family – Jacksonville Blogger

Papa’s House After it Sold

It was the first time after the sale that I had visited the old home place of my Father’s parents in South Carolina. So many of my childhood memories are still there. The precious home-going service of my cousin, Judy, in Ridgeland, SC had been held not too far from my Father’s childhood home so I decided to just ride on over to see what had happened to it since the sale only last year. It was an approximate 52 acre farm with a large old wooden home and many out-buildings. The lane was important to all family members as it was a place we all walked and talked thereby catching up with the family news all of our lives. The old sugar cane mill, Papa’s blacksmith shop, the chicken coop and more was along that grassy lane so we spent a good many hours looking, walking and talking along that way for as long as it was owned by the family. It was a Century Farm so many family members walked many a mile along that family land over the years.

Driving by, the old wooden 6 bedroom shotgun house could now be fully seen from the road; something not done for many years due to the overgrown shrubs and trees. The old fence at the front was gone and there was a big fire going in the front by one of the huge old oak trees. Upon careful stares, chainsaws and other lawn equipment could be seen laying spaced out on the grounds. It was obvious to see someone was there and quite busy. I pulled in behind a big white truck.

Walking past the blazing fire, I went to the double wide, where my Aunt Urbanna once lived, left of the old home place, and knocked on the door as I yelled, “Anyone home?”. I didn’t want to be shot traipsing on my own Grandfather’s land so I thought I should announce my intentions right away. These are country woods so stragglers may not be welcome depending on who bought the property. I didn’t know.

Walking past the front windows, the pitter patter of little feet tromping on the wood-front porch could be heard and when the boy opened the door the approximately aged 5 year old said, when I asked if Mom and Dad was here, “I don’t know where he is but my dads’s out there working”.

Being anxious to get back to Jacksonville and I hadn’t really had plans to stop but It could not be helped. I just could not just drive on by without getting one last look at the home before leaving the area, the land and the lane. The lane was a treasured spot to all family members so I went out there first to find his dad.

Actually, a lot had already changed in less than a years time of the place being sold. The large fire in the front yard had a huge oak trunk about 5 feet long and was roaring so whoever bought the land would use that method to clear the lot. So many of the gardenias, milkweed and red ink plant had been trimmed producing beautiful flowers again. The old fence where Pat and Rose, Papa’s mules so often stood was gone and the gate leaning. Along the lane, the out-buildings were caved in. Now, that hardy planed timber will be some good fire wood. I’m happy to say, my cousin, Charlotte allowed us to take a few items from the property and one treasure was to take with me a 10 foot old wooden barn door which will be used on my Dad’s Dad’s property very soon.

Walking along the land, I took a handful of photos with my cell phone and all along the way yelled, “Anyone here. Anyone here?” After a good walk down the land, I went on back to my car and drove past the land and acreage once filled with corn, tobacco, green beans, squash and more. I hugged one tree on the property left for my Dad which I’ll leave for my own children. My Dad moved to Jacksonville, Fl after WWII but still had roots in SC where his portion is still a Century Farm.

It was a good day on the family farm in Hampton, South Carolina.

See you tomorrow,

Nan

2-3-2024

Category: Family, History | Comments Off

January 13

Three Miracles Already in This New Year

Two things and then three miracles. I don’t know how God works but wow and you’re just not going to want to believe these stories but you decide. Here goes in order.

First, our Dad’s home was built in the 1960’s. As a result, everything is not “code”. It’s not perfect, first because my Dad built it and he in himself worked outside of the box. (Literally in this case.) This week, there was water outside of the home in an unusual place thus the problem was a need to have the septic tank pumped which was promptly done. When the guy came to pump it, he told me the septic tank should not be this close to the house, that people should not ride over the drain field and that a new lid was needed. I explained that because we recently had a barn built and had to pull a permit that they “grandfathered” the septic tank in due to the situation and it was approved having worked well for over 60 years. Over time, we knew that regardless, we would certainly do what we could to upgrade so we immediately squared off wood 28 ‘’ x 35” and bought the cement for creating a new septic tank lid including rebar to secure safety. Meanwhile, since all of the walkway brick had been pulled up, the guests in the apartment needed a nice and most importantly, safe walkway for coming in and out. The day of the clean-out, we put a temporary entrance but I was not satisfied regarding safety so in the next days there were plans to make a safer and more sturdy walkway.

