Tag Archives: Naval Air Station Jacksonville

A Poet’s Circle: Francis Poole’s 55 Years & Thousands of Miles

Posted on January 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

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In 1968, Francis Poole had been chasing Soviet submarines up and down the East Coast when he started college on a campus made of former military barracks and published his first poems in a new student-led magazine named The Experience. When he returns in early February, his circle will have come through Morocco and Portugal and 55 years of writing and publishing poetry.

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Tagged Ben Edmonson, Berry Oakley, BLADES, Cumberland Campus, Dickey Betts, Duane Allman, Five Points Diner, FJC, FJC Cumberland Campus, FJC Southside Campus, Florida Junior College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Francis Poole, Hotel Roosevelt, J. Bruce Wilson, Jennifer Chase, Little James Brown, Marilyn DeSimone, Marilyn Gooding, Marion Gooding, Mike Callahan, Morrison's Cafeteria, NAS Jacksonville, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Roosevelt Hotel, South Jacksonville Grammar School, The Allman Brothers Band, The Experience, The Experience FJC, The Experience FSCJ, The Experience magazine, The Lemon Twisters, The Second Coming, Tropical Teen Club

Remembering the Be-Ins at Willowbranch Park

Posted on July 24, 2021 | 1 comment

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For the briefest of moments, it was the most magical time, wild yet somehow innocent. The be-ins at Willowbranch Park in the late ’60s featured a broil of young musicians, out of which rose the Allman Brothers Band. The be-ins meant long hair, beads and tie-dye, hippies walking barefoot through Riverside, cheap rent in old mansions, but more than anything, they meant music.

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Tagged Abe Livert's, Allen Facemire, Allen Ginsberg, Allman Brothers, Allman Brothers Band, Allman Joys, Andy Aledort, Baba Ram Dass, Be Here Now, be-ins, Berry Oakley, Blues Messengers, bottle club, Boz Scaggs, Butch Trucks, Byron Colley, Cedar Hills Armory, Charles Manson, Charlie Faubion, Comic Book Club, Dale Betts, Dave Goddard, Derek Trucks, Dickey Betts, Donna Goddard, Donna Roosman, Duane Allman, Easy Rider, Euclid Street, FAME Studios, Five Points Jacksonville, Forest Inn, Friendship Fountain, Fuzzy Land, Gary Goddard, Gray House, Gray House Riverside Avenue, Green House, Green House Riverside Avenue, Greenfield Stables, Gregg Allman, Guitar World Magazine, Harley Bryan, Harry Crews, Hombre Price, Hour Glass, Human Be-In, Jacksonville Armory, Jacksonville at the Roots of Southern Rock, Jacksonville Beach Auditorium, Jacksonville Beach Coliseum, Jacksonville Woman's Club, Jaimoe, James Land, jaxpsychogeo, Jefferson Airplane, Larry Reinhardt, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lenny Renzler, Leonard Renzler, Linda Miller, Linda Miller Oakley, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshmallow Steamshovel, Michael McClure, Michael Ray Fitzgerald, Muscle Shoals, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Paul Glass, Philips Highway, Randy Scott, Ray Odum, redneck rock, Reese Wynans, Rhino Reinhardt, Richard Price, Roosevelt Mall, Sandspur Park, Second Coming, Sherri Wildstein Meadows, Southern Rock, Sugar Bowl, Summer of Love, The Forum, The Load, The Scene, Tim Gilmore, Tim Swanson, Twin Hills Civic Assocation, Ugly Jelly Roll, Wapaho Aspirin Company, WAPE, Watoma, Whiskey a Go Go, Willow Branch, Willowbranch Be-Ins, Willowbranch Park, Woodstock Youth Center

New story: Normandy Motel

Posted on November 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

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At the shabby old motel where he grew up, where the Ku Klux Klan burnt a cross and moonshine soaked the pastures, the retired judge still practices law. Old family dairy buildings stand back in the woods, while the former “blood bucket of the Westside” is now an insurance office. The judge’s mother was a homecoming queen. No one remembers the puppy’s name in her earliest photos.

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Tagged Alma Lee Bivins, Battle of the Bulge, Billy Goat Hill, Bivins Dairy, Bivins Road, Cecil Field, Cecil Motel, Charlie Matthews, Donald Matthews, Fouraker Road, Gallery of Antiques and Collectibles, General Patton, Gray and Gray Insurance, Hilltop Inn, jax psycho geo, Judge Donald Matthews, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, lampe berger, Mary Matthews, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Normandy Boulevard, Normandy Motel, Operation Overlord, Peggy Matthews, Riverside Memorial Park, Robert E. Lee High School, Thomas W. Bivins, Tim Gilmore, Westside Jacksonville, Wills Branch Tributary

New Story: The Park Lane Apartment Building

Posted on December 13, 2019 | 2 comments

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When Hurricane Irma assailed the building, all they could see from the 10th floor was the water. It had been a long time since Tim first decided, at 10 years old, he’d one day call the Park Lane home. It had been a long time since the president of Barnett Bank petitioned the church to “unclaim” his “daughter” so he could marry her, since the future author of “A Wrinkle in Time,” Madeleine L’Engle called the Park Lane home. Not so long since Ivey jetted to Newport with Brownie to meet Foxy and Mary. Nor since Evelyn Nehl, who called the penthouse suite home, brought the AIDS Quilt to Jacksonville.

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Tagged A Wrinkle in Time, Amanda Toman, Anna Barnett, Barnett Bank, Bill Ectric, Bion Barnett, Brownie McClean, Carolina Barnett, Duncan Sawyer, Evelyn Nehl, Flora Hyman, Florida history, Florida Land Boom, George Benjamin, Hurricane Irma, Ivey Prescott, Ivey Wisenbaker Prescott, Jack Spottswood, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Jewish Temple, Jacksonville Park Lane, Jake Godbold, jax psycho geo, Jeff Martin, John Steven Hughes, KBJ, Kemp Bunch and Jackson, Leonard Marcus, Madeleine L'Engle, Mary Freels Rosborough, Mary L'Engle Avent, Memorial Park, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Park Lane, Park Lane Apartments, Park Lane Apartments Jacksonville, Park Lane Building, Park Lane Building Jacksonville, Park Lane Jacksonville, Roy Benjamin, Simon Benjamin, St Johns River, Summer of the Great-Grandmother, Tim Gilmore, Tim Toman, Wadsworth Camp, William Barnett, Wind in the Door, Year of the Skyscraper

New Story: Wesconnett: Turknett/Parnell House

Posted on October 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

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When the community congealed, three families merged their names to rename the village Wesconnett. Old Orange Park Road, sometimes called simply the Clay Road to Orange Park, became Wesconnett and Blanding Boulevards. The Turknett House became the Parnell House became the center of town. You came to its porches to get your mail, hear the news, receive a phone call or listen to weekend music. The town is gone, buried beneath this inner ring of suburbia, but the house at the center of town still stands.

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Tagged Beaver Street, Butcher Creek, Coffin's Barber Shop, Farris and Company, Fishing Pen Creek, Hill’s Wesconnett Drug Store, jaxpsychogeo, Jerry G. Dukes, Laura Silcox, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Parnell House, Parnell's Grocery, Samuel Allen Turknett, Tim Gilmore, Timucuan Indians, Timuquana Road, Turknett House, Webb-Wesconnett Library, Wesconnett, Wesconnett Boulevard, Wesconnett Elementary