Missing Old St. Joe: What Was it Like When We Were Kids?
While I now think of St. Joe as a summer tourist hot spot and winter dead spot, our little town on the beach was all I knew growing up. For everyone who grew up here, and those who missed out, let me take you on a trip down memory lane starting with elementary school.
First, we met our teachers before school started at the ice cream social. Once school started up, we’d have Math Center on Wednesdays, those sit down scooters in gym class, Sarrett field trips, and that multicolor parachute thing we hid under, all working together to make each day fun. Honestly, everything just seemed so much more exciting.
The day before winter break, everyone would make gingerbread houses, drink hot chocolate, play in the big snow hills made by the plows during recess, and watch “The Grinch” or “Polar Express.” Now, that’s all I can think of when I see snow. Since we didn’t have phones, if your friend was going on vacation, you wouldn’t be able to talk to them for two whole weeks: that goodbye hug was a big deal. In the winter, you could always go downtown and look at the lights, with the big light up Frosty the Snowman as the centerpiece. Going to a highschool basketball game felt like you were going to an NBA game: the shining lights, the announcer, even the measly freshman looked like full grown adults.
When spring came, every school had field day. At Our Lady of the Lake (LMC as I knew it), we would tie-dye shirts, bowl on pins with our teachers' faces on them, and eat snow cones. But when we grew older, we would go to the track and do relay races like the other schools. When the end of the school year came around, watching the big kids graduate seemed so far away.
When we got to summer, most of us probably had similar hotspots we went to. If you were into sports, you probably had Biddy Bears, SJ Tennis Camp, AYSO, or baseball at Eaton Park. Some years, you may have packed your things and gone to sleepaway camp for a week--most of us went to Warner or VBYC. Classic summer days consisted of running around in the compass fountain, going to Silver Beach Pizza for dinner and messing around with the little pizza dough they give out, riding the carousel until you were out of tokens, and swimming in the lake while passersby watched the sunset. If you wanted to hang out with a friend, you would have to beg your parents, go through the thick phone book, use your landline to call their house, and invite them over for a playdate. After running around for hours, you would beg your parents to have a sleepover and play Wii Sports all night (aka till midnight). While most days were packed with endless fun just like this, some of the best were just spent lounging around in the backyard, picking at the grass, watching the clouds change shape, and listening to the cicadas. Both of these combined are what made SJ summers sacred.
In the fall, we would go to Jollay Orchards to pick apples and learn how to make apple cider, and we would go to Sarett Nature Center and eat those maple sugar candies--I don’t think I’ll ever forget sitting in the big presentation room with the windows bundled in coats and snow pants waiting to go snowshoe.
As we’ve grown up in our town, we’ve transitioned from running, to walking, to biking, to now driving downtown in the summers. The day before winter break is now stressful as tests fill our day. Some of us have only gone on the carousel recently at a dance. We have to ask for the pizza dough at SBP. And now we are running the summer camps we used to go to. While St. Joe may seem a bit boring now, it used to be everything to us.