Tag Archives: Heckscher Drive

Goat Island, Christopher’s Pier, Rattlesnake Hunting, a Man Shot in the Face, and Tim Gilmore’s Upcoming Book Launch at the Jacksonville Historical Society

Posted on August 11, 2018 | Leave a comment

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On August 23 at 6:30 pm at the Jacksonville Historical Society, Tim Gilmore will launch, read from, and sign his newest book, Goat Island Hermit: The State of Florida vs. Rollians Christopher. (Your invitation is at the bottom of this post.)

Rollians Christopher, 1955, photograph unattributed, courtesy Florida Times-Union

Here’s an early version of a story that makes its way into the book, a story about Christopher’s Pier, the tavern that protruded from the fishing village over the river for decades, about a Yellow Fever quarantine hospital, about a fisherman whose legs were car tires, about shrimp boats and hunting rattlesnakes, about a man shot in the face.

Goat Island, 1955, prior to its development into Blount Island, photograph unattributed, courtesy Florida Times-Union

You are invited: https://www.facebook.com/events/314940972382209/

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Tagged Agnes K, Anita Johnson, Apollo Street, Blount Island, Christopher's Pier, Cleve Powell, Dames Point, finfish, Florida Ship Canal Authority, Fred Nichols, Fred's Island, George Christopher, Gilmore, Goat Island, Goat Island Hermit: The State of Florida vs. Rollians Christopher, Grey Hotel, Heckscher Drive, Henry Von Balsan, J. Henry Blount, Jacksonville, JaxPort, jaxpsychogeo, Joe Christopher, Joseph Leonard Johnson II, Junior Hodge, Mill Cove, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, New Berlin, New Berlin Cemetery, Nichols Creek, Overstreet Pride, Quarantine Island, Rollians Christopher, Rollie Christopher, Tim Gilmore, Yellow Fever

Cracker Cooking and Art Jennette

Posted on January 21, 2018 | Leave a comment

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Art Jennette’s been cooking “cracker” food with love for more than half a century. It pleases him to feed people, and this love permeates his smile, his shuffling through the crowd, his holding out the old cast iron skillet brimming with shrimp blackened in his own special sauce. Everything’s his recipe, unless it’s his mother’s.

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Tagged Art Jennette, Clapboard Creek, cracker, cracker cooking, fried green tomatoes, Heckscher Drive, Jake Godbold, Janisse Ray, John Delaney, Little Marsh Island Casserole, Philips Community, Red Bank Plantation, Southern Charm, St Augustine Road, The Palms

Searching for Gonny’s Head, Finding the Ruins

Posted on March 22, 2017 | 1 comment

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I was joking when I told her I wanted to find the old man’s bearded head. She’d watched me for a moment, sly-smiled, and called me a resurrectionist.

When Gonny lived here, harvested his home, and built his house, small wild horses still roamed these coastal marsh islands.

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Tagged August Heckscher, Florida wild horses, Fort George Island, Gonny Gonzales, greenbrier, Heckscher Drive, jaxpsychogeo, John Bartram, Pine Island, Sisters Creek, T.H.E. Webb, tabby, tabby house, tabby ruins, Terrence H.E. Webb, Theodore Roosevelt Area, Tim Gilmore, Timucua, Timucua shell middens, Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve, wild horses, William Bartram, William Jones, William Marcus Jones, Willie Brown

New Story: White Shell Fish Camp

Posted on November 27, 2016 | Leave a comment

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“Flounder got both their eyes on the same side of the face,” Brandy says, and sheepshead fish have “human teeth.”

When the fishermen pour in, Brandy deals kindly with people. When the people stay away, she marvels at the coordinates shared by angels and crustaceans.

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Tagged betty allen, blue crabs, Clapboard Creek, Duval County fishing, fiddler crabs, flounder, Heckscher Drive, Jacksonville fishing, jaxpsychogeo, jimmy allen, mud minnows, sheepshead, Tim Gilmore, White Shell, White Shell Bait, White Shell Fish Camp

New Story: Invisible Pirates Just off the Sandollar Restaurant and Marina

Posted on August 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

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Whether the Sandollar Restaurant and Marina was built in 1988 or 1954, both of which the restaurant gives as the year it opened, the invisible Somalian pirates who operate container barges just off shore still make Jacksonville writer Hurley Winkler smile.

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Tagged Heckscher Drive, Hurley Winkler, Jay McKenzie, Mayport, Mayport Ferry, Mayport shrimp, Perversion magazine, Sandollar, Sandollar Restaurant and Marina, Tim Gilmore