East Trail @ Boat Haven

From the looks of the traffic heading east McDonald's must have opened this day. My latest mission was to try & locate John Grey former Mercury Outboard mechanic at Boat Haven. And you ask but Homeboy, why John Grey? He was the owner/designer of the one & only Golden Orchid/Hawaiian Pearl that pink & purple Edsel with the shark fin trunk lid. I emailed Chrisse or Miss "B" Haven former owner of Boat Haven to try & locate him. She gave me his last known whereabouts but the trail came up cold. That car was truly a 60's Naples icon it was like the local Batmobile or something. Between that & a photo of the Anchor Lounge (with it's happy dancing feet) are 2 of the things I'm finding hardest to locate. If anyone can give me a heads up on a photo of either it would be greatly appreciated.

Store # 76 The Original Naples Publix (Under Construction)

No doubt it's a Naples institution, thank GOD they did away with those 1 cent S&H Green Stamps! I can still taste the glue on ‘em & those cheesy paper stamp books that went with them. How did it go 1 page you could do 50 1 cent stamps, or if you had five 10 cent stamps you could trump them, BUT the ultimate was a 50 cent stamp 1 per page. If you ever see longtime locals the original Publix is where you’ll find them. It still has the original green & white terrazzo floor & you can see how small it used to be. And I believe everybody was a bagboy there at one time or another. Larry Haymaker, Jim Page, Butch Rush, Jim Clary & Mark Finger, Roger Mann to name a few. A GOOD local laugh was the baseball games at Cambier Park the announcer would go. “Barley is up to bat & Finger's in the hole”! It had the whole town laughing well maybe just a quarter of the town (it was summertime).

PS: Mr. Deville (the 1^st store manager) wherever you are, thanks for all you did & all the memories.

The comments are getting better than my stories!

Naples Theatre & Trail Drive-In Two Sided Playcards

These were given out for free at the Beach Store & the Trail Drive-In to let you know what was playing at both places the next week. At the drive-in I thought I might have listened to my headphones a little too loud but it was always the mosquitoes buzzing not my ears. I also remember the blue ceramic tile that lined the walls of the lobby at the Naples Theatre & the smell of the popcorn. And the BIG 'NT' above the movie screen, Spicer said he saw it in the dumpster when they tore it down & grabbed it & took it home but lost track of it. Al McLenon once asked Andy, Do you know what that 'NT' stands for? Andy said no & Al replied NUTTYTOWN! Still rings true all these years later :):):)

The drive-in was located at the southwest corner of 111th Ave N. & the North Trail. You could park & watch the movies for free along 110th Avenue North but good hearing was required.

Playcards courtesy Gerry Johnson

Parkshore Beach & North Gulfshore Blvd

To the north at the 2 sandy points is the future home of the Parkshore Drive bridge. I remember us dirtbikers would have a field day before the bridge was put in. They dredged mountains of sand for both approaches you could throttled hard & try to fly up them. It really didn't matter if you made it or not it was all soft sugar sand you could fall & not get hurt. Downside was riding the rest of the day with sand in your underwear, ears, nose & everywhere else. You can see the City of Naples Vedado Way beach access lined with palm trees. Top of the picture is Seagate & Clam Bay.

Photo taken September 17th 1968
Photo courtesy of the Les Whitaker Jr. family.
Enhanced Repost

3rd Street & Broad Avenue South

This shot was taken from Cook's Laundromat, from the looks of it there appears to be a wrecking crane. This was probably there to demolish the Beach Store & theatre. In my opinion this was the beginning of the end of the town I grew up in. I'm not complaining I still love this town but it radically changed from this point on. In my conversations with most of the people that I grew up with here, most of them left town in the mid 70's. I moved away for 7 years & returned in 1996 & it looked pretty much the same & then all hell broke loose. As soon as you see surveying sticks & un mowed grass whatever is there in usually gone in a week or two.
Please read Jim B's comments on this post it makes this blog worth doing!

Royal Palm Service Station & Club 41

I really don't know much about this place other than it's former location. It sat on the northeast corner of 4 Corners (where the Gulf gas station sits in the photo on another post). I try to give a little history into the time I've spent in Naples. Not the time I wasn't because to me these days you don't know what has been tacked on to make the story interesting. I tend to do this with say an example, Elvis @ Cambier Park but by now you've probably figured I'm a little full of myself. The history of Naples has been kinda beat to death. I find how many cable customers there were in 1968 much more interesting than who had the 1st house on the beach. If you want a good Naples history lesson just follow the parade of backhoes & dump trucks to their next casualty.

