GULFPORT IN THE 1950's: MEMORIES OF A DAILY HERALD PAPERBOY
By
Glover Roberts
When I was tweIve years old, my job on Saturdays at our family home on Second Street was raking the front yard. My father paid me ten cents for the work. I found out that some of my buddies were getting twenty-five cents to rake their yards, so I told my dad I wanted a raise. "It's only fair", I said, citing the pay rates of my friends. My father replied, "let's put it this way. You will be raking the yard", emphasizing the work "will". "The only question is whether you do it for ten cents or nothing. I'm not giving you more money. If you want more money, go get a job. That's how I earned my way".
One thing was for certain. I wanted more spending money. In addition to the ten cents for raking, I received an allowance of fifteen cents. On those Saturdays that I raked, I had a quarter in my pocket, but after a movie, a coke and candy, the money was pretty much gone. Of course, the leaves did not fall in a way to meet iny needs each weekend, and I did not rake every Saturday. Consequeiltly, I found myself short of funds more often than not.
Tlzerefore, after some contemplation, in the srunrner akel- the seventh grade, I joined the work force. Even though my father was a successful Certified Public Accountant, a partner in the Gulfpol-t accounting firm of Evans, Roberts &McDonald and could afford some spare change, I recognized that he meant business about his not being a inoney tree. I learned from my nlother several years Iater that my father was vely proud of me for taking that initiative.
I had gotten to know a boy narned Tommy Legg, who had one of the prized Herald routes, by hanging around Broadmoor Grocery, which was one block north of the L & N Railroad tracks on the west side of Kelley Avenue. Broadmoor Grocery was one of the many neighborhood groceries in the era before supermarkets. It was a popular place and was owned and operated by a Mr. and Mrs. Ross, as I recall, at that time. For a long time, they lived over the store, but later built a home behind the store, and rented out the second floor. Mr. Ross was the butcher, and Mrs. Ross ran the cash register. Lou Morrow bought the store when I was a paperboy and ran it for many years. He and his wife took over the respective jobs in the store from the Ross's.
It was also the place where Tommy sat and rolled his papers each day, stuffing them into his canvas bag hung over the handlebars of his bike. I had gotten Tommy to teach me how to roll papers. I thought I was really cool. Knowing how to roll papers, that is. Looking back on that time, I suppose it was like Tom Sawyer letting someone paint his fence. For the honor of it, you know. However, Tommy needed some help, since the route was so large. So, I became his helper. My pay was the princely sum of $3.00 a week. Along the way, Tommy allowed as how he aspired to bigger and better things, and somehow I let it be known that I was available to take over his route.
Soon Tonmy quit, and I became a Herald paperboy that summer. I thought I was headed for riches. My route was East 5. It consisted of one hundred fifty six customers and ran through Broadinoor and parts east of that neighborhood on the east side of Gulfport. I figured I would be clearing just over $1 5.00 a week. With movies costing 15 cents for a ticket, and candy bars and soft drinks at the concession stand for a nickel each and hamburgers at the Walgreen's downtown for a quarter, I figured I was in high cotton.
My father, a CPA, had a heart attack while on a fishing trip with friends at Cat Island in April, 1955, after he had finished tax season. He seemed to be recovering nicely, but died suddenly of another heart attack the day I arrived home from summer camp in Tennessee. It was July, 1955, the middle of the s~imrner before I was to enter ninth grade at Gulfport East Junior High School. Boy, did our life change overnight. There was no one to bring in money to pay the bills. My mother never missed a beat, however. She went to work at the V. A. Hospital located on East Beach in Gulport in order to provide an income for the family. She also told me that I was now the "man of the family". At the time, I took that to mean I needed to help out with money somehow, although she really did not spell it out that way.
I checked at the Herald to see if a paper route might be open. I still wanted East 3, if it was available. The boy who had the route at that time confided to me that he was going to work in the Herald's office or somethiilg like that and would pass that route along to me if I were interested. He also mentioned the stability of that route's income and what time he usually finished his route each day. I said "yes" on the spot. That is how I once again became the proud "independent contractor" for the East Beach 3 route. With the reduced work schedule, I figured I could handle it.
Besides, since there was no Sunday paper at the time, so we had at least one day off from the paperboy business.
The route began at the corner of Second Street and Kelly Avenue, proceeding east on Second, taking in all side streets along the way. It turned left at Roberts Avenue and ran across the railroad, then turning west at the comer of Roberts onto East Railroad Street, terminating at Kelly. It was a straight and easy route to run. By the time I became the paperboy on that route, I had become proficient in rolling newspapers at a high rate of anymore since that type of delivering newspapers has pretty much been relegated to the history books, and most kids do not go to work at such a young age. The people who lived in those East Beach 3 and East 5 neighborhoods are mostly gone, moved to bigger, new houses.
