycle with the bell that went “Ding-a ling” the world opened up. One day Tuck and I walked home from the Arcade Theater, downtown .We had the bus fare; we did it just so we could say that we did it. O.K., so now I can say, “Tuck, we did it “.
All the schools had bicycle racks- not just the grammar schools, but all of them did, even the high schools. There were no “ Little Leagues” and no TV until we were well into high school. There were a few local drive-ins like in the "American Graffiti" movie (See Pop Berrier‘s), and the “drug” stores all had soda fountains. (That is an interesting history in itself.) There were no fast food chains like McDonalds and there were no national motel chains yet. Howard Johnson was just an ice cream store, then became a restaurant chain and then a national motel chain. I remember the milk man delivery trucks in the Summer with all that ice. The glass bottles were round and had those wax paper caps with the wire fasteners. When the milk man came we would get pieces of ice, but we would not eat the frost because one of the big boys had told us that it was "poison". They did that a lot.
Comic books cost ten cents, were both comical , patriotic and wholesome adventures. Well, maybe. We boys thought Sheena, Queen of the Jungle was mighty fine; however, our mothers had a different opinion about the scantily-clad and buxom beauty. But they did not object to the likewise scantily-clad and muscular Tarzan who was also in the Sunday Comic Section. Around the late -1950's the comics started becoming something much less wholesome as did a lot of other things. And let us not forget the "Little Big Books“, those fat little adventure novelettes. Some had images in the upper- right corner of each page and when you flipped the pages you got a little "movie". Now many of those earliest comic books are valuable collectors items, especially some of the first editions.
"Pepsi Cola hits the spot. For just a nickel you get a lot. Twice as much for a nickel too. Pepsi Cola is the drink for you." (Thank you ; Thank you very much.) Those bottled soft drinks all cost another 2 cents deposit if you left the premises with them. The quart-size bottle deposit was a whopping nickel. We used to go up and down the neighborhoods collecting all those bottles ( Coke, Pepsi, RC Cola, Nehi ) for the deposit and also we collected wire coat hangers for which the two local laundries at Avondale shopping center paid us about a quarter for an arm-full. Raking leaves, mowing lawns for the neighbors were other sources of spending money. My Dad had purchased some property out in Arlington (where we would move later) which had Sand and Keefer pear trees. I would haul them around in my little red wagon and peddle them in the neighborhoods.
THE AVONDALE SHOPPING CENTER My very first “job” was carrying groceries at Allen’s United Food Store in Avondale. The supermarkets with check-out lanes were beginning to come in. The carts came later. However, the A&P Grocery store still had the old ,full- service customer, counter. Mr. Charlie Capps was the butcher, Mr. Patterson the Manager. You would give the A&P clerk your list across the counter and he would retrieve the items from the shelves and bag them on the counter where you would pay at the cash register that went “ding“. There were three grocery stores: the A&P, Allen's, and Lovett ; also two drug stores, two barbers, three service stations, a clock smith, the AnJo Bakery the Long-Hellinger Hardware, the McGinnis Antique store, a florist, and some others stores that little boys don't remember which had to do with little old lady stuff like yarn and pillows. But at one time there was also Yeager’s Pool Hall which I do not remember, but we all remember the Hayes Lounge from a few years later. Riley Short does remember the pool hall in Avondale. “We went there and played pool for awhile, but for some reason we didn't go back there anymore. I think there was just too much else to do that was more fun and didn’t cost us anything.” Darby and Bill Payne played there a lot. Bob Smith’s parents had a pool table in their home and Darby has one now. The AnJo Bakery was where you could buy that wonderful salt-rising bread that had a yeast aroma that could make a “puppy pull a freight train“. Peter recalls that ,“Some of our mothers made it too. It’s a wonder we left home.”
Mike Allen ran a truly family grocery store which Tyler remembers. ”For 30 years several families earned a living out of that store and then I watched their inability to compete with the buying power of new chains like Winn Dixie (from a merger involving Lovett ). This was a prime example of the economic changes of post- war America. When we lived in Venetia we came back to Avondale to shop with the Allens. The loyalty of their customers was there because of their outstanding personal service. I haven't enjoyed that welcome feeling in a grocery store since.” When Jack Gaillard’s dad returned from WW II service, Jack says,“ I happened to be with him on his first trip back to Allen's and Mike considered it a cause for celebration. He invited Dad and me back into the cold storage room where he kept a stash of some kind of spiritus frumenti . What an odd, but happy scene as these two men warmly toasted in that chilly meat locker.”
This older photo (1935) of a Lanes soda fountain was typical of them all in our younger days and could just as well have been Woodrows.
Gaillard continues “ Woodrows was as you remember, a classic “American Graffitti “ kind of place - the soda fountain, tables and chairs , a large magazine rack , a small pharmacy window, a candy counter. Woodrow's was the most meaningful for me because they had fountain Cokes, and was the first store in the area to install air conditioning. That was a huge deal for most of us in the summertime. My home did not get air conditioned until I was out of college.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS LINE - UP AT WOODROWS Henry Rogers, George Brown, Bo Crutchfield, Sam Oliver (on the look-out), Don Boling, Irving Keys, Mike Darby
Here is an archival-like photo furnished by Tyler of several of the local thugs menacing the public in front of Woodrows . But they claim they were just there for the ice cream sodas which only cost 25 cents, or maybe a banana split, and comic books. ( The historical associations of Coka Cola, drug stores and the Santa Claus icon are quite interesting .) . Bruce Rosborough relates that his first job was wiping windows and sweeping out automobiles. This was before self-service and he did it at the gas pumps at the Segraves Complete Service Station and Garage in Avondale. That is, he did it until his Mom found out about it. He was eight. The Shell Station was among the few if not the only business to remain essentially the same all these decades until 2007. Tyler also recollects, " We all seemed to work for Alex Segrave at the Shell station. What money earned in Avondale usually stayed in Avondale, being spent at either the Lane's or Woodrow's drug store soda fountains or the comics stand, that "5 and 10 Cent Store", or at the AnJo Bakery. Bruce also remembers that if you sat quietly on the floor next to the comic book rack at Woodrow's they would let you read them for free.
Mrs. Segrave and her daughter Cindy now run an extensive marine store near Roosevelt Blvd. called Pier 17. Bill Segrave teaches at Auburn -- I think ." Mike Darby adds, " I well remember Segraves, but for some reason, Mother always went to Ennis's Service Station, in the middle of the block. Bing Ennis was the owner and always treated me right. He used to chuckle when I'd pull up in the "Skeeter" a few years later and buy 50 cents or a dollar's worth. No one had to wash my windshield .... mainly cuz the Skeeter didn't HAVE one !” Tyler recalls - “There were really 2 old cars we had as teens, both we called "skeeters", one had a blue plywood body , and if my memory serves, me right, Darby had a wreck in it without injuries. Mike had bought it from Tyler for $80. Gordon Hardage and I owned the other one and it had no body just frame and engine. We sat on 2 wooden crates bolted to the frame.”.
Billy Ketchum and John Layton reminded me that once a year there would be either an IDS or LLS or both ? high school Sorority initiation hazing taking place in front of Lane's Drug Store. The girl pledges would usually end up with egg, pancake syrup and cornflake hair do's while they pushed peanuts with their noses up to Hellinger's hardware. I am told they also dressed in rags and had a bag of asaphe - asphed-- asphi--stinky stuff tied around their neck while they tried to sell a dead fish to passengers on the City bus. Nobody is talking about what the fraternities did to haze their freshmen. Knowing some of those boys , I can attest to their “inventiveness“.
WHITE SANDS RADFORD ROMPS
Adam and Eve had the Garden, Huck Fin had the river, but we had White Sands. It is shown in this 1948 panoramic photo taken by Tyler. The photo shows a piece of bare, sand- covered riverfront property outlined by palm trees at the foot of Talbot Ave in Jacksonville's Avondale area. This was the de-facto Avondale Recreation Center of our youth. Tyler recollects that White Sands is where we played (actual) sandlot football, baseball, king of the mountain and every other game known to man, boy and girl. It was a marvelous and available few acres adjoining that great and awesome St. Johns River where we flew kites and fished and gawked at the River from the bulkhead. It was available to us until about the time we were in high school. Now, there are some very upscale homes there with big fifty-year-old oak trees. White Sands is gone, but not the memories. As Julie Lindblad comments, "I feel as though I spent half my play time right there. It's never too late to have a happy childhood."
Mike Darby remembers breaking his hand tackling Morton Lord, several years his senior, and running out for a pass from Freddy Blume, but landing in the river. Darby and Sarah Monroe Colley both fondly remember “collecting Christmas trees from everywhere, bringing them there, piling them as high as maybe 15 feet, then having a beautiful fire reaching skyward and all of us standing around smiling in the glow."
Tyler reflects for us that,” All- in- all, White Sands was our Harry Potter-like domain of freedom and early friendships. We learned sportsmanship and both the limitations and capabilities of our young athletic abilities. The soft white sand shielded us from serious injury.” Tyler recalls no adult supervision ever, nor does he remember any serious fights or disagreements. During the war, Tyler remembers that a Navy training plane crashed just off the bulkhead in the river there ! Wow!
A 12 year old girl neighbor, Dutchie Hazard, spotted a corpse there in the river one day. Margaret Railey Miller who lived on Pine St. has also recalled that incident with the corpse and also that Dutchie’s mother had died shortly after as the result of an automobile accident in St. Augustine . Marga had been editor of the Lee school newspaper and has been a poetic historian for her class. (See Appendix) She currently resides in Atlanta with her devoted husband Carl who recently drove her all the way to Neese‘s house for a mini-reunion.
Another intriguing thing about White Sands is that nobody had yet built on that large marvelous waterfront property. Nancy Hartman laments ," I was going to buy it when I grew up and became rich. However, before this could happen, ‘sob‘ someone else bought it and built a house." (Life is not - well, you know) Rosborough adds, “As I remember , Nancy lived nearby and was a great story teller. “ As he recalls, Harry Reinstein built the first house on the corner by the gates and Daughtry Towers built the next house sometime later. His daughter, Sarah Towers Van Cleve and husband , Robert, a noted Cardiologist, live there still.“ Sarah and Bob Towers are cousins.
At that time we would never ever have imagined it, but later on there were also homes built along Azalea creek, which ran through Boone Park, of all places. Where the homes are now it was a swamp that we kids did not even go into. It was full of spooky trees , weird bushes, foul mud , and big red lizards called skinks, but we kids called them "scorpions". The big boys had told us they were poisonous. (The big boys still did that a lot.). If there really was a Boogy man of the local Parks, his mother in-law lived in there.
BOOGY BOTTOM – IN AZALEA CREEK - BOONE PARK.
THE FAIRFAX THEATER About Pokey's costume: while I wore my Batman costume to play in private at Tooie's house, Pokey actually wore his Superman costume in public! He wore it - the white bath towel cape with the large red letter "S" and the black aviator's hat, every Saturday, giving his invincible support to truth, justice and the American- way while en route to "Heaven" - the Fairfax Movie Theater. His Mom let him start going by himself when he was nine. One of the first things Pokey did was to try and walk on water. Well, not exactly water, but on the water hyacinths which choked Fishweir Creek one year. They were packed -in so tightly that Pokey and the McCranie boys could actually get across the creek dry-footed by walking on them, followed by a few of the other boys. It became a weekly adventure until the City of Jacksonville Department of Discouragement sprayed them all with weed killer (the hyacinths ).
Julie Lindblad has related that her first date was to the Fairfax Theater one Saturday afternoon. It was with Linton Featherston. He came by her house on Hedrick St. and they rode on their bicycles to see The Durango Kid. Upon graduation from Lee, Julie lived in New York and then in California where she was employed by the William Morris Agency. The renown Agency had very likely handled the actor Charles Starrett (Durango) and his famous comedic and singing sidekick Smiley Burnett. Julie returned to Avondale where she lives next door to that same house. She was Jack Gaillard's secretary at the Florida Times Union for years until the paper was sold and he and all the other executives left. Julie stayed until retirement in 2001. Linton (Stoney) with his family resided over at Fernandina until his death in November 2005. Jack is still quite active in and around Jacksonville. He and Patsy still reside in the Ortega community.
The Saturday afternoon Fairfax movies always had a western. Beside that Durango person and Smiley there was Red Ryder, Wild Bill Elliott, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (his wife) with both Gabby Hayes and Smiley, and finally Gene Autry with Smiley. Besides singing Burnett also wrote many songs for them all, including the Sons of the Pioneers. He is in the Western Music Hall of Fame. There were numerous fist fights in the western movies, but Autry, one of the singing cowboys, did not throw any punches; he would kind of meander his way around the fringes of the melee, probably looking for prospective, Los Angeles Angels baseball players. However, Rogers, the other singer, besides having a “girl friend“, which was cowboy taboo, was also a brawler; so it was OK.
When cowboys fought - - (breathe in) - - especially after the good guy caught up to the bad guy because the good guy with the white hat always had the faster horse and the good guy jumped off his horse onto the bad guy with the black hat and they both hit the ground and they always rolled down that little hill and then when they were both flailing away at each other on the side of the trail like crazy people - - (breathe out) - - everybody kept their hats on. This was because: (a) hats were not accessory clothing, but were actually cowboy body parts that could only be removed surgically or; (b) hats obscured the identity of the stunt doubles.
Comedian Buddy Hackett was part Cherokee. One late night he told Johnny Carson that during the western movies, when the redskins attacked the wagon train he would stand up in the theater and cheer for the Indians, then run for the exit.
Beside the western movie, the feature film was usually a gangster movie often featuring George Raft or Bogart, or else it was the Bowery Boys, Tarzan, Jungle Jim, a War adventure or airplane movie, a monster movie, or a comedy like Dagwood, Judy Canova [2 ] or Abbott & Costello. Besides the double feature there was also -a cartoon, and also -a news reel , and also -the previews and also -a "short subject" and also, of course - the all-important serial. We all went into the Theater just after lunch and when we finally did come out late in the afternoon we had all grown a half-inch and Pokey had to shave again.
The serials consisting of fifteen weekly episodes were respectively: "Jungle Girl", "The Batman", and “Dick Tracy". In the Dick Tracy one, the villain was “The Ghost”, who was able to make himself become invisible using some gizz-witch thing-a-ma-bob he wore around his neck when he performed his evil du jour (or would that be evil du week). Nobody knew who the villain was but he was to be revealed during the last episode and Awww, I missed it. Now I will have to go to my grave wondering whether “The Ghost” was that dude with the goatee or if it was the bald headed fellow.
JUNGLE GIRL The Jungle Girl serial had one of the best villains I have ever seen. Shamba was the evil native chief with the bone thru his nose. But it was not him. It was “Slick Latimer” and he was a dirty, lousy, little , double crossing sleazebag. He was well played by Gerald Mohr, who subsequently starred in the first making of the “Red Planet” movie. (I saw it on Turner Movie Channel a few years ago.) Until recently I did not realize that this scoundrel even had a first name. We kids just called him “Latimer” and we hated his guts. Anyway, every week Slick, Oops, Latimer, would do some dastardly deed against our beloved heroine “Nyoka” the J.G. or her friends Jack and Curley. And then in amasterpiece of infuriation he would sneak a shifty -eyed peek at the camera and give us kids this furtive little smirk. That made us so mad we were ready to chew the stuffing out of the arm rests.
Several years ago I found a video copy of the first 7 episodes of “The Batman” and after watching it and writing the review, (i.e.) "We did not realize just how bad this flick was, we were just kids.", I sent it to Tooie when Meredith surprised me with his address. I had been searching for him for ages. I also purchased a video set of all 15 of the “Jungle Girl“ and have them still sealed in the box, unopened, waiting for Tooie to eventually show up in Jacksonville so together, we can crack a six pack (of RC's) and revive our long lost boyhood fantasies. The last time I spoke with Tooie on the phone he told me that he watched those seven “The Batman” episodes with his son and that many years ago he had named his two cats, Nyoka and Shamba.
THE MEDIA Did you see the movie, "A Christmas Story”? If not, rent it. Or, like with "The Wizard of Oz", you might see it on TV at least twice a year. Except for the weather, that movie was all about us growing up in the early, pre-war 40’s. Yes, you really could “shoot your eye out” with a BB gun. It happened to one of the boys in Avondale. And yes, Little Orphan Annie, who turns 84 in August '08, and still does not have any eyeballs, was also on the radio. And yes, there really were secret messages to be deciphered using some cardboard decoder du-flatchie you mail- ordered by sending in two, Ovaltine labels and a quarter. I had one, but it was from another radio show who sold Wheaties- the breakfast of champions. ( I am speaking of the real breakfast of champions, not the Red Neck “possum and a six-pack” version.) Poor Annie and her dog Sandy just “never got no respect“. One humorist later called her “Little Arf and Nonnie“. Boling’s Dad caller her “Little Awful Annie“. Bill still has the Ovaltine shaker of his youth and says he uses it now to mix martinis. (Bite him Sandy.)
It was all from broadcast radio shows because there was no broadcast TV in the homes yet, and we kids only read the comics section of the newspapers. Every other afternoon Monday, Wednesday and Friday the world of kids’ activities would be put on “pause” and we would flop down in the living rooms at 4:45 PM all across the nation in our respective time zones and listen to the pre-recorded fifteen minute radio adventure episodes of - - of - - This dramatization will work best when the Control Tower "talks" through an empty toilet tissue tube. Oh, yes, and it also helps in setting the mood to affect the "Up in the Air, Junior Bird Men ", reverse -hand -goggles gesture while performing this truly authentic reenactment - - - Ready ? - - Quiet on the set ; - - - - - - - - quiet on the set - - - - Engine noise of flying airplane - - - - “ CX4 to control tower“. . . . “CX4 to control tower.” “ Control Tower back to CX4. Wind Southeast ; ceiling twelve hundred ; allll clear.” “ OK, this is Hop Harrigan, coming in ! ” Loud noise of diving airplane - - - fade to Grape Nuts Flakes cereal commercial.