After leaving the house, and while taking home a worker, I was driving and saw a large piece of about 4 inch in thickness wood on the side of the road. It was a really nice walkway about 4 x 6 feet in size. A mental note was made of its location but I was tired and still had to take the worker to his home so on I went. After dropping him off with it raining and me being totally exhausted, I almost did not go back to look at the walkway but instead forced myself to go return… Good thing too. The walkway was going to be perfect. In the rain, it was heaved-ho into the back of the truck. Miracle # 1.

That same day, after leaving my daughter and son-in-laws home, I saw a nice table on the side of the road. It was too heavy for me to lift so I asked my kids to drop by on their way out and help me get it. While we were there, the worker who was riding with them was looking through the other items left and grabbed a small drawer. They came with me to the barn where we would off-load the table. I said in passing that I had lost the key to my riding lawn mower. The worker said, “Hey, I found a little drawer on the side of the road today. It has keys in it. Maybe one will fit your lawn mower. He tried the first and then the second, the third and in a total shock, the fourth key turned the lights on and then cranked the Craftsman riding lawn mower. The odds? Miracle # 2

I’m sorry to say, but this worker has not been honest and has stolen a circular saw, drill and battery, and a metal cutting saw from us. We, even he is well-aware of the whole debacle but we have needed his help and after discussions have kept him while being on the watch of his behaviours. When he cranked the lawn mower, and found a key that worked, he handed over a key to me. Naturally, I was in such shock that it fit, I had to try it myself. The key did not work. He had given me a key that did not crank the mower. In hind-sight, was it so he could later come remove the lawn mower or an accident? I say the latter but… you decide but in our mind it was “Miracle # 3” that the key was tried and found not working so that success could occur later and the lawn mower not be stolen.

How does God work? BTW, we’re trying to help the worker find God so maybe there will be a Miracle # 4. Pray with us.

See you tomorrow,

Nan

Category: Faith, Family, Random Posts | Comments Off

June 30

Jacksonville; Our Fair City

I love, love, love this city. Being born here in Jacksonville, Florida and living my entire life here except for my short time in college at Florida State University and a month with my sister in Hepzibah, Georgia, I know nothing else. I’ve enjoyed traveling to different and various places, visited the Queen and now King in London but there is nowhere I’d rather be than in this beautiful city of Duval County with its St. John’s River and magnificent trees such as highlighted on the Southbank at the Treaty Oak site.

My church is here where I love to serve. My immediate family is here and with that, I am set for life.

See you tomorrow,

Nan

Category: Faith, Family, History | Comments Off

November 22

The Gas Tank That Didn’t Detonate. But Why?

According to “Foster Fuels . Com” propane can heat up in as little as 20 minutes and the gas in it never expires. So, why in the world did the propane tank that when shaken leveraged itself as if it had a great amount of liquid but did not go capooey when it was in the blazing fire of July 2022 pool burn? Grace of God? We honestly think so.I’ve always told my children they are worth a million to me and I certainly stand by that.

First of all, we did not realize the tank was in the deep part of the 20 x 40 swimming pool that we were about the use for an incinerator. We had been clearing the family property and had used the 3 foot area to burn limbs, brush and small items. At some point, the tree limbs became bigger and more so we extended the burn toward the 6 foot end of the brick pool.

It would seem that with the amount of heat surrounding the old 1960’s gas propane tank that it would have gone “Capooey” and more than likely no one would be able to really tell this story because it could not have been explained.

Who even knew the tank was at the bottom of the pool? How did it get there? Who put it there and how long ago had it found it’s home at the bottom? We do not know the answers to those questions. What we do know is that after that July day’s burn, we looked the next day to see what had been accomplished and to our surprise, our lives had all been spared from an explosion. The tank was half buried in the wall of a sand pile near the bottom of the old brick swimming pool and still in tact. While it looked burned and charred, it was whole and leaning.