Many are deceased. Times have changed. Gulfport itself surely has changed. With the advent of the casinos and legalized gambling on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the town has taken a quantum leap forward in terms of growth and population makeup. It seems to be growing to the north by leaps and bounds with the huge shopping center out near the intersection of 1-10 and Highway 49 and residential subdivisions spreading north of the interstate and all around the bayou area. At 5:00 in the afternoon, the traffic on 25t'' Avenue -also known as Highway 49 -looks like rush hour in downtown Dallas. The highway is jammed with slow-moving cars for miles.
In the mid-19507s, it was a compact small town. The port of Gulfport sat on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico on the south side of town, ships drifting in and out from faraway places. The Gulfport Chamber of Commerce's proud motto was "Gulfport -Where Your Ship Comes In"!
Downtown Gulfport, the center of activity for almost all of Harrison County, bustIed. As the county seat, the courthouse was there, centrally located on 24" Avenue, two blocks south of City Hall. The Canlegie Library stood next to the courthouse. Hancock Bank and Gulf National Bank, Gulfport's only two banks at the time, were south of the railroad tracks on various corners of 2St" Avenue. Coast Federal Savings and Loan Associati011 was located across from the Markham Hotel on 14th Street.
The streets were lined with all kinds of retail stores, insurance agencies, small was where I got a lot of my clothes when I was small. M. Salloum's, a large department store, was located on the southwest comer of 14th Street and 26" Avenue and is today the site of the law firm of Franke, Rainey & Salloum. That store had its beginnings in a pushcart from which Mansour Salloum, a Lebanese immigrant, sold clothing in downtown Gulfport. His two sons, Mitchell and Joe Sallounl ran the department store when I was a boy, and his daughter's husband, Emile Koury, had Koury's down the street. After Day Drug moved across the street and became Triplett-Day Drug, the Salloums opened Salloum's Toggery, an upscale men and boy's speciality shop in that space. Mitch Salloum, Sr. and his son ran it for years, with Mr. Joe running the department store. Joe Salloum, Jr., Richard Salloum, Vicky Salloum, Lydia Sallown Werby, and Mitch Salloum, Jr., all prominent GulQort residents today, are the grandchildren of the founder of that original establishment.
Jones Brothers Drugs and Day Drugs stood on comers of 14thStreet, one at 25th Avenue, and the other at 26thAvenue. Walgreen's was in the middle of the block on 2fith Avenue, right beside Woolworth's. Woolworth's was next to the Paramount Theater on 26th Avenue, across from Penney's.
H. H.Jones, one of the owners of Jones Brothers, let kids use a phone in the comer of the store, just past the Whitman candy display box, to call home, if they needed to. It had its own number and was free. I suppose it was for that reason that sometimes you had to stand and wait to use the phone. Fasold's and Huber's jewelry stores faced each other from opposite sides of 14thStreet, just east of 25thAvenue. Besse Jewelry was further west on the corner of 14th Street and 26th Avenue, across from Jones Brothers Drugs. Sale Photography Studio was next to the drug store, and Fulton's Photography Adam's silver tongue got a lot of people off that way. That man was something else in his heyday.
Clower's Furniture store was a favorite upscale furniture store in the area. It was in a large building on the east side of 27th Avenue between 13th and 14thStreet. Merchiston Hall, another funliture store, later was across the street. In time, A & P put its shiny new supermarket on the northwest corner of 13th Street and 27th Avenue across
from the Ford car dealership. It even had a lot next to it for off-street parking, a novelty back then.
Small restaurants, like the Commodore, next to Jones Brothers Drugs, and the Dog House, Jr., on the north side of 14thStreet between 26thand 27t11 Avenues, dotted the downtown area. The ground floor of the Markharn Hotel boasted a fine dining room on one side, and a gift shop and combination coffee shop and soda fountain on the corner.
There was another small restaurant across from the Herald building on 141h Street where we could get hamburgers and stuff like that. Some people liked to go to The Flame Drive-Inn, which was just east of the high school on the opposite side of the street and next door to the Methodist parsonage, where Reverend Clyde Gunn,minister at the First Methodist Church, and his family lived. That old parsonage was later remodeled and is now the law offices for Boyce Holleman and his sons.
Small shops jammed the downtown area. There were record shops like Zollman's and OberIies', along with shoe repair shops, such as Cabibi's, tobacco and candy shops, such as Stratakos', and printing shops, like Gulfport Printing Company and the Dixie Printing Company. A shoe shine stand was located on the north side of 14thStreet, next to a small restaurant and two doors from the northwest comer of 14thStreet and 26th Gulfport Laundry and Cleaning on 30th Avenue, lived there with his family. The Daily Herald offices and printing plant were on the southeast comer. A used car lot was on the opposite side of the street further east on 14"' Street.