That fellow in the control tower was named Tank Tinker ; he was the tough airplane mechanic who was Hop’s buddy. Now Hop Harrigan was not a Patrol Boy like we were. He was a military pilot. Hop was not really coming “in"; he was actually coming “down". But you already knew that. I just had to explain it because that's what we old (retired) engineers do. ( Neese will understand that because she was married to one of our kind.)
And then there was also, "Clang! rattle rattle, BONG ! Terrrry aaand the Piiirates" , the cowboy Tom Mix (by Shredded Ralston cereal), Sky King, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon featuring King the pooch , ( "On King; On you husky!") , and of course the all-time favorite - “Jack Armstrong, Jack Armstrong, Jack Armstrong, the Alllll American Boy“. As I recall, The Lone Ranger (sponsored by Merita Bread ) came on Thursdays at 6 PM for 30 minutes. The Shadow and the Green Hornet came on Sunday afternoon and “The Adventures of Superman” also came on during a week day for 30 minutes. The half hour shows were full stories. The quarter hour shows were serials. We had these shows while our Moms had the “Soap operas”. Our Dads had the News. The radio voices of Clark Kent and of Superman, "This is a job- - FOR SUPERMAN", were both none by Clayton "Bud" Collyer, a very successful radio actor of the time. He tried to keep that role a secret to protect his professional reputation. He later became a popular host of several TV game shows including, "Beat The Clock" which has been seen late-night in syndication. “Pluck your magic twanger, Froggie” was heard on Saturday morning broadcasts of the Smiling Ed McConnell Show. Next there was the Story Lady, on “Lets Pretend”, sponsored by Cream of Wheat. Now please don’t get me started on the “Cream of Wheat is so good to eat - - “ song . Of course there was that classic Sunday night line-up of comedy radio shows - Benny, Charlie McCarthy, Fred Allen - that were listened to by nearly everyone, even the big people. And let us not forget Red Skelton, Baby Snooks, Fibber MaGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleve, “I Love a Mystery“, and "The Inner Sanctum" that creepy nighttime radio thriller featuring the squeeeeeeeekkking door and Raymond, the weeeird talking host. Some of these old radio shows are still available online both for sale and some for free.
The movies and television will never be able to produce the images that were developed from radio because those images were inferred from our own imaginations. Perhaps that is why Orsen Wells was able to inadvertently terrify so many people with that "War of the Worlds" radio dramatization on Halloween eve in 1938. That is a fascinating story all by itself. When I was a child we had been told that all copies had been destroyed for the public good. However, it too like the others, has been preserved and free on the internet.
THEY PROCLAIMED FOR ALL TO HEAR “Cream of Wheat is so good to eat that we have it ev-ery day. We sing this song it will make us strong and it makes us shout, ’Hooray !’ It’s good for growing ba-bys and grown ups too to eat. For all your family’s break-fast, you can’t beat Cream oooof Wheeeat.”
"Shredded Ralston for your breakfast starts the day off hmm, hmm bright. Gives you lots of cowboy energy with a flavor that's just right. It's delicious and nutritious, bite sized and ready to eat. Take a tip from Tom, go tell your Mom, Shredded Ralston can't be beat."
“Kellogs Pep presents -The Adventures of Superman ! Faster than a speeding bullet ! More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound!. Look ! Up in the sky ! It’s a bird ! it’s a plane ! It’s Superman ! Yes, Superman, strange visitor from another planet who cane to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, defender of law and order, champion of equal rights, valiant, courageous fighter against the forces of hate and prejudice, who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.“ (The prologue varied with the political climate)
“A fiery horse with the speed of light. A cloud of dust and a hearty ‘Hi Ho Silver !’ the Lone Ranger. With his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early Western United States. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. From out of the past come the thundering hoof- beats of the great horse , Silver. The Lone Ranger rides again !”
(Breathe -in)" Bee De Beep Beep Beep De Beep - Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea; let's go to press." ;“Just the facts, Mam.”; “LSMFT”; “Git’um up, Scout”,“ Ipp I dood it, I dit a whippin - - - - - - I dood it !”; “ah ah Ah AH - Don’t touch that dial; it’s time to listen to - ‘BLONDIEeee”; “Are you a Mexican ? Si. What is your name ? Sy. Sy? Si.” ; ” Super Suds, Super Suds, lots of suds with Super Suuuuds. Richer , longer -lasting too; they’re the suds with super-doooo.”; ” You’ll wonder where the yellow went; when you brush your teeth with Pepsident“; “No ! No! MaGee, don’t open that door !“, “Hah-oley mackell, dare, Andy- -”; “I'm Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. That's my dog, Tyge. He lives in there too“, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men ? The Shadow knows, Aah ha ha ha ha ” , “Bye Bye, and Buy bonds.” (Breathe-out)
IMAGINE THAT Howard Hosick lived across the park during the war and would come over to play in the neighborhood. Often Howard would be the one who would decide what we were going to "play about". We did not just randomly play; it had to be about something. He would elaborately describe the background and setting - the War in the Pacific; the location- a thickly jungled island in the Solomons; next, the characters- us, special U.S. Marine Commandos against them , the Japs ; the plot - a secret rescue operation and then there were all the alternative scenarios with sub-plots, plot twists, character development and whether the nurses we were going to save were Army or Navy, blonde or brunette. We would just sit there slack -jawed and listen to this imaginative and fascinating story unfold. But by the time he was finished, it was time to go home. I often wonder if Howard ever became an adventure writer for “Saga” the men’s adventure magazine.
WHEELS AND ROUTES It began with roller skating and wagon races on the few available hills, and progressed. Unless they rode the bus, nearly everybody who had two feet and one rump had a bicycle. That is everybody except Homer Nix. Homer was a year older. Homer was a big ole boy and he had a little bitty, red Doodle Bug motor scooter. He weighed more than it did and it got two parsec/ gallon . He would drain the residual gasoline from the hoses on filling station pumps and could go for a week. There were two Cushman motor scooters at Lake Shore. I do not remember who had them. And there were a couple cars too, but only one worthy of note. It was that red convertible somewhat loosely "administered" by Mary Ann Palmer or by whomever else might happen to be in the vicinity of that steering thingy at the time. And of course later on, those Avondale ”Skeeters” which are already noted.
Because we had bikes, some of us had those newspaper routes and our canvas paper bags doubled as book bags for school. ( Now nearly all the kids carry back packs.) There were two kinds of paper route - the afternoon Jacksonville Journal and the early morning Florida Times Union. A main paper bundle drop- off for both newspapers was on the corner of Park St. and Ingleside. I had a morning route with 150 customers. I hated Sundays because we, including the Hellinger boys had to insert the Funnies before we could deliver them and the papers then became much heavier and bulkier. We could not fold them to toss so we had to put on a rubber band. I tried to put the papers at the doors. Now you are lucky if it makes the yard. When I had to throw the bulky Sunday paper onto that upstairs porch it would always hit the edge, the rubber band would break and the Finance and the Society Sections and those accurs-ed Funnies would flutter all over the customer's yard at 5 AM. The best customers paid directly to the office so we didn't have use our free time to collect. Most customers paid weekly or whenever you could catch them home. One weekly customer did not pick up his paper for a couple days and would not even answer the doorbell when I tried to collect. He was there, but he was dead.
Together, Frank and Richard Hellinger were very enterprising young businessmen delivering to a large early morning paper route for the Times Union. They were in high school at the time and had won a contest for signing-up new customer which earned them a higher payment per-paper. Bill Ketchum and Marilyn tell us that Frank became a neurosurgeon, married his high school sweetheart Flossie Wimberly (1947 President of the Junior Friday Musical), and practiced (now retired) in Orlando. Richard became an MD in Internal Medicine, served with his wife in the Baptist Mission Field, and then also practiced in Orlando. Frank and Richard have lived not quite together, but right across the street from each other in Orlando. I wonder if they, together, invested their paper boy money and by now own controlling stock in the Orlando Sentinel?
CAMP IMMOKALEE If this was the youth camp in Orange Park, here is everything I remember about it.
BOYS AND SINGING Boys did not sing. They could not sing. It was a primordial thing. Two of the worst things that could ever happen to a fourth grade boy were : #1, to be called on by the teacher to stand up and recite when you had a hard- on ; and # 2 to be - - - Now ladies, please, ladies, LADIES, we had no control whatever of this aspect of our plumbing ; it just happened randomly at that age. You have raised little boys; don‘t you remember ? So all the boys knew what was happening and sniggered and of course Donald Reedy (TFMKITWW), would tease us, but the girls were clueless as were some of the teachers, maybe. OK ? So, #1, to recite with a hard- on and the # 2 worst thing that could happen to a fourth grade boy was to be called on to stand up alone and sing. We would have rather faced a week of Nazi torture or another day with DeGrafenreid than to have to stand there alone as being naked before our classmates and have to sing. It was not about the girls; it was about the other boys. That was bad enough, but if the passage to be sung was of a high pitch, that made it even worse. It was sissy and our very masculinity, what little of it that we had at that age, our standing in the male community of our peers was in serious jeopardy. We were being asked to submit to being ceremonially castrated with a treble clef, or so we envisioned our impending humiliation. The way we coped with it was to sing "bass". Now can you imagine a fourth grade boy trying to sing bass ? At that age we were all sopranos or altos by nature, but we would never admit it. Never ! The other way to cope was to sing so low as to be nearly inaudible except to the sadistic music teacher, Miss Maleficent Vexrotter who would bend down so she could enjoy the gruffily little gurgling sounds that were leaking out.
THE VOICE WITH THE ARM But there was one exception. Larry Moshell was one of the few young boys who could sing. I mean he could really sing really well. Larry seemed to have a trained voice like one of those boys in the choirs you hear around Christmas time. Well, he Dykers and Boling really did sing at the Good Shepherd Church.
CHOIR BOYS - GOOD SHEPHERD CHURCH Top Row -Henry Harris, Lewis Lee, Herbert Holcomb, Don Martin, Robert Johnson, Larry Moshell, John MacGowan Middle - Jack LaForge, Doald Peaks, Orville Tyler, Bill Winton, Scott Ball, John Dykers, Bill Boling, -?-, Ronald Fell Front - ?-, Norman - , Billy Peaks, David Turknett, Joe - , Lee McCubbin, Kendall Boyle, Mickey Morrow
Edited from Bill Boling - David Turknett -his adoptive family lost contact with him years ago. Lee McCubbin lives in Jacksonville, retired from the State of Florida. Orville Tyler has had various careers. Bill Winton has had a lawn service business in St. Petersburg. Dr. John Dykers is a semi-retired M.D., gentleman- farmer in N.C. After college and the Army, Bill Boling has lived in Jacksonville except when a branch manager for Stockton, Whatley, Davin in Miami. Ronald Fell died a few years ago. Dr. Henry Harris practiced medicine (See Champs). Lewis Lee graduated Sewanee in three years, Phi Beta Kappa, law school, practiced law in Jacksonville and is semi- retired gentleman farmer in Gainesville. Robert Johnson Graduated U of F, two years in Army, began a career in banking and then following seminary became an Episcopal priest in Jacksonville and Atlanta, elected bishop of Western North Carolina and now retired. John MacGowan graduated FSU becoming Entomologist for the State of Florida, now retired.
Larry Moshell could even sing well when his voice changed if it ever did. He would be featured in some of those afternoon programs at Fishweir and the little girls would swoon as little girls were sometimes wont to do. Later Larry sang in the operettas for two years at Lake Shore. So did some or the other post-Fishweir kids, but Larry was the lead singer. One year he was the Russian peasant, Voslov , a nineteenth century folk , war hero and we, the chorus sang, “March on Cossack men, with a laugh, a jest and a song, we have beat the mighty Tartar Army though they be ten thousand strong.“ And this was sung to another passage from the 1812 Overture, that Lone Ranger music, again. So the next time you are driving along, minding your own business or if you become stuck in local traffic and you just happen to come across Tchaikovsky's the “Marche Slav” on NPR radio, you can just roll down the car window, put on your fur hat and sing along, lustily, " March on Cossack men - - ". The traffic will quickly clear-out for you.
I sometimes wonder if they had operettas at Lake Shore in other years. Along with Larry and Dorothy Hadley in 1948 and then together Larry with Ella Mae Jones Chadbourne in 1949 , there was a notable amount of talent that moved thru that school with our class. Of course, Larry now just says, “I remember once singing in a program of some kind.” and Ella Mae says something like, Me ? Sing ? They said I could . How did I do that ? In the ninth grade we put on a show one afternoon in the gym. There were many acts, but these are the only ones I can remember. Nancy Hartman did an emotional and hilarious soliloquy about “eating worms“. Eunice and Shirley Kemen , in costume, sang, “Red Silk Stockin’s and Green Perfume”. Dana, Daugherty, Colley and I do not know who all sang "Cigarettes, Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women", much to the consternation of our Mrs. Haynes the class sponsor. A few of us put on a skit where I was Morgan "Batty", a well known radio news commentator at the time. Wayne Scott wrote and did a funny "Alka-Fizzer" commercial. Joyce Faulkner was a big game explorer, complete with the big hat and at the end of a long rope was Fred Smith, dressed in a grass skirt with a paper mache' bone in his hair. He was the “wild man” she brought back from Borneo.
Moshel could sing like an angel and Larry could also throw a ball like the Devil. He not only had the throat, he also had the arm. Now Fred Smith could also throw a baseball hard. I mean HARD ! If you were dumb enough to catch him, the air would sometimes crackle. Don’t ask me how I know. But nobody could throw a ball farther than Larry, not even Pokey, not even Eunice Cellar and Larry was not a big boy. Larry quit growing when he was five. Pokey quit growing when he was six, but his whiskers didn’t. Larry and Pokey both played quarterback for our un-scored-on, city championship football team when we were in the ninth grade at Lake Shore. He played JV quarterback and varsity third base at the Bolles School. Baseball Coach Roth would take advantage of Larry‘s diminutive size by having him wear a baggy set of pants and like, squat down. As the lead-off batter he presented a small strike zone to the befuddled pitcher and Larry usually got on base with a walk. He and Jane now reside in Columbia, S.C. , where he frequents the YMCA and still does some advertising jobs.
NAME THAT TUNE I have heard it said of some people that their only exposure to classical music came from watching Loony Toons (a Disney spin-off). For instance ,in the Disney movie Bambi , the tune being hummed by Thumper's girl friend is from "Berceuse", by Chopin. Did you see the outstanding “Kiww the Wabbit ” episode from the Bugs Bunny/ Elmer Fudd send-up of the Wagner operas ? I saw it on TV in the 1980's with my children and we all loved it. This was a generation later and Looney Tunes was still showing it. By sheer luck I found it recently when I was looking for something else. I then purchased a copy from IMDB. It is included in a Loony Toons collector's set and the name of this particular cartoon is "What's Opera Doc?" It was made in 1957. Anyway, as I , er, matured in life I too realized that the Lone Ranger music was really excerpts from not only the obvious Italian, William Tell Overture , but from the Russian, 1812 Overture and some of those other European classic works that your mother always made you sit down and listen to. Additionally, that wonderful theme music for the very popular " I love a Mystery" radio adventure was “Valse Triste” by the Finn composer, Jean Sibelius. All these works of renown you might even now catch on NPR as you dial around on your car radio looking for "Bubba the Love Sponge"
LINTON AND THE GEORGES I first met Nancy Hartman early in the sixth grade when I was a Patrol Boy working at the bicycle crossing (Ah, it all comes back to me now). I don't know why, but I had not met her and she had been in Fishweir just as long as I - ever since the first grade, but in another class. (See the photos) Well, I asked her, "Who are you ? " I told her that I had never seen her before and Nancy said, " Boy, I am as old as the hills in this school." I said, "You look it." Fortunately we both laughed. Nancy has tolerated me well ever since. But why ? Nancy was born on Halloween and she would have a birthday party on that night every year. Nancy was always a load of fun. Her home was near the South end Richmond St. , the one closest to the River. After graduation from Lee she lived in New York and now amuses her friends at her residence in Somerset, New Jersey.
One such night during our Sophomore year, Piggy Rice - oops. I am just told that Mr. Rice now insists on being known as “George”. Well, if someone now said, “Louise”, we would all say, “Who ?“ But if they said, “Neese”, we would say ,“ Oh, yeah.” We also have our friend named Mr. Chalton Wilson, but we still call him “Jughead” and Richard Taylor is still sometimes known as “Whiskey” and of course there are " Pokey“ and, “Spuddy”, “Red Man” and , “Tuck“, "Bootsie", "Mo", “Goat“, "Stoney", "Smokey", “Eagle Beak“, Podo“, “Gick“, "Twiggy", "Squeeky", "Snabib" and “Monkey". These are all of those easily recognized names of men and women who would be or else who are now well into their seventies ; so come on, George, act your age.
OK, so George Rice and I were walking home from Nancy’s annual party when a car load of bad boys sped past, threw something on us and hollered, “Bastards!“ Remember this was Halloween night, the annual excuse for juvenile mayhem. We went back to the party which had broken up and told some of the other guys what had
happened. I do not remember who else was still there, nor do I want to. About
this time a car came roaring up the street and about a half block away it
screeched to a stop and the headlights were turned off. “It’s THEM !“ We all
picked up some bricks that a neighbor lady had been using to line her daffodils
and we crouched on both sides of the street. Then the car peeled off and
whizzed past us, and in so doing it received the hits from several of those
bricks. "Blap-BlapBlapBlap- Clunk “ (one missed)". I then started
home again and as I approached the parking area at the Avondale shopping center
that car full of boys pulled in and they saw what had happened to it. They were
not happy, especially the driver. It was his Mother‘s car, so to quote the Rev.
Robert Smith, “ there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.“ To make sure those
teeth were not gnashed on me, I quickly changed directions and slunk home by
another , darker route next to the park. I found out later that this was not
the same car as the first one - the one from which Piggy Oops, from which
George and I were accosted. Actually these boys had been chasing that first
car. Linton Featherston was the driver of this second car - the one that got
bricked. It was his Mother’s car. I am really sorry Linton; it was all a big
mistake. If it will make you feel better, you can throw a few bricks at MY
mother‘s car. She lives on Pine Street. ( I told Sherwood this story on my one
visit and she really did enjoy it. I regret that I was too late finding him and
did not get to relate my confession to Stoney, himself.)