Propane was basically founded around the 1850’s by chemist Dr. Edmond Ronalds. By 1920, the old Ford Model T began leaking and the vapours brought about the possible uses of this volatile gas called propane, thus becoming a mainstay in the home and by 1927 came the first gas-powered cooking appliances.

The industry today is valued in worth at $34.2 billion. To us, this failure of this tank not to blow up is certainly a miracle in our mind and worth a million, per person in lives. We’re thankful today for God’s grace. We can’t answer why that either, except for by His goodness.

See you tomorrow,

Category: Faith, Family | LEAVE A COMMENT

November 21

Scrap Metal From Some 60 Years Collecting

If you’ve been following along, you know that our family has spent from January of 2022 until the November wedding preparing the property for over 100 guests. Twenty benches were built by Buddy, our family friend to accommodate as many as 120 people. We expected about 100.

From start to finish and yes, even until the last day and since, we have found scrap metal pieces on the property. It began with the demolition of the barn which had been built in the 1960’s and filled often with “stuff”. From there to the pole barn, the camper, the burn piles to the general junk areas, scrap was removed and either hauled to the road ( 23 loads at the most recent count) or given to scrappers literally coming and hauling away pounds and pounds of scrap.

One scrapper hauled away at least 15 heavy galvanized car jacks along with tubs, basins, an auto transmission and more.

In the night of the wedding, we were folding the white curtains we had placed as a back drop on the barn and attached to the fold was a piece of scrap metal hanging by a thread. We all had to laugh.

See you tomorrow,

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November 16

The Day the Tractor Disappeared Under Ground

In 2022, our family was deep, (no pun indended) into having my Father and Mother’s property cleared and prepared to host a wedding for Kristie, our youngest daughter. To do this, huge trees were removed and pushed to the back of the property where the massive roots were put on a fire in hopes to clear the land without the expense of removal. The weight and massive size of the trees would have cost a great deal to haul away so we tried burning to save. The biggest problem was the huge tree logs and roots were fresh wood and not easily burned. In addition, we went through a rainy season which kept the wood damp. When push finally came to shove, and our time was getting short before the wedding, we hired a young guy who had a new Kubota tractor. Boom! Done in a matter of minutes.

Ronnie, Kristie’s Dad videod the whole event and in the video showed this young forester, literally disappearing into the ground digging out a hole big enough to put 3 gigantic roots weighing thousands of pounds. The roots were almost as big as the equipment he was driving but he had no trouble digging out that dungeon and pulling in those massive pieces of wood, then covering them with a smooth surface.

He was on the property about 2 hours for which his payment would be $500. In that time, he spread a full truck load of number 57 rock, disappeared into the hole numerous times, leaving us with a walkway between the chapel and barn and a parking lot with a smooth surface of dirt for which to plant grass.

His disappearing act was exactly what was needed to prepare our grounds to host a perfect wedding and yes, we had that wedding.

See you tomorrow,

Category: Family, Transportation | LEAVE A COMMENT

September 5

Mother

Geneva Kathryn Long Vaughan was born October 20th, 1924. She was born on the South Carolina home place and grew up in that tiny Estill town which is considered the Deep South. She was a twin with Geneer Long Thompson and her older brother and sister, Dennis and Dorris were twins as well. Too, their grandfathers on the Long side were twins and their brothers were twins so there were 2 sets of twins in both of those Long families. These twins have been known in the area as the “Famous Long Twins”.

My Mother was the older of the two twins. The two were completely focussed on being together and spending their lives devoted. Even into their adult years dressed alike and stayed close in their relationship.

Geneva, my Mom died at the young age of 49 of a brain tumor. What a tragedy to our family at any age but 49 was just too early to be taken. As a young person in Estill, she worked in the local drug store owned by her Aunt and Uncle. She graduated from Estill High School and attended Nixville Baptist Church. Her father was a farmer and her mother a housewife.

