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DannaG
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| Joined: | Wed May 23rd, 2007 |
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Posted: Wed Sep 5th, 2007 02:41 am |
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One of my daughters asked me to write about my childhood. These are excerpts from that effort.
Granddaddy's drug store-Live and Let Live-was really advanced for the time. There was the pharmacy (he was called a druggist), and he was known to customers as "Doc" Farris. There was a wonderful soda fountain, and my favorite was a vanilla soda. There was also a post office in the store. Everybody in the area knew grandaddy since he had been in the area since the 20's. He had a driver and delivery person named Lucious, and another helper named John. Allapattah had its own mounted policeman, and I thought the horse was 10 feet tall! There was the resident Seminole Indian Chief named Osceola, and he always wore the multicolored shirt of ruffles. There was a hole-in-wall eatery in the same block as the store, and I remember Granddaddy taking me there often. That's where I first had frog legs. He also introduced me to lobster at a restaurant on the causeway where you picked your own lobster from a tank.
We lived at 1600 NW 33rd ST. I went to kindergarten at Allapattah Baptist Church which was just a block from our house. Sometimes, when there was a wedding, Momma and I would go down there and peek through the windows. I thought the brides were so beautiful. There was a Sunoco gas station on the corner of our block. Momma would give me a dollar to go to the store there, and I could my a quart of milk, a loaf of bread, a Dr Pepper for me, and take change home.
My friends and I would draw huge hopscotch games on the street. One of the games was movie star hopscotch. If you won a square, you put initials in it, then the next person to land there had to guess the star's name. We roller skated a lot, and our skates had 4 wheels and a key to tighten them on your shoes. We wore the keys on a string around our necks. We also jumped rope a lot.
When hurricanes came, I wasn't afraid. We would fill the bathtub with water, and use Sterno to heat food. The family behind us (the Callahans) lived in a 2 story house, and they would come stay with us, and we'd play hide and seek when the power went out. Once we had fish in the front yard after the hurricane eye passed.
We listened to the radio a lot. The serials such as One Man's Family, John's Other Wife, Stella Dallas. Also, mysteries such as Inner Sanctum, and The Thin Man.
I remember opening coconuts from the trees in our front yard with a hammer and screwdriver.Sometimes Daddy would take me to shoot gar in one of the c********s, and I have no idea why we did that. Daddy had a friend who made Nutty Buddy ice cream bars, and another who made doughnuts. Visiting those places was always a treat-literally.
The first washing machine I remember was a wringer washer. One time the lady next door got her arm stuck in the wringer, and she was really hollering. Momma ran over and released her arm which was stuck up to her shoulder. I remember when we got a front load washer, and I would sit and watch the clothes swish back and forth in the round window. Primitive TV!
Those were such wonderfully simple times, and I hope whoever reads this will have some warm memories of their childhoods too.
Danna G
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marvin Mobley
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| Joined: | Fri Sep 21st, 2007 |
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Posted: Fri Sep 21st, 2007 09:09 pm |
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Danna,
My grandfather, Farley Jesse Mobley, knew your grandfather very well..Grandfather was the school crossing guard at 18th ave. and 36th street for 18 years. He and grandmother lived in the alley behind the business' on 36th street, the same alley that ran along the north side of Live and Let Live Drugstore...I have gone in many a time with grand dad to get his favorite chewing tobacco. "Red Man".. Lots of times I would wander thru the store while grand dad and Dr. Farris would talk....Sometimes I got to go up the alley to get his tobacco by myself after I got a little older..
I outdate you by a few years, I was born in Jan. 1933 at home....home at that time was alongside the rail yard for Florida East Cost Railroad, on NW 2nd ave.....
In June, 1941, after living in a number of homes, all in the NW section of Miami, we moved into a new house at 1311 N. W. 40th street, going to Allapattah grade school, and Jackson Jr. Sr. High School....I spent each summer and Christmas vacation from 1944 to 1948 on Cape Florida, which at that time was part of the James Deering Estate..Now its the Bill Baggs State Park.......I spent the whole year there in 1949, going to school at Coconut Grove Elementery School, which went up to the 9th grade.....Joan Pent and I rode in a small skiff from the huge house on the southern tip of the island up to what is now Crandon Park...then we, plus the two Smith children rode a bus across the new causeway and down US 1 to school..Mr. Smith was the caretaker for the Mathison Estate on the north end of Key Biscayne, and then did most of the clearing of the land for the New Crandon Park with a bulldozer....Joan Pent, wound up marrying my cousin, she was the daughter of Paul and Rosa Pent, Caretakers for the then James Deering Estate there on Key Biscayne. Her Grandfather, was born on cape Florida, his father being the lighthouse keeper. He also died there in 1949..This of course after the causeway was built, but Crandon Park not open.....I have walked the length of Key Biscayne, from the mangroves on the north end, all the way to the Lighthouse many times...My older cousin during the summer would trot the length in the soft sand up and back to the lighthouse, keeping in training for the Edison High Football team......
I had a school mate at Jackson High School who played the carillons after they were installed in Allapattah Baptist Church. If I recall, he played them every afternoon, just before sunset, and I am sure at other times, I don't recall...If the wind was blowing in the right direction, we could hear them at home on 13th ave. and 40th street.....Many many memories in this old nogin..I'll stop in from time to time and jot um down...Hang tough, God Bless.........mlm
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DannaG
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Posted: Fri Sep 21st, 2007 10:55 pm |
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Thanks for sharing some of your memories. Isn't it amzing how once we get started, our old brains can really pull up some wonderful things.
I loved visiting the Deering estate an Crandon Park. I went to Santa Clara Elementary.
I hope you will write some more.
Danna
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mjbrumb
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Posted: Tue Oct 30th, 2007 05:03 pm |
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I just found this forum and love it!
I also loved visiting Crandon Park. In the 50s my parents would take me to the zoo and then we would spend the afternoon at the beach. I remember that there was an amusement park there also. Times then were definitely the best in my life.
My elementary school years were spent at Santa Clara. Then I went on to Robert E. Lee Jr. High. They were incredible schools! Never will forget those years. My home address was 1111 N. W. 25th Street. My mom and I went shopping in Allapattah every weekend. Afterwards, we would eat the little hamburgers at the Royal Castle.
It would be nice if those simple things could remain!
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