Speaking of "George", Mrs. Hussey had all of us write our names on the blackboard at the start of the school year. When George Thomas Peters wrote "Tuck" she explained how she did not like nick-names and she called Tuck, “George” all year. Then in the seventh grade at Lake Shore we also wrote our names on the board (now green) at the beginning of the term. I wrote "Ray", George Thomas wrote "Tuck", and the next student from Ortega wrote, " William Thomas Shircliff Montgomery Junior". He even spelled- out the Junior, part. It took up half the board ! Mrs. Hussey would have loved this guy. Later on Montgomery, Sanders and Potterfield would become fishing and hunting buddies (photo).
AND THEN THERE WAS FOOTBALL Beside at White Sands we also played football at Cumberland Road and at Lee H.S. on Saturday mornings. Sometimes on the big field, sometimes on the practice field . We played football in Boone Park, both sides. We played football in that little park next to the big river in Ortega. Every vacant lot , front yard or back yard became a football field at one time or another and the teams varied in size from eleven players each to one player each. Scott and I played one-on-one football in Mr. Crosland’s front yard before piano lessons. Some kids had an item or two of equipment, but most kids played without any. Some played barefooted. This was before there were even face guards (“grab here” ) on any of the football helmets. There were no adults and we played by the rules. We were the de facto "Little league" before "Daddy Ball". The Avondale and Ortega and Gorrie boys formed several neighborhood teams and we competed by playing; we did not form gangs and fight. Like Gaillard has said, “We all played and we all knew each other, except - - . There would be that new dude who was introduced as the visiting cousin of a team member, and ‘Could he play? - - Pleeease ?’ Well , now it seemed the sporting thing to do, so we agreed. Turned out that he was really a ‘ringer’ they had imported. He was a ‘holy terror’ who ran all over us.” Well the word must have gotten around and if you did not have a Pokey Smith, a Dana Kenyon , or a Tommy Jenkins, you really needed a “visiting cousin.” ( Bolles School finally learned that lesson a few years later.)
Howard (Spuddy) Rasmussen got his collar bone broken at Lee during one of those games. He was the only one I knew of (and Darby) who ever got really hurt during those actual “sand lot “ games of tackle football. He moved to St. Petersburg and was on their Cross Country State Championship Team in 1951. He currently lives in Stone Mt., Georgia. ( Mike lives in Tiger, Georgia.)
In school yard football we played two-hand touch below the belt and blocking was unrestricted. But in, Hi-Y Club football open field blocking was only above the waist. During the Jr.Hi -Y city championship game during a punt return, Albert Colley made one of the best downfield blocks I have ever seen - chopped his man down - kaflat ! and Dana Kenyon scored on it. But the block was too low and they called it back. But, Boy, that was some pretty block, just the same. We won; shut them out. Our ninth grade class of Lake Shore also won the City Jr. Hi-Y Basketball Championship.
Time ran out for Dana a few years ago and for Albert the winter of 2005. Dana and Sherwood had been the prime movers for getting the Lee Class of ’52 reunions together.
Many of us continued playing football into high school, some more than the rest of us. I scored one varsity touchdown in my career at Bolles. When I broke clear downfield it was a new experience for me and things looked so different. I thought ," Where did everybody else go ?" Fortunately I didn't stop to find out. One night we were playing St Paul and were ahead 47 ½ to nothing so Coach Chubby Simmons believed it was safe to put me in. Quarterback Lou Stark said,” Be careful, Ray, they are trying to strip the ball.” I nodded knowingly. The next play Lou handed off to me and - - they stripped the ball. One night while playing out of town for Lee, Pokey recalls breaking loose and heading for another touchdown. He was going boogeddy, boogeddy down the field approaching the goal line when a rabbit ran across in front of him and Pokey was so surprised he slowed down and they caught up with him. Several years later on a business trip he met some of the fellows who had been on the other team and they still remembered it too.
Sanders and Ketchum remember playing on one of the Lee B-teams against an incredible whatever-it-was from Fernandina , a fullback named Marion "Bull" York. He was unstoppable. As a boy living in a North Florida fishing town and having a name like Marion - he had to be tough. He was built like a huge fire plug and had the disposition of the rottweiler who just pissed on it. Of course Bull York went to Florida on scholarship - “to do da football“. They made him a lineman. Need I say more ? Yes. The story goes that one Saturday afternoon there was a growing pile of Georgia football players in front of the Florida bench. The Florida coach told Bull York, " Son, you only have to tackle them; you don't have to bring them to me."
Bob and Bill recall that there were no lights for the football field at Fernandina and so for night games the parents parked their cars on the sidelines and used their headlights. Considering the location of Fernandina, I expect they scheduled their home games for when the tide was out. Moshell played a Baseball game at then rural Live Oak one afternoon. Right field had no fence for a boundary, it was a train track. I guess before Larry took his position he first put his ear to the rail to hear if anything was coming.
At that time there were only two state classifications in sports. Lee High School won the upper division 1A football championship in 1949. Ketchum recalls that there was no play-off system then. “Since we won the Big Ten which was composed of the ten biggest high schools in the state, we were declared State Champs.“ In the November 2007 edition of the Jacksonville “Resident”, there is a nostalgia article by Billy Ketchum about that team. Arch Cassidy also played prominently with the Florida Gators. Then Earl Leggett, Lee '51, went to LSU on scholarship and played football professionally. In 1951, Leggett had won the State shot put and Norman Cole won the half mile. In 1952 George Rice got a football scholarship to Ga. Tech. and then with the considerate assistance of legendary coach Bobby Dodd transferred to Wofford where he made All - Southern Conference. George has lived in the vicinity of Norfolk, Va.
R. E. LEE 1949 FOOTBALL TEAM - CLASS 1A STATE CHAMPIONS ( http://leehighclassof1950.com/ ) Photo taken at Arch Cassidy's home during the Friday night party at the 2000 reunion Front Row - Clinton Thomas, Arch Cassidy, Jim Dressler, Bobby Towers, Joe Hicks, Billy Ketchum, Colonel Davis, Leland Burpee. Back Row - Larry Nettles, Don Gladden, Lyle Schmehl, Sonny May, Earl McPherson, Van May, John Beasley, Walker Morris.
There were only three large high schools in Jacksonville. Lee, Landon and Jackson . One of the highlights of the year was the annual Robert E. Lee versus Andrew Jackson football game. It was always played in the Gator Bowl Stadium, and it was played on Thanksgiving afternoon. Everyone dressed -up in fancy clothes just like it was a big college game, the men in coats and ties and the women had pinned-on corsages. Yes, little ones, we dressed-up for the big -time football games just like we did on Sunday.
The Gator Bowl Stadium was initially named the Fairfield Stadium. It was built in 1927 to be used primarily by the three city high schools , Lee, Landon and Jackson and the other private high schools, Bolles and St. Paul’s used it too. The original seating stadium was the large concrete structure running parallel with the River (right side). It contained all the concession, the public and the locker room facilities. Bleacher-style seating was across the field. Seating capacity was only about 7,600. The Florida-Georgia game (The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party) has also been played there for many decades. In 1946 the first Gator Bowl game was played. It was successful so in 1948 the stadium was expanded as seen here. The field was reoriented so the previous main stadium with the facilities then became the stands behind the South end zone. The seating capacity was increased about 16,000. This (photo) is where some of us played in high school and a few of you played college football. In 1994 that whole complex was dismantled and replaced by what has become the Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.
MORE CHAMPIONS Robert E. Lee High School swimming phenomenon Ted Robinson , of Orange Park, won two Class 2A State
Championship in the 100 Yard Butterfly Breaststroke in 1950 and again in 1951.
His Record 61.6 second time in the 1951 State Meet also was a National Record
for the event. Ted attended the University of Florida where he was an SAE
fraternity brother with Tyler, Ketchum, Burpee, Nettles, Cassidy, et al.
Robinson later practiced dentistry in Orlando. He currently resides in Mt. Dora.
The Duncan U. Fletcher ,”Senators”, the high school at the beaches (named for the Jacksonville Mayor in 1901, the year of the great fire and the longest serving U. S. Senator in Florida's history) had a sprinter named Billy Head (see below) who practically won a State track meet all by himself and of course he also was the top football player in the region. Bolles played Fletcher in football and in those days they beat us every year. Every year for fifteen straight years they beat us. Yes, that is fifteen (15) years. When they were beating us again my junior year, Coach Lamb, obviously desperate, said, “ King, go in there and watch Billy Head.” Me ? Gulp ! So I went in there and Billy ran around for a while and scored two touchdowns. Out I came and Coach said, “ I thought told you to watch Billy Head !” “ I did, Coach, and he is just as good as you said he was.”
In 1952 , with Bill Roll, Freddy Blume and Stewart Gregory, Bolles School won the State Class A Championship in Basketball and in '51 and '52 the State Class A Swimming Championships with Gregory in ‘51, winning the 100 Yard Backstroke and Blume as a Freshman winning the diving competition. Young Freddy also played varsity football as a Freshman and Sophomore at Bolles. He moved to Madison , Florida where knee and shoulder injuries his Senior year ended any college scholarships and a most likely professional career in sports. But he still has golf. Fred has family in Jacksonville, and resides in Montgomery.
In 1952 Don Bessent was a championship pitcher both in high school and in American Legion baseball. Don went from R.E. Lee to the Majors and did very well until injury. His younger Lee teammate Bobby Waites was also an exceptionally talented , pitcher and was another multi-sport athlete. So was his other teammate , pitcher Reggie Robarts.
We have said a lot about boys’ athletics. You may recall that during those times there were few sporting activities in the schools for the girls that amounted to anything. They were discouraged from “aggressiveness” beyond , maybe, ballet kicks, even by their parents. It was considered un-lady-like to be an athlete except, say, tenis or swimming. As Mildred says, “I was not to be involved in such things.” Even tennis and volleyball was somewhat pitty-pat. “Kill” the ball ? Oh Dear, flutter- flutter. And then there was the “rule”. I told my sister one time, that when the boy wants to arm wrestle, you are supposed to let him win. Many of these girls could have been sports champions too, if just given the opportunity. We will get back to this later.
MORE BICYCLES As noted above there were very few cars available. We walked. We rode the bus and our bikes. Remember the bicycle racks ? Not only were our bicycles a major mode of transportation to school, we also played on our bicycles. We played bicycle tag where you could go anyplace within the boundary, even up a tree, but you could not turn loose of your bike. It started with one person being “it” and ended when the last person was finally caught by all the others. There were no such things as bicycle helmets. Toddlers now wear them on their plastic sidewalk tricycles. Our main concern was getting our trouser legs caught in the chain. We rode double with the passenger on the handle bars if it was a boy or on the cross frame of a boy’s bike if the passenger was a boy or a girl. You could not ride on the frame of a girl-designed bike because the frame was inclined to assist the girls getting on and off with their dresses. ( Dress: A now obsolete article of teen female clothing .) When we doubled - up on our bikes, we called it “towing”. We jumped our bikes for distance over the ramp-shaped curbs at the Avondale shopping center at Ennis Service Station. We used clothes pins to position pieces of cardboard next to the wheels so that the spokes would hit it, " flapada dapada flapada dapada " to make a “motor” noise. Tuck Peters was the most acrobatic one I have seen on his bike back then. Tuck would jerk the front wheel up and ride around on only the rear one. He could ride backwards and go from the seat to the handle bars and back. He would have had a great time on the specialty bikes and at the competitive biking facilities available later on. Many of the stunts being done now are fantastic. Tommy (Cotton) Jenkins brother is the only local kid I ever heard of who really got hurt on a bike. He lost a toe riding barefooted. Even we kids knew better than that, but many did it. Tommy was a young golfer, a school Class President and a powerful blocking fullback at Lee. There was a Tom Jenkins on the Pro- Golf Tour, but he is a Texan.
MERT For years Dr. Robert Smith has featured an anecdotal baseball story involving Miss Eunice Cellar ( Mert Murray) in one of his pedagogics from the pulpit. You see, Eunice could run faster than anybody in Fishweir, even the boys and so began the legend.. But Pokey claims that he beat her in a foot race in the sixth grade. I have not asked Mert about that yet, but Mert, being a lady would probably give Pokey his day, maybe. Mert lived in Tennessee for a while and now resides south of Belleview, in The Villages. Mert writes : “In my head I have visited all of my classrooms and teachers. I can remember where I sat in each class. I also remember the times I got in trouble and went to Mrs. McLean’s office. Once for swinging on those poles holding up the walkway cover to Mrs. Harrison’s room. I got caught in the 3rd grade for putting a note in each desk saying, ‘Pokey loves Sarah’. I got to school one morning so wet from rain that Mrs. Dell sent me to her house to dry off in front of her fireplace (must have been Winter). I remember having to sing “Carry me back to ole Virginia” on stage…..Mom had to threaten me with Cod Liver oil to get me to school that day. I also remember chasing boys with my umbrella before school started. Also remember the day I walked along the outside of the bridge crossing Fishweir Creek. I think I was the only girl to do that trick.” She was in among the very few boys who would even dare try it.
At elementary school recess, most of the girls played hop scotch and jacks and jumped rope. They could probably have whooped-up on all of us boys if they took the notion to because at that age they were bigger and stronger than most of us , but they just played jacks and hop scotch while we boys played something called , “running amuck”. To choose -up sides in such games of skill we either “counted potatoes” or did "Eene Meeny Miney Mo - - " . We also “Indian wrestled" and there was a little bit of marble shooting. Cork ball was occasionally played in the neighborhood streets; I don't recall it at school. Oh, yes, Boling reminded me, there was also kick the can and the girls played that too in the neighborhoods, but never at school. In the Fishweir schoolyard, we boys played a form of baseball called “Stingeree”. We used a tennis ball and swung our fist for the bat. Third base was one of the trees. We played rotation, but if you caught a fly ball you and the batter swapped. If you were caught off base, one of the fielders could throw the ball and hit you to put you out. We threw hard so there was no doubt about it.
HALF COURT In Jr. High we boys also played some softball and some basketball where we could out in the neighborhoods. There were only a couple of teen baseball leagues where just a few boys participated as noted. Reggie Robarts did and was on all-star teams sponsored by the Jacksonville Journal Newspaper. Reggie says that Moshell also played. All the while the girls had the dancing , and tennis and a little swimming, but that was mostly in a setting apart from the schools. However, there was competitive swimming in some high schools. Even in the organized girls intramural sports the girls were given only limited opportunity. For instance with basketball there were six girls on a team and the three guards had to stay in the back court while the three forwards had to stay in the fore court. It was felt by the over- protective culture that "frail" females would be over-stressed if they had to play full- court. And I guess they thought that ,“Real ladies don’t run“ or something like that. Even though in Lake Shore, Eunice Cellar could still out- run most of us boys except Pokey and Dana and of course Gary Lunsford, the girls were still stuck with hop scotch, jacks, volley ball and walking along in step behind each other in uniform. But for a limited few there was cheer leading. Those girls were outstanding when given that little opportunity and Boy ! were they ever pretty ! But that was about it for them - back then. Have times ever changed ? or what ? Now there are those professional , kick-snarl wire cage elbow, choke, ground-pound female fighters who could tear you up and Boy ! are some of them ever ugly ! I am really, really glad they did not think that up when we were still in Fishweir. The opportunity for girls is good, I think, because the last time I played a game of basketball HORSE was a few years ago subbing for a middle school P.E. class. I was beaten by a little sixth grade girl. Well, that was OK. As you will see below, it wasn’t the first time I had been beaten by a girl and that‘s OK, too. Again, it all just shows what could have been realized if the girls had just been given some decently directed athletic opportunity. Just look at the marvelous things they are accomplishing now on the courts, in the field, on the track, in the pool and are they still feminine ? You better believe it ! ( but only outside the ring). It took a “Cold War” to embarrass America into doing something for them. But even then, it was not really for them, it was for the sake of an international political “image‘. But Les Girls have rightfully benefited. It was about time. Now look at those beauties go !
THE MEAT STRIKE Mert also remembers about the price of meat going really high and a small group of us trying to encourage people trading at A & P and other groceries to not eat meat for one week in protest. " Wow…..we had fun as young kids, didn’t we ?"
Well, Mert has just jiggled the handle on my memory. The Meat Strike was something we kids thought -up one rainy summer day at Russell (Shorty) Rowe's house. We were in the about eighth grade at Lake Shore. We made costumes and signs and then either walked or rode on our bikes around the shopping centers displaying them in "protest". A few of us got as far as Five Points. There was even an interview with two or three of us downtown on one of the local radio stations (WJAX or WMBR or WPDQ). I was there, but I can't remember who else was. I had that morning paper route at the time and one of the other carriers, Ronnie Abraham's dad was a butcher. He told me all that happened in the market was the price of meat stayed the same and the price of fish went up a little.
WHO WAS QUEEN OF THE MAY POLE DANCE ? PLEASE When I asked Julie “ Do you remember the juke box and ice box on the back porch ? Street car tracks ? The May Fest ?”, I had vaguely recollected that there used to be a May Day celebration in the Spring every year when we were pre-and early teens . It involved Little children dancing around some tall pole with streamers attached and there was an older Queen of the May and a King and the Court. Anyway it was being done all across the U.S. of A. Jane Moshell likewise recalls it as a child in South Carolina. It was discontinued during the “War“. After that the great Russian “Bear” started showing us and the post-war world its own national “May Day Celebration“ , but not with a few dancing children. They had thousands of marching troups passing by on parade with menacing ICBM‘s, tanks, and Papa Stalin, arms folded, standing in review. So we just didn’t do it again until a few years ago. Then they stopped again, I think.
