John Appleyard's column about the 1931 Pensacola Bay Bridge brought back memories from my childhood. My daddy loved beach trips, so we went often. I vividly remember crossing that two lane Bay Bridge, which was much lower and narrower than the 1960 bridge we cross these days. It also had rail type sides, which meant I could better see the waves we were passing. (Did I mention those waves were very close to the car I was riding in?) Most of the time I didn't see the waves because I was in the floorboard with my eyes closed.
I did enjoy the beach after we got across the bridges. We usually took up residence in a picnic shelter at Quietwater beach, ate well, and played in the sand and water. Daddy and his good friend, D.C. Diamond, always had more fun than the kids. One favorite memory is of the day Daddy and D.C. decided to see how deep they could put the end of the water hose in the sand. The picnic shelters had a faucet on one end. I don't remember if they took their own hose or if there happened to be a hose already hooked to the faucet when we got there. Did you know that if you run water through a hose placed nozzle down into a soft enough ground surface it will drill its way down into the ground. Also, when you turn the water off the hose is extremely hard to pull out.
We were seldom allowed to go to the Gulf side of the island. For most of 1960 (the year the new – now old – bridge opened) I was 10 years old. Ten years and younger was not considered old enough to challenge the Gulf waves, at least in the consideration of my parents. My older brother and his friends (We carried quite a few people to a car load in those pre-seatbelt days.) were usually allowed a trip across the island to the Gulf. They had to walk across and back.
There was plenty to do at Quietwater Beach. Mamma and Myrtle Lee Diamond brought plenty of fried chicken, potato salad and all the other necessities, so we had plenty to eat. There was plenty of sand for digging and for building sand castles. Right in front of our picnic shelter, after a short walk through the sand, was water that was shallow enough to be safe for us short people to swim and wade in. There were bicycles to rent, including at least one bicycle built for two.
If you were transported back to pre-1960 Pensacola Beach, you wouldn't recognize it. There were no restaurants, no high rises and way fewer roadways and parking lots. There were a few small, one story concrete block houses, bath houses at Quietwater Beach and Casino Beach (not that I saw Casino Beach until years later) and one or two small stores, also in concrete block buildings. People going to the beach for the day took what they would need.
I'm feeling old, knowing I will soon be driving on the third bridge connecting Pensacola and Gulf Breeze. I do enjoy the memories of beach trips of the past.
The next ASHS meeting will be Tuesday, August 21st at 6 pm in the Leach House Museum 4th and Jefferson in Century. Join us if you can.
