Gone but not forgotten in Jacksonville! (Holiday, Parker: sale, wedding, price)

[Florida Ex-Pat]

The Drive-in's I remember around town are:

The Fox Drive-in- Off Normandy on the right side (north) before you got to Fouracre Rd. There was a small shopping center on the other side of the road that had a Zayre or Grants store if I remember. This was when I-295 was being built.

Main Street Drive-in- Main street and 50th maybe? I'm not sure- I remember it was near where the high school stadium was and the Kenney's Shoe store...

I seem to remember one out University Blvd somewhere- we saw 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' there, so I guess that must have been 1969. I remember stopping at the 'original' McDonalds that was there on University after the movie.

There was the one on Blanding, near Cedar Hills- I forget the name- Maybe Cedar Hills for all I know lol... I saw a lot of movies there.

Southside Drive-In- I think its already been mentioned here. I don't think I ever saw any movies there, but I remember using the screen building as a landmark for years- I think they had a tire store in there for a while afterwords too?

[ggregchap]

The Drive ins were so COOL. The Atlantic was on Atlantic and University, where the Publix is located and the Pine was over off Main Street near the old airport....anyone remeber THAT ??? LOL. I know that they have been trying to get Forrest HS renamed for years....it comes up every couple of years...and it never seems to get enough votes to have it renamed...anyway....The Midway Drive In is where the Wally World is on Beach Blvd. now and they had a drive in on Penman off Beach Blvd at the beaches...that was neat on a hot summer night !! And does anyone remeber the INDOOR putt putt course on 1st street at Jax Beach...just down from where Bukets is now...it was really cool....and the Ferris Wheel on the boarwalk there....mymymymy....a long time ago !! And Parker, no I am not a Parker grad....had a lot of friends that went there and dated a lot of girls that went there too, but I was a BK Brat...wished I could have gone there....neat school...Hope all of you are well and this day is peacefull and this thread brings nothing but GREAT memories for you !!

[convextech]

Originally Posted by majormadmax

I am a 1981 Sandalwood graduate, and worked for Winn Dixie most of my teenage years

I graduated 1985 from Sandalwood and also worked at Winn-Dixie. Was it the one across from The Skating Place?

My dad still lives in Jax although he doesn't live in the Grove Park area anymore, and every time I go back I feel like I am lost.

I used to hang out at the dunes on the weekends, at the Peanut Butter Hole, do you remember that? Now it's gone of course. the first time I drove down Southside and saw the new movie plex I wanted to cry. My old Pinto with the bagged-down tires could go anywhere out there!

I, too was an underage drinker and hung out at Pappa's on Beach & in OP. This was before the Crazy Horse, which I think is still there. How about Skinner's Dairy? Is it still there?

Joyce was our favorite waitress at Patti's and to this day their italian dressing was the best I've ever had. Wish I could get that recipe just for myself. I think it had horseradish in it. It was delicious.

The Tree Steak House brings back memories, Beach Road chicken, wow, we went there every Sunday.

Lubi's too, that was a major staple in our family. I still can't find anyone in Alabama and that knows how to make a Camel Rider! I sure miss those!

[convextech]

Originally Posted by LRChevy

Whitehouse/Baldwin/Maxville/Macclenny

I used to go riding at Diamond D stables out thataway, and yeah we went to Strickland's and then to the one next door, don't remember the name of it, but Strickland's was always better.

[convextech]

Putt-Putt golf was my birthday joint of choice, on Beach Blvd, and they had an awesome gameroom. My favorite game was GORF. It was a compilation of all the really popular arcades of that era. What memories this is bringing back.

How about parachute pants, Gitano jeans, Gloria Vanderbilts with the design on the pocket, those clothes from Penney's that you could color-coordinate, where they called Garanimals? Oh, and Candies plastic high heels with the brown faux suede with little holes in them. Whoa.

Greyhound racing as we got older and had decent jobs.

