Memories of Times Past in West Palm Beach

The Hut was an iconic West Palm Beach diner.  The picture is just as it appeared in a Saturday Evening Post photo from June 1946.  I loved this place.  I grew up just a few blocks from it and it was THE place to go after a day at the beach, or a trip downtown.  When I returned to West Palm Beach several years after I had gone away to college I was saddened to see it had been torn down due to expansion.  Sigh...oh well, "to everything there is a season" and I am glad the Hut was during mine. My childhood in West Palm Beach was during the golden years.  It was a time when kids still played outside until dark, you walked to neighborhood schools, you could ride your bike to the beach, you had rootbeer floats at the A & W rootbeer stand.  We did a lot of our shopping at the Palm Coast Plaza, especially at Christmas time and it was so exciting seeing all the people there and the decorations.  My favorite jewelry store was The Reef Gift Shop.  My very first charm bracelet and charm came from there and I thought I had arrived. Toy King, Murphy’s, Woolworth’s, Jackson Byrons were happening places back in the day. As whole families we would all go to the  Skydrome drive-in on Friday or Saturday night.  It only cost a few dollars for the entire car to go in.  Before I left West Palm the days of the drive-in were over and it had become a Saturday-Sunday flea market. I remember buying my school supplies at H.R. Davis' 5 & 10, eating breakfast at the Ranch Restaurant or Howlies on Saturday mornings as a treat.  I remember shopping at Fountains on Lake Ave, Burdines downtown,  and I remember when The Palm Beach Mall opened.  It was the very first one I had ever seen in my life and I thought we had arrived.  The first week it was opened my parents and I went to the mall and my dad danced across the little bridge in front Jordan Marshs(one of the flagship stores) with my mom to the Teaberry Shuffle.  I was mortified then...I give anything just to see my dad dancing with my mom today. My dad loved to fish and I remember fishing off the Southern Blvd. bridge and catching my first snook.  It took both my dad and I to reel that bad boy in.  I also remember Lake Okechobee and Lake Osborne and catching some of the largest bass I had ever caught in the deep dredged out holes in the north end. I also remember catching a shoe in Lake Clarke.  My dad laughed til he cried.  I remember taking airboat rides in the Everglades, I remember Topfers BBQ.  OMG that place was to die for.  It was a little hole in the wall place right across from Sears on Olive. She had three levels of heat sauces...mild, wicked and burny burny.  That was my dad's favorite.  We would get ribs and they would melt off the bone right into your mouth.  I attended my first concert at the Civic Center which was called the Leaky Teepee...because it looked like a teepee...and lord did it leak.  I grew and blossomed in Vedado Park, attended Belvedere Elementary, Conniston Jr. High, and Forest Hill High School.  Started my college days with my friends at Palm Beach Junior College.  I learned to surf at Juno beach. I saw movies at the Florida Theater downtown (that is where I fell in love with Elvis in Roustabout) and the Capri, which was right across the street.  I read books at the Palm Beach County Library, I swam at Lido pool in Lake Worth, I went to the beach in Palm Beach, I saw the constellations and Caroline Kennedy's kangaroo at Dreher Park.  One day...I grew up and left...and when I returned...most of it was gone.  The area of town I felt safe and loved in was now kind of slummy.  Everyone moved out past Military Trail (an area we thought of as country).  Now it takes an hour to get to the beach....or what is left of it.  The saying you can never go home does apply to me.  Physically I can return to the place I grew up....but nothing that I remember is there anymore....even the house I grew up in....that neighborhood is part of FAU's(Florida Atlantic Univeristy) sport practice field....sigh...time marches on.  Happy Sunday!

Carla and Her Amazing Story

Yesterday I told you about my two oldest friends, Carol and Susan. What I didn't tell you was that when Carol and I were 15 Mrs. Geiger had another child, Carla. There was already sister Cathy who was three years younger than we were...but along came Carla. She ruled the roost as a small child. We would give her anything she wanted, do anything she wanted...she was precious. This child could eat some more cookies. She loved them. My mother and father both adored her. Heck, all the neighbors did. All of the once children of El Prado had gone on to become adults...and then there was Carla. When she was four I moved away. I kept up with Carla through her sister, Carol and actually saw her from time to time over the next 15 years and one day I turned around and she was graduating from the University of Florida. Where had the years gone? She looked just like she did when I left Florida and moved to Alabama...just an older version and still had a wonderfully fun personality. You can't be around her but just for a few minutes and she will have you in stitches...and what a life she has led. To quote her own desciption she was a professional band geek – she spent four years in the high school band, five years of band at the University of Florida (where she switched majors to Music Education so that she could officially be a “professional” band nerd), six years as a clarinet/saxophone instrumentalist with the U.S. Navy, five years teaching band at St. Augustine H.S. & Pedro Menendez H.S., two years as a graduate assistant with the Gator Band at UF (earning a master’s degree in band geek a/k/a instrumental conducting), two years as a graduate assistant with the Husky Marching Band at the University of Washington (where she actually completed the coursework for a PhD in music ed but she is not quite ABD), and two years as the Associate Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands at Florida International University in Miami. This past year she hit a big milestone....she turned 40. Where did the years go? When did I hit 55? All of a sudden....my little four year old Carla....is now forty and still going strong. In January of 2009 she was forty, overweight, and so...she did what most of us do...(no she did not sit down and eat a package of oreos)...she actually lost her job...the music program at FIU was eliminated due to budget cuts. How can you have a football program without a band? Answer me that please? I mean...there are those of us who actually go to the games...and watch them for the halftime shows. I know I do and I know there are others like me in this world. I was NOT a band geek, but I am married to one (Frank played for the Big Green Indians of Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, FL and Kat and Brian were both part of the Pride of Alexander City with the Benjamin Russell High School Marching Band (said with pride...Kat was the drum major her senior year)...Back to Carla though...she has become a runner, having started in January with her first race. She is training for a sprint triathlon and a half marathon, and that’s just the beginning. She is very much looking forward to officially earning the title of “endurance athlete”, and She is once again loving life in our hometown of West Palm Beach. She has entered several races...now...at 55 I could not just become a runner...I would have to become a walker first...then maybe a power walker...then maybe a jogger....then possibly a runner....so I would not kill myself. I am so very proud of this girl. She has done wonderful things in her 40 years...and the best thing...is that at age 4...she was my best friends little sister...at age 40 I consider her a dear friend. Keep running Carla...I am cheering for you! You Go Girl!