Stories - Chapter 10
Max and Linda
We met Maxine Crow and Linda Click (Stone) in 1965 (?) through our neighbors on 4th Avenue North in Jax Beach, the McManns.* Max was Jack McMann's niece. Max and Linda were a couple of years older than me, and a lot of fun. We partied together a lot. They were from Iowa, and initially came down to visit. Later they moved here.
Once, while George and I were living in a 2 bedroom apartment on First Street in Jax Beach ($60 a month) across from the Ramada Inn , Max and Linda were coming over to visit and picked up a young sailor hitchhiking. My brother, George (he was 17), was home with a 14 year old girl that he had met somewhere. Soon after Max, Linda, and the Navy boy arrived, so did the parents of the 14 year old girl along with the Jax Beach police. When they knocked on the door, everyone kept quiet, hoping they would go away, which after a short while they began to do. Max got nervous and proceeded to exit through the bathroom window (second story, there may have been an oil drum on a metal frame outside) and kicked the lid off the toilet as she did. It hit the foor and shattered. When the party outside heard the noise, they broke in. Linda had also gone out the window and George hid under his bed. The parents took the girl home, and the Shore Patrol hauled off the poor sailor who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. George didn't get found. Max, Linda, and George all have their versions of this story, but this is how I remember it.
* My Dad introduced himself to the McManns after they moved in by throwing empty beer cans across the the fence onto their patio. When Jack threw them back over, my Dad said to him, "Gee, buddy, I wish you wouldn't throw your beer cans on my patio". Dad and Jack became the closest of friends and when Jack died, it tore up Dad.
1/10/2010