Had my prom at the Thunderbird one year and at the Jax Beach Coliseum the next. The Sea Turtle is where we went for dinner both times, for the Friday night buffet with the lobster on a half shell. Do they still have that? Back then it was $20pp but was well worth it.

Parson's out in Mayport, and Strickland's restaurant next door.

Four-wheeling out at Fort George Island, CB radios in all of our vehicles and at our homes. Mine at home was a President base station with a mic that had a distictive squeal to it whenever it was keyed. We had a Moonraker antenna on my roof that my dad was not happy about at all but his little girl usually got what she wanted ;-)

I was out at the dunes on Southside Blvd where Butler Blvd crosses one night four-wheeling and I was past my curfew. We were all standing around a fire drinking beer and my boyfriend "Cowboy" had his doors open on his truck (a 1980Chevy Cheyenne with two regular truck tires on front and two huge swampers on back). We heard that mic key up and everybody looked at me. Then my mom's on the mic and she's saying, "Cowgirl, get your ass home now!" and everybody laughed their ass off. I didn't go home til the next morning. The way I saw it, I was in trouble no matter what, so what's a couple more hours? LOL Now I have a 19 year old and when I call and ***** about her behavior, my dad just laughs and says, "I have waited so long for this..."

[PinoyDoc]

I lived in Jax from 1991-1998, left, then came back in 2001 and have been here since. While I do not have the longevity of experiences many of the posters of this forum have, I very much enjoy the individual recollections and appreciate the history you all share with those of us who are relative newcomers. You all reaffirm what
many Jacksonvillians feel for this city, and I hope that when my kids grow up they will look back at Jax with same affection you have shown so far. Keep it up!!

[majormadmax]

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before (and I am sure the statue of limitations has run out); but in my 'wild' youth we used to putt-putt at the course on the Arlington Expressway (I think at the Cesery overpass, but it could have been at the Arlington Road overpass), and the last hole faced the expressway. We used to smack the bejesus out of the ball so it would fly up the ramp, across the parking lot and into God knows where. We'd haul ass to get out of there as quickly as possible!

Also, I remember back when you could access the huge pit at the end of Ft Caroline Road (past the Ribault Monument) where there were some great sand dunes. We'd ride our motorcycles out there and have a blast! There was another sand pit at the north end of Craig Field, where the golf course is now. It has some steep embankments and we'd try to climb them! The power lines that run down Kernan were also places to ride, long before there was a road or a house in sight. We'd take those lines all the way to Beach Blvd and beyond! This was back in the 70s when dirt biking was big and you could ride almost everywhere!

Lastly, I think we talked about this earlier but the restaurant at Craig Field called Hendersons was quite the place in its day. It was styled after the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant in College Park, Maryland and was full of WWI memorabilia (except for the PBY aircraft in the back!). I know it went downhill after a few under-aged drinkers got busted there, but we had some great times there and it would be great if it was brought back again. We used to eat at the 94th in Maryland when I lived up there, it was pretty good!

Cheers! M2

[Parkerclassof72]

Yeah MMMax, Henderson's was a neat restaurant. From the outside, it looked like a Bldg that had (barely) survived a bomb attack. Sometime in 1983, my wife and I (could have been my fiance at the time, we're not sure if this happened before or after we married in Aug 83), attended a Mash celebration at Henderson's. There was a look-alike contest and other stuff.

I'd love to find out when the Putt-Putt on the expressway disappeared; I moved to Arlington in 1968, but don't remember the Putt-Putt.

I remember going out on the "island" under the Ft Caroline Monument. You could drive almost all the way around it right by the river. It was also a great place to hunt for shark's teeth.

North of Craig Field, there was a weird clearing down a dirt road in the woods across Monument Blvd from Hidden Hills. I remember it as "The Moors", but another friend says "The Moors" was somewhere off of Ft Caroline Rd, so I'm not sure what it was called. It was a several acre opening in the middle of a wooded area with lots of dead trees and 6-7 foot high sawgrass. Today the area is the neighborhood called The Valley.

