Chapter 08 - Summer 1966 - Jacksonville Beach/Neptune Beach
Synopsis
After school (University of Virginia) was out I went back to the beach and lifeguarded for the summer. I think I worked Neptune Beach Patrol under Captain Jimmy Jarboe, with brother George, George Garcia, Herman Brame, and Charley Daniels (no, not that Charley Daniels), Rusty and Jimmy Johnston. We had stationary towers at low tide and high tide. There are some pictures. These towers were removed after the 1967 season as someone dove off one into shallow water and broke their neck. I remember them suing the city and receiving $175,000. I also served the Lifesaving Corps as a volunteer and got a premium year - 150 + points (hours). I was an initiation chairman also. I think George and I lived with George Garcia in his downstairs garage bedroom. We agreed to paint it in lieu of rent. We painted it the night before we went back to Atlanta for school in August. I decided not to go back to Charlottesville as I had lost my academic scholarship. Luckily (?) I was accepted at DeKalb Junior College in Decatur, Georgia, and avoided the draft. I lived with Mother and Dad and George in Tucker, Georgia.
I had a 4 door 1953 Ford sedan I had bought from Harold Mills in 1965, after Bobby Wilson drove my 2 door 1954 Ford beach buggy into a slough in Seminole Beach one night (We had been drinking, surprisingly enough). The tide came in and ruined it. My plan was to put the split rims and tires on the Ford I bought from Harold. I spent all my extra money, which wasn't much, trying to get the car running, which I never did. I kept it at the lifeguard station that summer and took it to the mechanic at the Pure Oil gas station on the south west corner of Beach Boulevard and 1st Street South. The Captain of the Corps, Keith Reichman, finally made me get rid of it, as it mostly sat in the dirt parking lot behind the station. It was a faded out green color and looked pretty bad. My high hopes for it never materialized. It lived in back of Kahoe's Garage on Atlantic Boulevard just before Mayport Road while I was at University of Virginia. Mr. Kahoe had previously let me keep my A Model Ford back there while I was trying to get it going in high school. He was very kind to me, as well as being a good teacher of auto mechanics and a good role model.