Somewhere around 1943, she met my Father, Alec P. Vaughan, Jr. at the Sandy Run Baptist Church. They had a Baptist Association meeting and my Father was serving as a seater. He seated my Mother and her sister to a bench on the front row. This caused a great deal of fuss and from there, they began to get to know one another.

World War II was raging and my Father was drafted into the Army where he went abroad. Times were hard and through a turn of events, my mother’s dad needed work and found it in Jacksonville, Florida at the shipyards. The family moved to Duval County while my Father was over seas in the war.

When the war ended, he came home by way of Florida’s Camp Blanding where my mother met him. They were married in December of that same year and have lived in Jacksonville, Florida until their deaths. In 1974 and 2015 respectively.

My Mother was, in my eyes a beauty. She had big and full brown hair, sky blue eyes and a wide and happy smile. Her voice and actions were sweet. She was a nurse, not certified but sweetified to be one and spent her working days helping others feel better. Mama was kind-hearted and tender.

She went to be with the Lord on this day. She is still miss her.

See you tomorrow,

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August 26

Never a Dull Moment-

So, we were all minding our business working on my Dad and Mom’s property when the fire truck roared up the street. It got closer and closer and soon “Sargent(3) screamed, “Fire truck! Fire truck!” Then Vaughan (3) yelled, “Fire truck. Fire truck”. Then Ramey said “Hey, it’s here!” “It’s right here!” We looked into the parking lot at the neighboring church and there she sat with bells, whistles, and lights a flashing. Out jumped 3 firemen rushing over to us asking if everything was ok.

Yes, everything was ok. We had made sure all precautions were considered and followed through.

We had been burning the old tree limbs, brush and logs getting ready for someone to come scrape the property on Monday.

Ronnie(PawPaw) showed them the dirt path made around the fire and they asked to see a water hose which he had. They asked us to be careful and put out the blaze as quickly as we could, then off they roared.

It was a banner day for the boys to see the fire truck so closely and relate it to a real fire.

See you tomorrow,

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August 13

“Love, Love”

Our family is originally from the low country, South Carolina. They were from a family of farmers, living off of the land, and worshipping God in a tiny wooden church in the back woods of Estill. For the most part, family members were both their friends and relatives. They could hardly see the shadow of their neighbor’s homes due to the distance from property to property. These working people planted their own seeds, worked the land and enjoyed the harvest.

My Mother, Geneva, passed away in 1974 leaving her siblings, Dorris, Dennis and twin sister, Geneer behind. After the loss of my Mother’s twin; Geneer, over 20 years later, her daughter, my “twin cousin” sent a few things found among her belongings:

The funeral home information for my Mother’s Mother, Lula Hoover Long-

A poem read by Pastor King at my Mother’s funeral-

Tatting for a pillow or pillow case done by my Grandmother, Lula-

“Love, Love”, as our family saying would go.

See you tomorrow,

Oh, and just for the sake of Jacksonville history… My Grandparents, Clifford and Lula Long came to Jacksonville in the 1940’s. They lived first on Aberdeen Street in Riverside and then bought a home on Fitzgerald Street in the Lackawana area. 8-13-22

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August 12

The Tree Trunk

As I’ve been saying, there are many trees on our parent’s property. With that and trying to make changes, some have had to come down. While we’ve tried to get up most roots, some are in places that digging is not a good idea so we’ve had to improvise.

As you perhaps are ( or not?), you may see things on the side of the road and think…”I could do this or that with that piece”. If you’re like me, you heave-ho it onto the back of your truck or in the trunk of your car and off you go. That’s me.

I push, shove, grunt and groan to get whatever it is onto my truck bed, tie it down and off I go. When I get where I’m going, I figure out a way to use it. Such was the case for this slay bed that I found some months ago.

With the help of a friend, it is now a birdhouse slash tree trunk cover. I’m just waiting for a bird family. I already have lizards occupying it.

See you tomorrow,

Category: Family, Flora and Fauna, Random Posts | LEAVE A COMMENT