Hi folks. I have really fond memories of this town. The first summer here. My Mom worked in Tallahassee and my step-father was working on a road construction job near Cherry Lake in Madison County. We lived in a mobile home on 90 East just past the motor court that is now being renovated. (Really cool to see this being done). I remember the cicadas and frogs singing and sweltering heat at night. (No AC back then).
It was my summer of reading. Mom and Pop would go to work in the morning and my sister and I would be on our own. Chores were to be done but then the reading began. I read and read all types of paperbacks. Science fiction, history, war novels anything I could get my hands on. (Tv was sparse then, black and white and WCTV channel 6). Willy the Weatherman and Frank Pepper started and ended the media day.
Occasionally my sister and I would walk to town then stop back at the motor court where the Greyhound racers had their trucks. JCKC was running strong and the pups were kept in the trucks. Never went to a race until I was in my 30s.
Stubbed my toe one night in the trailer. Hopped around for a week. (Probably broke my little toe). It is still crooked . I remember faking a nightmare about a war story I had read during the hot summer day for my sister. She wasn’t impressed. My poor step dad, a real WW II vet had real nightmares sometimes at night. I sometimes cried for him with sadness.
We left at the end of summer and returned to Tallahassee. I did not return here until many years later, a much older man. I now live about a mile from where we lived that summer. The cicadas and frogs still sing loudly and it is still hot and humid. (air conditioning is wonderful). I sit on my porch and watch and listen..... I love the memories.
Bill Avery
Monticello