Page 95 - Winterling's Chasing the Wind

Having moved to the northside of Jacksonville, we joined Riverview Baptist Church
where Carlton Owens was a pastor. We all participated in Sunday School and the
Training Union. The boys were in classes, our new daughter Wendy Gale in the
nursery, Virginia taught the Beginners (5-year-olds), and I became Sunday School
Superintendent. Herman Mikel was originally the Music Director, but he was followed
by Lee Turner. Virginia sang a solo in John W. Peterson’s musical Night of Miracles.
Lee Turner was a very accomplished pianist who went on to San Jose Baptist Church
and made many recordings.

Being a new homeowner, I had to learn how to grow and maintain a lawn. Our house
was on the side of a large sandy hill that stretched over a mile from Lem Turner Road to
Ridge Blvd. off Soutel Drive on Jacksonville’s north side. The builder left mostly sand
around the property with small two-inch square grass plugs spaced about one foot
apart. The sand had no nutrients, so I frequently picked up a trunk-load of cow manure
where we purchased our milk at Pickett’s dairy on Old Kings Road.

It was so difficult to grow St. Augustine grass the first two years, that I switched to
Bahia grass which would even grow along Florida’s roadways with no irrigation or
fertilizer. The only trouble was patches of sandspurs that kept mixing with the grass. I
finally learned that applying Atrazine in February would keep the spurs from
germinating.

I learned that tomatoes and yellow crook-neck squash thrived on spring rains. Our
house was on the cold side of the city, so I discovered that tropical things like Rubber
plants, Coca Plumosa palms, and Citrus trees needed protection from winter freezes.
The only citrus that could survive hard freezes was the Satsuma. The best variety of
orange to plant in Jacksonville was the Parson Brown and Hamlin tree because the fruit
ripens before the cold winter usually arrives.

In 1960, when Chevrolet came out with the rear-engine compact Corvair, I
immediately purchased one from Gordon Thompson Chevrolet on Jacksonville’s
Southside. The next summer, Virginia, our two boys, Frankie and Steve, and I drove to
Houston to visit Virginia’s brother in Houston, TX. That was before Interstate 10 was
finished so we used two-lane highways - mainly US 90.

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