Ol' Timers' & Natives Sowal Spring Memories

Hangout places in the 70's:

Day - South Walton Superette on Hwy 98. Have a draft beer while you shop, or just have a beer. (I'm kinda fond of this one, and not because of the beer! :blush: )

Night - Grayton Store and downtown Grayton Beach.

Best Camping / Keg Party spot - Campbell Lake. Turn left off 98 on the two-rut road by the Gulfarium sign.

Gulf Trace: by day, best place to learn to drive. by night, best make-out spot.

Best Beach - all of them. :wub:

Sounds like maybe there was a little funn history at the Superette. :cool:

I'm glad to know there are some natives or ole timer's out there. Which are you? Raised there or spring breaked there?😀 Are any of those places still there?

Thanks for the post, SN . It was awful quiet on this thread. :clap_1:

Oh, BTW, sowal posters, I passed 100 posts 20 posts ago!!! Yeah!!!

Actually, my family owned the Superette at that time, and naturally I "worked" ;-) there as a teenager. So, not as much funn as one would expect...but at that age, it was a great way to meet people. Especially boys. 😀 If not for that, there would have been no social life at all !!

I was seventeen when we sold it, and it closed for good a year later. By then I had a car and could go find my own funn. But, you spend most of every day at a place for years, especially your formative years, and it becomes a beautiful, nostalgic memory.

The building is still on 98; I think it is Redfish Interiors now. It was Bea's Interiors for many years. The Grayton Store is now the Red Bar. Of course, Campbell Lake is now in Topsail State Park, and now there are houses on all the cul-de-sacs in Gulf Trace.

It was great to grow up here...and at the time, nobody realized how great it really was.

:roll: Calling on all your memories of Spring in Sowal from a natives or ole timers view. Did any of you grow up in Sowal or visit in the 50's, 60's and 70's? What did you do before everything was built up? Could you camp on the beach back then? Have bonfires? Was it very built up here in the 70's? Wonder what the first restaurant was like? Was there a hang out place? :cool: Was it mostly scrub forest then? :blink: Just curious...

Better yet, if anyone can post pics that would be grayt! I got here in 85...I wish I had seen it before....

Moved here full time in 1979.
no telephone.......had to put your name on a slow list (took 4 mo)
no cable.............I think that came maybe 5 years later.
Raising 3 kids was difficult but they had the beach to themselves and loved every minute of it.
bon fires in the front yard (this was "on" 30A)
We were a close family..........pretty remote in those days.

Here is a story written by my brother. We grew up spending all summers at Grayton.
http://www.graytonbeach.com/pinkston.html

The superette was the only place to buy food. We usually brought ours down in coolers. We did not go out to eat unless it was into Destin. We had bonfires built with driftwood & had weiner roasts. No cable tv so we usually played games at night or sat on the porch and talked and looked at the vivid starry sky. The beach was practically deserted. The dunes were huge. 30-A was remote until Seaside was discovered through the movie the Truman Show.

That sounds so beautiful. Was PCB a little built up already? Was Thomas' there yet? What grayt memories your family made. :wub: I bet the big dunes were breathtaking. :blink: Did ya'll see a lot of wildlife on the beach? Grayt story by your brother steele mama! Thanks for the link. Sounds like there was lots of wildlife, and lots of good funn!

You'll enjoy this! Growing up in Grayton during the summers in the 60's, I can remember my mother running out of the beach house and grabbing the hose to chase the wild hogs (boars) from our garbage cans. I can remember one time there were four wild boars trying to get our trash. I seemed like it was a common occurence during those summers.

You'll enjoy this! Growing up in Grayton during the summers in the 60's, I can remember my mother running out of the beach house and grabbing the hose to chase the wild hogs (boars) from our garbage cans. I can remember one time there were four wild boars trying to get our trash. I seemed like it was a common occurence during those summers.

Hey LQ. I know who you are!!! The little girl who swam in her undies! Y'all didn't own bathing suits did you? ;-)And yes, I saw the wild boars.

I visited grayton from the early 70s. the grayton store is almost all I remember being around. we stayed in trailers on gorgeous lots with tons of trees. it was so beautiful then, different from now. though the houses were very quaint. we were only 11 or 12 years old, driving ourselves in dune buggies out on the beach. and we drove as far as we wanted on the beach, east or west...

it was so simple, yet otherworldly.

I love all these stories. Wish I coulda seen it then.

If you want South Walton stories then you absolutely must have the following two books:

The Way We Were: Recollections of South Walton Pioneers

and

Of Days Gone By

Both are published by the South Walton Three Arts Alliance, Inc. and are fascinating reads. If I remember correctly they each deal with certain time periods in succession but I forget the order. Starting in the 19th century they tell of the trials and tribulations of beach life in South Walton. Wonderful stories and grayt pictures throughout.

I believe I purchased both at Sundog Bookstore in Seaside a few years ago.

If you want South Walton stories then you absolutely must have the following two books:

The Way We Were: Recollections of South Walton Pioneers

and

Of Days Gone By

Both are published by the South Walton Three Arts Alliance, Inc. and are fascinating reads. If I remember correctly they each deal with certain time periods in succession but I forget the order. Starting in the 19th century they tell of the trials and tribulations of beach life in South Walton. Wonderful stories and grayt pictures throughout.

I believe I purchased both at Sundog Bookstore in Seaside a few years ago.

I bought Of Days Gone By last year at Sundog. Meant to go back and get the other, but never made it...next trip for sure!

I remember in the late 70's my grandmother had a country store on 98. We would come down and pump gas. It was called "Miller's Country Store." It is still there. I was there when Elvis died. Looking back on growing up here I can not help but think of some great characters that have come and gone. I will never be able to think about Grayton without thinking of Nicky Fyre. He was my one of my best friends in high school. Nicky taught me how to surf and drink beer from a gallon jug. It seems back then they sold beer in gallon jugs everywhere! We use to have so much fun running the roads of 30A. I should say speeding the roads of 30A! Anyone remember Nicky's 69 Camaro? Thank god that car could not talk;-) !

Hey Steele Mama...those were actually bathing suits, but BeachMama just decided we only needed boy bathing suits cause it was easier to deal with. Yes, yo brother wrote about we girls and the dog in his story. Great read! We called ourselves "beach/dune kids" and your mother, et al, we called "lake kids." Wish we had a house on the lake like ya'll, and i'm sure vise-versa. Boy, I wish we had the good-ole-days back!

Here's one for you..........
How about "Ricks Run Aground" in the brick yard? 😀

Here's one for you..........
How about "Ricks Run Aground" in the brick yard? 😀

😱 Yikes! Have not heard that one in awhile!

😱 Yikes! Have not heard that one in awhile!

Then it went from Ricks to "Puzzles" are you with me? :clap_1: