The Way We Were: Doug Milne

The Way We Were: Doug Milne

Doug
Milne wears many hats — husband, father, grandfather, attorney, civic leader,
mentor, friend and local historian just to name a few.

Moving
from the Northwest in 1946 at the age of three with parents Doug and Betty and
infant sister Mary, Milne’s wide-angle view of Jacksonville’s civic character
began on the patrol boy drill field of Lackawanna Park.

“There
were not as many cars when I grew up. Sections of town were more isolated from
one another. My friends and I did not visit other sections of Jacksonville very
often. Indeed, we called Avondale Our Town.

I
didn’t realize that Greater Jacksonville was a collection of Our Towns, each
with its own unique history and culture. My patrol boy drill days introduced me
to kids from Springfield, Ribault, Wesconnett, and Arlington, and they helped
me understand that different parts of Jacksonville are like various creeks that
drain into the St. Johns. They have unique names but they all flow into the
same river.

Two
other events helped me broaden my civic outlook. I was selected as a
representative to a YMCA world youth conference when I was a 17-years-old
junior at Lee HS. This was a 10-day residential experience in Hilversom,
Holland. I lived with youth representatives from 48 different countries. It was
quite the experience as was Florida Boys State that same year.”

The
river itself was a playground for Milne and his friends, David Nussbaum,
Michael Hughes and Michael Fisher (who ran away from home every day and lived
with Doug’s family until dinner.)

“J.F.
Bryan had a ski boat that he shared. We water-skied behind it. We fished, too,
and that is a sport I still love. When we weren’t on the river, we sometimes
were in the streets. Pine Street, where I lived, was always full of activities.

One
of the activities was cork ball, a game created by Chuck Rogers, director of city
parks, and father of legendary Lee football coach, Corky Rogers. The game
required that you wrap a cork in tape and position two pennies on it. You hit
it with a broom handle and ran. A good player could make that cork dance.

Later,
during high school at Lee, I participated in Hi-Y and in more structured
athletics, baseball primarily. I was also on a Beaches baseball team that was
written up in a local newspaper as “The Boys of Summer” even though we weren’t
all that good.”

But
play was only one part of the era’s equation.

“When
I was 14, I got a Times Union paper route which consisted of morning delivery
for 138 papers. My father informed me that the route was more about the
importance of work than it was about the money. It did teach me about work. I
am forever thankful that on frigid or rainy morning, my mother would get up at
4:00 a.m. and drive me around the route. Collections were always on Friday.

The
money I did make went farther then. Hamburgers at the Avondale drugstore were
25 cents and a shake was 25 also. With two cents tax, that meant lunch was 52
cents total. At one point, too, my mom would take carloads of my friends and me
to the Edgewood movie theater where we could watch two features, a cartoon and
a newsreel, eat popcorn and a hotdog and not spend an entire dollar. Some
things have changed.”

And
some things have not. Milne’s children Doug, Joey, Mary Susan and William grew
up in the same neighborhood where their father played champion cork ball. Milne
and his wife Nora, an adoption and foster care administrator, live two blocks
from the Pine Street house where his mother still lives. After spending time at
the University of the South, Sewanee and the University of Florida law school,
Milne returned to Avondale to nourish the deep struck roots of friends, family
and community.

The Way We Were: Dorothy Harding

The Way We Were: Dorothy Harding

When Dorothy
Harding, her husband Jen (short for Jennings), and nine-year-old daughter Bette
(now Bette Loyd) first moved to Jacksonville in 1957, they were lucky enough to
settle in the Lakewood area, in part because Harding’s mother-in-law and
stepfather had a house on Rollins Avenue. And they have never left.

Harding
and Loyd now live next door to each other on twin riverfront lots at the end of
Baylor Lane. The two gracious Southern ladies recently had fun reminiscing
about their many decades in the neighborhood.

After
three short months at the Lakewood Apartments, the family lived first on Mercer
Circle, which backed up to Christopher Creek, and then on San Carlos Road.

“The
kids on Mercer Circle told me there were alligators in the creek, but Momma and
Daddy told me there certainly were not,” remembers Loyd. “One day, I heard a
bloodcurdling scream, and there was Momma standing there with a big old gator
in the yard.”

The
children would play in the woods on the other side of the creek. The woods are
now the San Jose Forest neighborhood. Loyd attended Grace Chapel Parish School
(now San Jose Episcopal Day School), and her grandparents were members at the
church. Back in those days, if women didn’t have a hat on for church, they
would pin a Kleenex on their head before going to the service.