I have not dared to even attempted to inquire as to whom might have been a “King” of the May Pole Dance. I had always thought that Neese had been one of the Queens. But I think Julie, Nancy, and Neese have filled in some of the historical gaps . Julie thinks, “ Actually, I do remember the May Fest, if you mean the one in Willow Branch Park ? I think I remember that Neese was the Queen of the Maypole or whatever one year and Nancy Hartman was involved too, I think. Boy, I think that's a lot of ‘I thinks“. Nancy thinks, “It was the May Fete and Claire Chestnut was queen one year as was Mary Ann Wilson and we were in the court. It was sponsored by Good Shepherd. Neese was never queen of this thing. However, I think she was the Blue Fairy in Mrs. Bagg’s ballet.” And so Neese thinks, “ I was in the court of the May Fete in Willow Branch Park- the Spring of '50. Claire (Chestnut) was queen, and I think (see disclaimer) * was the King . I was not the blue fairy in Mrs. Bagg’s ballets, although there was hope I could remain on ‘point’ for a longer time. I quit ballet when I was the tallest one and was destined to be the ‘boy‘. Not too many years ago, one of my own boys was working at Ponte Vedra, for Claire's cousin , when the old newspaper picture was discovered, and a great time was had by all. My boys were not only amazed that I was once young, but that I was also a girl !!!” ( You can say that again,)
Linda C. Wilson wrote - “Going back to the May Fete in Willowbranch Park, I know Jeanne DeSaussure was also Queen just before Mary Ann Wilson - -and probably right after Claire Chestnut. A friend recently gave me an old Times Union page showing photos of the court with Mary Ann Wilson queen and Fran Childress as Maid of Honor. Betty Hodges, Linda Wood, Jean Tyler, Marilyn Layton, Beverly Jean Baggs, Judy Hall, Lydia Jemaniz, Claire Patten, Janis Madison, Kate Thompson, I , and a million others are in it. In looking over those photos, this was during our Lee High years.”
Ray has noticed that one of those old news photos shows two poor little boys, probably in the seventh grade, standing all dressed-up as the King’s Escorts. From the expressions on their faces I can just imagine what they are both thinking, “ If the guys back at Gorrie ever see this, we’re dead.” Mrs. Akers had a May Pole set-up in front of the School for the Fishweir 75th Anniversary. We big boys didn’t go near the accursed thing.
* Now if the “King of the MPD“ was Scott Ball, and I am not saying it really was Scott Ball, but only IF it was Scott Ball, then his mother made him do it. ( I didn’t rat-out on you, Scott Ball; it vas za Neese person ; she named you; Ya, it vass all her faultz. I vass just followink za orders as da goot historical scribe. Ya, she did it, it vas not me.)
“ THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD “ Pine Street, Hedrick and Richmond were parallel and between the shopping center and the River. White Sands was toward the north end. Some of the few good hills in all of Riverside were in this neighborhood, especially on Ingleside. This was the habitat of an army of kids , some already named. Another of Tyler’s old snap shots shows a mixed bunch of them having a get together at Lorenzo Milam's Playhouse nearby about 1946.
THE UN - USUAL SUSPECTS at Lorenzo’s Playhouse (Back-to-front) Oliver Morton Don Singleton Julie Lindblad , Mary Morrow Drake Joan Lee, Lorenzo Milam, Mike Darby Radford Lovett, unidentified
When Sarah T. heard of a “cave” having been dug up there on Riverside Ave., she told us about the one they excavated. Now, some of us boys had dug some pretty decent fox holes to play “Army“ , but cave tunneling was something else. Caves were really cool, I mean both in temperature , but also in impression. These were secretive adventures as Sarah shows. Sarah said…“Actually, it was Baker King, Johnny Dent, and I. We proceeded tunneling a respectful distance beneath the lot next to my house on Richmond St. We would dash home from school to dig, taking turns crawling in and filling up the bags and passing them behind to the next person and the next who would finally spread it all around so nobody would know.” Humm, the Viet Cong could have learned something from these kids. With all that extensive and secretive dirt disposal, perhaps we now have some clue as to where White Sands really came from in the first place - secret tunnel tailings.
At the South end of Pine Street lived Bruce Rosborough who lived on Shadowlawn right off of the “S” curve in St. Johns Ave. at the park. He and I together with Paul Oberdorfer, Milton ("Uncle Milty") Cooper, Fred Rankin, Warren Wilcox were among Den One, Cub Scout Pack 18. Mrs. Jean White Rosborough (now Jean White Davis) was the Den Mother. Jean White had a quite interesting history. When she was in college she became the first woman to climb the North Face of Long's Peak, the highest in Colorado. She helped get the Jacksonville's Children's Museum started, was 2-term President of the Jacksonville Junior League , first female in the Vestry of St Mark's Episcopal Church, helped start the Jacksonville Symphony and also the Junior Assembly (Cotillion). She had been still winning at the Bridge table just before the celebration of her 100th birthday. She died a month later in February, 2008. She had been one of the few through whom many have benefited in the City of Jacksonville.
In around 1943 the Kings moved into that white house on the corner of Herschel Street (with the accent on the “schel”) by Boone Park and Tuck Peters’ family with his younger brother Hank moved into the same yellow house on the corner of Riverside and Dancy. Sir William Herschel ( with the accent on the “Her”) is known as the Father of Modern Astronomy. I do not know who Dancy was, but I suspect that like Dr. Gorrie, he must have also invented something quite important . Maybe it was the Whoopee Cushion or perhaps even bubble gum ! Ah hah, do you think I jest ? Well , Mildred remembers that, “ During the War you could not get bubble gum. We found out one day that a store in Fairfax had some. I rode my bike home from school, found three pennies and rushed back to Fairfax and got my three pieces of ‘gold’ - Double Bubble Gum, that is.”
( Walter Diemer invented bubble gum in the 1928. It was the Original Double Bubble Gum sold by Fleer Co. and came wrapped in a multi- color comic strip. The feature character was a fat boy called Pud who wore a beanie cap and a red and white striped T- shirt. This is the gum we knew first. (Ah, it all comes back to me now.) It could be separated into two pieces- one for now and one for later after the teacher made you throw away the first one. Bazooka Bubble Gum by Topps Candy Co. came out twenty-five years later in 1953 also with a comic strip wrapping, but that was just for those little kids. )
Oops, I just found out who Dancy really was. Colonel Francis L. Dancy was impressively prominent during the 19th century in the protection and development of northeast Florida as a soldier, railroad surveyor, engineer and State legislator. He was also a mayor of St. Augustine. Considering what he did, he certainly deserves a much larger street than McGirt, the cow thief. So I guess if fun is going to be poked, I better wait until somebody names a street for me. In 1950 the King Family moved from residential Avondale out to the frontier land of Arlington. That was the same year I started at Bolles School, so the Kings were gone from Riverside until the 1980s when my parents returned , but to Pine Street following my father‘s, retirement.
Larry Moshell who lived across the Park closer to the School with a whole bunch of classmates had asked about Betsy Small. Betsy Small was a year older than us and was prominent at Lake Shore and probably at Lee too. Her brother Kenny was a couple years younger. They lived on that same 3600 block of Riverside Avenue where I had just lived before on Herschel St., the street where that birthday picture had been taken.
Patty Burton Owen has furnished the next two wonderful photos from around the Boone Park tennis courts of a few of that neighborhood group. I think Eleanor (Mom), Tyler and Patty had the only cameras around and actually used them.
“ LES GIRLS “ - 1946 Mildred Barrett, Betty Barber, Mary Henderson, Deane Jackson Paula Cahill, Betty Davis, Virginia Seige, Marilyn Kerr
AT BOONE PARK AFTER SCHOOL - 1946 Donald Leath , Richard Kemen, Buddy Wiggins, Billy Bailey, Larry Moshell Virginia Seige, Deane Jackson, Mary Henderson, Daphnie Barber, Betty Barber
The McCrea family - Henry, Jubert, and Mary McCrea Laseter lived in that 3600 block and next door to the Burpee family- Frances (“Sassie”) and Leland. They were all older. There was and still is a gigantic oak tree in their back yard right on the alley were we played a lot. The McCrea boys built a five-level tree house in it. Mary avoided the upper levels. Leland fell out of it once and that skinned him-up and bruised him pretty badly.
Beside that master tree house, Mary mentions that “other” cave which brother Henry and some of the other older neighborhood boys had dug in the vacant lot on Riverside next to Boone Park. There is a duplex apartment there now. I wonder if it has a “root cellar”. A young Ruth Martin Dobyns lived across the street from the McCreas a couple years after we moved to Herschel. She now resides in Citra, north of Ocala , with her husband Lee. We met during a square dance in Ocala a few years ago discovering that we had almost been neighbors long ago. Ruth remembers the Small and the Peters children.
DA BOYS AT HERSCHEL STREET - 1944 Frank Martin. Ray, Leland Burpee, Mike Henley, a boy, Morton Lord
Morton and Betty Jean Lord, Mike Henley and Jimmy Prescott lived just over on Oak Street as so did the younger Wilder family (Jack, Betty Jane and young brother, Aubrey). Dudley Norman lived a few doors up the street on Herschel and so did Linda Fink Wilkinson and younger sister Nancy Fink Leeds. Patty Burton Owen lived on Herschel, across the street. Peter and Johnny McCranie lived on Geraldine and then in 1950 moved to St .Johns next to the Martins. The Martins lived on Glendale, then on St. Johns, then Oak and then bought DeGraffenreid house. Tommie Lee McFarland Walsingham lived on the corner of Glendale and Herschel. She now resides in St. Petersburg. Jackie Conway, Marilyn and John Lloyd Layton , Warren Wilcox and the Boone family ( Ed, Oval and Sarah), all lived in Fairfax Manor on Woodmere Drive which started across from the shopping center and then curved around along the south side of Fishweir Creek and on to the Ortega River coming back out to the main road near the old Ortega bridge. It still does, but the Layton’s house on the river is now gone.
Beginning at Pine Grove and moving around like we all did, Bob Sanders has been settled into the later family home on Talbot for a while. He oversees an exotic flower garden in his back yard which also serves as a bird sanctuary, squirrel feeding station and a raccoon R&R facility. He wishes that the local gang of raccoon marauders would leave him just a few little minnows in his back yard pond.
The Laytons had previously lived on the corner of Boone Park Avenue and Dancy Street. Marilyn Layton Scolam relates that ,“We lived in the red brick English tudor house until 1944. My father had built it in 1935 and Mother came home to that new house from the hospital when I was two weeks old. This neighborhood on the west side of Herschel St. ( immediately north of the Park ) was also home to Marty, Kenny and Nancy Strickland , to Roy and Jimmy Roane, the Hull family, the Queens family and to Frank and Richard Hellinger. Their family owned the hardware store.“ Marilyn also recalls her earlier Fishweir years with ,”girlie memories of afternoons cutting out and playing with paper dolls and exploring the Boone Park nature places with tadpoles, minnows, learning to balance crossing the creek on that 12 inch pipe and running scared from the fabled 'Boogy Man' who ’lived in the woods of Boone Park‘. The boy's liked to scare us girls with that.”
Linda C. remembers that “ There were a lot of kids in our middle block of Hollywood Ave (This was up between Edgewood and Lee High School ) There was a little park in the middle of the circle, so we had a great spot to gather for ball games, hide and seek, or just talking under the street lights at night. The other kids were Susan Bailey, Betty Beal, Theresa Sanderson, Billy Keebler, Fiske Rogers, B.J. Lannon, Allen and Jay Houk, Pat and Lyda Rogers, Zai Sanderson my brother Bub and later Pat and Bunny Jones. And 'bad boy' Tommy Blowers. Nearly every neighborhood needed at least one “bad boy“. "A favorite gathering spot was the new Edgewood Theater. It was especially exciting for us little girls when the cute ushers, those big boys from Lee ,would escort us to our seats where we would ‘swoon‘ (between giggles). When we were in the fifth or sixth grades we were allowed to take the #5 bus downtown together, eat at a drug store lunch counter, and go the Arcade, the Florida or the Palace theaters for a movie."
You might recall that the Florida Theatre had a music program just before the scheduled feature. An organist would play a popular song and the words would be projected onto the screen. Yes, we would really “follow the bouncing ball “ and sing along.
Linda tells about - being in the Brownie Troup that met in that little old hut in the middle of Boone Park near the tennis courts and that,“ I also took tennis lessons there. Some of us youngsters had lessons in Civil Defense where we learned how to spot various types of aircraft. There were also swimming lessons at the Lackawanna pool which also involved life-saving courses. Patty Wade, Judy Gabel, Roxy and Bobbie Woodman and I joined a Red Cross -sponsored synchronized swimming team. We practiced in the big indoor pool at the NAS and gave performances at the San Jose and Timuquana clubs.”
Ah hah, so that explains it ! As you might already know, synchronized swimming is when the girls paddle around on their backs in circles for a little while, with that one leg stuck up into the air with the pointed toes , but they are totally submerged the whole time. How do they do that ? Well several years later Linda and I were at her parents place on Kingsley lake. We were out on the float and she said, “Race you back to shore, King”. Well, “Har de Har “, thought this would-be stud guy. “ I dove in and splash, splash, splash, away I went. When I touched bottom near the shore I turned around to see how far back she was, but she was not there. She tapped me on the shoulder. “Gotcha”. Linda had beaten me. Me ! And to make matters even worse , Little Mermaid Cleveland had done it while swimming under the water !
The Canaday, Stegal, Slade, Armstrong, Lee and Drake families established residence just south of the Willowbranch and along or adjacent to the yet brick-paved Aberdeen Ave. and Elizabeth Place. “Aberdeen” named for the locale of a Royal neo-Gothic, 'Scottish Baronial'- style castle and “Elizabeth” named no doubt for the Queen, herself . The Avondale community was intended to be the “exclusive sub-division to overshadow all others “, to be “Riverside’s residential ideal, where only ‘correct people’ would dwell“. But, alas, "they" would soon arrive and then , well, just as the heading to this section reads, “There goes the neighborhood “ , as so attested, below.
Mrs. Carol Ann Bunny Canaday Brown has recently revealed the long-guarded secrets amid those exclusive and proper domiciles. " Our favorite trick was when Mary Morrow Monk Drake spent the night with me , we would run up to Aberdeen to our older friend‘s house, Ju Ju Armstrong , in our slips. We liked to go up there because she would share the wine her mother gave her once a month for female cramps. I doubt that my Mom, Nadine ever knew we were gone. Then Carol Shmo Knight would also visit and I got into pranks like that -as we spied on Lewis Lee."
Ahem, so let me see if we have this thing straight, Officer. Once a month, possibly around the full Moon, they would sneak out at night and after a few snorts of Ju Ju's Mother's booze, would then , er, run amock through our correct neighborhood , even traversing those neo-Gothic bricks of the Aberdeen ! at night, dressed only in ,er, their slips, and then spy on young Lewis Lee , at night in only their , uh, their slips ? - - Egad !!
Mmmmmmmm, well, Boling, King and Potterfield have pondered this recent revelation for a little while and are now of the consensus that, " Dam ! How come no tipsy girls ever came running up to my house at night in their underwear ? Life is just not fair !"
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME Jimmy Prescott (Oak Street) had a target-quality bow and arrow set and we used to take it into the middle of the Park. We would stand around Jim and he would shoot an arrow (steel tipped) straight up into the air. We would all scatter, running in different directions, not knowing where the arrow was because of the trees. Fortunately the odds remained in our favor when it came back down at 90 miles per hour and embedded itself in the ground and not in one of our, er brains. We would retrieve the arrow and do it again a couple more times until we started actually thinking about those diminishing odds. You know, that risky activity just might have some real potential for the development of a Math word problem in Statistics. Yes, I would like to give it to some middle school pre-algebra students I have encountered of late while substituting. Maybe , just maybe, they might experiment with the idea for a while - heh, heh, heh.
Sometimes when you have been sitting for a while and stand up suddenly , you experience a little dizziness. Some people call it a “head rush”. Well, we neighborhood kids took it a step further. We could make ourselves pass out. First you would find a nice soft place to land, like a yard with thick grass, like Morton‘s front yard, Then you would squat down, take three deep breaths, stand up and stick your thumb in your mouth and try to blow it out, not letting any air escape. The next thing you would know , you were sprawled flat on the ground and everybody was laughing. Fortunately we did not do that very much. We were inducing one of the types of cerebral hypotension ( blackouts ) that pilots of high performance military aircraft have experienced and for which they wear the “G“ suits to prevent because they do not have the nice soft places to land like we did.
When we were not otherwise and likewise “abusing” ourselves by drinking water from the garden hose , or going barefoot , or eating Japanese Plums till we all got sick, we boys were playing with homemade toys. There was the match shooter, utilizing the two types of clothes pin - the split type with the spring type, and large wooden, "strike anywhere" kitchen matches. There was the rubber gun using a clothes pin for the trigger. Bicycle inner tubes cut about a half inch wide worked best, especially the red rubber ones. ( I wonder if the inventor of the paint ball guns was once had a rubber gun ?) We had firecracker battles, but not with the “ash cans” ( M-80's) ; they would blow a finger off. You could make a tiny rocket with a kitchen match, foil from a cigarette pack and a straight pin. We made crystal-set radio receivers. We constructed flying model airplanes from kits having pre-cut balsa wood strips, patterns and special tissue paper. These propeller airplanes had wind-up rubber band motors. There were a few gas engine models made in high school which were flown on a control lines. They flew in a large circle. With two people in the same circle, you could ‘Dog fight“ your planes. The radio controlled free-flight models came later. The King Street Bicycle Shop was also the Riverside hobby center for modeling supplies as well as for bicycle repair. There was a big modeling store downtown which name I forget.
One year that super salesman from the Philippines came through Jacksonville doing "Loop the Loops" , “Walking the Dog” and "Rocking the Cradle". He sold Duncan Yoyo's to nearly every boy in the State. And there was always the Cootie Catcher, that accordion -folded paper toy that they now call a "fortune teller". Recently a sixth grader re-educated me how to make one which I now carry folded-up in my pocket calculator. I gave her a cute mouse picture that I frequently draw to entertain (other) juveniles. You never know when you might need a Cootie Catcher. In fact, I “found” some Cooties on one of the Fishweir teachers during that school visit with Mrs. Akers in 2005. She made me go stand in the cloak room. (Some things never change.).