East Trail @ Davis Blvd

In this photo the never ending & never completed (kinda like Bob Dylan's tour) Clumsky building. The American gas station @ Sandpiper, the Barn (liquor joint) next door the Burger Queen & then Food Bank. Off in the distance the VFW Hall a place for early rock concerts, the Footnotes played there. I was too young to go in but saw them arrive in a funky weird old funeral hearse. Really long hair, biker lookin' dudes you didn't see anything like this in 60's Naples. Oh yeah one more tore down landmark, Chesser's Laundromat on Davis a Naples tradition up until not long ago.

Photo taken September 17th 1968
Courtesy the Les Whitaker Jr. Family
Enhanced Re Post

North Gulfshore Blvd To Doctor's Pass

I remember pool hopping along Gulfshore Blvd in the summer. Usually the only people you would run into would be the caretakers, the condo's were like ghost towns. Sunscreen wasn't an option, between getting cooked from the sun & breathing mosquito plane fog & slogging thru sandspurs you were pretty much up for a fun day. We didn't need no stinkin' EPA..........sorry I started coughing & I got distracted by these brown spots on my arms. I'd like to chat but I'm off to the dermatologist for my annual checkup:):) ........

Photo taken January 22nd 1963

Palm River & Willoughby Acres Area

Here's a map link to 218 Fairway Circle (the house in this photo) in Palm River.
http://tinyurl.com/npbbky
At the top of this photo is Willoughby Acres.
Photo taken September 17th 1968
Courtesy the Les Whitaker Jr. Family
Enhanced Re Post

Alternate Cable Guys Photo

I called Moates last week to try & put names to the cable guys photo. He didn't get back with me for a few days so I figured he wrote me off. So I kicked it into plan B & was gonna post this photo & have a little fun with it. So today Moates got back to me with the info so I had to scrap my B plans, so much for some fun. I sent this photo back to Moates & he seemed to get a kick outta it so I might as well let you all partake in a view. The story went something like Elvis was in town for a ball game at Cambier Park.........

The Cable Guys September 1968

Kneeling left to right: Lee Boyd, Pee Wee Browning, Harry Nell.
Standing left to right: Dale Griffith, Darwin Baker Heulon Bryan, Bob Moates, Andy Sleszak, Gene (unknown last name), Quane Fletcher.

Quane was chief engineer, Bryan was construction superintendent, Baker was the dispatcher & the rest were technicians. At the time they had 3,500 subscribers, 10 employees in the field, one office girl, 12 employees in all including Moates. All equipment was tube type amplifiers & pitiful underground wiring. Moates was hired to rebuild the system in 1967. I (Brookside Homeboy) remember their office had a couple TV's sitting in the window & were usually on so you could watch TV without sound. It was located at 541 8th Street South behind Rexall. The photo was taken in the parking lot in back of their office where the new parking garage sits now.

All information provided by Bob Moates & Harry Nell, both still live in Naples & Moates is 82 years old now. Anyone see traces of Drew Carey in the photo?

The Poor Man's Alligator Alley

The Walking Dredge chugging along March 1927. The remains of this beast still resides (I hope I haven't been there in years) at Collier Seminole State Park. I remember seeing it when I was small & thinking WOW this thing just walked thru the swamp what a MONSTER!

Wikipedia link to the Walking Dredge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collier-Seminole_State_Park

Four Corners Center Of The Universe

Don Spicer & I would walk home from late night Frisbee marathons at the Beach Store & on the way we would lay out in middle of 4 Corners & watch the lights change. I tell people now & they say "Well didn't you get ran over"? And then you'd have to explain that Naples closed down at 9pm (or earlier) & at 1 am in the morning the only other person out would be Barry Kee from the Police Department.

Photo taken sometime in late 1963

Pelican Bay

I still get a little confused about the motel @ the Seagate Beach Access gets to use Collier Counties boardwalk but taxpayers don't get to use their pool? This government thing gets more confusing as time goes by doesn't it? GREAT shot of Clam Pass wouldn't you say?
Please read SH's comments on this post you get an idea what it was like back then!

Collier County Property Appraiser's Site

http://www.collierappraiser.com/

Check out their new feature.
1st page click on [GIS Maps]
Click [I Accept]
Look to your right, mid page, below the buttons & find the [Aerial Year] drop down box.
You can view 1975, 1985 & 1995 years in black & white aerial photo's keep in mind the camera quality wasn't that good back then. Check out the progress (it's more like devastation if you ask me) some of it is really stunning.

Old Naples Area Late 50's early 60's