OUR HOME AT 510 SOUTH MAIN STREET

Mama and Daddy lived on Second Street in Sunset Park, south of downtown Wildwood. I was born at home at 12:025 AM on April Fools Day 1938. Here is a picture of that house in 2017. It looks the same as when I was born there, except for the jalousie windows.

Joel Atkinson’s grandparents, Elsa and William Akins, lived in this house while we were in Wildwood. Joel and his family lived next door.

Daddy’s brother Emory Harrison lived across the Second Street with Aunt Kathryn, Mary Neena and Thomas Carlton.

Daddy contracted with Mr. White to build the 3-bedroom concrete block 1 1/2 story home on Main Street, a block away from where I was born. He filed invoices and checks with details of the cost of materials and labor on a wire spindle in the living room closet. I searched for them for years after Daddy died. They were found by a subsequent owner of the property in a plastic bag in the attic, sometime in the 2000s. I scanned and recorded samples of the invoices and the canceled checks below. It appears most of the lumber, nails and other materials were purchased from Hester’s Incorporated in Wildwood, Marion Hardware in Ocala, Sears and various other suppliers around Central Florida. Some portion of the lumber was bought, rough-sawn, from a lumber mill west of Wildwood. Daddy told me he spent a total of $3,000 or $, 4,000 on our concrete block home. I could come close to verifying the number if I added up l the canceled checks’ and invoices. Only a few of the records are unreadable (I am sure they are all there -Daddy and Mama were meticulous record-keepers). Maybe I’ll do that one day.

Daddy loved to show off the attic access in our home – the Disappearing Staircase.