THE TRAIN MAN Mildred and I remember the Train Man. He occasionally ran past our house on Herschel Street as he headed West. He was a middle aged black man dressed in overhauls, a long sleeve shirt and wore a blue and white striped “engineer’s” cap. He carried a whistle or else he made a whistling noise that sounded like an old steam engine. He was just went steadily along at a moderate jog. Some of the kids on the block would try to run along with him , but not for long. Someone had said he went all the way to the Naval Air Station, but that may have just been boys talking. I don't know how far he went, nor do I remember ever seeing him running the other direction - back to town. Maybe he took the bus home like others did. It only cost a nickel back then. But perhaps the Train Man secretly had a chauffeured limousine like the Bat Man; you never know with those eccentrics. Recently someone did a commentary a on him in the newspaper. They had him running - around downtown. Maybe he did that too. The writer was commenting on freedoms and wondering whether the Train Man could do that today without some over-protective parents or just a busy body complaining about " that mentally deranged person" I am so glad we were kids during that innocent time , when we could be allowed to run along a little bit with someone quite unusual like - - a “Train Man”.
WIND SAILING During hurricane season my Mom would tell me to go outside and play. One time Tuck and I took our bicycles over to that street in Arden which runs past Harry Hoffner’s house and which ends at the river. The gale was blowing straight down the street. We tied the sleeves of our raincoats ( Mothers would not let you play in the hurricane unless you had your raincoat on.) we tied our raincoat sleeves to the handle bars and held the coat tails up over our heads to make a sail. You could steer without hands by leaning from side to side. We could not see where we were going, but that was OK, there was nobody else out there except the two of us. Beside sailing our bikes we also climbed way up into a swaying Sycamore tree in Tuck's front yard for the ride. The next day the tree was on the ground. When I told this story to an old college friend recently he questioned it , but our two Moms really did let us out that time. Tuck and I were both surprised and happy for the adventure. I believe that we had more freedoms back then than kids do now, but this was indeed risky. The hurricane was not really there, but it was certainly no time to be outside in those heavy winds and I am sure our Moms did not recognize the peril. Boone Park flooded every time there was a big storm. That is what had given Tuck and me the idea to build our raft. Except for the local weatherman, George Winterling, I do not believe that anyone knew where those storms were. Storm tracking was not done by satellite as it is now, but by the occult examination of dead animal bones.
THE ICE MAN Riley remembers how after one of the hurricanes in the early 50s St. Johns Blvd. was covered with water hyacinths. I (Ray) believe the only hurricane to actually pass over Jacksonville was after I was long gone and living up in Tennessee. My folks were still living out in Arlington at the time and my Mom tells me how scared she was. It was Dora in 1964. Julie recalls that she and Tyler went out after one of the hurricanes had passed on and the streets were all flooded. She relates, " We walked down to the river, which of course was really choppy. That's really all I remember except that the electricity was off for days and we got ice from the place that was off of Roosevelt Blvd. and was there for a long time.”
A few years ago I tried to locate that old ice-making plant. I had remembered seeing it across the railroad when I was riding my bike to Lake Shore, but only one person even knew about it. Recently, Jack Gaillard told me that it was David Ice and Fuel, Co. which indeed had been located on west St. Johns Ave. Presently there is another modern ice plant located close to Edgewood and Roosevelt and it is called The Ice Man. Way back then, manufactured twenty-five pound ice blocks were delivered to the homes for the ice boxes. Then along came an absorption -type refrigeration system used in the popular Frigidaire home refrigerators which we continued to call "ice boxes". Then we called the modern Freon compressor-type home cooler/freezers the "fridge" and even yet, “the ice box“.
SAM During these storms the schools were usually cancelled like they are now and power was off too until utility repairs were made. But a friend of ours was killed by a hanging live wire as he and his brother were walking to the bus in Ortega, going back to school when it was supposed to be "safe". That in itself was tragic, but Sam Gaillard, only in the tenth grade at Lee , was a lost treasure. He was exceptionally bright and very funny. Everybody loved to have Sam Gaillard around. We were all devastated by his death. After almost sixty years, I do not believe that any of us have fully recovered from it, nor should we.
ON THE WATERFRONT As much time as Tuck and I and the neighborhood Hilliard and Wilder boys spent playing on our bikes up and down the streets of Riverside and Oak, Pokey, Dick Kemen and Bob Sanders were paddling around and fishing on Fishweir and Cedar Creeks and in the Ortega River. Meanwhile Frankie and Johnny (Martin and McCranie) were catching reptiles. I mentioned to Sanders recently that I never realized that there were manatee in Florida until I was long gone from the State - because we never saw one up and down the St. Johns nor in Lake George nor the Arlington River where I lived in high school , nor did I know of anyone else seeing any. But, now Bob relates that they saw them all the time in the Ortega at Bill Montgomery’s boat dock and that they were also in Doctors Lake where Teddy Robinson lived. They called them sea cows. Ted had a boa constrictor which he fed sea gulls. As you recall, Ted was a National -class swimmer. I wonder if having a boa constrictor in the water with you was an incentive to swim faster ?
Before they moved next to the Martins on St. Johns , Peter, John and Dan McCranie lived on Geraldine Drive. Peter recalls that, “ Our backyard backed up to the Fishweir Creek and at the water's edge, there was a magnificent cypress tree, which overhung the water. From a height of 30 feet, we would jump out of the tree, and land safely (?) into the spongy mass of hyacinths - without getting wet ! My brother, Johnny and I found the hyacinths so deeply packed we could even walk on them. Other than an occasional black water snake which would be basking in the watery sunlight wondering where the hell we came from, we never felt that we were dong anything dangerous or ridiculous. The old cypress tree still stands, and now when I see it, it brings to mind that great novel about another tree - "A Separate Peace" - and I thank God neither John nor I ever broke anything except the creek's tranquility (not to mention that of the poor snakes nor of the many large alligator gar fish which also resided there. From the Fishweir bridge you could see them breaking water when the hyacinths were clear.) “ We had a seven foot long wooden boat called the ‘Sea Dog‘, and when powered by Mr. Milligan's large outboard motor, we would almost become airborne when we ran it down the creek during those non-hyacinth weeks of the early summer. I was 13 and John was 11; Dan was four.”
AZALEA CREEK – BOONE PARK Back while we were kids in grammar school, we fished for minnows in Azalea Creek using a Mason jar with a long string tied around the mouth. You put in a piece of bread pressed inside some wire to weigh it down, fill it with water and then lower it into the creek. Minnows swim in for the bread and then up they come bound for the fish bowl in the kitchen window. The prize minnow was a “speckie”; it was a black and white whatever it was. Our counterparts just to the north did the same thing in Willowbranch. The jar and string - thing still works. I used the method again recently on a river bank near Ocala, with one of my grandsons.
One afternoon Pokey and Dick Kemen were cast-netting for shrimp along the bulkhead of the St. Johns at Timaquana. This was before all the home construction and it was pretty wild. For several weeks they had been using home -made shrimp bait balls and had been having consistent success, catching 5-10 pounds per outing with their six-foot throw nets. This afternoon the shrimp must have been having a convention because they were all over the place, even before the bait had been set out. Dick drove home and got his brother for reinforcement and the three of them threw nets for six hours until they were pooped out. By 2 AM that night, Pokey and the whole Kemen family had de-headed and iced- down ninety- two pounds of shrimp. Fantastic ! Home freezers were rare back then and so they shared them with the neighborhood the next day.
Our family friends, Nick and Ben Burbridge lived on the Southside on that little , Marco Lake, next to the famous “Thrill Bridge”. Every teen in Jacksonville knew about the Thrill Bridge. It was the only place in the County where you could get "air time" except on the roller coaster at the beach. They had a swimming pool in the back yard and when a younger sister, either Gail or Linda Burbridge Knight had a pool party for her girl friends, one of the brothers ( most likely Ben) would toss a small alligator into the pool and gleefully watched the squeeeeling exodus. Our families often went together down the river to Silver Glen Springs which is in the Ocala National Forest, right off of Lake George. The past several years the "run" has been ruined by the Yuppy boaters, alien fish (not from the Planet Gaaak, but from places foreign to the Springs, like Egypt) and algae, but back then it was more secluded and was a true Florida paradise. We would wade the grass beds along the edge of the big Lake, fishing for bass. There were not as many gators then as there are currently. They were on the way to being wiped out by the hunters until they became protected. Gators have been on some of our dinner menus for a long time and now we are on some of theirs. That seems fair to me.
This is how we caught live bait for bass fishing. There were some sand flats less than a foot deep and the spring water was always clear. We would go out at night with a flashlight, a bucket and a 18 inch long piece of stovepipe. We would spot the bullhead minnow on the flat, hold the light on him so he would not move. He could not see us. Then we lowered the stovepipe with the light shining straight down thru it and suddenly push it down into the sand around him. Then reach down into the pipe and pick him up. We called it “stove piping for minnows”. We had as much fun doing that to catch bait as we did with real fishing. It certainly is more fun to tell.
Nick was the first person I ever saw water ski backwards. It was on Lake George. But according to Pokey, the acclaimed, aquatic acrobat of the day was Richard Kemen. Regular skiing became boring to him. Dick and Pokey would be over at Margaret Lipscomb's house which her Dad had built on pilings above the Ortega River. Dick would scoot along behind Dr. Lipscomb's boat standing on their plywood disc . Eventually Dick would be doing 360's on that disc while sitting on top of a step ladder. He was just a little bit ahead of his time. Dick was a also a skilled football and basketball player.
Margaret Lipscomb was an exceptional student. Actually, she was an exceptional person; probably still is. I believe that 68 % of the brains in Lake Shore School were shared between Margaret , Bob Smith and Bruce Cleveland. The other 34 % were shared somewhat unevenly among all the rest of us as well evidenced by this very appraisal. Bruce went on to McCallie School in Chattanooga, and then on to Cornel University, graduating in Engineering Physics. He and Barbara reside in Chapel Hill. I believe that Margaret resides in or near Jacksonville.
REID Some events are sad to relate, but the memories of the person are deserving to be recalled. Reid Hardin lived on the corner of Park and Seminole Rd.. He and his older sister had attended Gorrie where their father was Principal. His mother was a teacher. It was a fine family and Reid, “Buck“ Hardin was well liked by all. He was a favorite among some of his peers and he was chosen to represent his school socially. But in 1950, while Reid, Sam Holloway a close neighbor and John Crabtree were water skiing in the St Johns River, their boat hit one of those permanent channel markers. Reid was killed and Sam was seriously injured. Sam recovered and everyone knew him later on in high school. But lamentably Reid Hardin was gone.
SHOW AND TELL Tyler told a story about his Gorrie classmate, Bill Breese who then filled in the details. It seems that soon after WWII, Bill and his friend Johnny Dent managed to somehow "appropriate" a 30 cal machine gun from a U.S. Navy Corsair they found which had crashed out in the woods toward Cecil Field. After some reconditioning work they took that weapon down to the river, set it up and fired off a "burst" (or two). As a Bolles School cadet Johnny had access to and "acquired" the 30 cal. rounds from the rifle range there. ( Bolles was then a boys military prep school with US Army and strong US Navy support.) The boys painted the gun barrel orange and the receiver housing black. It was swapped back and forth until Bill took it to school one day for "Show and Tell". He put it across the handle bars of his bicycle and peddled it to school thru the city streets. If anybody noticed it they probably did not believe what they were seeing. So here are the John Gorrie Jr. High School children at Show and Tell with their Confederate soldier hat from Georgia, and with their antique, wooden bread making board , and with their ant colony, and Bill Breese with his (still smoking) 30 caliber machine gun. Then Bill just put it back across the handle bars of his bike and peddled it back home.
Not long afterward two austere gentlemen were sitting in
his parents living room discussing the situation. One was from Naval
Intelligence (the definitive oxymoron) and the other was from the FBI.
"Ahem, now, we just don't want anyone to be hurt by that gun", they
said, but I believe that what they really wanted was for Bill and Johnny to
help them find the rest of their lost airplane. "Oh, but that gun is all
broken-up; it doesn't work", replied Bill's Mom. About that time Bill
walked in. " Oh yes it does", said Bill. The two "thunks"
were Bill's parents' jaws hitting the floor. The machine gun was taken back to
the Navy. I hope they found their airplane.
THE ORTEGA PIER
“The Ortega Pier” Copyright 1971 Permission from John E. Ropp Art Studio
Julie had said, “I have a wonderful pencil drawing of the Ortega Pier that was done by John Ropp.” John and Louise Adams Ropp resided in Avondale for a while as they raised their family. I now believe that his work is the only original image of the Pier in existence for public view. John, who has favored us with a copy to use here, drew it in 1971. I understand that it was just as ramshackle as it looked , but lasted for generations.
Beside other events the old Ortega Pier was best known as the site of tea dances every Saturday afternoon when we were in high school. The Lee fraternities and sororities both took turns sponsoring the socials. It was being used for similar socials even in the late 1920s when my Mother was in high school from across town in Springfield. “But, it is all a thing of the past, now ...no Pier; no high school fraternities or sororities, ” so laments Peter McCranie. The structure always looked like it was going to fall apart, but the Pier survived Dora and was still strong enough to support the Gaillard station wagon. It is remembered that it finally fell into disrepair and was dismantled , but who knows when ?
Peter adds, “The Ortega Pier was a very important part of the fraternity and sorority life. Every Saturday afternoon, on a rotational basis, one of the Panhellenic group would sponsor the dance, provide the chaperones and refreshments, and collect the small fee. The freshmen members of the “Greeks” were required to be present and had to dance. It was a great debut for most of us, who were still very awkward socially. I recall Tyler always being the one with the most ‘presence‘, and I very much admired his way of being kindly and likeable.” (He still is, on those rare and notable occasions.) Jack Gaillard was raised in that Ortega locale and relates that , “A gentleman by name of Boutwell owned the pier for decades, including our years in question. He also lived on the property and raised garden crops on loamy, terraced soil beside the river. Neese's dad owned a vacant lot next to the Ortega Pier property and generously made it available to the area Boy Scouts. We neighborhood kids, also used it for swimming, fishing and boating. The ‘Scout's Dock’ there was built from wreckage we neighborhood kids had salvaged from pieces of other docks that had been wrecked by storms and hurricanes and which had washed into the swamp at the Point. Another gift of the river was a canoe we found under the Ortega Bridge. It was in good condition, so we hauled it out and treated ourselves to several years of river running. A rite a passage for us younger types was to swim across the Ortega River from there ; for the older guys, it was to swim from the Ortega Bridge to the Roosevelt bridge.” (There was another rite of “passage” to be mentioned later which involved crossing over the Ortega Bridge.)
PLEASE REPLACE SPEAKER BEFORE DRIVING OFF As I recall , the Lake Shore Theater was always getting into trouble for showing smutty movies and that later on some girls were not allowed to go on a movie date to the new Normandy Drive In Theater because it was called “the passion pit”. On the other hand Tyler also recollects that the Outdoor Drive-in Movie was the rage of the day -particularly for teen-agers. ( I need to interject that the local daughters were warned by their mothers about that insufferable Potterfield boy, but alas in 1958 he married one of them.) To construct a Drive-In Movie Theater it only took a big field arranged into something like a hill- rowed farm field with the large curved rows arranged so each car pointed toward the monster outdoor projection screen positioned at one side of the field. Those concentric rows were widely spaced for driving aisles behind the parked cars. The higher level of the rows gave the front end of your car just the right angle so passengers could easily see the screen. Every parking spot on a row had a stanchion holding a removable speaker to hang onto your car window. The projection booth was a small building located in the middle which also had the "facilities " and also a snack and soda pop shop, but we often brought our own version of “soda pop“ as you will soon see (and remember). But this one went a step further. It was actually a double-drive-in theatre having two projection screens positioned back-to-back in the center. It functioned as two theaters and was an outdoor precursor to the modern indoor multiplex theaters. It opened in 1951 and was replaced by the Normandy Mall in 1962.As Tyler recalls, “What an inspiring, inexpensive way for a guy to spend a weekend evening taking his favorite girl to the outdoor movies in the family automobile for entertainment which included some ( er, just occasional opportunities for ‘necking‘. We didn’t really care if a rain shower spoiled the view or if the windows fogged-up (only on the cold nights thank you) On the warmest nights, we would just sit on a front fender to watch thepicture Show.” Most of the time the drive-ins had us pay by the head -count. I do recollect the stories while Mert confirms them - of some guys (Tut Tut ) and a few of the girls (Wheee) climbing into the car trunk or under blankets to be snuck in for free. Mert tells of a double date with Reggie Robarts when the other couple in the trunk were stuck back there when traffic got backed-up at the entrance for a long time. It was a popular movie that night and they had run out of parking places.
LOWE’S NORMANDY TWIN OPEN-AIR THEATER
Occasionally, for just one entry ticket per vehicle, a series of movies would be shown all night long, until daylight. A crowd of boys would pile into a car, splitting both the price of that ticket and of the stash of illicit beer ( and , uh, soda pop) hidden under a blanket in a galvanized tub of ice for those all- night movie marathons. “ Ain’t life great ? We thought so ! But alas, the drive- in theaters were doomed“, Tyler laments, “The advent of home TV and the rising value of commercial property would bring on the demise of those unique evening playgrounds the 1950s.”
AT THE NORMANDY Bo Crutchfield Doodle Buunson Sam Myrick (Designated Driver) Dottie Chamblis Walter Smith
I believe among the first drive-in movies at Jacksonville was the Atlantic on the Old Beach Road. It was ancient. I drove past it innumerable times when we moved out to Arlington, but went in there only once. I was driving home and got the wild-hair idea of sneaking-in too, all by myself. So I turned off the headlights , drove in the exit and found a spot. A little later the attendant came by and asked me about my ticket. Gulp ! ! Ticket ? I was going to jail ! I played dumb, which was not very hard, and he let me go. My last drive-in movie patronage was around 1980 in Knoxville. I was on business trip and Grayce had accompanied me. We went to see "The Towering Inferno". But she insisted that I pay them this time - - and we actually did watch the movie. We were married.