The
Harding family spent many Sunday afternoons driving down to Mandarin. San Jose
Boulevard at that time was a two-lane road lined with big oak trees and Spanish
moss. A family friend in Switzerland (“way out in the country”) had a house
that looked like a Swiss chalet, which is still there today, and Loyd loved to
pet their goats and pick oranges from the many orange trees on the property.

Lakewood
Shopping Center was a place the family frequented. Loyd would go to Lakewood
Pharmacy every Saturday with friends to have a banana split, and for a time,
Harding worked at the Lakewood Children’s Shoppe. They also liked Clark’s
Market for meat (the current site of Mojo BBQ), dress shops French Novelty and
the Vogue (where Winn-Dixie is), the record shop – where Loyd would buy 45 rpm
singles of Top 40 hits – and Dipper Dan’s for ice cream.

In
1960, Harding’s husband acquired the Atlantic Firebrick Company, which is still
in operation. Harding worked the night shift as a switchboard operator at the
naval station when her daughter was little, and then stayed busy with volunteer
pursuits – she was at Memorial Hospital to volunteer the day it opened – and
with a longtime bridge group.

“We
called it ‘Margarita Bridge’ because we started with coffee in the morning,
played bridge, and then about 11:00 would have margaritas and lunch,” she
laughed. “It was a lot of fun, and we played together for about 20 years.”

In
1972, Harding got wind of a riverfront home for sale on Baylor Lane. She didn’t
ever imagine the couple could afford it, but she mentioned it to her husband
anyway.

“Jen
took one look around the property, heard the price, and said, ‘We’ll take it!’
without ever setting foot in the house. We paid $130,000 for it,” she
remembered.

They
subsequently acquired an additional two-acre lot next door, which Jen set up as
a putting green (laying concrete and maintaining perfect grass turf on top). He
spent many afternoons honing his golf game and using the river for driving
practice.

Loyd
now lives in the family’s original house, and Harding built on the adjacent
property about nine years ago. The two eat dinner together a couple of nights
each week, usually joined by Loyd’s two sons, and they talk on the phone every
day.

“It
feels good being next door to each other,” said Harding. “I’m so thankful
because this is all the family I have.”

Irish Culture, customs focus of SJEDS Art Day

Irish Culture, customs focus of SJEDS Art Day

Blarney Castle
and its famous Blarney Stone turned up on the San Jose landscape last month
thanks to San Jose Episcopal Day School’s annual Art Day. As part of the
school’s global studies program, students learned about the culture and customs
of Ireland through music, art, games and service. The 2012 Art Day also
featured a community service component. Students made St. Patrick’s Day cards
which will be sent out to service men and women connected with the area. SJEDS
faculty assistant and Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars 6th
District President, Barbara Bobbitt is sending out cards for the students.
SJEDS students also created a mosaic Celtic cross during the Art Day
festivities. The cross will become part of the school’s permanent art collection.

San Jose Pursues More STEM education

San Jose Pursues More STEM education

San Jose
Catholic School announced it plans to integrate Lego Robotics into its middle
school science curriculum in the 2012-2013 school year.

The
decision follows a heavy period of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics, known as STEM, experiences in late 2011 and early 2012.

In
October, a group of 65 students, 37 parents and teachers from the middle school
traveled to Huntsville, Ala. to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center to attend a
weekend long Space Camp. The three-day visit included an presentations
on team-building, rocketry, the history of the space program, a simulated
shuttle mission and exposure to various scientific fields — including robotics.

This
school year, middle school science teachers at San Jose also added Lego
Robotics as an after- school program for students. Club members have
learned to build and program robots, build NXT Lego Robotics challenge
missions, and conduct research as a team. A San Jose Catholic School team
went to a Merritt Island Lego robotics competition in January, where they won
first place in research and presentation. The students also were
recognized in the category of “Gracious Professionalism”. The plans to
have several competition teams up and running for the next school year.

“Groundhog Day” includes all star cast

“Groundhog Day” includes all star cast

Punxsuatawney
Phil, a replica of the famed groundhog, made an appearance at The Bolles School
last month for the first graders’ presentation of Groundhog Day. The play
highlighted topics about the weather, hibernation and Groundhog Day. The play
was part of the students’ monthly, curriculum-based performance by each grade
on campus.