Memory Lane

[Hop]

ahhh miracle strip...i destinctly remember riding Dante's Inferno..(the devil Head thing) and the music was "Were gonna' rock down to ELECTRIC AVENUE...and then we'll take it higher".(Eddie Grant)..i thought it was the coolest...and the bullet was so scary. I was probably 9 or 10. :clap_1: :clap_1:

 

[Oldtimer]

People knew who Ed Walline and JD Miller were...Cube, Eric, as in "DUNE" Allen...Johnny Zeal's...water skiing behind a '54 Willys Jeep in July..from Blue Mountain to Grayton...watching Bombing in the Gulf...Ft Rucker helicopters land on the beach..cuz the boys had a date...Fri/Sat...night fights at the HangOut..Long Beach=PCB...shine at the club 81..Swinging
Medallions@ Ol' Hickory across from Goofy Golf and Sky Ride, Old Dutch, L'l
B'ham, Red Rooster, Grayton Beach Store, Old man Butler, Shanks, Skeeter's (RIP) 396 Chevelle w/8=Track..Bish, digging lakes out, shooting sand crabs with Daisy BB guns, Sea and Ski (SPF..wazzat?), floundering in all the lakes...wading with a Coleman Latern...(AMOCO white gas..from Barrett's store on Peach Creek...white gas now known as...'unleaded')..
Campbell Brothers, Blue Gulf (first 'developement'...Brickyard)...rattlesnakes..shooting sharks from a boardwalk in Blue Mountain...Eloise..30-A????...SKunks out the ass...
and.......trees....

You just may be almost as old as I am....I remember everything you mentioned. Skeeter was a legend. A real character who lived every minute of his short life. You just can't really describe "the store" and how central it was to everything about the beach. Back then, Grayton Beach was very isolated and when you got there you just stayed there. Our family and lots of others had a ledger at the store and VanEs would just write down what we bought and our parents would pay at the end of the month or the summer....whatever. I walked to the store every day to get milk or bread and ususally added a nickle Coke or an ice cream bar to the bill.

We walked the dunes from the trees on 30A to the Gulf.

Does anyone remember "lonesome pine". I wish I had a picture of that, but I doubt that any of us ever thought about taking pictures of things like that. I thought they'd always be there, but that tree is no longer there. Magnolia Cave was always romantic....even if you didn't have a date. It IS still there, but against the "law" to visit.

 

[steele mama]

People knew who Ed Walline and JD Miller were...Cube, Eric, as in "DUNE" Allen...Johnny Zeal's...water skiing behind a '54 Willys Jeep in July..from Blue Mountain to Grayton...watching Bombing in the Gulf...Ft Rucker helicopters land on the beach..cuz the boys had a date...Fri/Sat...night fights at the HangOut..Long Beach=PCB...shine at the club 81..Swinging
Medallions@ Ol' Hickory across from Goofy Golf and Sky Ride, Old Dutch, L'l
B'ham, Red Rooster, Grayton Beach Store, Old man Butler, Shanks, Skeeter's (RIP) 396 Chevelle w/8=Track..Bish, digging lakes out, shooting sand crabs with Daisy BB guns, Sea and Ski (SPF..wazzat?), floundering in all the lakes...wading with a Coleman Latern...(AMOCO white gas..from Barrett's store on Peach Creek...white gas now known as...'unleaded')..
Campbell Brothers, Blue Gulf (first 'developement'...Brickyard)...rattlesnakes..shooting sharks from a boardwalk in Blue Mountain...Eloise..30-A????...SKunks out the ass...
and.......trees....

Oh yea! Skeeter!

And we swam in the Blue Gulf pool until the fire. We would ride on the beach from Grayton to Blue Mountain and climb the dunes to swim in the pool. My Grandaddy was a "member", then he worked with others to start the Santa Rosa Golf and Beach Club.

 

[Teresa]

wasn't there a big old gator in western lake called "Jack Daniels"? folks used to ski right by him. wonder if he's still around. or did he get carted off?

 

[steele mama]

wasn't there a big old gator in western lake called "Jack Daniels"? folks used to ski right by him. wonder if he's still around. or did he get carted off?

