Fishing Boxes in Jacksonville

“Back-In’the Day”

‘Crazy, but I do not remember the man’s name.    He lived at the South end of Milson Road, off of Crystal Springs on the Westside. Milson was and still is a dirt road and very much in the country.  Now a days it is still a single lane dirt road but the city has definitely come to the area including large subdivisions nearby.   His home was just behind our 10 acres.  He provided fish boxes for the fisheries in the Duval County area.  

When I was about nine or ten a bunch of us kids would go to this house and nail together fish boxes. The side strips and ends were already cut and all we would do is line up the sides and two ends and nail it together, stack it and begin a new.

The old man needed the help and we loved the change.  It would be used to go to Anderson’s Dairy on the Northeast side of Crystal Springs  Road to buy a honey bun and a coke. So, I guess my first job was a fish box nailer. 

The old place is pretty much gone now but as I rode past there recently, all of those memories of learning how to nail together fish boxes came rushing back.  The remembrance of the heat, hitting my finger with a hammer and then the happiness of getting paid for such, rushed back.

Jacksonville, being on the St. Johns River and having the beaches has always been a huge industry for fishing.  The United States Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service put out a circular in 1963 called “The Annual Report of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological laboratory”.  It highlighted programs such as “The Blue Crab” program, “Sampling the Catch” program, “Florida Studies, St. Johns River” and more.  This business helped meet the needs for those in this important business.  

Those were the days, blue finger nails and all.

See you tomorrow.