BOX OF ROCKS & WALKING MY LOG (#47 ):
It wan’t just Augusta bricks and hexagon sidewalk blocks that I collected. One weekend I found a big pile of old granite curb that was used to hold the Augusta bricks in place on the old beautiful brick streets.
The next weekend, I came back with a big, younger man who worked in the maintenance department of Wittner & Co. He had a full size pickup and I was paying him cash, double time, to help me get the granite curb. An unbroken 6’ piece was really heavy and it was a real strain to get it in and out of the trucks. The broken piece were easier. We filled and unloaded each of our trucks on Saturday and did the same on Sunday. He called in sick on Monday with a sore back.
A few weeks later, I saw a rare unbroken piece of granite that was curved, so that three pieces would make a corner. I couldn’t budge it myself, but I started bringing planks so I could slide it into the truck if I found help. Two weekends later three kids walked by. I offered then each $5 and we managed to wrestle my find into the truck.
Have wheelbarrow will travel. With permission, I collected broken concrete blocks and chucks of concrete from nearby construction sites. The best pieces of block I threw under my dock to attract crabs and fish. The rest I dumped off the seawall at the property line. My 50’ lot on 30th Avenue had a seawall that had been replaced. The next lot was divided so that my neighbor and I each had 25’ of the 50’ lot. His entire 75’ had the old original seawall, and I had 25’ of it. After a hurricane, a big portion of his old seawall collapsed and the entire 75’ had to be replaced at great expense. The rubble I had dumped kept my old 25’ section in place. Solid as a big pile of concrete rubble and still there.
The rubble also rooted Mangroves and eventually I had quite a stand of Mangroves at my property lines. I still had a great view from the house, but privacy for the hot tub.
Take a look at the photo of PAG with the red arrow pointing to the ugly condos built where the Hotel Rellim (Miller spelled backwards) was torn down. Next to the condos you can see the grey roof of the Pinellas Marine Institute. Next to that is the pink roof of the house built on my neighbors 75’ lot after the old house was torn down. Next to that is my old house! You can’t see the house, can you? Look at all the trees and the Mangroves with just the tip of the dock sticking out. There is still room for a boat slip on each side of the dock, but plenty of privacy for the Jungle Boy!
I was also always on the look out for tie poles. Whenever a dock was being built I talked to the crew. Usually I could buy the trimmed pieces for $2 per foot. It could be used to make attractive planting borders. After a storm, I always kept a lookout for old tie poles that had snapped. I would stick them in the ground in groups of three for decoration. I would often swim out in the bay, tie a rope around an old tie pole, swim it to my my dock, and tie it there until I could find help getting it over the seawall.
One year after a hurricane I saw a 6’ piece of a tie pole washed up on the beach. I went back and got my wheelbarrow. I was able to balance the piece and managed to wheel it back to the house. Several year later I was at a party when a lady came up to me, “I remember you. After the hurricane you were walking down the beach with a big piece of a tie pole on a wheel barrow. When you passed me you said, ‘I’m just walking my log.’ I’ll never forget that!”
Whenever I drove to Ft. Meyers to see Cathy I picked up pieces of limestone and used it for borders for her butterfly garden. When that was finished, I kept collecting the pieces of limestone, brought them back to PAG and used then to make a border along PAG Way and the sidewalk so my mulch wouldn’t wash away in a bad storm.
After we were married, Cathy started talking about a pond, and I was always on the lookout for rocks. One of my favorite sayings was, “Somebody said I could have these.” On a trip to Seattle, we went to visit her Aunt and Uncle who had a cabin on one of the San Juan Islands. That was were Cathy almost got me killed, or as she puts it, “Uncle Al almost got you killed. I saved your life.”
It was a simple walk on the beach. We were walking around a beautiful cove with a 15 to 20 foot cliff coming down to the beach, when the tide started to come in. Uncle Al said, “I don’t think we have time to get back, let’s climb up the cliff.” Cathy says the incline was about 80 degrees. Uncle Al, who weighed about 150 scampered up using small bushes as hand holds. Cathy who weighed 140 followed him. Next was me, weighing 225. The bushes started coming loose when I pulled on them. The one I needed to climb over the top came out in my hand.
I was stuck about 15’ above the rocks with the tide coming in. Uncle Al said there was a neighbor nearby and ran off to get some rope. Cathy tied a knot in the sleeve of her sweatshirt and lowered it to me to hold on to until Uncle Al came back with a rope. Finally, I was able to make it over the top. That was not my favorite walk on the beach.
There were, however, some great rocks. I kept thinking, “I wish I could get these back to PAG.” That was back in the old days when you could check a 50 pound suitcase for free. We only had one suitcase, plus our carry on luggage, so naturally I boxed up 50 pounds of rocks and checked them with our suitcase. In loading and unloading luggage, they broke my box of rocks. We got some that were loose on the luggage conveyor belt and put them back in the box, but at least 25 pounds of rocks were lost.