Yes, my grandaddy named him Jack Daniels, because that is what GD drank all day. Or maybe we named him..... dunno. He would feed him marshmallows at our dock.
No he is definitely not around. Back then he only had one eye.

 

[kingfishn]

You just may be almost as old as I am....I remember everything you mentioned. Skeeter was a legend. A real character who lived every minute of his short life. You just can't really describe "the store" and how central it was to everything about the beach. Back then, Grayton Beach was very isolated and when you got there you just stayed there. Our family and lots of others had a ledger at the store and VanEs would just write down what we bought and our parents would pay at the end of the month or the summer....whatever. I walked to the store every day to get milk or bread and ususally added a nickle Coke or an ice cream bar to the bill.

We walked the dunes from the trees on 30A to the Gulf.

Does anyone remember "lonesome pine". I wish I had a picture of that, but I doubt that any of us ever thought about taking pictures of things like that. I thought they'd always be there, but that tree is no longer there. Magnolia Cave was always romantic....even if you didn't have a date. It IS still there, but against the "law" to visit.

ooops, forgot to include the "Lonesome Pine"..someone told me some a**hole
cut it down for firewood...and I think, but, am not sure that local artist Mary
Vinson painted a 'portrait' of it...(either she did or, I was dreamin', or on some
bad acid at the Freeport Rock Concert @ the Mud Race Pit ~circa 70 early 80 sumpthin~. (How's that for a run-on)

Magnolia Cave (Grove)...well...

And Mrs. Butler spanked me for sitting on the pinball machine..called my folks, so got another switchin'...

waxing nostalgic ad nauseum...I done

 

[Jennifer Steele]

No, those aren't my pics. They cam up when I did a search. I'd like to thank the people who did take those pics though. My daughter can say she at least got to go to Miracle Strip once before it closed. She was born in June of 2004 and we went the weekend before it closed. She was 6 weeks old. I hate it that she won't share my memories of the place.

As for the dunes and bonfires, I don't think we did near the damage that the structures on the beach have done. ;-)

I took my son four times to Miracle Strip the summer before it closed, hoping he would have the same fond memories of it that I do. He was 8 at the time, I think. Surprisingly, it was cleaner than I had remembered it. I miss that place.

 

[steele mama]

ooops, forgot to include the "Lonesome Pine"..someone told me some a**hole
cut it down for firewood...and I think, but, am not sure that local artist Mary
Vinson painted a 'portrait' of it...(either she did or, I was dreamin', or on some
bad acid at the Freeport Rock Concert @ the Mud Race Pit ~circa 70 early 80 sumpthin~. (How's that for a run-on)

Magnolia Cave (Grove)...well...

And Mrs. Butler spanked me for sitting on the pinball machine..called my folks, so got another switchin'...

waxing nostalgic ad nauseum...I done

Hey king, did you know Mike and Buddy White from Freeport back then?

 

[Franny]

People knew who Ed Walline and JD Miller were...Cube, Eric, as in "DUNE" Allen...Johnny Zeal's...water skiing behind a '54 Willys Jeep in July..from Blue Mountain to Grayton...watching Bombing in the Gulf...Ft Rucker helicopters land on the beach..cuz the boys had a date...Fri/Sat...night fights at the HangOut..Long Beach=PCB...shine at the club 81..Swinging
Medallions@ Ol' Hickory across from Goofy Golf and Sky Ride, Old Dutch, L'l
B'ham, Red Rooster, Grayton Beach Store, Old man Butler, Shanks, Skeeter's (RIP) 396 Chevelle w/8=Track..Bish, digging lakes out, shooting sand crabs with Daisy BB guns, Sea and Ski (SPF..wazzat?), floundering in all the lakes...wading with a Coleman Latern...(AMOCO white gas..from Barrett's store on Peach Creek...white gas now known as...'unleaded')..
Campbell Brothers, Blue Gulf (first 'developement'...Brickyard)...rattlesnakes..shooting sharks from a boardwalk in Blue Mountain...Eloise..30-A????...SKunks out the ass...
and.......trees....

Nowthat is a list of old memories, haven't thought of the Red Rooster in forever. I also think about the old bowling alley in Mexico Beach, I think it is still there.