Beach Parties and Other Memories – Briny 1963

Briny Breezes 1963-1964 Beach Parties and Other Memories

by Fred House

The parties we held there on the beach, every weekend, were legendary.

The Grannis family, Lindy and Ellen, Don their father, actually they lived just north of Briny, Ken Varcoe and his mother Joyce. If anyone knows how to get in touch with Joyce let me know. Ken died many years ago.

Chellie Long (Varcoe) was my best friend for many years, I’ve lost track of her and hope Joyce knows where she is. Chellie had the house on the beach at the end of Bellaire Drove – now a State Park.

Next door to Chellie was a real Russian Princess. I had my first taste of caviar there. Greg Kessman, my best friend in Briny, Bob Samuelson, Ron Heavyside, his parents opened a TV repair that eventually became Nomad Surfboards.

Smitty, who lived on A row, his mother Mary Smith was a good artist, I have a painting of the Briny Marina by her. Smitty lived two doors down in a screened in room of an empty trailer. We spent many an evening with him playing guitar and he and I singing folk songs..

Speaking of folk music, 1963 was near the end of the beatnik movement, but in Ft. Lauderdale there was a coffee shop for beats just past the tunnel. SoChellie, Ken, Linda Lanier and I would hop in Linda’s T-Bird and drive down there. This was my trip to the library to study. We would sit and listen to bad poetry,  bad bongo’s, sip stong and bad expresso, and snap our fingers instead of clapping. Oh yeah we were hip alright.

Since the library closed around 9:30 I would start begging my friends to leave. They didn’t have a curfew, but I did. 10 pm. So around ten to ten we’d take off. There was one stoplight between Lauderdale and Delray and no traffic, so we’d do 90 all the way home. I’d stroll in at ten or so. If I was ever asked to describe the interior of the library I couldn’t do it, never stepped foot in the place! Such innocent fun.

That ended in 64 with the British invasion, a cultural earthquake. I think my class of ’65 was the last ‘innocent’ class. We didn’t have drugs yet… that came in late 65-66- lol.

My best friend Jack Blair and I bought a bag of pot from a ‘friend’ to try it out, the summer after our graduation. My parents were gone so we sat at F208 and smoked most of the bag. It tasted like pizza was our only reaction. We found out later it was oregano. Some friend. I coughed for 6 months which delayed my actual first experience with pot.

One day a few of us were surfing, it was a windy and rough day. My mother had come up to watch us, when we heard cries for help. I paddled to shore and went up the rise to see out to sea. A sailboat had capsized a ways out, maybe a half mile or so, and two men were clinging to the hull. I wanted to paddle out and my mother kept saying no.

Finally a guy next to us, about age 20,  told her to relax. He said that he would make sure that  I was okay. So out we paddled. He fell quite a bit behind.  I put both guys on my board and swam, pushing them to shore.

By now my ‘savior’ was in trouble as well and quite a ways out so I turned around and rescued him too. I had to laugh at my moms reaction. She told him thanks a lot for nothing.

In the paper the next day the guys I rescued said they didn’t really need rescuing, they were fine. Hmm, not what they told me at the time. They were very happy to see me then.

Well I realize I’ve left off a name or two..first Claire Ohland–any ‘kid’ who lived in Briny in the early 60′s will remember her mom, who taught us Sunday school.

Nelson Littlefield, his parents and brother Dana were long time Briny residents. Many people who now live in Briny know Dana from his beauty shop in Boynton.

Susie Gustis, her parents owned the grocery store in Briny.

Billy Cobb and his sister Gayle I think..their grandparents lived behind us E-207, and once in a while brought out a big pot, boiled oil and made donuts. My goodness the smell alone drove me crazy. They were very generous and shared with many neighbors.

One fond memory I have is of the square dances. They ran dances for the young kids and we had a ball. Live callers, dosado, left allemande, promenade home..as I recall Briny square dancers were very good, both the adults and the kids. I vaguely recall traveling to other square dances?

When we first moved into Briny there were no phone lines so to reach us people had to call the office. “Evelyn House your daughter is calling long distance”. My mom would hop on her bike and ride like mad to the office, after all it wasn’t cheap and sitting on hold was even more expensive. She would come back all excited and most of the day friends would ride by to find out the latest news. How was my sister, how were my mom’s grandkids, etc. Very little privacy in those days, of course none was needed. Soon they added the bells, which I hated. Eventually the park was wired for phones and a certain charm was lost.

In those early days people either rode a bike around, or a few, like Ralph Samuelson, rode small motorcycles or Vespa scooters. In fact my first motorcycle was a Tahatsu 90 cc bike my dad bought from Ralph. I remember Ken Varcoe had a moped, a bike with a motor. He had to peddle up to a certain speed, then it would start. Top speed about 20. Mine went about 60 top end. In those early days with no air conditioning, people spent a lot of time sitting outdoors on their patios, so biking around and visiting was a big pastime.

As was sitting on a bench at the beach, enjoying the ocean breezes. I still love the sound of the ocean at night. Another great memory is the smell of gardenias, at night, riding my bike around. I have a gardenia bush outside my bedroom here in Mexico and often think of Briny when it’s blooming. We had one in back of our driveway on F208 that was over 7 feet tall. I wonder if it is still there? My mom had an extra bit of land next to the driveway and cultivated rose bushes there. My sister’s duty whenever she visited was pruning, fertilizing, etc. I guess I did the same when she wasn’t around. I still enjoy roses and have a few in my garden here.

When the news of the proposed sale hit CNN I was in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico, my usual home in the winter, some good friends from San Miguel had rented a place there and we went out for dinner. The hostess knew me well, and as she seated us made a comment like ‘did you hear about the trailer park in Florida that is selling for 510 million dollars?’. I replied that yes I’d heard, it broke my heart and I needed a double margarita fast. She and my friends looked at me funny and laughed. Some joke. I told them I lost a million dollars that day, because I’d grown up in Briny, and had sold in the 90′s. It took some fast talking and a few descriptions of Briny before they believed me. My drinks were on the house that night!

I lived in Palm Beach for many years, another story, however I never forgot my roots. I told any and all that I had grown up in a mobile home…. 14 bedrooms of course.