1961
Summer
The first of June I graduated from 3rd grade along with Hank Weaver, Craven Smith, Diane Corral , Lisa Jolly, Sandra Robertson who were all in my class. I would continue to have classes with them in following school years.
Larry,
David and Brenda
In June, Grandma Mixson took care of baby Beth while Mom and Dad
took Brenda, David and me to the beach at St. Augustine. The
following week Brenda, David and I in again attend Vacation Bible
School at Westside all week with more chapter names and verses to
remember, was it two Peter’s and three John’s, and how many
Thessalonians which I could hardly pronounce. At least by this year
I new the
23rd Psalm
The 23rd Psalm of Daivid
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He
restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for
his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy
staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the
presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup
runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
by heart.
At
the Beach
Timmy, Daivd, Thad
Karen, Janice, Larry with salor hat, Brenda
Dad holding Beth, Billy, Betty, Mom
In July we went to the beach for several days where we rented a
cabin along with Betty and Billy with their kids Janice, Karen and
Timmy and James and Anita with their son Thad. It was quite a crowd
in the small cabin be we had great fun. One day we all went to
Marineland where we went to the dolphin show where the kids all sat
on the front row and got splashed by the dolphin but it felt good
because it was so hot.
A
few weeks later after Mom got the roll of film developed and we were
amazed to find Dad got a picture of the dolphin jumping right in the
middle of the hoop it was jumping though.
On July 21st the US launched a Mercury-Redstone 4 with Gus Grissom on board who became the second American to go into space (sub-orbital). Upon splashdown, the hatch prematurely opens, and the capsule sank to the ocean floor and wasn’t recovered until 1999. With a sense of humor, three years later Gus named the first Gemini space craft Molly Brown after the Broadway show The Unsinkable Molly Brown. NASA officials didn’t like the name and asked Gus to come up with a new name and he suggested Titanic as an alternate, NASA decided he could stick with Molly Brown.
Larry
holding Fish and David both wearing or sailor hats
One day we went with Grandma and Grandpa Junior and Corky to Cedar
Key where we a great time fishing off the dock. After fishing,
Grandpa treated us all to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the bay
and I had fried shrimp and French fries, but the most interesting
thing was Grandpa insisted we all get the
heart of palm salad. The waitress explained the heart came from
palm trees and the salad had a small scoop of peanut butter ice
cream which everyone thought was crazy. The palm heart was okay,
kind of like a soft piece of celery but the peanut butter ice cream
was good.
In August, Grandma and Grandpa Junior rented an A frame cabin for a
few days that was on the Ichetucknee River right where it meets the
Santa Fe River, and we went out and spent one day with them. Gary,
Corky were also there and we rented inner tubes and floated down the
river starting at the main springs. The Ichetucknee is a narrow,
six mile long, spring fed river that feeds into the Santa Fe River.
Being spring fed, the water is crystal clear and a constant 72
degrees when it comes out of the spring. On a hot summer day in the
90’s, the water at first felt refreshing but after floating down the
river for three hours I aways got cold and would try to get as much
as me out of the water on top of the inner tube in the sun as
possible. Starting at the main spring you would let the current
gently carry you down stream under the shade of large cypress and
oak trees overhanging
the
river dripping with Spanish moss. With swimming masks, my brother
and I would slip under the crystal clear water into an amazing
underwater world of fish, turtles and perhaps an occasional
alligator. After about three hours casually floating on the river,
we would arrive at the bridge at highway 27 where we stopped for a
while, watched people jumping off the bridge into the river. Gary
and Corky and David jumped off several times, but I was a bit afraid
of jumping as it was quite high up. Finally, they talked me into
it, and I jumped. I think my heart skipped a beat, but I landed okay
but once was enough. From the bridge we then continued floating
down the river to the cabin where we all had lunch.
The Ranchette
The
pool house
Dad, Larry, Corky in Water, Daivd walking in front, other family in
back.
By the summer of ’61 Grandpa Junior had built a small house with a swimming pool in front of it on the seven acres of land west of Gainesville that on Newberry Road and Grandpa had bought and started calling it the Junior Ranchette. The front of the property was fenced in with board fence painted a brick red where Grandpa had a horse and a donkey. That summer we spent many a day out at the Ranchette swimming in the pool.
Edge
of pool with construction on the new house in the background
Behind the pool house was an old stone fireplace that remained from the original home on the property which Grandpa built a screened in picnic shelter with the fireplace on one end which was used for barbeques. In the following years we would often eat in there with Grandpa grilling hamburgers and hotdogs in the fireplace. On weekend we were not at Grandma and Grandpa Junior’s we usually went out to see Grandma Mixson and, or Betty and Billy and their kids.
Updated: 03-15-2024