POP BERRIER’S We are told that , in those days, “Pop” Berrier , with a factory on 8th Street, was Jacksonville's local king of the ice cream cone and there were also several of his fast food drive-ins all around Duval County . But this particular one was located on Popular Point which is on the left just before you cross the Fishweir Creek bridge. It is currently occupied by what is known as the Little Landing with the Commander Apts. next door. This Pop Berrier’s was a small building which sat in the middle of an acre of that unpaved low land. As high school historical landmarks go this hang- out ranks near the top. ‘Pop’s’ was the social center for all those able to drive or who had a friend who could drive. It was where you went after the Normandy. Beside the obvious ice cream and hot dogs, the artery blockers included milk shakes, ‘Delaware Punch‘, and Julie’s favorite - great big paper sacks full of French fries ”
From decades of adolescent use and abuse the land became an ecological disaster and had several inches of fluidized Florida sand as a covering that would put even the Fishweir school yard to shame. No decent description of "Pop’s” could be made without Tyler’s description of the place and how , “we all ‘kicked circles’ and ‘dug off’ on that property creating dust bowl-like clouds over that whole area. If you planned it just right, an exit would include stomping on the car's accelerator while still in that sand and when the vehicle's rear wheels finally reached the pavement , an ear piercing screech would occur for the first 50 feet of travel up or down Herschel St. You couldn't do that as well at other paved locations. Digging off, scratching off, pealing off, or burning rubber was a big deal for high school boys.
From the above and the following observations there has been a recent female comment including the terms, “insufferable” and “ testosterone” in regard to certain young male attitudes and deeds involving raucous displays and territorial marking as being “linked” to those more primal urges of man and beast, alike. For instance - Peter remembers that , “Pop Berrier's was ‘our turf’. It belonged to the Lee/Bolles flock and that any random roaming or incursions from the Jackson or Landon herds was not welcomed, and their presence would invariably stimulate the protective instincts of either a Larry Nettles or a Don Bessent -type Alpha- male into fighting mode.
Some may remember the Bob Massey fender-skirt confrontation ! He was from Landon and came with some support, looking for the auto parts stolen from his car over at Bolles during a basketball game. Peter McCranie, a Bolles student with a car, was involved, but innocently. The expected intervention occurred and there was a tense stand-off not much different from the Cuban Missile Crisis. The real culprits confessed and apologized and so the ruffled parties parted ways, Massey with his retrieved skirts. ( Dr. McCranie notes that Bob Massey and Bill Ketchum currently have adjoining seats at the Jacksonville Symphony, where I expect Mr. Massey now leaves his fender skirts at the coat check.)
Actually anyone even mistakenly perceived to be a roaming bachelor making a foray into the local pride was in jeopardy as Darby recollects, “When I was 18 and a young Marine, I remember being there with another Marine buddy, in uniform, after a day at NAS. We were sitting in the car having a hot dog or something and a car full of guys who didn't like Marines and/or uniforms, started yelling at us, cussing and even threatening to come over and work us over. We decided to call their bluff (hopefully !). We stepped out of the car, looking as mean as we knew how....and they drove off ! “ ( If you know Darby, you must realize of course, that the other Marine must have been looking really really bad.) “The plus side is not only did we not get into a fight, being outnumbered, but a couple of gals decided we were pretty cool and came over to us and even went out with us that night.” I wonder if Darby took them to the pool hall. ?
The mention of Pop Berrier’s has triggered several collateral recollections of its across-the -street successor the Polar Bear Drive-In located in “the point“, of the Penny Burger , of Handy Amby’s, of The Pickaninny where, “you (Tyler) could get illicit beer-cheap !”, of “The Sandwich Inn” which was near Five Points and became another successor hang-out, of the other “Pop’s” on Casset where Mildred went, of The Western Grill , of a couple of Spinning Wheels and of the Dreamette on the corner of Post and Edgewood which is still serving ice cream to some now- notable senior citizens.
There was a Spinning Wheel in Avondale for a short time while we were in about the eighth grade. Darby says that The Spinning Wheel was owned by Tommy Ingram's dad. I don't know if it was affiliated with that other one on Margaret St. or not. There was a pinball machine at this one and we local "hoodlums" hung out there for a while - - until - -uh - . They really did have a Spinning Wheel, well actually it was a spinning steel pointer device on the wall with a start button that also made "ding" noise. After you made your milk shake-like drink purchase and did the “ ding “ thing, if the pointer stopped on the "Mark" you got it free. One afternoon Tuck snuck in with a magnet and we - - uh - well, you can probably describe the ultimate and obvious outcome, yourself. As Peter sees it now,“ Yes, we were so young and seemingly invincible - because our world was comprehensible ; we had no drug issues ; our dances were not crazily provocative (the shag was our own), and we viewed our teenage years as preparatory, not declaratory ! Those were the days“…and Ah, Yes, as Peter is wont to say, “ Giants walked the earth in those days.” Which returns us to Mr. Nettles.
“GOAT” our protector. No one came with bad intentions to the Riverside area without ultimately having to deal with him. He did not strut nor bully, and tried to be under every body’s radar, but his abilities made that impossible. Larry was an outstanding athlete at Lee High School . He was two years older and was a fraternity brother in Gainesville.”
As Bill Ketchum, his classmate recalls, “Nettles was the best all around athlete in the 1950 Lee High class -best in basketball, but also good in football and baseball. He threw me a touchdown pass against Miami Senior High during that championship season. “ He was an outstanding bridge player with an uncanny card memory as Bill will confirm. In 1954 they won the University of Florida duplicate bridge championship. Larry Nettles, sometimes called (affectionately) "Goat," was a brilliant student. Because of who he was, he was assigned the duty as a hall monitor and especially as Monitor [keeper of the peace] in the Lee High School boy's study hall in the auditorium - a daily chore. During his tour of duty each day in the study hall, Larry spent his time knitting sweaters and scarves for Christmas presents. Tyler assures us that no other male teenager in the whole world could have knitted among a male teen public without ridicule. Not a “peep” was ever uttered about the “Goat’s” knitting hobby even if he dropped a stitch.
Larry lived in Murray Hill, but he became a close buddy of the guys in Avondale and Ortega. Beside also “monitoring” Pop Berrier’s the “Goat’s” exploits have included running across the old Ortega Bridge at night without his knitting - well actually without anything except his shoes and socks, probably leading the way, as usual. During college Larry became a legend in Gainesville, when it was “rumored” that after his freshman year he never attended a class, but graduated with honors. Bill confirms that, “He was one of the smartest guys I ever knew, but was very casual about studying.” However, he was always reading, even in the fraternity dining room during meals. After college he went to Army OCS and became a paratrooper. He married a Florida co-ed classmate from Key West and moved there to operate the family laundry. He also opened a small Florist business.” Tyler continues, “, A few years ago he helped to extract me from a confrontation I got into with some of the "old guard" in Key West---and again, 30 years after college, Larry was my benefactor. It was a privilege to have known this remarkable person. Larry Nettles died there in Key West in February, 2007.
BILLY HEAD Billy Head, a 1951 graduate of Fletcher High School was a high school sports phenom. He won four individual Florida HS State track titles and in football rushed 1,650 yards in 10 games, the highest ever recorded in the state at that time. His average was 11.5 yards per carry. After one year at Florida , Bill enlisted in the Marines, was a twice -wounded veteran of the Korean War, and played for the battalion football team in Seoul. Head married and moved to Oahu to raise his family of three. With a master’s degree in education he had taught and coached for 30 years at high schools at Oahu. He was also an exceptional adult athlete who completed five marathons and the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. At age 38, Bill ran the 220 yard (200M) dash in 23.2 seconds in an International Masters Track Meet, very close to his best time as an 18 year old high school champion. For the past 14 years until his death on June 1, 2007 , Bill Head suffered from (ALS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Half of all ALS patients die within the first 18 months of diagnosis. Only 10 percent live longer than 10 years. 14 years is extraordinary. His courage and determination coupled with his excellent physical condition enabled him to survive for so long and he did it without the usual ventilator. This is further evidence of the tough character true to the champion he had been his whole life. Memorial contributions in the name of William Porter Head (Billy Head) can be made to the ALS Foundation.
THE SOCIALS
( The Jacksonville Journal 1952 ) AT THE JUNIOR ASSEMBLY Leon Woodham , Barbara West , Linda Cleveland , Bob Nichols
There were those somewhat less than formal aspects of dating and socializing as just described above which were pretty much universal to teens and then there were the fewer, more progressively formal and exclusive gatherings. They were those sponsored by the school social clubs as noted, a few dances by the schools, dances by the major adult yacht and golfing social clubs, and some by the Junior Assembly. Many teens went to them all, but most did not. But when we did go they were all fun even the formal ones because they were well planned by people who knew what they wanted and how to bring it about, especially the Junior Assembly Gatherings. These were mostly theme dances with very first dance having a Barn Dance setting which was very well received. Right here is where that earlier training made the teen dance concept even possible; because we could do it, if we would.. But would we ? At first the poor chaperones struggled to get us out onto the floor. I suppose that is much better that struggling to pry us apart. Among the limiting social aspects were that some parents could afford it and others could not and some teens whose parents could afford it were just not interested. And so it is with society. Just a few years later several of the in-home dinner parties put on by some prominent families whose daughters were “coming out” were socially endured and then we escaped back to the drive-ins or to the beach, wondering how such abysmal planning brought prosperity. Maybe it was inherited.
(The Jacksonville Journal 1952) AT THE FLORIDA YACHT CLUB Ray King, Sarah Boone, Fran Childress, Albert Colley, Pokey Smith, Wakefield Poole Joan Goodman, Kathrine Arnold,. Marga Railey, Bill Bailey
“ FORTY-TWO PAGES, HONEY CHILE “ Every middle school must have its memorable teachers and Lake Shore Jr. H.S. certainly was not left out. We had one, a unique Social Studies teacher by the name of Mr. W. L. Beacom who, long ago, must have been voted into the National Educational Hall of Hoot. His signature utterance, the above, occurred when a student was assigned the task of outlining pages of a school science text as a disciplinary homework assignment. But that by itself was not what made him so memorable.
Here is what Reggie Robarts recollects. “W. L. Beacom ranks as the number one "character" of all the teachers I had in all my years of school. I had him for social studies and also for home room in the ninth grade. When you presented an admittance slip after a absence Mr. Beacom would wave you away and tell you to put the slip on the far end of the desk. He then would vigorously fan the air with a newspaper to shoo away any germs that you still may be carrying. It was always fun to kind of sneak up behind him and lean in close quickly to as if you had a question. That would put him in a panic.” We could give him the benefit that this may have been just put-on playfulness on his part , but - - - Reggie says, “We all ate lunch in the classrooms. After finishing his lunch Mr. Beacom while still sitting at his desk would take a large slug of a liquid concoction from a jar in his desk, gargle it, swish it , then spit it out the (usually open) window. There was a large stain on the bricks beneath his widow that accumulated over the years. He also would take a wad of chewing gum out of his mouth when class started and put it behind his ear for later use. And he usually carried a partially eaten Almond Joy candy bar around in his coat pocket. I guess teachers had to be frugal“.
Neese says that her recollections of Mr. Beacom were that, “
he always had a wad of gum behind his ear“, which ears she has recalled even
after all these years to have been particularly “hairy“. Perhaps that
was his intent so as to help attach the gum. “ And”, she continues,” Someone,
and I think it was Dana, kept insisting that I got A's in that class because I
took him Almond Joy bribes. Not so , my allowance was too pitiful ! Beside, I
just have no memory of that ! None at all !” But then Neese also has said ,”I
have no comment on Normandy - I thought it was a large street ! No one ever
took me there on a date ...wah !” (Yeah, Neese, like Reagan didn’t remember
about the Contras , either.) Reggie also recalls ,“Other humorous incidents involved Mr. Charles Van Sise , who was the General Science teacher. Mr. Van Sise, when perturbed with someone, often as not one of us boys, would refer to them (us) as ‘Buzzards‘. When someone misbehaved in class, he would also try to shame the miscreant by saying that , ‘You do not appreciate the freedoms that have been fought for in WWII by men like myself. We laid our lives on the line and then had to come back home and put up with ungrateful delinquents like you, ( buzzards ).’ But when asked where he served during the war, he assured us that he couldn't tell because it was a military secret. Remember this was in 1948 and Mr. Cole who taught Drafting had been a Navy war pilot. So we asked him did he know where Mr. Vas Sise had served. He said that it had been in the Panama Canal Zone. Well, I guess you may be in potential danger if you have all those Germans over there on one side and all those Japanese over there on the other.” We had a Biology teacher at Bolles and he was another “case”. When quick- drying shirts came on the market, he purchased one and wore it every day for a semester. All shirts then were white; all of them, except this one. After about a "gross" number of washings it took on a somewhat yellowish "tinge" as Nylon is sometimes wont to do ( I say "wont" a lot). Bolles had a new education building that year and the science room was fully equipped. Someone didn't completely turn off a gas valve and first thing the next morning Mr. Bord walked-in with a few students. "What's that smell", as he lit a cigarette and immediately they all demonstrated the scientific plausibility of levitation.
MRS. EMMIE L. PERRY Some people seem to have a natural, unpretentious aura of respectability when they enter a classroom or just a room for that matter. I can’t describe it even though I have seen it many times. I see it in a few young and old alike and I do not see it at times where I often wish it was there. It seems to be a gift. Two of the best teachers I have experienced had it. One was Col James Ball who taught American History at Bolles and the other was the red-haired, ninth grade Math teacher Mrs. Perry at Lake Shore Jr. High School. Just as Reggie remembers. “One other thing that sticks out in my mind about a teacher was Mrs. Emmie L. Perry's complete control of a classroom. Fourteen year olds were a handful and we were no exception. Misbehavior was common in every room except Mrs. Perry's. If there ever was even whispering going on, which there seldom was, Mrs. Perry would not so much as lift her head and say in a very quiet voice, "I believe I hear talking." It ceased immediately. Never did I have another teacher who commanded such respect, even from 14 year old - -‘buzzards“.
I must state an additional appreciation toward James Ball, the History teacher. He had said, “ History is occurring today.” So every Friday the day‘s assignment would be devoted to our recitations regarding the current events chosen from the weekly news.
GROWING UP Moshell has also inquired about Roy Shank and Lawrence Ramspot. They were both Patrol Boys at Fishweir and were among those of that notorious "demonstration" for the second grade mentioned above. At Lake Shore during the Halloween carnival, Lawrence was the guy in the catcher's mask behind the barrier and people paid 25 cents to throw a softball at him. Some boys (from Gorrie) threw an apple and it went thru the guard and hit him in the face. That was a mean and dangerous thing to do. There were some really bad kids around who showed up from time to time. By comparison, the young Reedy -was really more of an aggravation to us than a threat. (See the second grade photo for a typical Reedyism). Lawrence was at one of the Lee reunions. He had gotten his crooked eye straightened surgically and I am told he was a quite impressive looking gentleman. Roy Shank played the trumpet. I was told that Roy, like Frank Martin, also went to college on a Naval ROTC scholarship.
Beginning in the first grade , Donald Arthur Reedy and Pokey Smith went through seventeen years of school together either as classmates or roommates. Pokey relates how Donald made a stunning turn-around - thanks to some "fatherly" scolding one morning by Mr. Kenyon. Dana's dad would employ some of the boys for the summer in his construction company and he caught Donald being his typically sorry self. Mr. Kenyon was highly regarded by all the boys, every one, and he really shook the Red Reedy up. Donald changed from being "Who's that in the Principal's office" to later become recognized by "Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities" while at FSU. The girls who recall Don later in Lee remember him as a gentleman and more recently as a gracious host. After college Donald became a very successful attorney in the insurance industry as a claims settlement negotiator. Red Man has resided in East Jacksonville with his wife Cynthia. Riley Short finally confesses - “ I remember getting paddled by Mr. Welcome Shearer at Gorrie and Mr. Bob Lockett at Lee ( It was sometimes called the ‘board of education’) and getting assigned to ‘Garden Club‘. Today those ‘abusive’ people would be put in jail and the papers all over the US would tell of their awful deeds. We didn't want anyone to know what they did, cause then we would have gotten it again when we got home. I don't think any of us were ‘marred for life’ by these old style disciplinary actions, and in fact, we became much better people because of that discipline. It did not hurt us as much as it helped to guide us.” The Short family lived at the foot of Chalen Ave. and Riley’s dad was the Methodist Bishop of Florida. Riley followed in his father's foot steps and became a minister of some note nationally and for the Methodist overseas missions. He's semi retired now and lives in Lakeland. ( I find it interested that in preceding recollections we find those associated with pool tables, Short, Darby, Smith all becoming ministers.)
Larry Moore reminded me that Frank Skipper had a talent for drawing and that he became an Architect in Texas. Michael Sack has been the Manager of the San Francisco Opera.
Dr. Robert Smith is semi-retired from the ministry, and serves regionally by filling- in as an interim pastor for the Presbyterian churches. He and Phoebe reside in Daytona.
From Fishweir, Bill Gunter moved to Live Oak. He and I became "reacquainted" a couple times on the football field when Bolles played over there one night. We met again in Gainesville at the Baptist Student Union. Bill graduated from U of F, and at one point was the Insurance Commissioner for the State of Florida and owned and operated his own Insurance Agency in Tallahassee.
After attending Lake Shore, Tuck Peters moved to the South Side and graduated from Landon. The last time I saw Tuck was in Jacksonville during the early 1960s when we were both visiting home during the holidays. Tuck was working for G.E. ( I think) and was married. I was also married to Helene at the time and was a young Mechanical Engineer working for Eastman Chemical Co. in East Tennessee. I am a now a retired widower residing in rural Ocala. I have been substitute teaching in the Marion County schools and doing some writing.
