St. Joe diary

The year was 1936 and I had passed to the fourth grade in Port St. Joe Elementary School.

The building which housed grades one through six was on the corner of what is now 9^th Street, but did not exist then, and what is now Long Avenue but was not named then. It was a dirt single-lane road and ended abruptly at what is now Eleventh Street. That was the location of the two-story red brick school building that was built about 1918. Grades seven through 12 were located in it. It also had a large assembly hall upstairs where we had chapel every Friday.

A dirt grading of Long Avenue was made from Eleventh Street to the Centennial Building in 1938 for the Centennial Celebration.

But back to the fourth grade.

My teacher was Miss Hazel Connell, the daughter of Mr. Jimmy Connell, a real Christian man. He, along with Mrs. Lola Costin and Mrs. Abby Daughtry were the trio that organized the First Baptist Church and with land and lumber donations from Mr. R. A. Costin, built our first FBC building in 1923.

That year, 1936, the Life-Buoy Soap Company started a national program to promote hygiene and good health for school children. Each morning, classmates on a rotational basis would inspect everyone’s ears and general cleanliness, ask if you had brushed your teeth, combed your hair, etc.

Life Buoy furnished individual charts and gold stars for keeping a record of each student’s daily progress.

This was my first year to study geography. To help us get more familiar with a country’s people and products, our textbook writers would use a fictional character of that country to aid us in the learning process.

I remember on our trip through Africa we were accompanied by “Bombo,” a 12-year-old native boy. He took us through his daily activities and told about foods they produced, consumed and exported to other countries.

One fruit I remember was dates and Miss Hazel asked for a show of hands from those who had never eaten dates. Several students, including myself, indicated they had not. As a matter of fact, I had never heard of dates. The next day she brought several packages of dates to class and we all partook thereof.

Another first that I was introduced to that year was the movies. My mother had told me that in the ‘20s, St. Joe had a silent movie theatre. Of course, at that time all movies were without sound since audio began in 1927 with Al Jolson in the “Jazz Singer” and even part of that movie was silent.

To supplement the absence of sound, theatre managers would have a pianist down front playing music to enhance the scenes.

This particular day, Miss Hazel asked the class if some of us had never seen a “moving picture show” as we called them. I had gotten used to raising my hand, so I did. She told use that two fellows were coming to St. Joe on Friday and would show a movie in the old red brick building. She also said it would cost 10 cents for admission so I would have to get busy and sell some bottles to raise the money.

As it so happened, the weather was rather cold that day so they would have to fire up the old pot-bellied wood heater in the auditorium. This was the only heat available. The school custodian, Mr. Wes Player, told his two sons, Ralph and Grady, who were my best friends, to get me to help them carry firewood to the upstairs auditorium. By doing so, we could get in free. So we did.

The fellows used a 16-millimeter projector which was easily transported.

The name of the movie was “Ten Nights in the Bar Room.” It was a sad movie because a little girl got burned up in a bar room fire.