Memories from my Sister, Mona

Karen and Mona doing dishes in S.C.

The theater was called the Mini Cinema. Also, at the bridge we would hunt and chase hermit crabs. The very best pool game was pool tag. We had a very sophisticated system of rules. Ah, the memories! Really a great place to grow up!

When we played King Tag, black shadows would pass overhead and we would all duck and run with our heads covered. Bats! Ah, nostalgia….

One more. The best. Maybe we were chilly from swimming all day or it was winter but I loved lying on the road on River Terrace, feeling the warmth of the road and looking up at the stars. Loved it. so peaceful.

More random memories: Getting blisters between your toes when school got out from wearing ‘thongs’. Then getting blisters on the back of your heels when school started back and we had to wear shoes.. 4^th of July fireworks at Kiwanas Park. I loved the part about horseflies…you only needed to be stun once to appreciate that story!

In Maine

Left to right: unknown, Karen, Ernie, Mona, unknown, unknown

Be a Part of Tequesta’s History

Letter to Tequesta Residents August 2009 

Historical Preservation Committee
345 Tequesta Drive
Tequesta, FL 33469
561-768-0440     


SUBJECT: Village of Tequesta Historical Preservation Committee


Dear Tequesta Resident:


In May 2008 the Village Council appointed five residents to the newly created Historical Preservation Committee. The Committee was created to assist the Village Clerk’s Office in maintaining irreplaceable assets, which form the cultural and social fabric of our Village; and to recognize and encourage awareness of the Village’s historic resources and memorabilia. Over the past year, the committee worked diligently preparing a list of long time residents and considering ways to showcase our Village’s history.


This correspondence is sent in an effort to accumulate historical artifacts from longtime residents with twenty-five (25) or more years of residency. The Committee plans to create “I Remember When…” and “Yesterday and Today” displays to be housed at Village Hall. These displays will contain resident quotes, old news articles, and pictures that depict or provide useful information concerning historical events, lifestyles, cultural attributes, or social conditions of the earlier and current residents of Tequesta. 


“Be a Part of Tequesta’s History” and assist us in gathering items for the displays. Should you have copies or preferably original memorabilia that can be maintained for historical purposes by the Village please complete the attached form. Should you have items of interest but would prefer not to donate them, we can copy and return them to you immediately. Additionally, if you would like to provide an audio interview of your experiences as a Tequesta resident, I would be happy to schedule a time to record your memoirs. 


Please contact us if you have any suggestions on past residents who might have memorabilia. We look forward to working with you as we formalize and maintain our all-important history. 


Sincerely,


Bethany Humpage
Chair

MY CHILDHOOD: WHAT WE DID FOR FUN in JUPITER

We didn’t have video games or computers in the 60’s and 70’s, so we had to use – oh horrors – our IMAGINATION to entertain ourselves. Okay, occasionally our mom’s would come up with fun things to do too, but largely, we were on our own. Our mom’s would say, “Go outside and play!” Then, they would yell as you went out the door, “And put your shoes on! And don’t you dare slam that door!” We’d hear that as we went out the door – slamming it – and kicking our shoes off.

Here are some of the things we did to entertain ourselves – in no particular order, but mostly from ages 5-13 or so…

Movies. I’ll start in the later years because that is what got my mind on this topic in the first place. We had a very tiny theater in Tequesta. We were lucky to have one new movie a month or so. If you wanted to see current – i.e. good – movies, you had to go to the Twin City Mall on Northlake Blvd. or even better, to the Palm Beach Mall in West Palm. And it was no picnic getting there either – I-95 didn’t run to Jupiter until the late 80’s…but that’s a memory for another time.

Anyway, movies. The movie theater was on US1, same plaza as Village Bootery and the bakery. I’m sure we saw a gazillion movies there over my childhood, but I only have a clear memory of one. It was called It's Alive! It was about a giant killer baby who was going around killing everyone. I have no idea how old I was when that movie came out, but it scared the bejesus out of me! Didn’t sleep for weeks after that one. Absolutely horrible movie. It came out in 1974.

Movie Trailer says, “The Davies expect a baby, which turns out to be a monster with a nasty habit of killing when it's scared. And it's easily scared.”

King Tag. Now this was a big thing in our neighborhood and kids from all over the neighborhood would come to play in our great big yard. There were zillions of places to hide what with the mango trees everywhere. I don’t remember actually getting to play though. My brothers and sister Lee (David), Ernie, and Mona never let me play. (FYI: My eldest brother, Andy, was older than us and was way too cool to play King Tag with a bunch of little kids J ). So, I was the baby of the family and they would usually say, “Karen, you wait here and we’ll call you when we’re ready.” Uh-huh. Never happened.

(My cool brother, Andy Hamilton @1978-1979)

Matchbox Cars. Mary and I had thousands of matchbox cars. The house next to hers – right in back of my house – had not been built yet and there was just a large sandy field there. We would build entire cities in the sand field and run our cars there. Great fun! I wish we had saved those cars…one car from that time period goes for $50-$100 today!

Tarzan. Did I mention my yard was like a jungle? Daddy was always working in that yard – it was (is) so beautiful and a child’s dream playground. Flowers of every kind, mango trees everywhere, palm trees, and big shrubs. We would pretend we were in the jungle and the pool was our lagoon. We made ‘meals’ by cracking open coconuts and using the shells as our ‘dishes’. We cut open mangos and used them as dishes too. We ‘swung’ from the mango trees into the pool – not literally, but in our imaginations.