Dr. Peter McCranie is semi-retired . Well, not really - he is actively serving to heal America’s heroes - the Veterans at the VA Hospital in Jacksonville, along with Dr. James Borland who succeeded his own father in practice. Dr. James tried to retire, but has returned to heal the Administrations at the VA Hospitals.
Bill Corley has resided in Clarksville, Tennessee., where it is understood that he has conducted a Church ministry.
When Pokey and I discussed many of our Fishweir and Lake Shore classmates, I recalled one of them whom I saw compete one night when his wrestling team visited Auburn in 1954-5 . It was Raleigh Thompson. I remember Raleigh at Fishweir as being a tough kid, but a real nice guy. I did not approach Raleigh after that wrestling meet because he had lost his match and I thought that he might have been embarrassed. I would have been, but Raleigh might not have been and I should have tried to see him. I certainly would try now, winning, loss or drawing. After all, Raleigh was willing to put himself on the line and compete in that extremely difficult sport and then accept the consequences and I was just an onlooker. Now I am the one who is embarrassed. Dr. W.R. Thompson conducted his medical practice in Orange Park until recently (2007).
Some of my other memories are not fond, either. They are a bit embarrassing. In the sixth grade Eunice Cellar had a crush on me and I , being a dumb jerk of a little boy did not know how to handle it. I was ugly to her. I really was not interested in girls then, with one exception. In the first grade I , along with some other little boys, had that crush on Murlene, but at that age we did not know why. Then we started playing "stingeree" and had more important things on our minds for a while, like Batman and football. In Lake Shore, sweet Judy Calvit then took a liking to me and invited me to the Sadie Hawkins Day Dance. I was not really all that interested and , again like an immature ass, I hurt her feelings which she did not deserve. But then I had a debilitating crush on Mary Sue Priestman the blond knockout whose Daddy was a prominent Captain at the U.S. Naval Air Station. I crashed and burned with the help of some disastrous logistics on our first date. Many of my memories are not good and it serves me right. At that age I was uneasy around girls. Just ask Sarah. I told Pokey recently that if I had it to do over I would date every single girl in the class whether I wanted to or not (and whether they wanted me to or not). Mom had kept telling me to date around, but what do mothers know?
STARS IN THE WINDOWS As I have been looking at these memories it strikes me that how WWII , as bad as it was for others, actually had little real effect on most of us. We were temporarily influenced by the war effort of the time, but it did not seem to effect us personally. Of course I am speaking generally and it does seem a bit shallow, but I am speaking as that little boy remembers it. Even as I say “we”, I may not be really speaking for others.
Certainly there was the patriotism. Plus the War added fascinating things for pre-teen kids to see like the strong naval presence and impressive aircraft and things to do, like the recycling drives, rationing coupons, the black-outs, and air raid drills at school and at home, the War Bonds and Victory Gardens. We had pride in our family members and neighbors off at war with the flags and special Stars in the windows.. Except for the few sad exceptions nearly all of them came back about as they left. But in general, what was really happening to a few of them and to so many others was pretty much kept from all of us until much later, even the adults. So what did we kids know about anything at the time? Long prior to the US entry into the War which hostilities had actually begun in 1939 in Poland and even in 1931 in Manchuria, huge tonnages were sunk and lives lost up and down the Atlantic seaboard and some even in the Gulf. These were too long ignored and kept quiet by the embarrassingly unprepared and foolishly aloof U..S Admiralty of King. I remember later seeing heavy globs of tar washed-up along the shore, probably congealed oil from the sunken ships off of the Jacksonville Beaches. Those shallow wrecks later became locales for spear fishing. The Germans did not have Radar so they had to spot visually. They would sit outside the known shipping lanes and watch for targets by their silhouettes. There was then a "blackout' at the beaches and in Jacksonville as black window curtains were hung and automobile headlights were halfway painted over to reduce the glow from the city. Until the pre-war, early 1941 embargo, American businesses had been knowingly selling scrap metal and other raw materials for war to Japan and like others, ignoring their invasions into China and the southern Pacific. As at most other seaports, you could see the Japanese ships loading-up at the wharfs, even between the Acosta and Main Street bridges. I wonder if the Germans unwittingly sunk some of those same Japanese cargo ships ?
We children saw the war vicariously in the propaganda of the comic books, on the radio and at the movies. War was fun to us. It was the subject of games. It still is. ( People seem to enjoy watching war until they are in one. Then they don‘t want to talk about it at all. Strong censorship kept the images of dead American servicemen from the public.) So we adjusted our kid- thing activities during those war years when we were playing hop scotch and Stingeree. To Buck Rogers and Batman were added the GI heroes. The Cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians were replaced by Marines, Germans and Japs. The War did create additional interesting activities to do, as above, but its reality was yet in the background. We were not really concerned because we did not feel personally threatened like others were. With a few exceptions, referring to actual ship sinkings off of the Jacksonville beaches early-on and the failed landing of German would-be saboteurs in Ponte Vedra the real jeopardy was still all "over there", to someone else and to those who went over there, but not here. We really did not find out how bad it was until much later. Nobody did and we are still finding out. If you have the books "Mila 18", by Uris, and especially "Hiroshima" , the handwringers bible, on your bookshelf you need to have "The Rape of Nanking" by Chang, right beside it. It is also available on tape. It is horrific. Thee Japanese officially deny it all to this day. Because of US political post-war policy the General who was responsible, the Emperor’s nephew, was ignored and the General who was not there was tried and hung.
My first wife was a French immigrant. Her Dad was the Mayor of a hamlet just outside of Tours. When he heard that the German Army was approaching he put on his old WWI uniform took up his service revolver and walked up the road to protect his community from the invaders. A six shooter versus a Panzer Division is not a good match-up and some of the townsfolk interceded. Helene Tartereau King knew the French families who hid Jewish people during the German occupation and she also remembered the US Air Force bombing the railroad station at Tours every day at noon and interrupting everyone's lunch. ( No wonder they hate us.) Following the War she had worked for the US Army in Paris and her supervisor became her immigration sponsor to "the Amer-ri-ca" in 1961.
So the people who lived at the beaches and elsewhere will have much different wartime recollections , if we can find them now, because they saw some things of the real war close at hand that we city kids did not. See the web site for “The Beaches Leader”, a local Jacksonville Beach newspaper for first hand accounts. But we did see the war -time shipbuilding industry within the Jacksonville shipyards . The USS John Brown is one of the two surviving Liberty Ships that were built during WWII. It is a traveling museum and was in Jacksonville a few years ago on exhibit. In a four-year span, at eighteen U.S. cities, 2,710 identical Liberty Ships were built. Jacksonville, and the St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company built 82 - one of them in only 31 days. The Gibbs Company on the South Side near the Alsop Bridge constructed various smaller fighting ships and tenders.
Operating those Liberty ships were the non-military crews. The U.S. Merchant Marines who suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any group in the War and were too long denied the benefits of armed forces inductees because they were just “civilians“. When their “ representatives” finally got around to it , most of the survivors were already dead. See www.MyMerchantMarines.com about some Jacksonville heroes.
The Frank P. Huckins Yacht Company on the Ortega River constructed eighteen PT boats. The photo shows the first one. Larger companies like Higgins and Elco were able to build far more, but it was Huckins’s basic hull design that was certified as the standard by the US Navy after competitive trials early in 1941. Post-war yachts like the Fairform Flyer pleasure boat retained the basic and recognizable hull.
In my extended family there was one person killed in the War, Robert Mortimer, a relative from Rochester. He was in the Philippines. I remember my Grandmother's grief when she received the news in a letter. I feel it yet. We still have his young photograph. Others among my Mother's younger cousins were a red- headed Douglas Dauntless dive bomber pilot who visited us , after first "buzzing" the house and I got to see his parachute pack . Now that was strong stuff for a ten-year old. Another cousin was a Sherman tank driver and the third a paratrooper. Two are all still with us. My Father enlisted soon after Pearl Harbor served as an MD at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station and then on the new hospital ship, USS Tranquility in the Pacific. They received the survivors from the infamous sinking of the USS Indianapolis near the end of the War. That was the ship which had just carried one of the A-bombs to Tinian. My father in-law had been a US Army Private in the Pacific and was ferried home after the War - also on the Tranquility.
From 1946 to 1950 while we were completing grammar school, going through Jr. high and entering high school, there was no shooting war to speak of until Korea . Then later on, between 1963 and 1975 some among our own generation were put into jeopardy and like many of their brave predecessors , a few we knew paid dearly. But our generation and the next generation was indeed effected during the paranoia of the Cold War when the entire nation was induced and encouraged to fear a threat of a thirty - minute annihilation that was found much later to be not really there at all.
The great World War II was fought and won by that exceptional and tough depression generation that preceded us, who protected the nation , who protected and shielded its children and who literally saved the world from two tyrannies. This was our parents' great generation. There are so few of them left. They are all National Treasures.
WWII REFLECTIONS FROM POKEY “WWII memories I have are: #1- a sense of PRIDE in helping our country by buying Savings Stamps and Savings Bonds, plus collecting anything METAL to give our government for making planes, guns, etc. This was a big thing in our neighborhood. #2- a feeling that the USA for fighting for WHAT IS RIGHT, and so we would WIN. I was proud of my two uncles who were in the fight, in the Pacific and in Europe. Only yesterday when I was working on genealogy I read letters from both of them that my Mom had saved and passed along to me.” ( It was probably "V-Mail". During the war all over-seas mail was censored and then reduced in half photographically to reduce the bulk and maybe provide some degree of waterproofing. A common letter-size page would become a 4"x 5" mini-letter. )
THE PLANES ! THE PLANES ! During the WarII it was common to see these three U.S.Navy planes overhead. The F4U Corsiar was the popular gull-winged fighter shown here practicing a simulated carrier landing at NAS. The SNJ was a two- seated trainer which resembled some Japanese warplanes. So for demonstrations at air shows, one would be painted -up with red “suns” on the wings and body so it could be “shot down “ by the good guys. The PBY was a patrol bomber used for anti-sub duty out of NAS and Mayport. (Blimps were also used and one was even credited with sinking a sub.) This semi- amphibious plane could be rolled out of the water, up a ramp and parked. It later became a popular recreational airplane. Among the great airplanes was the popular civilian DC3. This was to become the basic flying truck and then the “D-Day paratrooper plane“. In 1935 Douglas Aircraft introduced what could be considered to be the best airplane ever made. Beginning as the commercial air liner seating 21 the later military version, the C-47 Dakota was used extensively in WWII and then Korea , then Vietnam. Both versions were being widely adapted and employed for other military , civilian and commercial uses all around the world at that same time and a few still are. If you flew anywhere in the 1930-60s either commercially of militarily, you probably were on a DC-3
HALT ! WHO GOES THERE ?
DAS VISITING RELATIFFS (Alias) - Hanz Krause, Fritz Krause, Yon Degraffenreid, Ian Krause, Franz Krause, Felix Degraffenreid, Adolf Degraffenreid, Max Krause
Joking aside, some of the saboteurs did indeed have relatives elsewhere in the USA and that in part led to their apprehension when family ties further undermined the already troubled enterprise.
In June 1945, five hundred German prisoners of war were quartered at the Jacksonville N. A. S. If your dad was in the Navy and your mom shopped at the base PX, a tall blonde Gentile might carry your groceries to the car.
POTTERFIELD HISTORY ARCHIVES Tyler Potterfield has been collecting our recollections of WWII as children. If you are interested, give him a call. Tyler has also been researching his family history, which includes first-hand written accounts of relatives fleeing the Jacksonville fire in 1901.
A REAL HISTORY BOOK In 1983, our classmate James R. Ward with Dena E. Snodgrass wrote Old Hickory’s Town : An Illustrated History of Jacksonville. It was acclaimed by the Florida Historical Society to have been the “Best Book Published on Any Aspect of Florida History “ that year. It was reprinted in 1996. From his earlier studies a series published on East Florida history , James was nominated for a Pulitzer award in 1974. Old Hickory’s Town begins about the time that Fishweir was indeed a fish weir.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE - “BEEEN” ( An Alternative History)
In 1924 a US postage stamp was issued in honor of some “other than English” settlers including the Huguenots (Hue-go-nose ) who were French Protestants seeking religious freedom. Some others were called Walloons, who in 1624 ,settled in what would become New York. However, sixty years earlier in 1564, the Huguenots had already established the Fort Caroline settlement at St. Johns Bluff, near Mayport. (The name of the fort, “Caroline”, is not about a sweet lady; it is from old French , and means, “the land belonging to Charles IX “, the King of France at the time.) This was forty years before the failed English Jamestown and nearly sixty years before the permanent Plymouth. The French were the first Europeans to attempt a permanent settlement in North America. The monument depicted on the stamp has to do with the initial landing by Ribault ( Ree-bow) in 1562 , with the settlement to come two years later. The monument is also replicated full size near the Ft. Caroline National Memorial, established in here 1953. Bring insect repellant and then go home and read Jimmy Ward’s fine book.
Today, our good neighbor to the south, St. Augustine, celebrates its“ Oldest City ” festivals, but were it not for Ft. Caroline, on the “River of May“, there would have been no opposing Spanish military outpost to be established there soon after. Had most of the French men not been killed by the Spanish, the eventual English “Cowford” to become “Jacksonville” of 1822 might have been only the second local town, if at all. A possible , let’s call it ,“ Rebault-ville” could very likely have been quite different from what our city of Jacksonville did later become.
Just think about it. If a few things had been different we Florida Crackers might have been French Croissants. In other words - if some of the rogue Huguenots had not first gone out on pirate raids against the Spanish, they would probably not have been later destroyed by the Spanish at Ft. Caroline. That would mean that you and I , Neese, A.W. Bates, Marilyn and even Goat Nettles might have all been French. The historic Kings Road would, instead have been known as “Le Rue Du Frogs“. Everybody would drink wine for breakfast and eat escargo. We boys would all wear long black dress socks for gym class and instead of football we would play stoop tag. All the girls would have hairy armpits and fuzzy legs. So let us all raise a great toast of gratitude to those rogue pirates.
WHERE IS THIS AVONDALE ?
For a history and description of Riverside- Avondale see the Jacksonville Historical Society, Jacksonville Architecture site http://jaxhistory.com/riverside.html From the several articles it seems that modern Avondale is the region generally from King Street south to Fishweir Creek and between Roosevelt Blvd. and the River- but don‘t tell anybody! It was originally intended to be for only the “best” people, and then as previously noted, we showed-up. Of course Fishweir School has drawn from well beyond the Creek- all the way to the Ortega River. The eastern boundary for Fishweir School may have been Avondale Ave.; the line between Lake Shore and Gorrie may have been Dancy, and the lines have always been debatable.
JACKSONVILLE Circa. 1921 This early map shows the layout of the initial Avondale subdivision, outlined in green. It seems to not yet have included what would be the Avondale shopping center. The green line across the top-left scales one mile long.. The future Roosevelt Highway would be adjacent to the RR tracks across the top of Avondale and then curving south.. Note the Main Street Ferry prior to that bridge.
LEST WE FORGET
Until 1890 the river was crossed by boat. Even train cars were ferried across. Then the first bridge of any kind was built across the river by Flagler for his new railroad to St. Augustine. He improved what had been the original, somewhat rickety narrow-gage “J M & P” Railroad to Mayport and Pablo Beach ( to become Jacksonville Beach) . The original swing-opening span was replaced with the lift -span in 1925 which is still there. It is operated by two 400 horsepower motors which you can sometimes hear on cool nights in Avondale. In 1921 the first highway bridge was built on this site as the three-lane, toll, Acosta Bridge shown here.
It was replaced in 1993. In 1940 the Main Street (Alsop) Bridge was opened and the car ferry there discontinued. So was the toll on the Acosta .
The Boardwalk began in 1915 and would, by our day, have the classic roller coaster (in the background) , two Ferris wheels, a large merry -go- round, bumper cars, the Octopus, the Rollo-Plane ride, a penny arcade, games of “chance” , a bath house, hot dogs and cotton candy. Of course during the War, the sailors loved it as much as we kids. Hurricanes, fire and “social reform” would be the undoing of a great place to have fun with your family. By the time we were dating, I believe it was about gone. They stopped driving on the beach in 1979.
The Jacksonville Beach Pier was where you could dance and fish at the same time. Hurricane Dora destroyed it and the Atlantic Beach Pier in 1964.
The Lobster House Restaurant was at the “south” side of the Acosta Bridge. Converted from a marine repair shop after the War it had both parking and boat docking facilities for the customers. It was lost to a fire in December 1962. In 1955 it had been the setting for a scene from one of the “Creature of the Black Lagoon “ sequels where the horny fishguy grabs the heroine and hits the river. They had to rescue the hapless actor from the strong current and the unexpected jellyfish. Some monster.
After the War some enterprising pilots opened a flying school using pontoon-equipped, light planes and the river for its extended landing field. They practiced over the river too. Note one of the more prominent of the older buildings of Jacksonville, the Park Lane Apartments, built in 1926 as a forerunner to the modern high-rise. It is now the Park Lane Condos. I would just love to live in that penthouse and have a PBY parked out front.
In 1964 Hurricane Dora came straight in at around St. Augustine, went over to Tallahassee and made a U-turn to the north , heading back out to sea near Brunswick. The St. Johns rose six feet so that you could not tell where the parking lot ended and the river began in this Main Street Bridge photo. Forty-three homes and businesses were destroyed at the Beaches including both piers and the Le Chateau Restaurant which was rebuilt
Boone Park had three personalities which were the high-canopy - open forest land; the low level creek bed which was like a fairyland and then the Boogy Man-like swampland, now since filled-in yet still spooky. There were a few open spaces in the trees where ball games could be played. The creek level varied daily with the river tides and then the rain storms. Sometimes the fairyland grass and boogyland would be several feet deep from the high tides caused by the tropical storms. Willowbranch Park had some of the same features. These photos made in 2008 show little change since 1948.
