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

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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/

Cracker Cooking and Art Jennette

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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.

Searching for Gonny’s Head, Finding the Ruins

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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.

New Story: White Shell Fish Camp

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

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

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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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