Memories
Many of us have special memories growing up here in Palm Beach County. The Palm Beach County I remember is drastically different from the Palm Beach County of today. Palm Beach County was a small town with more dirt roads then paved. The bobcats, panthers, foxes and various other varmints ran the hood. I remember the families of quail skittering across the dirt roads in our neighborhood We knew our neighbors and most of them were awesome! (There's ALWAYS that ONE). Our neighbors were located anywhere from Jupiter to Boca Raton and there wasn't a lot in between. 'Local' schools weren't so local (sometimes a 45 minute bus ride) and it wasn't out of the ordinary to see a shotgun in the back window of that ol' pick'em up truck. Cattle farms lined Military Trail - yes I KNOW! crazy right?, and 'out West' meant anything west of Military Trail.
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We lived at XXX Sioux Rd in Seminole Manner when I was born. Dad brought his old Ford Cab-over home and parked it in the swale or in the side driveway. My brother would ride his bike to the little Magic Market on Lantana Rd. Our cousins lived on the other end of the community and they were our first BFF's. Sandy and Jimmy were friends before they became relatives. Dad would watch them (with 4 kids already what's 2 more amiright?) while June (later Aunt June) would go to work at JFK hospital with mom. Our little circular driveway was our racetrack. We'd get our little tri-cycles going as fast as our little legs could pedal. We didn't ride in the road, but I don't recall the speeders running up and down the road so we were fairly safe hanging out in the front yard. I'll never forget the house at the corner. We all were kinda afraid of them, who knows why, but they had the Florida cherry hedge. The fruit had an interesting taste but we loved them. Our neighbors behind us, Connie & Amie, would be at our house as much as they were at theirs. Dad had an old boat that took a crap so it became our swimming pool. Ha! We had so much fun in that pool/boat. We didn't have any neighbors calling to turn us in to code enforcement either. Everyone pretty much minded their own business but they had your back if you needed it.
When I was about 7 my parents decided they wanted something where us kids could have a little more space. Our house in Seminole Manner was a 2/1 and dad had converted the garage into a room for him and mom when my little sister came along. Big brother had his own room and my older sister and I shared a room until little sis was old enough to move in with us. Three in the bed, yeah that was fun. Boy that brings up other memories of all of us cousins in the bed having a slumber party at grandmas, but I digress.
My parents decided to build a house 'out West'. People thought they were crazy! Why would anyone want to move out to the boondocks? Now mind you Seminole Manor was pretty much as West as it went other then the cattle farms that lined Military Trail. There was NOTHING West of those cattle farms. Well there was but who'd want to go there. Whelp WE DID! Dad would have plenty of room to park his truck with the trailer so that meant not having to make an extra stop to drop the trailer before coming home from a trip. I loved going on adventures with my dad. Prior to him getting his own rig he had loaners and oh boy the issues we had with those. Blown transmission in one, the linkage going out in another (thank goodness he had duct tape), the long waits to get loaded.... yeah dad and I had some adventures for sure. As a kid it wasn't a problem but as a grown up I'm sure my dad was stressed out. I remember the stench and the smoke filling the cab when that old Freightliner took a crap, and the bus ride home on a big Greyhound beast, yeah good times.
So the decision was made to Go West! The builder took FOREVER to build the house so we were in transition at a rental house in the meantime. I remember taking day trips out to the woods to check the progress of the house. What should have taken 6 months took almost a year! Mom had gone ahead and put us in to Melalueca Elementary rather then the school close to the rental because she didn't want us to have to change schools midway through the year. Looking back she apologized because we didn't go to the school with our neighbors. It didn't make no difference to us but as parents, we do the best we can and sometimes we think we've done a dis-service to our kids for something when actually to them it's no biggie. Any how, we made it through the year and it was time to move to THE BOONDOCKS. XXXX Yearling Dr would be our new address. I was 8 and it was GREAT! An acre plus to roam around on. Dirt roads, foxes, rabbits - so many rabbits, quail families skittering across the road - 6. 8. 10 at a time; so cute and so fast! Bobcats and perhaps a panther sighting or two as well. I'll never forget our goat that got mauled by a big cat. Don't know what kind but that poor fella just had to be put down as it wasn't even humane to try and keep'm alive. Many super dark nights playing basketball until the sounds of the big cats told us it was time to go in. The nights out in the boonies was DARK, like SUPER DARK, but you could see SO many stars. All the constellations were able to be seen. Friday nights meant the roar of the engines at the race track off Southern Blvd. (Now the S. FL Fairgrounds). We would sit outside and just listen to them all night long. It was so quiet out in our neck o' the woods that the sounds had no problem traveling for miles. There was pretty much nothing from our house to the race track.
Great memories
I miss these simpler times