Tag Archives: JEA

Big Jim, Mouthpiece of the City’s Wild Soul

Posted on January 19, 2019 | 1 comment

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Rexall Drugs sold the Americanitis Elixir to salve the nerves of anxious city dwellers suffering from noises like Big Jim. The State Board of Health condemned the old steam whistle, said it brought strong, rugged men to the breaking point.

John Einig, the same inventor who built Jacksonville’s first automobile, had designed Big Jim. The whistle sounded the end of world wars, the dawn of electric lighting, the Great Fire of 1901, and the death of its inventor. The 140 year old whistle still sounds four times a day over Springfield and Downtown.

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Tagged Americanitis Elixir, Big Jim, Big Jim steam whistle. Americanitis, Florida State Board of Health, Jacksonville Electric Authority, Jacksonville Waterworks, James Patterson, jaxpsychogeo, JEA, John Einig, Kiley Secrest, Lou Winnard, Patsy Bryant, S.B. Hubbard, Sandy Strickland, Sarah Clarke Stuart, Springfield Jacksonville, St. James Hotel, T. Frederick Davis, Tim Gilmore, Waterworks Building

Looking Back at Last Year’s Hurricanes

Posted on September 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

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It’s been a year. As Hurricane Florence bears down on the Carolinas, and scientists prognosticate that Climate Change may bring about Category 6 hurricanes, I look back at the homage I wrote for those unsung heroes, the linemen, after Hurricane Irma.

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Tagged Comcast, flooding Jacksonville, flooding Riverside, flooding San Marco, Fort George Island, Hurricane Irma, J.K. Huysman, Jacksonville Electric Authority, JEA, linemen, live oak, Memorial Park, peacocks, Riverside Park, St Johns River, water oak, Winged Victory

A Hoho-the-Mistletoe JaxDiveBars Christmas Special: The A Tavern and the Island.

Posted on December 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

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1) Honorary JaxPsychoGeo bar scouts guide us into 40 years of nicotine patina in The A Tavern, where hangs a new skunk pelt and Liz plays Conway Twitty.

2) Oh by golly, it’s the bar in the supercomputerhouse. That first year, Viking Jeff drank more than 900 pitchers of Bud. A pool cue rests, from behind my back, on my left shoulder. “So Many Waves So Little Time.”

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Tagged Conway Twitty, Emily Dickinson, Jacksonville dive bars, JEA, Jeff Whipple, Liz Gibson, Murray Hill, The A Tavern, The Island Bar, Tootie Green's