Barbies. Every girl had Barbies back then. My cousin, Connie Ann, had every Barbie that ever existed, along with clothes, shoes, groceries, dishes, houses, etc. She had the coolest collection of Barbie stuff any girl would want. I bet she still has them – almost 50 years later. J Barbies went everywhere with us – to the pool, to the park, on road trips, to Aunt Grace’s house, you name it…we took our Barbies. I don’t recall Mary playing Barbies very much though…she was more the tom boy type, not really into the Barbie scene.

Marco Polo. Everyone played Marco Polo in the pool. I don’t remember any of my friends at that time who had a pool, so we all hung out at my house. We made up different games to play along with Marco Polo…sometimes we played ‘house’ in the pool, with different sections of the pool being different sections of the house. The air filter in the side of the pool was our ‘oven’. Great times in the pool, except when a horsefly would show up – then someone would yell, “HORSEFLY!” and we would all dive into the pool and hold our breath until it went away.

Dancing. Mary and I used to love to dance in her living room as her mom played the organ. We also made up our dances to Michael Jackson songs and Simon and Garfunkel.

Cookies. We made cookies A LOT. If we were really bored, we’d hit the kitchen and make peanut butter cookies or chocolate chip cookies.

Fire Station. Mary’s mom was a paramedic and ambulance driver in Tequesta. We used to go up to the fire station and hang out in the rec room there playing ping-pong and yakking with the firemen.

Tequesta Park. It was a long hike (or bike ride) to the park out on County Line Road but always worth it. We would ‘play’ tennis on the tennis courts there. We didn’t really know how to play but we had a good time volleying the ball back and forth. Of course, we had to attend all of Mary’s softball games there too…my only real exposure to sports as a child. The park had a concession stand and you could buy hot dogs, icee’s, soda, popcorn, candy, etc. when there was something going on at the park. We spent a lot of time there.

Loxahatchee River. I lived right across the street from it. We would swim in it and take our inner tubes out there and just float along. And of course, there was the dolphin there for awhile until some idiot killed it. The bridge on Tequesta Drive was a favorite place for neighborhood kids to go – they would jump off the bridge into the water. I don’t recall that I ever jumped off the bridge though…I’m sure Mary must have.

(photo courtesy of Jupiter Old Days on Facebook)

Backgammon. We learned how to play backgammon at a very early age, thanks to Mom and Aunt Grace. Aunt Grace would put on tournaments at her house on Palm Beach, and we would go there to serve drinks to the guests. Then we would get to play too. Aunt Grace was the master!

(Me with Aunt Grace @1977)

Beach. We lived in Jupiter, Florida! Of course, we went to the beach. And there were many times that we rode our bikes there from Tequesta! Can you imagine kids today doing that? We would take inner tubes and spend all day in the water at Carlin Park.

(That is me and Connie Ann @ 1976)

Hanging with my cousins, Pat Hamilton, Connie Ann Hamilton, and Frankie Hamilton @1976

Oh so many more memories to share and so many pictures to find!! That is for another day....stay tuned...

Memories of Books and Getting Around in Tequesta

I remember that I read a lot as a child. It seems to me that I was reading ‘real’ books by 2nd grade. Mom and Daddy had a real library in the house on Riverside Drive. It wasn’t very big – more like a wide hallway or laundry room. Bookshelves lined one wall, and half shelves on the other, with a large built in desk under them. My favorite things to read were the Reader’s Digest magazines on the top shelf. I read every one cover to cover.

We also had a set of Oz books – illustrated. All sequels to The Wizard of Oz. I don’t know how many there are (Mom still has them, I think) – maybe a dozen? I read all of those – over and over again throughout my childhood. I loved Ozma the best – a good witch – fairy godmother. She was so beautiful.

I also read all of the Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon mysteries. God, I can’t believe I remembered that!

For a time, I was fascinated with a series of books about a girl who traveled around with her family – they were poor and took odd jobs – farming, fruit picking, etc. she went all over. I, of course, loved the ones set in Florida the best. I’ve been trying to find those books on Ebay. I found one – Strawberry Girl.

I just found so many of those books on Ebay. They run from $20-$100. Wow! They were written by Lois Lenski. Prairie School, Coal Camp Girl, Houseboat Girl, We Live in the Southwest, Shoo-fly Girl….I read them all!

My great-aunt Grace (Grace Fortescue) used to give us money to memorize poems. I loved this not for the money but for the poetry and the performing it in front of Aunt Grace. She was so old and so elegant – think Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Aunt Grace would clap her small hands together and say, “Grand! Just grand!” I only remember one poem – The Shadow. I only remember the title, not the poem.

I spent loads of time at the Tequesta Library. I think I still have my library card somewhere. It was thick paper with a metal bar at the bottom. I was so proud of that card! I always did the reading challenges each summer at the library.

We walked everywhere in those days. Our parents rarely drove us. It was just a little town. We walked or rode our bikes. We didn’t even have to lock our bikes up in those days. No one stole things then. See what drugs has done to our society? What a shame. Even in elementary school, we went by ourselves to the dentist and the doctor. Just walked there by ourselves. All the adults knew who we were. And, for a time, Mary’s dad was the mayor of Tequesta.

Mary lived right in back of me. We were always together. Nancy lived a block over. The boy I had a crush on (from 4th grade to high school!), Rodney Denton, lived right on the way to town, so I always got to walk by his house on the way to town. Rodney’s best friend, Jeff Cannon, lived a few houses from Rodney. Everyone loved Jeff – such a sweet guy (still is).

I usually cut through Mary’s yard to go anywhere rather than walk all the way down Riverside Drive to Tequesta Drive.