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Bev . Avery
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:30 am |
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I was born in Miami, at Victoria Hospital , in Oct, 1941. Naturally, I don't remember. But I do remember a lot about Miami in my growing-up years, and most of it was pretty good. To be honest, I don't know if my memories are my own, or I was told about them so many times, I have come to believe them.
My mother tells me of times I would disappear (hard to believe), and she would find me across the street, watching sailors practicing marching in Melrose park. Embry Riddle ground school was 1 block from our house. Sometime after all these military personnel were transferred overseas during the war, Embry Riddle was used for raising chickens. It became know as the world's largest chicken coop.
My father told stories of aircraft being so loaded with war materials that he was afraid they would crash on our house, which was in the flight path of Miami International Airport, at the time, on 36th Street. In later years, as we sat watching TV in our Florida room, airplanes would still fly over our house and switch on their landing lights, light up the room, interfering with reception and conversation. Houses then weren't air-conditioned, and there wasn't much you missed happening on the outside.
When the war was at it's height, my father was selling marine hardware, and since the government had confiscated anything that would float for troop retrieval (I don't know how true this is), there were no boats to buy anything for.. He got a job with Pan American Airways, on 36th Street, as an airplane mechanic. While employed there, he earned his A&E license, and sometimes was assigned to Dinner Key where the amphibian planes came in. If it's true, Howard Hughes plane came in there once, and Dad was there to see that. Dad was not accepted in the armed forces because his eyes were bad. So he did his bit by working on the planes that flew supplies overseas.
Who remembers food coupons for meat, gas, sugar, etc.? Mother would trade her meat coupons for sugar because Daddy used sugar in his coffee. I do remember getting some sort of bag with an orange capsule that you broke in to lard (I think) to make it look like butter. You squeezed this bag to distribute the color. It make your fingernails shiny, and my sister and I fought over who was going to get to do this.
My dad used to carpool to Pan Am. The tires came off the car when it wasn't his turn to drive. People who had cars then were worried about not being able to replace tires due to a rubber shortage. The tires went back on on Sundays to go to church, and taken back off and covered up so the sun wouldn't rot the rubber.
More to come.
Bev Bowers Avery,
formerly of 2538 N. W. 30th Street
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bessnfloyd
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:31 am |
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Your father was right on the spot about the airplane danger. Back in the '70's a cargo plane did crash, disastrously, two blocks west and on block south of where you lived. My husband was selling Fuller Brush door to door in the area, making deliveries, and one older lady on 30th Street invited him in to her Florida room on the back of the house very late, as I recall, close to 9 PM. Floyd called me to say that she had coffee cake and wanted to talk a little while, did i mind. I told him it was fine with me. He arrived home somewhat before 10, we got around and went to bed, sleeping until my neighbor called me hysterically because she had heard the sirens (we had air conditioning and didn't) and had a family member that lived on 30th Street in Melrose. The fireman drove into our customers back yard to put out a bad house fire behind on 29th Street, tore up her plants, damaged the Florida room, and she was so unnerved by it all she moved upstate.
I remember the coupons and oleo well. I remember my mother shopping at an A & P grocery; they had live lobster, a phenomenon in that time of shortages, and they weren't selling well. A saleswoman plunged her hand in, pulled one out of the tank holding it carefully behind the claws, and shouted "Isn't it cu-u-ute?" No one there thought so, the coupon cost was too high.
As for oleo, see Remember Oleo at http://sneakykitchen.com/News/fats_or_not.htm
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Bess W.
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Bev . Avery
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:34 am |
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A hundred years (give or take 40) ago, my family and I lived 5 houses off 27th Avenue, which, between whatever and 1947, 27th Avenue was 2 lane. I crossed 27th Avenue at 30th Street, to walk to Melrose Elementary. As we progressed into a link to South Miami via 27th Avenue, this thoroughfare was widened to 4 lanes, median down the middle, just like big people! As travel began to increase, so did my mother's fear that I would get crushed walking to the other side. So began my further exploration of my neighborhood. I now walked down 25th Avenue to 34th Street to 27th Avenue. There the crossing guard would help me across the street. This was my walking route for the rest of my stay at Melrose Elementary.
On the corner of 31st Street and 25th Avenue was a house that the owners had added on a garage. Unheard of in my neighborhood! Between the house and garage, these people had built a giant cage, covered with wire in the front. Inside this cage were a gagillion parakeets. On a good day, you might be able to hear yourself think. The man who owned the house died sometime later, and his wife didn't keep the birds after his death.
My street was very diverse. Two doors down, on the left, was a family, named Gold. The dad was head chef at the Chesapeake, and bridgetender at the locks on the Miami River in Hialeah, as was his wife. Across the street lives the Ryals, who had two sons, older than myself, who built and flew model airplanes in the park. On the corner of 25th Avenue and 30th Street, lived the Longs. Mr. Long was a ham radio buff, and turned his carport into a room where he kept all his equipment. His roof looked like a war zone with all the antennas. Mr. Long rode a scooter to work at the airport, and was badly injured crossing 27th Ave., and was in various casts for a long time.