Gas stations were everywhere. Coming into town from the east, along the original route of Highway 90, the road curved to the right just past where the Holiday Inn is presently located at that point, today, it becomes 15thStreet. The section of Highway 90, which presently runs west from the Holiday Inn to the Mississippi Power Company's headquarters on the comer of 30th Avenue, did not exist until the early 1950's. When Highway 90 was double-laned and made to run in a straight line along the beach, as opposed to winding through downtown Gulfport, the new route was carved out of people's front yards and the site of the old Great Southern Hotel at the southern base of 25th Avenue.
The first gas station past that curve was on the northwest comer of l5h Street and 11th Avenue. A doctor's office occupies that structure today. The second station was on the next comer, where the offices of Kaleal Hassin, the architect are located. Jimmy Kennedy, an architect, who previously occupied the premises, remodeled that old gas station.
Across the street is the office of John Heath, the CPA. Molleman Law Offices are across the street in a remodeled house. When I was a boy, that was the parsonage for the minister at the First Methodist Church. It was next door to "The Flame" a local burger hangout.
The next place to get gas, a Texaco station, was a block further to the west, on the southeast comer opposite from the high school. Another block further, at the opposite
All of the lawyers' offices, as well as the offices of most of the comnunity's doctors and dentists, were in the center of town. The five-story Hewes Building, which stood across 14IhStreet from Hancock Bank,an eight story building, was jammed with lawyers, although a few dentists and doctors had their places of business there also. ~m?th- odd Hardware and the Office Supply Company were located in retail space on the first floor of the Hewes Building. My father's accounting firm was on the fifth floor of the Hancock Bank building. The three-story Hatten Building, standing on the northeast corner of 24th Avenue and 14'" Street housed the Greyhound bus station on the first floor, with more lawyers and insurance agents on the upper floors.
I worked at Mississippi Abstract one summer in the mornings from 8 until noon, then delivered papers in the late afternoon. To get to work, I walked down Second Street past seven houses and rode to work with Harold Barber. At noon, we closed the office for an hour, and Mr. Barber gave me a ride when he went home for lunch with his wife. Harold Barber and his son, Rob, who was later the President of Coast Federal Savings & Loan Association, had desks in the back of the building where they put together documentation for lawyers handling real estate closings.
Harold's brother, Billy, a fun-loving bachelor, had a desk in the front of the office. I never could figure out what Billy did. My primary job was to deliver abstracts of real estate titles and title opinions to lawyers around Gulfport or to take documents back and forth to the company's abstractors working in the caul-thouse. That responsibility took me in and out of every law office in Gulfport. I would carry a load down the street, dropping off documents first at the office of Everett Cook on 24thAvenue. I came back to the Hatten Building, where the brokerage firm of Gates, Carter & Company was located on the comer beside the bus station in the building facing the Markham Hotel.
When the presses began rolling, young Eddie Quigley called out each route at the door's entrance, and one at a time, each paperboy would step in to where Harlan Loftin, the circulation manager, stood, gathering papers as they flowed down the conveyor. He would hand each news carrier a bundle, wrapped in string, containing the papers for that route, plus a few "extras", which were substitutes if a newspaper became damaged. I loaded the bundle into the canvas bag on my bike and pedalled the fourteen or fifteen blocks back to Broadmoor Grocery. The Rosses were great about allowing the paperboys in the neighborhood to sit out front of the store and roll their papers. Lou Morrow continued the tradition.
I sat on the concrete apron running across the store's front with a couple of other paper boys, my back against the wall, rolling each paper, wrapping a rubber band around the day's news and stuffing them in rows in the canvas bag. When finished, I hung the bag on my bike's handlebars and rode the neighborhood, tossing over one hundred fifty papers from my bike as fast as I could. I usually got home around 6:30,dead tired.
On Saturdays, I had to collect, knocking on customer's doors beginning around 8:00 a.m. until finished, about 1 1:30 a.m. When the last quarter was collected, I pedaled my bike madly from wherever I was on the route to get to the Herald office before noon, which was when it closed, to "pay my bill", due at the end of each week. It was only then that I was able to determine how much I made each week. I realized quickly that if a customer was not home or I missed collecting from a house for some reason, it affected my "net".
The fact that the customer was not at home did not affect my obligation to pay the newspaper. If it was a hot day, I would sometime stop in the small Iobby and get a Coke, that cost a nickel, from the only free-standing Coke machine in the area. There were usually a few people on break from Salloum's Toggery next door or the power company's offices on the second floor of the Toggery, enjoying a cold drink also. With the remaining envelopes, I would walk up to the second floor of the M. Salloum building. There, I would make a delivery to Rae Bryant, then a solo practitioner, and perhaps take some papers to the Butler Insurance Agency futher down the hall for an insurance policy to be
issued in conjunction with a closing. On the way, I passed the offices of H. D. Shaw Architects and Engineers, a prominent old firm. Phillip Shaw, a future mayor of Gulfport, worked with his father there.
