Chapter 06
June 1959 to August 1965 - Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach
Synopsis
We moved from 2962 Herschel Street in the Riverside neighborhood of Jacksonville to 836 4th Avenue North in Jacksonville Beach in the summer of 1959. I didn't know how much I would enjoy living at the beach or how much beach living would affect my life, but I was happy not to be going to the 7th grade at John Gorrie Junior High School. It was a rough school with lots of hoodlums, black leather jackets, switchblades, and all. I had already done my share of fistfighting in Jacksonville, although I didn't know many more fist fights were to come. My Dad paid $12,500 for a small three bedroom, two bath, block house, with jalousie windows and no air conditioning (we had a kerosene heater built into the wall of the hallway, with vents in all the rooms, before we moved, Dad put in a window ac unit), one block exactly west of Wimpy and Bobby Sutton on the same side of the street. There were hundreds of these homes in our neighborhood, all with the same floor plan, some were flipped. When you went in your neighbor's house, you didn't have to ask where the bathroom was, it was in the same place as in your house. We had good neighbors, including the Roberts, the Dunovants, the Martinich/Chao's, and the Caldwells. Shortly after the McManns moved in nest door, I'm going to say in 1960, Dad was sitting on our backdoor patio and Jack McMann was sitting on theirs across the four foot chain link fence. After a while, Dad threw his empty beer can across the fence to Jack's patio. Shortly thereafter Jack threw it back to our patio. Dad picked it up and walked up to the fence and said, "Gee, Buddy, I wish you wouldn't throw your beer cans over here." They became the best of friends. When Jack passed away some years later, Dad was distraught and cried a lot.
The Jax Beach Library 1959 - George and I walked in with our Mom in the summer of 1959, to one small room in the community center downtown, with a file card box with the books on cards. There was a dictionary on a stand. Most of the books were paperbacks donated by the motels.There was a set of encyclopedias several years old. I can still see the look on Mom's face. Ha, ha, ha.
Gonzales Park was one block to the west, and although it was full of sandspurs (this was pre atrazine), I played baseball and basketball there often. I punched Buddy Appleby in the face there once over a disagreement playing basketball. He was a year ahead of me in school. I gave him a black eye, and it was a topic of conversation at Fletcher. Gonzales Park was the scene of one of my worst disappointments in life when I tried out for Babe Ruth baseball in the summer after the 8th grade. I was one of three boys out of 150 who tried out who didn't get chosen for a team. I think my Fletcher classmate, Bill Longenecker, was one of the others. He tells a similar story. I remember going home to face my parents who asked me how it went. It was very embarassing and self esteem lowering. It did however push me to try hard in other areas to succeed. One of the reasons I joined the Jax Beach lifeguards in 1964 was because I wanted to be somebody. The volunteer lifeguards were legends at the beach and I wanted to be one of them. We lived here until after my sister Rosemary was born in 1963. We moved to 810 5th Street in Neptune Beach behind Neptune Park, now Jarboe Park in 1964. We only lived there a year or so. Dad got promoted to regional manager for his company, SK Wellman, after his boss, Bill Eckles died in a motorcycle accident. Dad travelled selling friction materials (clutch and brake) parts for heavy equipment. For the most part I liked Fletcher High School. It was very cool to be a 7th grader and walk the halls with the seniors. I was in high school in the 7th grade. All the kids from Mayport to Ponte Vedra/Palm Valley and Isle of Palms went to Fletcher. I joined clubs, was class president my sophomore and junior years, and ran track and cross country. One of my other big humiliating disappointments came when I was demoted to 2nd string JV football in the 11th grade. I quit and began running cross country. I made good grades and graduated 6th in my class (of 300) (GPA 3.867), which was amazing as I had a slump in 11th grade after I got my driver's license and started drinking and chasing girls. Also, Steve Joca, Bobby Wilson, and Bill Lampp and I shared a one bedroom apartment (a McCormick apartment, corner of 3rd Street N and 13th Avenue) during my senior year. I spent a lot of time there and did my homework in the school library before homeroom most days. We made a bar in our garage on 5th Street and told my Mother it was a counter for the library. The apartment was $60 a month, and it was our party pad, although Bill lived there too. Ann Robarts lived next door and once told us, "You boys be quiet over there!" She was going to the stenotype school on 9th Avenue North. I had a fling with her later and she cared for Glenn Hayes when he slipped in the shower at the lifeguard station trying to respond to the buzzer. Ann doesn't remember any of this and I don't blame her. Mother and Dad moved to Atlanta after I graduated, Mr. Eckles died in August. Dad sold our house for $100 and take over payments. It was a buyer's market at the time. I went to school in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia (which was a disaster, although there were some fun times) in September of 1965 and ended this chapter in my life. 1/27/2010
Bill Andrews: Nick Mirandon and I went to Florida in June of 1964 - we drove from La Jolla to Jacksonville, FL with a VW van full of Gordon and Smith Surfboards - we gave a guy from La Mesa - Les I think from La Mesa- a ride back to San Diego - I got into a bit of trouble, err, a lot of trouble for selling surfboards in a "residential area" without the appropriate permits-however- I did learn a few things while in Jacksonville County Jail
12/22/2015
