Running left to right across the center of this photo is Pine Ridge Road. On the right side is Goodlette Road that dead ends @ Pine Ridge Road. At that intersection is Sterritt Egg Ranch (the group of buildings that look like silver train box cars). If you were here in the 60's or 70's you would usually run into your friends at Sterritt around Halloween. If you worked there you would probably think teenager's liked to make omelets or egg salad this time of year. Late October Sterritt did a brisk business, on November 1st egg shells decorated most of Naples especially around the pier area.
Map link to photo.
http://tinyurl.com/ylyqsg7
Photo courtesy of the Les Whitaker family.
Photo taken September 17th 1968
Plenty of places to still ride a dirt bike around the out skirts of town. What year is this picture Danny? My guess is 1970ish...
ReplyDeleteI say that because of a friends house on Center St. is there and built about 1970. There was lots of bass fishin' and swimmin' on that Center St. lake. Thanks for the awesome picture!
Circle3Ranch
Scott
Also Danny I do see the date on the description, But i was thinking their house wasn't built till 1970....
ReplyDeleteThat was 40 years ago, so my mind might not recollect quite right :)~
Circle3Ranch
I know that "some of us" know exactly what we are looking at, but to make it easy for the directionally challenged, this picture is oriented looking to the North.
ReplyDeleteThe "Tamiami Trail", with a parallel service road are on the left, and on the far right is the Seaboard Coast Line railroad right-of-way (merged with Atlantic Coast Line 7/01/67).
Just north of Pine ridge Road @ “41” you can see “Pine Lanes” (before it became Beacon Bowl or what ever it’s morphed into now), and just beyond that is the “Masonic Lodge”. Both were designated as neighborhood shelters during Hurricane “Donna” on Sept. 10, 1960
More on “Donna” in a future posting
Going east on Pine Ridge Road (from “41”) the little building that backs up on the lake is the North Naples Volunteer Fire Department. The fire chief there was John Snuff (pretty sure) who also owned the Standard Oil Gas station next to the Glades Motel (Larson’s) at the corner of Solano Road (you know, next to Ritchie’s Market and Vincey’s Pizza, across Trail Terrace Drive from Naples Furnishing’s, all of which were across the highway from the “new” Tamiami Ford).
Ouch, that made my brain hurt.
On the South side of Pine Ridge Road goin’ east before the intersection @ Goodlette (then) Road, is a block building that was home to “Mr. B’s Custom Auto Body”.
Nicknamed “Choc”, Mr. “B’ and his wife Jane turned out some incredible custom paint & bodywork. “Frenchie” apprenticed there and, if I’m not mistaken, Raymond “Alligator” may have been doing some of the mechanicals.
“Mr. B” put the new windshield in my Barracuda; why it needed a new windshield is a story for another time.
SH
11:07 a.m. PDT
p.s. Upwind from the Sterritt Egg Ranch was a good thing . . . downwind, not so much . . . .
ReplyDeleteHey SH, I'm sure you know this, but for the sake of others. Mr. "B" is Bill Hunt, Paul and Gary's Dad and later moved from the Shepherds compound on PRR down east on Pine Ridge Rd and on the north side of PRR. Jane is now married to Fred Alander for many years, and not doing so well as of lately. I Ran into Randy and Tim at the Swamp Buggy Parade last week and they gave me the 411.
ReplyDeleteP.S.
Danny, I talked to Kim Kelsey at the parade about the John Gray and the Golden Orchid photos. He said you need to get out of the house more often...LOL!
Circle3Ranch
You are correct sir. I had the last name and the boys' names tucked away. I also didn't mention their house around the corner from the 7-11 by the pier on south-side of 14th Avenue South (you know, the one with the stuccoed Spanish arches out front).
ReplyDeleteI think I saw Fred and Janie at the "old Timers Reunion" when I was there in '07.
I remember Jane at both shops (the new one was between Jaeger and Taylor Roads if I'm not mistaken). Janie was a hard worker and was always sanding and prepping something. I stopped by both shops a lot and Jane always greeted me with a smile. It saddens me to hear she is ill.
Didn't recall "Shepard’s Compound" until you mentioned it. Makes sense though, I believe the Shepard family lived diagonally across PRR at East Avenue on that big corner lot with the wrap-around driveway.
SH
9:03 p.m. PDT
My first job was packing eggs at Sterritt's eggranch on Saturday mornings, 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The pay was awesome, $2.00 a shift. The smell, not so good, had to stand under the shower for ages to clear the sinuses. Couldn't eat eggs for a long time. Never told any of my friends about the gig, bad enough I lived in Sorrento Gardens, the end of the world. Good times........
ReplyDeleteSH...Fred is not doing well. Just wanted to clear that up. Janie is fine.
ReplyDeleteCircle3Ranch
Correction:
ReplyDeleteComment #3 John Shuff with an "h".
SH
2:10 p.m. PDT
This photo shows so much of what was there in 1968 as I remember it. My house or Pipons house top center. I see Jan-it and Bob-ie Mc-D’s Alenders, Mr. Carneys, Pine Lanes Bowling, The Masonic Loge, Sterritt’s, Mr. B’s. I can’t remember all like SH. We would buy eggs from Sterritts Egg Ranch every week and they only soled them in flats. A flat was 24 eggs I think? We did not buy them for Halloween, bought them only to eat them. At the top of the photo and northward was my big back yard where the roads ended but the trails didn’t. I had a 1960 Vespa 150cc no license and so I rode the trails, crazy 13 yr old scrambling on a scooter. I don’t think the word dirt bike was invented at that time. The recent 2009 photos I have seen are totally different. We were in our own little world back then, and this photo helps me retain the memory as it was back then and I see there are still some trails there as Scott has confirmed.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brookside Homeboy and all who commented on this photo.
Vanderbilt Beach Homeboy
This photo shows so much of what was there in 1968 as I remember it. My house or Pipons house top center. I see Jan-it and Bob-ie Mc-D’s Alenders, Mr. Carneys,
ReplyDeletePine Lanes Bowling, The Masonic Loge, Sterritt’s, Mr. B’s. I can’t remember all like SH.
We would buy eggs from Sterritts Egg Ranch every week and they only soled them in flats. A flat was 24 eggs I think? We did not buy them for Halloween, bought them only to eat them. At the top of the photo and northward was my big back yard where the roads ended but the trails didn’t. I had a 1960 Vespa 150cc no license and so I rode the trails, crazy 13 yr old scrambling on a scooter. I don’t think the word dirt bike was invented at that time. The recent 2009 photos I have seen are totally different. We were in our own little world back then, and this photo helps me retain the memory as it was back then and I see there are still some trails there as Scott has confirmed.
Thanks Brookside Homeboy and all who commented on this photo.
Vanderbilt Beach Homeboy