Sometimes, Mr. Barber gave me some money and sent me from store to store, paying his family's bills if there were no abstracts to deliver, to keep me busy. My salary at Mississippi Abstract was fifty cents an hour, but what the heck, I worked four hours a day, five days a week, and at noon on Friday, I was paid in cash out of Mr. Barber's pocket the sum of $10.00 for the week's work.
My first task each day at the abstract company was to unlock the doors and open the place for business at 8:00 sharp. Then, I went to the courthouse and told Cooper Darby, the long-time Chancery Clerk, that it was time for coffee at the Markham Hotel's coffee shop. I next went to the co~uthouse vault where the land records were stored and told H. L. Lowrey, one of the company's abstractors, that it was coffee time. After Mr. Lowrey, I went to the front of the courthouse to alert F. P. "Dutch" Amsler, the County Agent. Finally, I walked down to the minister's office at the First Presbyterian Church, which was at the south end of the block where the courthouse was located, and repeated
Realty, Kerr Realty and Cheney Realty lined 241hAvenue between 13thStreet and the
railroad track.
Quality Bakery, a wonderful place to get doughnuts, fresh cookies and other goodies, was on 13thStreet, across from the Legion Theater. Nearby was Barber Hardware and two blocks away was Coast Hardware on 25~
Avenue, next to Brumfield's.
Jay-Jay Chevrolet-Buick was on the east side of downtown, across I 5fhStreet from Kremer Marine. The Lincoln-Mercury dealer was in the next block to the west of Jay-Jay's. Nunnally Ford was on the southwest side of downtown next to the Legion Theater, and Keyes-Watkins Cadillac-Oldsmobile was between St. John's Catholic Church and Riemann's Funeral Home, on the north side of town, across the tracks on 25th Avenue. Staton Pontiac was located first on 26Ih Avenue, between the Trailways bus station, which was just south of the railroad track and the offices of United Gas Company, the local gas utility. However, the place was cramped, and Roy Staton, the owner, moved the dealership later to a new building north of the L & N tracks, on the west side of 2Sh Avenue, not far from Keyes-Watkins Cadillac-Oldsmobile.
The Merchants Company was a large wholesale grocer serving the needs of the area's numerous "mom and pop" neighborhood groceries. Operated by Hollis C. Thompson, Sr., its facility occupied almost an entire block at the comer of 13thStreet and 30thAvenue, across from the Washington Pecans store and the Coca-Cola plant owned and operated by the Milnet- family. Adjacent to the Merchants Company building on 30''' Avenue were the offices and barn for Municipal Trainsit Lines, the local bus company.
People still rode passenger trains back then, and the train station was two blocks from Hancock Bank, since the L & N Railroad ran through the center of town, Many of the doctors, lawyers and the men who ran all of the businesses in
Gulfport lived with their families on the east side of town on the beach and around Second Street, East Beach Boulevard, Broadmoor and East Avenue. Others lived on the west side on the beach and around Camp Avenue, Woodward Avenue, Fournier Avenue and 1Oth and 11th Streets.
In 1969, Hurricane Camille pretty much wiped out those west side residences, but the east side of Gul-fport still has its residential neighborhoods. George Schloegel, the President of Hancock Bank, grew up on Woodward Avenue, as did all of the Sawyers, Lenny, Tom, Bob, and Andy and the rest of them. So did Judge Gaston Hewes, Jr., who lived with his parents on the beach, as well as Al Koenenn and his sisters, L. A, Koenenn's children. T. W. Milner, a Hancock Bank Vice President, had his home on 3lSt Avenue, and around the corner on l0th and l lthStreets were the homes of the Moody family, who owned the motel by that name, the Bob Heath famiIy and others. Marvin Fortner, an owner of Office Supply lived on the west side with his family, as did the Fred Hoff family, the family of Albert Fant, Jr., the president of Gulfport Creosote Company, along with his brother, Bob, later a director of Hancock Bank.
Dr. Ed Melvin and his family lived on Camp Avenue across from the Albert Fants. Doug Medley and his many siblings lived up the street with their parents. My father's partner, Al Evans, lived there also, but almost all of the homes within two blocks of the beach were demolished by Camille. Today, that area is mostIy apartments or townhouses.
Bayou View had not been developed fully. It was still known as Gulfport Field, the name of the Army Air Force base located there during World War 11.
