Just a day or so ago a
storm named Milton was raging in Florida.
When I thought of its name
I thought of an old friend named Milton.
Milton Martin. There is a Milton
Martin car dealership of Gainesville, Georgia, but I don’t think it is the same
Milton.
We moved from Manget
Street to Richard Street in about 1954.
I was in the 8th Grade.
A block away was The
Boston Homes. The Boston Homes was a rental project. It was on a side of hill.
Richard Street went to the
“4 Lane” aka “41 Highway”.
I made friends with people
who lived in The Boston Homes. Two of
my new friends were Milton Martin and Gene Brown.
Milton and I had the same
sense of humor and seemed to catch on to the other’s wit.
As I said Richard Street ran
into the 4-Lane, across the 4-Lane was a thick patch of woods. About 4 of us built a little cabin, or “Hide
Out” in the thick, which would later be the area the amusement park White Water
would be. I remember one time, after the
Hideout was built we stocked it with girly magazines. The girls wore low-cuts. Some of our younger friends could not
understand why you coud not tilt the picture sideways and peep down their
low-cuts.
Milton and I had a silent
game going on that only we understood.
We pretended we were making a movie of all our friends, without their
knowledge. When one was doing something
stupid one of us would make a buzzing noise like a movie camera might make…
only us two caught on.
Almost next door to Milton
was a young man named Crowe. I think he
lived with his parents. He worked at
WFOM FM Radio. Later years I think he
was one of the top officers of the radio
station.
I think Acworth Beach
opened in 1954 or ’55. On Easter that
time my sister Frances, who had her drivers’ license decided to go to Acworth
Beach and lie on the beach to get sun.
Milton and I decided to go with her.
We did very little beach or swimming time, but instead walked around the
beach park. Not far away we saw a bunch
of row boats turned upside down on the ground.
There was a “Boats for rent” sign.
I think we were their only customers that Easter Morning. We rowed across the lake to the other side. We discovered there were a lot of little
tributaries coming into the lake. We rowed
up and down the little water paths, seeing trees hanging overhead and so. It was awesome.
What we did not realized
until hours later we were sun-cooked. We
were red as lobsters. And the next day
at school I was in pain, I could hardly move.
In time I peeled. But some near
70 years later parts of my body exposed to the sun that day are darker and you
can definite see my bathing suit lines.
Milton was a couple years
older than I. I remember when he became
eligible he joined the Air Force. I
remember the night before his physical examination he ate plenty of
bananas. He was afraid he underweight to
join the military.
It must have worked.
Away he went, I don’t
think he returned.
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