August 1957 to June 1959 -Jacksonville, FL
Herschel Street
We moved from 1611 Donald Street to 2962 Herschel Street in the winter or spring of 1958. I'm pretty sure we spent Christmas on Donald Street. George and I had separate bedrooms on Donald Street, but had to move in together on Herschel. It was 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. It had a free standing wooden garage in the back. Mother inherited the '49 Buick and Dad had a newer (used) car, maybe the Rambler station wagon. I don't think the garage had a door. I built a little shack in the back yard by the alley. I called it my fort and it was my getaway place. I kept some comics and a few other items in there. It was mostly waterproof. The Atwaters tore it up once inside. They and another set of brothers, maybe the Rogers, took a dislike to me and we fought occasionally. They lived on the the other side of Willow Branch Creek. We had a walnut throwing battle one day, using trash can lids for shields. We were on our respective sides of the creek. I broke out the lady across the street's window upstairs one day with a baseball. I think I threw it. I had to go apologize and she was real nice. I was scared to face her. I went to the willow Branch Library a lot, I liked to read. I would save my money and ride my bicycle up to the corner of Park and King where there were 2 drugstores to buy the latest 45 record that I liked. Christmas of 1958, Dad bought a Remington pump 22 rifle from one of his customers for $50 (I think), to teach George and I how to shoot. I was 11 and George was 7. I still have the rifle and it still shoots good. I fought with Billy Motley behind the bicycle shed at West Riverside Elementary. Actually he beat me up. He was roaming around with his gang. I did not want to go to John Gorrie in the 7th grade as there were a lot of hoodlums going there. This was the black leather jacket and switch blade days. I left my bicycle out in front of the house one night and it was gone the next morning. I found it parked in front of a soda shop on McDuff near Lee High School one day, months later, when I was walking by. I jumped on it and rode off as fast as I could. I was scared. Known hoodlums frequented the soda shop. I swam at the Good Shepherd and Lackawanna pools in the summer. I was a school boy patrol at West Riverside and went to Washington DC the summer after with the patrol. I remember dropping water balloons out of our 3rd story hotel room window and being told to stop, but not really getting into trouble. We walked up to the top of the Washington Monument. They don't allow that any more. My buddy, Mike Akers and I built a raft out of scrap wood and 2 tires. We dragged it down to Willow Branch Creek and it sank. I don't think there was much water in the creek anyway. Mike says we used tires without inner tubes, so of course it sank. I believe I re-engineered it with inner tubes and floated out to the mouth of the St. Johns River later. I looked across the river and got scared and drug the raft back home. There was a big oak tree in front of the house that I practiced knife throwing on until the handle of my hunting knife broke. I never could make it stick in very often. Dad bought a house in Jacksonville Beach in the summer of 1959 and we moved.
April12, 2011