Orange Grove was north of "North Gulfport", one of the black communities in the area. Nugent and downtown. The Casanos lived next door to the Hartwells. Mr. Casano ran a business downtown called "Pete the Top Man". He worked on canvas tops for convertibles and boats, stuff like that. The Frank Dobbs house was next to the Caraways. Frank and Bob Dobbs, one a year younger and one a year older than me, lived there, and their baby brother, Ricky, had just come along. Their dad was the Life of Georgia insurance agent for the area and was quite an expert on camellias, as I recall. They sure had a lot of camellia bushes in their yard, and it was some serious woe to a kid if he ever brought harm to one of those prizes of Mr. Dobbs.
On the next comer was the Henry Davis house on the left. Mr. Davis had been the Dodge-Plymouth dealer in Gulfport, but had passed away leaving Mrs. Davis with three children to raise. She was a nurse at the Gulfport Memorial Hospital, and her oldest daughter, Flo, was active in the MYF at our church with me. Henry Davis, Jr. was in my class at GHS. Henry always wanted to be a Navy flier, and that is exactly what he did with his career. I think he is retired now. George was the youngest of the Davis children.
Heading north, I threw papers on both sides of the boulevard. I made sure one paper landed as close as possible to the front steps of a young couple, Kaleel and Barbara Salloum, who lived across from the tennis courts laid out in the middle of the boulevard. Kaleel, called "Teel" by practically everyone, and his brother, Ellis, ran Ellis Salloum's Department Store downtown. The Stone family lived across from the Salloums. Harry Stone was one of the bigwigs at the Daily Herald. You better believe Mr. Stone got his paper in a place where the rain would not get it. One of his sons, Ben, a former state senator, is the managing partner of the Eaton Cottrell law firm today. Their offices occupy the old remodeIed Brumfield's department store building on 25thAvenue.
Some one in my family ever said that those folks should be treated differently than our neighbors. As a famous columnist told me much later in life, "although you lived in Gulfport, you really didn't live in Mississippi". After I transferred from Tulane and became a student at the University of Mississippi, aniving there just in time to go through the riot which occurred when James Meredith enrolled did I understand what the "other" part of Mississippi was about. That was a terrible experience. Thanks to change, that type of problem now is a historical note. Mississippi today has become a pretty good place to live.
Finishing Wanda Place, I headed south on East Avenue, throwing papers first in the yard of Mansell and Jeanette Hill, friends of my parents. On the same side of the street was the home of a Mr. Roberts. I never realIy knew nzuch about him, except that his wife taught piano, and he was supposed to be a disabled veteran of either World Wat I or II. I know that he walked with a stiff leg and wore a hearing aid. His most famous claim to fame in my mind was the fact that he kept a horse in a stable in his back yard and would ride the horse down the street and around Broadmoor once or twice a week. Mr. Roberts was always impeccabIy dressed in those kind of riding pants, known as jodhpurs and sat straight as a ramrod in the saddle as he silently rode up and down the streets, a riding crop in one hand.
Then, it was on to throwing papers across the street into the yard of Gordon Allen of Allen Plumbing and to the yard of Jimmy McManus, the City Commissioner. Further down was the Mensi residence. Mr. Lawrence Mensi not only operated the Western Auto store on 25th Avenue south of the railroad track downtown, but he also seemed to have control of a bootleg whisky business in north Gulfport. When whisky was legalized the title over from World War II -was the President of Gulf National Bank. A few more throws to the Betheas and the Cowie's houses, and I turned left onto East Avenue, heading north to Wanda Place. In the early 507s, that was one of the places to live, as I
recall. It was a big circle, and I threw right and left as I entered the circle, turning to the east, and moving counter-clockwise around the circle. The first house on my right belonged to the Watkins. Mr. Bob Watkins was the son-in-law of Benny Keyes, one of the owners of Keyes-Watkins Cadillac Oldsmobile. Mrs. Betty Watkins was always
gracious on Saturday moinings when I was collecting by knocking on door after door after door.
The next house on the right was the home of Milton B. E. Hill, one of Gulfport's most prominent architects. His wife, Bena, and children, Harold, Donnie, Sandy and Gayle, were all popular in Gulfport as well as active members of the First Methodist Church, where my family were members also.
Then came the George Kennon, Sr. home. Mr. Kennon was an insurance agent. His son, George, was in my class, and George had two younger sisters as I recall. George, Jr. was a really smart kid, but never adjusted to life. When we were in college, he decided to end it all and killed himself when he was 18 or 19. The next house belonged to a family by the name of Kuykendall, as I recall. I don't remember much about them. Further down was the home of Dr. Gerald Wessler. Later in life, his son, Billy, a lawyer, became my first law clerk, when I became the U. S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi. Billy's sister, Janet, became a lawyer also, and his brother, Bobby, is a doctor in Gulfport.