MMMax, since you lived in Arlington, did you ever go to the end of Fulton Rd off of Ft Caroline? It ended at the river; there you could take a left and travel down a dirt road that went all the way to the transmission towers (that are still there) across from Blount Island. My gang of friends used to go out there with firewood, guitars and coolers of brew and sit around a campfire. Late one night around 1975, two friends and I did the dumbest thing we ever did. We climbed one of those towers all the way to a platform near the top. A few weeks later, the local paper reported on a teenager who climbed a similar tower somewhere else in NE FL, and touched the wrong thing and was killed.

Convextech, that's a great story about the party in the dunes. I seem to remember there were some dunes just west of SS Blvd between Atl Blvd and Beach Blvd, but I don't remember dunes farther south that you mention. Those of us in Arlington played and partied in the dunes that used to be behind Regency Square.

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by Parkerclassof72

MMMax, since you lived in Arlington, did you ever go to the end of Fulton Rd off of Ft Caroline? It ended at the river; there you could take a left and travel down a dirt road that went all the way to the transmission towers (that are still there) across from Blount Island. My gang of friends used to go out there with firewood, guitars and coolers of brew and sit around a campfire. Late one night around 1975, two friends and I did the dumbest thing we ever did. We climbed one of those towers all the way to a platform near the top. A few weeks later, the local paper reported on a teenager who climbed a similar tower somewhere else in NE FL, and touched the wrong thing and was killed.

Parkerclassof72

Sure did! We used to live in The Harbor on Portside Drive, so we'd walk around the end of the canal at Ft Caroline Rd and down Fulton. There were some tennis courts and a boat launch at the end of the road. We'd ride our bikes down to that area you described as well, and later motorcycles. I look at it via GoogleEarth and there is nothing but houses all along there now.

There was also a place in The Harbor we called "The Island." It was across from Leeward Point Road and the only way you could get to it was during low tide. Someone had placed forklift crates in the mud to help you walk across, but on several occasions we'd see a gator nearby and turn tail. It too is now developed, the name of the street is Harbor Island Drive but I am sure those people are paying a load for flood insurance as most of the place would regularly be underwater during extreme high tides!

A quick war story, when I was a young kid (around ten or so) we were playing football next to the canal when the ball went into the water. I was devastated as the ball was a Christmas gift! I ran home (we lived just across the street) and grabbed a small, one-person pool life raft and paddle and went after the ball! I can’t remember how far down the canal I went; but when my parents found out they were quite upset! But hey, I was a kid and I wasn’t about to lose that ball! Nevermind the fact that we’d regularly see gators in there. If my kids would do something like that today, I’d pop a square one out the anal orifice!

Cheers! M2

[ggregchap]

OK Arlington Brats....remeber the COWS that used to graze on Atlantic Blvd. where Century 21 Apartments were and the HUGE pond that was back on the cow pastures. What parties we used to have there. And the Skinners Dairy drive thru stores.....and Skinners milk delivery to your home !!! I used to go out to the Dunes behind Regency Square and run around in the old Pick up....man, that was great. Convextech mentioned Lubi's and it is true that they make a killer sandwich...and it is true that you won't find anyplace in Alabama that makes a good camel rider there, but there are a BUNCH of great bar b que places there....OMG !!! And I can remember the Woolworth luch counter downtown across from the HUGE Sears and Roebuck store....and they had GREAT hot dogs....and we would always cruise over to the Krystal on 10th and Main....it was a drive in...and run around from car to car talking and joking with the kids from Jackson and Lee and Parker who were there.....had some great times there. And the Krystal on Atlantic across from Bishop Kenny ws a drive in too, if I remember....andyone remember how much a Krystal with cheese cost back then ?? Have an awesome weekend !!!