David Gum – Part II
By Laura Jane Pittman
Resident Community News
(Note: In the last The Way We Were column, Jacksonville native David Gum shared memories from his early childhood. Here he recounts the stores and favorite establishments that made up “The Strip” of old in St. Nicholas and South Shores. He also shared several ads from The Times Union and Journal, publication date October 1, 1968.)
“To drive the short mile east from Kings Avenue and Atlantic Blvd. to Southgate Plaza is today a rather unimpressive journey. Used car lots, used tires, thrift stores, The Doll House, and empty storefronts are the predominate visuals. Looking at it today, it’s hard to fathom that this strand was once a thriving and quite popular area of town. Our neighborhoods of St. Nicholas and South Shores bordered this once bustling strip of highway in the 1960s, and we felt lucky to be close to the action.
“The mile stretched from the Gilos Drugs/ Herbs Pool Room corner at Kings Avenue eastward to Southgate Plaza. Opened in 1958, Southgate for a couple of years was the largest and most modern shopping center in the Jacksonville suburbs. Stores like Grants, Woolworth, Walgreen’s and Lerner’s Dress Shop drew in shoppers who wished to avoid downtown hassles. And, hey, let’s not forget about Toy Town and its magnetic power over kids citywide. One of my most vivid memories of Southgate Plaza in the 1960s is a huge carnival there with wild animals in cages. Just curious – does anybody remember the crowds standing outside McDuff Appliances, mesmerized by some of the first color televisions most of us had ever seen?
“Most of the high-end restaurants of the day were located on Philips Highway, but the fun places were on the Atlantic-Beach boulevards strip. For Italian, we had Pizza Joe’s, Sorrento Pizza Patio, and Tony’s Pizza King. We had Lum’s beer-steamed hot dogs. Nearby was Assi’s Gold Room, Jacksonville’s premier Mediterranean restaurant of the time. For sit-down dinners, you could choose from Morrison’s Cafeteria, The Old South, or Bagley’s (later Keys Chili Parlor). When it came to fast food, we really had it going on. Milligan’s, Toddle House (black bottom pie!), KFC, and even a Strickland’s Seafood takeout were available. The king of them all was the Krystal Drive-In. With its six rows of parked cars, all with the radios blaring, it was one of the coolest places to eat and hang out in the town.
“Then there were the grocery stores. Four of them dotted the mile long stretch–an A&P, a Daylight Grocery, and not one, but two Winn-Dixie’s. What’s now the Veterans Thrift Shop was the neighborhood Winn-Dixie before Southgate plaza opened with its brand new store. For some reason, the two Winn-Dixie’s operated for seven or eight years less than one half mile from each other.
“One of the most recognizable remnants from that same era is the old St. Nicholas Shopping Center. Built about the same time Beach Boulevard opened in 1949, it is still painted the indescribable yellowish beige I remember as a kid. The center is still home to St. Nick’s Lounge and Curry Thomas Hardware–both original tenants.
“Unfortunately, these two retail survivors are among the few remaining stores that once constituted a vibrant neighborhood business district. Long gone are Dipper Dan’s Ice Cream, Preston’s Drugs and Soda Fountain, as well as my first employment venue –Southside Fish Company. The Southside we knew back then pretty much consisted of San Marco, St. Nicholas, Lakewood, and a handful of other little neighborhoods. Today, it reaches all the way to Julington Creek and the Intracoastal. Malls and big box stores east and south of our old stomping grounds have long since squeezed out many of the local businesses, leaving the once vital stretch of thoroughfare with scads of commercial vacancies and a sort of inner-city vibe. Oh well, so goes metropolitan evolution. Fortunately, the neighborhoods of St. Nicholas and South Shores are as beautiful as ever and, as always, great places to live. I don’t see that changing.”
Gum is a graduate of Wolfson High School and University of North Florida, and he is currently a piano bar entertainer in Jacksonville.
If you or someone you know is age 70 or better and has a history of living in the San Marco/St. Nicholas/San Jose areas, please send contact information to Laura Jane Pittman at [email protected] to be considered for a future WWW column.
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