The circle then swung back westward. on the corner was the Ellzey home. Mr. return trip. That, too, affected my "take" at the end of the week. After all, I was an "independent contractor" at age 13, and it was up to me to collect the funds due me. The office downtown at the paper disavowed any responsibility in making sure those folks paid. They just made sure that I knew I had to pay them each Saturday before noon. And I did.
Later, when I got the East Beach 3 route, I thought "now, I'm on Easy Street". The route was not as long as East 5. It was a shorter bike side to the starting point, and I finished earlier at the end of each day. Not that I looked forward to spending more hours studying, it was just less time throwing papers. By now, I had become very proficient in the operation of my bicycle on the paper route. With a canvas bag full of newspapers strapped to my handlebars, the papers being tightly rolled with rubber bands encircling them, I could pedal at top speed and toss papers with each hand. I felt Iike some cowboy, riding without holding the reins, since the way we paperboys tested our abilities one against the other was to see who could ride and toss papers without holding onto the handlebars. I could not only do it without holding onto handlebars, I could pedal the bike at high speed, tossing papers, standing up at the same time. I cannot believe I did that today, thinking back, but I did. I did it every day for a couple of years.
The East Beach 1,2 and 3 routes were the choice routes on the east side of town, at least to my way of thinking, and the boys with those routes now rolled papers not far from the Daily Herald plant. We met each afternoon at the old Gulfport Community House, which was on the site of what is now the Hanison County Library. It was on the way to the starting point of each of these routes. The Cornrnunity House was an old, dilapidated frame two-story building, with peeling white paint on the exterior wood . . Herald building downtown. The firm is the one started by Rae Bryant.
After another block, the street wound to the left, then back to the right. I never understood it, but in the curve, off to the right, was a gully where several banana trees grew. I don't know where they came from or why they prospered there, but they did, and they were in that old gully until the city filled it up and made it level. If you rode by today, that spot is on the East Side of the property where the funeral home is located.
As I turned onto the now straight part of Second Street, one of the first houses that I passed was the home of Sid Rice, the owner of Coast Roofing. Dr. E. E. Sheely and his family lived across the street. Woo Sheely, a stockbroker, grew up there, with his many siblings. A few houses further down was the home of Rimmer Simpson. Mr. Simpson ran Smith-Todd Hardware Iocated on the first floor of the Hewes Building. He was also a member of the Harrison County Board of Supervisors for many years. A few more houses and I passed the home of Chancellor WilIiam G. Hewes. Judge Hewes was a member of a prominent Gulfport pioneer family. His sons, Billy, Charlie and Andy, carry on that family tradition. The BayIor family lived next door to the Hewes, and the Heningtons lived next to them. The Scotts Iived across the street, next to the Charles Long family, who lived on the corner of Pratt Avenue and Second Street. One of Charlie and Gladys Long's two sons is Gordo Long, a Gulfport banker. My younger sister, Betty, and I went to school with all of their kids.
As I crossed Pratt Avenue, the Lamar Clark home sat on the northeast comer. The Clarks had three children, Lamar, Alan, and Sue. Alan, who is one year older than me, has also been a long time banker in Gulfport. Next to the Clarks was the home of former U. S. Senator Pat Harrison, who died in 1940. Mrs. Harrison lived in the home for many
Cleaners". However, it was closed by the time I was in junior high school, and Dr. McDonald, one of my Broadmoor subscribers, had built his pediatric medical clinic on the site.
On the northwest corner of Second Street and Thornton Avenue stood a two story tan stucco building. French's Drug Store, now located on the northeast comer of Courthouse and Pass Roads, was on the front of the first floor. After I gave up my paper route, I worked there for a year as a delivery boy and clerk, but that is another story.
Dr. C. C. McCall, a long-time Gulfport physician, had his office at the rear of that building. The second floor was divided into several apartments. The building was owned by an old friend -and fishing partner --of my father's, Mr. Willie Kite, whose home was on Thornton Avenue behind the building. Mr. Kite was a barber and plied his trade at the Triangle Barber Shop, which was next door to Anderson's Men's Wear on 14th Street in downtown Gulfport. He was quite good at woodworking. When I was about twelve, Mr. Kite made two fishing tackle boxes for my dad and me. They were made of solid lnahogany and had all sorts of slots for lures and places for storage for reels and other fishing stuff. I have used that fishing tackle box my entire life and passed my father's tackle box to my son, my dad's namesake.
On the southeast corner was East Ward School, which was where I attended elementary school, beginning the first grade in Miss Jane Huffs class in 1947. Back in those days, it seemed like the teachers spent their entire careers at one school. We received some of the best educations available at that level, I have always thought. Those women made such indelible impressions on me that I can still remember not only their names, but also what they looked like, as well as the basic things they stood for as older than I was, could attend the Gulfport public schools. Because of the high quality of the Gulfport school system in those days, more than a few families made arrangements to
have addresses in that area so their children could qualify for enrollment that district.
