Where in the World is Neela Duncan*?

Sharon and I stayed with George, Betsy, and Brooke for a couple of weeks at their apartment on Davis Street in Neptune Beach, between First Street and Strand. Herman and Mary Beth (Staub) Brame lived next door as did Spike and Julie (McAfee) Cissel, and little Jimmy and Julie Cissel. We rented an upstairs apartment at 814 First Street in Neptune Beach from Madee Nader (Realty) who was renting it for Jack and Noraleen Holt. Their son, Rusty, and I later became friends when I was working at Pete's Bar.
I started working for George right away, pouring concrete. I learned to dig ditches, set steel rebar, grade dirt, set form boards, and pour concrete. My specialty when pouring was the screed board, but I could do it all, including using the power trowel. I have never forgiven my brother for teaching me how to pour concrete. Even when I was a mechanic and tree surgeon, I would sometimes take concrete jobs when I needed more work. Concrete work is not that much fun.
Sharon and I loved each other but had a tempestuous relationship. She left me for Bubba Casey in the last of 1977. I think he treated her better than I did. I was heartbroken, though. Randy Ellison and Roen McDonald came to visit in the summer of 1977. Sharon and Randy did not hit it off at all and both were so stubborn, that neither would try to get along. It drove Roen and me crazy for the week or so that they stayed. Randy later came back, sans Roen, in the winter and moved in with Sharon and me. Sharon and I had broken up, but she was still living with me. Randy met a cute little girl named Donna Miller, and she moved in too. I forget the actual arrangements, but it was a fairly small 2 bedroom apartment. It had a great outdoor front porch on 1st Street. We would sit out there with cocktails and watch the world go by. I remember a guy coming by to pick up Donna for a date, and being scared to come upstairs. He was afraid of Randy and me for some reason. We tried to hoot him up, but he waited for Donna to come down.
Armadillo Concrete went out of business in the winter of 1978/1979. It was sponsored by the Armadillo Bar at 18th Avenue North and the oceanfront in Jax Beach. I had been doing all the mechanic work for the concrete business and friends and family as well. I was a pretty good mechanic and was even certified by NIASE, (later shortened to ASE). I started Dave's Garage, and began working for myself for the first time, full time. I had taken a "How to run a small business" class at FJC night school, taught by a colorful entrepeneur/teacher named Bud Fisher, in the Fall of 1977. I remember being scared the first few weeks, thinking that I wasn't going to get a paycheck on Friday. I stayed busy and supported myself by bending wrenches until the summer of 1978, when Randy and I started trimming palm trees. Mechanic business had slowed down and I was working without a license from the garage at our apartment.
Randy and I were casting about for something to do to earn some money and Dad said "I'll give you $3 apiece to trim our 13 palm trees. I have a ladder and a hand pruning saw. Stack the fronds and berries by the curb". We did and R&D Tree Service was born. We trimmed a few of the neighbors' trees, and actually got a business license in Neptune Beach on September 5, 1978. There are too many (way too many) stories to tell here, but our partnership lasted until December 4th, when we formally dissolved it. We both had our own ideas on how to run things and continued trimming trees on our own.
Tree work slowed down in the late fall and I moved out of 1st Street and in with Mother and Dad on Oleander Street. I did some tree and concrete work until January when I started working for Bill Reagan as a mechanic at ABBA Rentals in Riverside. I fixed everything from backhoes to lawnmowers. I once built a mixer engine from spare parts and it ran fine. March 1, I moved in to an apartment at 2137 Oak Street, #5, in Riverside, to be closer to work. A month or so later, I quit that job and started R&D Tree Service West. Randy gave me Ninja, Tidda and Shadowfax' puppy, a Doberman. I met Karen McAlear soon thereafter removing a dead tree for her Mother. Glenn stayed with me here for a month or so in the summer on his return from Las Vegas. In November, I moved back in with Mother and Dad temporarily.
I was not happy in Florida and wanted to go back to California. I left some things with Mother and Dad, loaded everything else including my 305 Honda scrambler, mechanic tools, and everything else I thought I needed to start a new life (again). Randy gave me his 1965 "dog trot" 8 door Ford Econoline cargo van, and we towed it behind my 1972 Ford F-250 crew cab 4WD pickup. Randy, Ninja and Tidda went too. It was not a real fun trip, as I just wanted to get to Sacramento, and Randy wanted to have an adventure. He kept wanting to stop, and I kept wanting to go. I let him and Tidda out in Bakersfield. He hung out there with friends for a few days and took a flight home to Jax. We stopped in Albuquerque on the way out and stayed overnight with Rick and Carol Casey who we knew from the Beach. I remember it was real cold, and I got up in the middle of the night to go out and check on Ninja and Tidda in the truck. They were cold, but not frozen. Memory serves, Rick and Carol were friends of Tim and Joann Baldwin. I made it to Sacramento to Pat and Sharon Hodel's house on Riverlake Way just before Thanksgiving. Pat and Ken had split up and divorced since Sharon and I left in 1977. Pat let me stay in a bedroom upstairs. Sharon had her old room downstairs by the front door. They were very nice to me and we all got along good. Pat had a female Doberman too named Kelly, and she and Ninja got along fine. Once Kelly dragged a ham off a counter and Ninja helped. Pat got to it as they were dragging it into the hall. Pat rinsed it off and we ate it for dinner.

July 19, 2010