BOONE PARK HIGHLANDS
THE TIMES AND THE KIDS Pokey and Sanders and I cannot think of a better time or place to have been "growing up" than what we experienced in the Riverside neighborhood in the 1940's. We were well cared for ; our mothers were at home and the neighbors knew who was who and where we were. We were free and safe to innovate and explore. Our imaginations were given the opportunity to be exercised by the necessity to use our brains to do things for ourselves. Obviously some did it much better than others. We had lots of fun. We were not sidetracked and dumbed -down by the irresponsible of the television media yet to come nor by the forced mixing of cultures nor by the overbearing adults trying to vicariously relive their childhoods in us. Our schools, where we spent so much of our time, were still centers for learning, both academically, morally and socially. When we did some things wrong, we were subject to discipline and the parents supported it. We got through adolescence just in time to beat all this other garbage which has been dumped on the subsequent generations of our children and continues to get deeper and trashier.
And the Lake Shore Class of 1949 was an outstanding group of young people. This has been attested to by those who knew us best, the school teachers and administrators. Pokey and Sanders tell of visiting LSJH in 1965 and unexpectedly finding Mr. John Rowell, our Principal in 1949 who had returned there. He immediately recognized them by name after all those years and Pokey was amazed. "Your class was the best we have ever had here - best in Academics, Sports, everything. I remember you all." I am convinced that Mr. Harden would have likewise recognized and said the same thing regarding many of the former students at John Gorrie. Regardless of which Avondale neighborhood, just as Ella Mae, Mert and others have reflected and just as Riley Short has said of those times, “We all were a blessed generation.”
REUNION IN ST. AUGUSTINE: Ray King, Michael Darby, Tyler Potterfield, Riley Short.
Tyler - “Our comments on being blessed are indeed true and how much freedom and fun we had do certainly resonate with me, but those times were not without their tragedies.” Beside the tragic loss of Sam Gaillard was the equally heart breaking accidental death of Reid Harden in the boating accident and then the later, but too early and oh so tragic loss of Carol Knight Spitzer. Peter and John Mc Cranie‘s younger brother, Dan was 4 when he was accidentally shot with a .22 which left his right lower leg paralyzed. Young Richard Dezell was shot in the eye with an arrow and blinded. Another boy was shot in the eye with a BB gun and blinded. Lorenzo Milam and Jack's bout with polio while Lorenzo also lost his sister Murial to the same disease. Harvey Jordan (on crutches in photo) had polio. Frank and Richard's 22 year old brother, Bim, died of spinal meningitis in around 1945. As Tyler meditates,“ All of this took some glisten from our collective flower. There was other sadness that I never knew about or have forgotten. Several of our friends struggled with homosexuality that we nor they ever understood or mentioned, but it haunted their lives for sure. I personally am not very proud of how some among us were bullied and we concur now in wishing we had come to the rescue from persecution toward those like Dudley just for being skinny and having a lisp. He was a good guy.”
We were growing up. We always will be.
IN CLOSING (ALMOST) This began many years ago as my recollections of about my old friend , Frank which have been expanded and have grown to become the cherished memories of many - experiences to be re-told and especially to be mutually enjoyed. But this is also an invitation for additional stories of our early years to be brought out and shared in many more ways than just within this one text. Several have commented on our blessings. We didn’t earn them, but we can certainly keep them alive by our realistic acknowledgments of them and especially the realistic acknowledgment of their sources.
BEST REGARDS FROM ,TO , AND IN FOND MEMORY OF : Ray , Pokey, Bob, Frank, Robert, Mrs. Akers, Julie, Eleanor King, Thelma, Kay, Tyler, Tooie, Larry, Meredith, J.B., Tuck, Neese, Nancy, Dick, Nick, John, Mert (Eunice), (Piggie)George, Murlene, Sarah, Peter, Linton, Donald (TFMKITWW), Dana, Gary, Mike, Sidney, Raleigh, Sherwood, Albert, Cotton, A.W., Howard, Fred, Spuddy, Kilroy, Margaret, Mary Sue, Judy, Scott, Nyoka, Wayne, Hop Harrigan, Joyce, “Goat” , Bruce, Bill, Lt.Gordon, Shep, Scott, Latimer, Bill, Bing, Larry, Mr. Beacom, Reggie, Mrs. Perry, Mr. Cole, Lawrence, Roy, Linda, Billy, Smiley, Tonto, Mr. Rowell, Mrs. Haynes, Mr. Kenyon, Sam, Reid, Mildred, Mary, Rossini, Patty, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Harper, Miss. Coody, Mrs. Hussey, Miss. Frye, Lois Lane, Miss. Harrison , Miss Wallace, Das Klauses, Miss Hope, Ms Gregory , Mrs. DeGrafenreid, Mrs. Stout, Mrs. McClean, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Ross, Col. Ball, the pirates, Biddy, Mr. Shearer, Mr. Van Sise, Mrs. Cone - - et al
ENDNOTES [ 1] Just as you cannot fully appreciate the expression "House of Terror" unless you are a piano recital survivor, the necessity for (usually open ) school windows cannot be fully appreciated either, unless you were an adult human being- cooped-up for eight hours in a non-air conditioned, Florida class room full of 35 sweaty and somewhat aromatic children in the 1940's , BD. (Before Dial ) [2] Judy Canova was a Starke, Fl., native who then attended Andrew Jackson H.S. in the 1930's. Besides films she also had comedy radio shows when we were kids. Some are recorded. In 1910 Jacksonville had been the very popular filming site for the new movie industry with 30 studios until Hollywood was firmly established during the First World War. It was actually a much better location and had a better “political climate“.
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AND APPENDIX
From Pokey LAKE SHORE CLASS 9BX - 1948-49 There were two other sections of this ninth grade class Mrs. Haynes (top-ctr.) was the Faculty Sponsor (Advisor) for the whole grade.
Back (top) Row Raymond Ketchum , Connie Turner, Nancy Hartman, Anne Jennine Winter, Sarah Boone, Margaret Lipscomb, Bill Bailey, Mrs. Haynes, Pokey, Tommie Lee McFarland, Lawrence Ramspot, Bob Sanders, George (the former "Piggy") Rice
Middle Row Charlotte Timms, Maynelle Randolph, Leticia Hogan, Cathrerine Harper, Betty Wilkinson , Eunice (Mert) Cellar, Betty Timmons, Deane Jackson, Marion McDaniel, Dewitt Kennedy, Bob Smith, Tom Cavin
Front Row John "Podo" Porter , Larry Moore, Frank Martin, Ronald McAllister, Gary Lunsford, Leonard Lyons , Frank Skipper, Jimmy Stone, Harry Hoffner, Anthony Whitfield (AW) Bates, Murlene Whitten
From Pokey LAKE SHORE 7BY 1946-47 This is one of three sections of the seventh grade class
Fourth (top) Row Nancy Hartman, - B -, - G -, Tommie Lee Mc Farland, Eunice “Mert” Cellar, Jackie Conway, - B -, Howard "Spuddy" Rasmussin, - Ware Third Row -Yarrington, Pokey Smith, Dick Daugherty,- Roberts, George "Piggy" Rice, Neese, Sarah Boone, Lawrence Ramspot
Second Row Bruce Cleveland, Stanley Coward, Bob Sanders, Richard Ellis, Marilyn Nichols, Marjorie Mangles, Leticia Hogan
Front Row Joe Hand, Johnny Chesser, Vance Gordon, Andy McCullough, -G-, Catherine Harper, Connie Yankey
From Boling JOHN GORRIE SEVENTH GRADE CLASS 7AM - 1947 Front Row - John McGowan, Richadr Nelson, Gordon Haedage, Mack Hendee, Carolyn Morrison, Joye Hilton, Joan Goodman, Merle Setzer, Betty Nelle Podeyn, Mary Margaret Jeffers, Mary Truluck Middle Row- Derek Acosta,Reid Harden, Carole Mann, Betty Jean Nichols, Pricilla Morgan, Jeannette Slaughter, Mrs. Ruth McCalla, Mary Anne Wainright, Christine Starbird Top Row- David McKenzie, Bobby Barnes, Charles Grant, Roy Dodson, Robert Willis, Paul Parkerson, Ralph Welty, Linton Featherston, Gilbert Weise, Francis Johnson
Homeroom Class 8AH, John Gorrie Jr. High, contributed by Oliver Sam Morton, Nelly's Ford, Virginia. Oliver SAM Morton is shown on the 2nd row near the teacher, Ms. Laney.
From Boling JOHN GORRIE NINTH GRADE CLASS 9AU - 1949
Front Row - Carol Dean Turknett, Helen Haynes, Zelda Robertson, Rosalie Markowitz, Claire Chesnut, Francis Davis, Lois Anderson, Pat Hollingsworth, Marjorie Walker, Anita Brunson Middle Row - Bill Schaeffler, Walter Coleman, David Miller *, Albert Kissling, Robert Johnson, Barbara Matthews, Mrs.Mabel Weaver, Shirley Roberts, Ida Purdy, Patsey Earney, Faye Russ Top Row - John Marshall, Joe Gentry, Bill Boling, Larry Smith, Carole Augur, Francis Ekwurzel, Carol Lee Huster, McKenney Davis, Ray Hillard, Donald Dixon, Judson Rogers
* During his three years at John Gorrie, David Miller had perfect attendance and made the Honor Roll every semester.
9th Grade Class 9AP. Contributed by Tyler
Potterfield. Tyler is on the left end of the 2nd row = the 2nd guy from left, at
the opposite end of the photo from teacher, Mrs. Julia C. Tyler. He is shown as
Class Vice President.
From Colley ORTEGA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL -1942 - MRS. SEWELL
First Row Albert Colley, G, John Porter, Bill Montgomery, Andy McCullough, Jack Gaillard, Carol Knight, G, Ella Mae Jones, G, Sarah Murphy, Betty Crouse, B, Marion Crawford Second B,B, George Barley, Howard Hendrix, G, G, Eugene Boyett, Dana Kenyon, Dick (Buddy) Bussard , B, Dick Daugherty Top Mrs Evelyn Sewell*,Bruce Cleveland, Merrill Gibbs, Bob Chancey, G, G, Ruth Goddard, Phillip Gibbs
* Mrs Sewell would become a President of the Florida Teachers Association There was a large turnover of children because of the passing through of Naval personnel.
PLAYING GAMES at the Montgomery’s home in late 1961. Sarah Colley with Tyler says , ” We were supposed to ‘eat up’ the string to see who could get to the marshmallow first and we could not use our hands. You can see that the marshmallow fell off already and how Tyler was leaning back and pulling on the string ! You can tell he was not really playing fair ( the cad ! ) He and Meredith were also married.” Others are Winder Hughes, Michael Corrigan, Bob Sanders, Helen Williams (to become Helen Sanders). (Where did Sanders get that hat ? )
THE SPORTSMEN THE YOUNG MAN OF THE SEA Albert Colley Bob Saunders, Bill Montgomery & Tyler Potterfield, cleaning fish which they, even yet, claim to have caught themselves
Below is Margo’s cute poetic work, dedicated to her classmates. It is a fitting conclusion to this collection of collusions. rhk
A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE [By Margaret Railey Miller, in fond memory of our shared past.] April 12, 2003, On the 50th Anniversary of Robert E. Lee High School’s Class of 1953 Reunion at Radisson Ponce de Leon Country Club St. Augustine, Florida
Let’s go back in history –Take a trip with me. Let’s go back to ’53, when we were young and went to Lee. Times were different in those days, in ever-so-many remarkable ways, Some have said we were complacent. Serious issues did stay nascent.
Well, it’s okay if they say we were boring; The next decade made up by soaring. To new heights of that daring-do, Which we watched in awe as the turmoil grew.
The 50’s were comfortable and we didn’t worry, Weren’t often needing to be in a hurry. The war was over and we felt secure We kept our lives simple, that’s for sure.
Television was new, quite infantile, We’d had it for only a little while Sometimes we had a blank screen to view, The programs offered were very few.
Kukla, Fran, and Ollie and Ed Wynn’s comedy were an “I need something to do” remedy That most teens could forego given TV’s look of black and white and snow
We pre-dated the performing Elvis with his provocative rocking pelvis Our movies starred Rock Hudson or Doris Day - Pretty tame fare, wouldn’t you say?
Dating was very different, too-Girls were bound by strict curfew The boy did the calling to the girl for a date Girls didn’t call boys – (shouldn’t, at any rate.)
Warren Kirkham was the football coach; His teams played the game beyond reproach, And we cheered and howled for the blue and gray, With Martha Clark’s majorettes leading the way….
For the band and the cheerleaders. Yes! Yes! Yes! We knew that we were the very best. We rode to the games honking horns, yelling cheers- We were the Lee Generals for three great years.
Remember Ms. .Durrance, about four feet tall ? She was the holy terror of the first floor hall, She made me tremble when she came near, The idea of getting her was my greatest fear.
But I got Mrs. Vinson, lucky me; If you had Ms. Durrance, you had my sympathy. And remember Virgil Dingman? –now THAT’s a name. P.E. was his greatest claim to fame.
Leonie Eccles, who taught us French, Gave us names that were mostly nonsense. Victor Hughes will always beMonsieur “Tres bien, merci”
Eunice Horne – remember her? She ran Stage Crew. I seldom saw make-up like hers, did you ? Sort of a forerunner, one might say, Of the Reverend Baker’s Tammy Faye.
Gender separation for study hall-They thought if together, our grades would fall. Mrs. Brockett ruled the girls with nary a smile, But she helped stage a Jubilee once in a while.
The same Mrs. Brockett was the Garden Club founder. She thought that Garden Club was sounderThan any other discipline that we had. So she took charge of boys who were “bad”
Thus, boys who were caught without a hall pass(and other such misdemeanors) Were sent outside instead of to class, Where they served their time picking up trash.
Ruth McDonald, Journalism, treated us great – After publications she took us home to celebrate Stand up, Bernie Nachman, wasn’t it fun ? Co-editing the paper kept us both on the run.
Long pants were taboo for girls in those days Girls had to be ladylike in all their ways. We wore well-starched dresses and funny hair-dos Rolled down socks and saddle shoes.
When the time came for class elections We always made quite excellent selections. However, Senior year we were not told That the winners keep the jobs ‘til they’re laid out cold.
Roger Ray, Jack Kerr, and Martha Clark, too- Peter Bergstrom, Judy Gabel, Jimmy Brown, we chose you To lead the senior class of 1953, Through graduation and then we’d be free! Please stand up, Roger Ray, While we thank you loud and clear For 50 years of leading us, Year after year after year.
Ann Manry’s great talent is evident still today Her paintings are truly works of art , I must say. But I also think of Ann, the lively little lady Who loved to dance, sometimes a little“shady.”
I think of Dottie Newman, so smart, soft-spoken, shy She shocked me more than anyone and I will tell you why. You could’ve felled me with a feather when she mentioned her career For Dottie was a sex therapist, which was amazing to hear.
(But hey, why not? She provided a service that her patients desired, And I would never doubt that they came away “re-fired”.) And after writing this I learned, I’m very sad to say’ That Dottie isn’t here tonight; last year she passed away.
Who are the Lee High sweethearts who are married to this day? Stand up, ya’ll, so we can say “hooray!” Bill and Sylvia, Ferrell and Max. Anyone else? It’s quite an achievement – is there no one else?
Did you smoke on the terrace and feel sophisticated? Or have a date who became inebriated? Weren’t we determined to appear as adults? Never considering the negative results.
Sylvia Maxwell did the Annual up proud, Where are you, Sylvia, for crying out loud. On this trip let’s remember our singer June King And Kirby Rogers whose Alma Mater we sing.
Ed Pritchard impressed us as a science “nerd”, Although in ’53 we didn’t know that word. Linda Cleveland was pretty and smart and she’s here tonight, doing her part.
So is Marilyn Layton, my life-long friend - When she was driving – I thought our lives might end.! Mildred Barrett I knew just barely then, but now she is my newest e-mail good friend. Remember Ray Chancey with his sexy deep eyes ?And Kathryn McKeithen’s tiny size. Cheerleaders Medlock, Hadley, and Bernard Honed their skills in the gym or the “yard”.
We chose Martha Clark as “Best All Around” She had the loveliest smile and her feet on the ground. Warner Guedry, quick as a wink his wit’ Warner’s “outside the box” humor is still quite a hit. Sam Holloway is my friend since Gorrie days- At Lee we were Stage Crew pals and sometimes in plays. Ruthie Lyons, a favorite cohort of mine was pert and perky, but warm as fine wine. Eleanor Gravely came to a reunion and it must have been fate - She renewed an old friendship and got a new mate. Donnie Wilson was one of those “torians”, saluta or valedic Someone will remember which, I predict. Barbara West had the strictest mom, it seemed As we waited in the car while Barbara dutifully cleaned. When I had children I often thought of that And wanted to say, “Mrs, West, to you I tip my hat.”
Lee Graybeal, Dianne Ratterree, and Patty Wade, Lynn Parks and Jere Mawhinney, what a difference you made! I could name so many others who should be in this rhyme Donald David, Tonya Moore, Jimmy Helms, but it’s taking so much time Stevie Poole with his Fred Astaire feet,And Patty Dennard,, wasn’t she neat? Handsome Bobby Nichols was on the calendar with me – I considered myself as lucky as a girl could be.
Allen Houk’s aura of a mature, wiser man,Tommy Alexander, good looking, always tan, Charlotte Kissling’s brains and athleticism, too. Arthur Sterne, we couldn’t forget you ! Let’s remember Beth Parnaby, Jimmy Roane.Lacy Folmar and Erin Dowling. Jack Araaaaneo, Nancy Fink, Elvina Mack and more – I am growing weary and you’re starting to snore!
And finally the question, where would we be if not for the work of Shirley Lefils? Stand up, Shirley, do it now, While we give you an ovation; please take a bow. Now wake up, everyone, and start the band Let’s give ourselves a great big hand And vow to live long enough for another stand Five years from now, won’t it be grand ?
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