A couple of houses down from the Pringle home was the Jerome Barber house. Mr. Barber owned Barber's Hardware, which was on the comer of 13IhStreet and 27th Avenue in downtown Gulfport, across from the Legion Theater. The Barbers had two daughters, Vicky and Joyce. Their house was directly across the street from East Side Park, a city park with lots of swing sets, slides and metal merry-go-rounds for little kids in the neighborhood. It also boasted a concrete tennis court, and a large athletic field. That was where the East Ward Pee Wee football team always practiced. At the back of the park were two old buildings. One was used for the area's Girl Scout troop, the other
for the Boy Scouts.
A street ran along the east side of the park and on the corner across from the park, but on the same side of Second Street was the James Baxley home. Mrs. Ethelyn Baxley, a widow, taught Speech at Gulfport High School, but her main claim to fame was as the long-time director of plays in the community. She directed darned near every play that came out of the Gulfport Little Theater in the 1950's, I think. She also directed all of the Junior and Senior class pIays at the high school. Mrs. Baxley's daughter, Faye and her husband, Jim Kizzire, lived there also, with their two children. Mr. Kizzire worked for the Power Company. Next to them lived Mrs. Nina West, one of the first women realtors in the area.
Moving steadily eastward, I passed the home of Bob and Maybelle Heard, who were friends of my parents. Mr. Heard was retired from the Department of Agriculture, 7 northeast corner of Second Street and Kelley. Jack Thompson, the long-time president of Stewart-Sneed-Hewes, Inc. before his death, grew up there, as did his older brother, Tommy, another prominent Gulfport lawyer. I threw a paper across the street onto the Porter's front stoop, then turned the corner and headed toward the beach and threw a paper into the front yard of the home of Charles Galloway. Mr. Galloway was also a highly respected lawyer in town and was one of James Eaton's law partners. The other partner was David Cottrell, who lived further down Second Street on Bert Avenue. In later years, Mr. Galloway's three sons, Bob, Jim and John became lawyers, joining their dad in the firm. Swinging my bike around, I tossed a paper into the back driveway of the home of Donald Sutter, who was a senior vice-president at Hancock Bank. The next house on the east side of Kelley was the home of Dr. Cotton, a dentist in town.
A paper hit the front yard on the comer in the Rogers' yard, as I turned back onto Second Street and pedaled east again, then tossing a paper into the Holcomb's front yard across the street. Chuck Holcornb ran the Chemfax plant out north of town. The Holcombs had three daughters, Christine, Peggy and Marcia. Marcia was in my class and the other girls were older. They were easily some of the prettiest girIs in Gulfport.
Papers then were thrown into the yards of the Fullers, the Pooles, Mrs. Kremer -the widow of the owner of Kremer Marine -,the Frankes, Smiths, Hagers and Meadows. Paul Franke and his sister, Catherine, known as Chee-Chee, grew up there. Billy Meadows, a lawyer who also was the mayor of Gulfport -and my Pee-Wee footbaII coach back in elementary school, lived in the house on the northwest corner of Second Street and Jones Avenue with his family.
Turning north onto Jones, I threw Mrs. Wallace's paper onto her stoop, then tumed onto Third Street and headed west for a few houses. It ran along the southern boundary of the L & N Railroad track, the homes there facing the track from the opposite side of the street. Paul Lacy, one of the clerks at Jones Brothers Drug Store, lived there.
Tossing papers, I turned around and headed to Jones and back to Second Street where I headed east, tossing papers into the yards of Vic and Margie Daniel, the Harold Barbers, and the Jim Causeys. Vic Daniel worked in the ranks of the Mississippi Power Company at that time, but would later become its President.
I turned south onto Olive Avenue, which was only one block long, and headed toward the beach, tossing papers as I went. Just before I got to the home of Jason Harry, the Chevrolet-Buick dealer, which was on the corner of Olive, facing the beach, I tumed left into an alley. Then, I pedaled along for one block, tossing papers into the back porches of houses, facing the beach, then onto Bert Avenue, where I tumed left, heading back to Second Street. There was one house on the right hand side, that of Dave Cottrell, the lawyer. Then it was back onto Second Street, where Miss May Garner lived on the corner of Bert and Second. Her paper landed squarely on her front stoop each day. My arm could hit it every time. Papers then successiveIy hit the yards of Mrs. Berry, a widow, Mrs. Martin -who lived with her spinster daughter on the southwest crner of Second and Bert, and the Zeiglers. Ed Zeigler was the Federal Probation Officer for the Southern District of Mississippi.
