Growing up, our area was called “the Woodstock neighborhood”.  It was where we lived, played and loved.  We loved our area. At the time we lived there, the houses were middle to low income type homes. When my parents purchased the home it was new and was located in the Woodstock Park area of Jacksonville, Florida.

The war had ended and with so many soldiers coming home, the Jacksonville market was flooded with young soldiers and their families looking for places to live. This neighbourhood was new and houses were going fast.

Daddy tells the story that the two of them went on a bus to look at the homes. They walked the neighbourhood and returned to the sales office with one picked out. When they put down the money to purchase it, the sales agent told them that house had just been sold. They were disappointed and as they went to leave, he called them back to look on the house map. He said there was one home left without a deposit and they could have it but it would be best to put the money down so as to guarantee the sale. They bought the house sight unseen.

2685 Lowell Avenue was a 3 br, 1 ba wooden house with a stand-alone garage. It had a century oak by the drive way and “quite beautiful”, my Dad said. We lived in that home until I was about 7. My parents purchased a 10 acre lot on Crystal Springs Road where they built a house and moved the family.

Going back over into “the neighborhood”, it seems so small and I hate to say it but old, dirty and run down.  Places change…

Back in the day, it was new, clean and lovely.  I remember that huge and I mean yuge oak tree by the drive, It’s no longer there either. Things change.

    In my childhood, it was shade and beautiful and… too big to even climb.

See you tomorrow,