Thursday, March 15, 2007

Flash Back HNT

I lived in Florida from about the age of 4 1/2 until half way through the 9th grade in 1963. My father was a lineman by trade and my mother was a housewife. When the work got scare for my father in one place, we'd move to where ever he could find work. My mom told me that sometimes my father would come home on a Friday tell her to pack. We had to move right away and be in a new place on Sunday, so he could start a new job Monday morning.

I remember living in these places; St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Boynton Beach, Starke, Hypoluxo, Jacksonville. I'm sure there were more, but that's all I can remember. We lived in three different places in Jacksonville alone.

In 1955 we moved from St. Petersburg to Clearwater. Here we are doing what we did practically every weekend, fishing. We didn't have very much, but one thing my father made sure of, was that we always had a boat.








In Clearwater, we lived in an apartment above the garage behind our landlords house. I loved that place. The house was across the street from a park with a playground. The best part about living there was sliding down the banister of the stairs that went up to the apartment.

These are my father's parents. If you guessed they are Polish, your right. This shot of us was taken on Christmas Eve in 1955. We always opened our gift on Christmas Eve.

My grand parents lived near us no matter where we moved. We'd move and not long after that they moved too. My father had a 'love/hate' relationship with my grand father. Every once in a while they would have a big argument, and my grand parents would move away. But it wasn't very long before they'd move back near us again. I loved having them around so much. My cousin John from Pennsylvania told me that he almost never saw our grand parents, so I guess I was lucky.

I carried that air rifle around with me everywhere and almost never took off that holster.










I think my grandfather loved fishing as much as my father did. I remember the day they brought this tarpon home. It was the biggest fish I seen up to that point. All the neighbors came over to take a look at it.





This shot was taken during Christmas 1956. Miraculously, we still lived in the same apartment.

I really have a lot of great memories of living here. Like the time in third grade I was arrested for breaking and entering. Well, not arrested exactly, but my friend and I were taken out of school by the police and reprimanded to our parents custody.

But that's story for another day.





Happy HNT Y'all!

17 comments:

SIMPLY ME said...

Sweet boyhood memories. I love you in those pics! That sweet boy grew up to be one heck of a sweet man!

Blissfully Wed said...

Great memories! I love taking trips down memory lane.

HHNT!!

~Her

Regal said...

Amazing photos! Happy HNT!

LushlyMe said...

I love family pix! HHNT!

T said...

What a cool post! Thanks for sharing all of those great photos and memories.


HHNT!

Blissfully Wed said...

Thanks for sharing. You're blog is always one of my favorite stops.

~Him

barman said...

Love the photos especially your air riffle. I always love to see the photos of peoples past. I can not believe how many times you moved. So how long have you been living where you are now?

lime said...

aww, those are great pics and stories to match. thanks for the nostalgia trip.

HHNT

Monogram Queen said...

Aw SimplyMe is so sweet isn't she? but she's right as rain :)

Love the pics and stories. I'm a sucker for a good childhood tale.

My best friend lives in Clearwater. A beautiful place. HHNT

Alyssa said...

Awesome stories and pics babe!

Happy HNT!

Tequila Girl said...

That was very cool! I loved the story and the pics! My grandparents are Polish too! :)

Happy HNT

SignGurl said...

Tony, those pictures have to be priceless for you! I especially love that your mother wrote the dates and people on them.

jillie said...

Those are great pictures. I love looking at other peoples photos and hearing stories of their lives.

Isn't it amazing as to how rich our lives were back then when we had nothing? But we didn't know any different.
xo

BTExpress said...

Bryan - After I was married, we lived in three places until we moved to where I live now. This July I'll have lived here for 30 years with no plan of moving again.

SignGurl - My mom put together albums for us some years ago. The first page is the family tree going back to my great grand parents.

Jillie - Ignorance was bliss then.

Mark Leslie said...

Thanks for the great trip down memory lane. Methinks our parents had much in common -- my dad lived to fish and my Baba loved doing the big Christmas Eve celebration.

Happy HNT!

Blonde said...

I love your story and pics!!!

I would love to write about my childhood, but I would no longer be anonymous :(.

happy st. patty's!

LNR said...

You were such a bad-ass Dennis the Menace! Did you by any chance carry a slingshot? :)

These photos are incredible. Thanks for sharing.