Our fanlily lived next door. To the east of our house lived the Hersingers. Jim Hersinger was the manager of the J. C. Penney Store on 26th Avenue in downtown Gulfport. Across the street lived Dr. R. I. Bradford, a dentist, who was now disabled by a stroke, and his wife, Francis, my 8th grade English teacher. and small neighborhood grocery. Miss Caudie Fail lived there and operated the grocery. I turned up Roberts, tossing papers up to the Hutto house, which was just before the railroad track. There, I crossed the track and headed west on Railroad Street. This was the easiest part of the route since the L & N Railroad ran east and west through that area, and there were no houses to my left. There were only those on the right. I threw steadily for a block, when I reached the intersection of Railroad and Gulf Avenue, where Railroad Street Grocery was located on the northwest corner. If it was warm weather, occasionally. I stopped there, paid my nickel and pulIed out a cold Coke or a Nesbit Orange from the old drink box before heading on.
Next came the homes of the Latimers and the Calcotes. Their families both included children who attended school with me, in different grades, however.
I picked up speed at this point, tossing paper after paper, until I passed the home of Dot and George Leggett, who lived next door to the Fire Station, where I looped into the driveway and tossed a paper inside for the firemen. Then, it was to the corner of Jones Avenue where I turned right still tossing and finally swung around, returning to Railroad Street, a final toss on Jones Avenue across the white picket fence into the yard of English Lindsey, a local lawyer. One of Mr. Lindsey's sons, Crockett, foIlowed him into the practice and is now an assistant U. S. Attorney.
I had only one more block to go. The first house was the home of Gordon Redd, then starting a business, which became Redd Pest Control, later one of the largest home pest control companies in Mississippi and surrounding states. Two more houses, and I could call it a day. I ended the route at the corner of Railroad and Kelley Avenue, where an automotive garage was located on the northeast corner. There, I headed south on . . . gleaming white columns on the front. On the land now occupied by the Holiday Inn was the home of Allen Kerr, a realtor and Dutch Amsler and others. Further to the east, I passed the homes of the Joe Perusses, the Halat family, the John L. Savages, and Dr. Vickery before reaching Thornton Avenue. Then, I rode by the homes of Roy and Anna Staton, Salvatore Bertucci, Jack Hatten, Emile Koury, Harnp Hatten and Owen Palmer. Crossing the boulevard, I passed the homes of Fred Hewes, Bob Milner, Lawrence Fabacher and the two large homes of the Salloum families. Crossing Kelley Avenue, it was two more blocks before I turned north on Bert Avenue where the Letcher home sat on the northeast corner to head home.
If I had continued on east, I would have passed the beautiful home of the Joseph Fasold family, then the Berrys, and Dr. McWilliams' tan Mediterranean-style tan stucco home on the corner of Gulf Avenue and the beach. Next to the McWillianls' was the Mosley home where my father grew up. His mother, Eliza Booth Roberts, a widow and schoolteacher, was the sister of Ada Booth Mosley, also a widow, and the two sisters shared the house and expenses while raising their children there in the 1920's and 1930's. Past the next house of former Mayor Milner -now Grasslawn, came the homes of Vassar Anderson, Bidwell Adams, George and Mildred Taylor and Finley Hewes, who was nicknamed "Goat". Dr. Tom Hewes, his nephew, now lives there.
Across Hewes Avenue on the comer was the home of Walter White, then Wade Hatten's, where the Werby family now Iives, and further east were the homes of Henry Sneed, Tom Clower, Dr. Archie Hewes and Walter Stewart, a vice-president with Hancock Bank. At the end of that row of memorable homes, just before the west boundary fence of the Veterans' Administration Hospital, was the two-story stucco home of Clayton Rand.
The east boundary fence of the V. A. Hospital had a road sign beside it: "Gulfport City Limits", which was where the eastern reaches of our town terminated in those days, and the community of Mississippi City began.
Gulfport was a wonderful place for a kid to grow up in during the 1950's. It is very different today, and unfortunately, I cannot relate to today's community. Downtown Gulfport is a shell of what has been described. With the new casinos, the population explosion, and the new people in the community -it's just different.
Most of the people in the generation above me who I mentioned here are either long gone -or their children have left the area -so it is difficult for many current residents of the Gulf Coast to relate to this story. Except perhaps, for people like Betsy Rouse Matthews and her brother, Mac Rouse, or Marcia Holcomb Robinson or Linda Hoff or Johnny Hatten or Billy and Charlie Hewes or Lydia Sallourn Werby and her cousins, Joe and Richard Salloum, or Paul Franke, or Ruthie Taylor Murdock or George Schloegel and his wife, Peggy -all of whom still live in the area. A few, such as Mac Rouse, Ruthie Murdock and Joe Sallourn, still live in their family homes.
To tell the truth, while I may sound like an old fogey and admit to being prejudiced, I believe that the 1950's and 1960's were the best times in Gulfport's history!
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