Throwing Sand at the Chateau
One summer night in 1961, Jon Lee, David Englert, Steve Sanders, Rusty Johnston, and I think Freddie Frazer, and maybe others, were hanging out at the Atlantic Beach Hotel. We often met there to see who else was there and what there was to do. In the day time we met there to swim, skim, and to play stick ball, using a mop handle for a bat, and a thermos cork wrapped with adhesive tape for a ball. This was before surfing. But I digress. Nothing was cooking, so Rusty suggested (instigated) throwing sand at the windows of the Chateau restaurant, a few blocks south of the hotel. Rusty had done this before, and said the diners would spill food and drink on themselves as they were frightened by the unexpected sand on the windows and the noise. We did as instructed, and I ran so quickly afterward, I don't remember seeing the diners' faces. We all scattered in different directions, and I ended up walking down 8th Street and was stopped by an Atlantic Beach squad car. I still had sand on my hands and despite my protests of innocence, they took me to the AB police station at Sherry Drive and Plaza. I refused to divulge the names of my companions to the frustration of the cops on duty. As I sat there, an officer answered the phone and rattled off aloud the names of my accomplices. I still refused to confirm them, and after an hour or so got a ride home to my house in Jax Beach in a police car. Rusty later told me that when David Englert got caught, he 'fessed up, because he felt like it was the right thing to do. My poor Mother was sitting in a rocking chair, sobbing hysterically, when I got home. "My child is a criminal!" she said several times. I tried to console her, and after a while she calmed down. I felt the worst about everything for Mother. The long shot was that all of us had to pay $25 apiece for damages to the window. One of us put a rock or hard shell in with the sand ball and it cracked a window.
January 18, 2012
Charlie Greene: Alarm went off, Richard Pike and I went to the Chateau I was checking the first floor Richard the second floor. I heard Richard yell stop I went upstairs and Richard had his weapon pointing at a figure standing by the window. I thought he was going to kill the mannequin. (60's, 70's?)