Down the street, and across 25th Ave., lived the Tatahichi family from the Phillipines. The mother worked as a translator at the airport for incoming People from the Phillipines. The father was THE judo instructor for the Miami Police Department. Their house was full of weight equipment. I used some of it myself.
The Dukors, who lived next door to us, were Jewish, the husband born in Russia. Mrs. Dukor was from Chicago, and a world class cook, as far as my sister and I were concerne Barbara and I were recipients of a lot of her wonderful Jewish dishes. My favorite was Potato Kinish, and ate my weight in that when I could get it. Between Mr. Gold bringing home shrimp salad from the Chesapeake and Mrs. Dukor, it was hard to break the habit of eating large!
Who remembers Nolan's Garage on the corner of 27th Ave. and 30th Street? I used to cut through their storage lot of wrecked cars to get to Margaret Ann's. They had a large Doberman Pincer there as a guard dog. He never bothered me, but hated my mother. That dog backed her up to a mud puddle, complete with grease, where she was forced to sit down, and wouldn't let her up until a man from the garage came out and rescued her.
That's all this time.
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Nancy
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:35 am |
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Love to hear this info - I was the neighbor between you (Bev) and Robert Gold - I am so glad to hear your stories of the folks in our neighborhood
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Jim R .eato
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:36 am |
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I remember all the names you mentioned. I was brought up on 32 St. between 22 ct. and 22 ave. , but I deliveried the Miami News beteewn 28 st and 36 st and from 27 ave back to 22 ave. I remember the Gold'sas I wentb to high school with Robert Gold. You bring back a lot of memories and good times. Jim Reato (daygojim28704@yahoo.com)
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Jeanne Bolick
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:37 am |
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| Is this the Bev that went to Riverside Baptist Church and whose Mother's name is Ruth?
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Bev . Avery
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:38 am |
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| In answer to Jean Bolick's question on 1-31-04,YES! I am that Beverly Bowers whose mother's name was Ruth and attendd Riverside Baptist Church. I cannot recall this name, but want to know more. I am at bsavery@aol.com.
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bessnfloyd
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Posted: Sat Dec 9th, 2006 06:40 am |
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Reminds me of 22nd Avenue. When we moved here in 1960 it was a cracked 2-lane main thoroughfare that made a T at the Miami River. Part had old sidewalks, usually a hazard if you didn't watch your feet due to poinciana, Australian pine and banyan tree roots. The Lutheran church at the corner of 26th Street and 22 Ave. also held a kindergarten upstairs, and of course 26th Street was one of the main ways to get to Comstock Elementary. The city had put in a button stop-light in the middle of the block between 26th and 28th Streets. When the kids were tiny, we walked them to kindergarten, but as they grew in age and responsibility we persuaded them it was great fun to stop traffic, as well as the law and for their own safety. So even when there was no traffic in sight some child would punch the button and wait for the walk light. In any case there was almost always a mother or two walking their child part way to school - most of us didn't work outside the home then when the kids were small. I believe it was the mid-seventies when they made it into gadzillion lanes all the way up to Broward, I think, and put in a bridge across the Miami River to extend it south all the way into Coconut Grove as a main drag. At that point the crossing light came out; we were supposed to use the regular traffic lights at 28th Street, but things had gotten so dangerous for children out there that almost everybody either drove their kids to school or paid for a "guaguita" - a private small school bus. (Guagua was the Cuban nickname for a bus, taken from the sound of the horn in that country years earlier; the rest of the Hispanics call them "omnibus".)
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Bess W.
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richard
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Posted: Mon Jul 9th, 2007 11:07 pm |
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i was born at victoria hospital alxo and we lived at 2901 nw 30th street. we musta been neighbors at that time,, do you remember any families there?
i also knew the family that invented the yellow stuff to make it look like butter too.
richard
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biggalneedluv2
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Posted: Tue Oct 9th, 2007 01:53 am |
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| Was your family the first owners of that home? My mom's good friend currently lives there. I'm so going to be purchasing the house to the left...What a beauty. I grew up in Allapattah, although I was born in 1983, I been in love with the area for years. It is filled with so much history. I lived at 3723 Nw 22ct for most of my life. What a wonderful childhood. Still have family and tons of friends that live in allapattah. Please share the memories
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cuebanmade54
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Posted: Sat Oct 20th, 2007 07:23 pm |
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I lived at 3701 NW 22nd Ct. from 1966 to1974, (the yellow duplex) I went to Melrose Elementry, Robert E. Lee, & Jackson High.
I drove by last month around the whole area and it brought back a lot of memories.
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Carlos Betancourt
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