We were all at one time young teenagers and had to have something going on ALL the time.  In My St. Augustine,--- back years ago,---there was just one family; "The St. Augustine Family".  Some of the family teenagers would go "coon hunting" at night,--others would go Crusin’,---but ours was the Beach Thingy.

Now we were young--maybe 15 or 16 years old and looked like bean poles (skinny). I had a Red--1929 Model "A" Ford Roadster with a Rumble Seat'--(that's another story) and my 1st. cousin, Vernon Usina had the same thing but painted pink and white. My close friend, Vernon Andreu (part relative) had a Model "A" Skeeter. You've got to understand that these "Machines" weren't bombs--No--they were classy with radios, custom seats, Chevy steering, hydraulic brakes and polished and cleaned to perfection. We used them for --homecoming parades---city advertisements--just everything. With a Model A--you were constantly working on it--especially the water pump--it always leaked water. When
the engine would run hot, I would stop and dip water from the ocean and fill the radiator--flush it the next day with fresh water

On the weekends in June and July we would get a group of us together (boys and girls) and go Turtle Egging.  Explain it Jerry---The female Sea Turtle--weighing about 300 pounds would crawl from the ocean to the sand dunes (hills),--dig a deep hole with her back flippers and lay between 125 and 200 eggs.  We had the three Beach Buggies loaded down
with us boys and usually 9 girls and then we would go do the Turtle Egg Thingy.  The parents of the girls always  assumed we were mature thinking and perfect gentlemen?????  Sometimes we turtle egged the entire weekend without coming home. You could cook a turtle for three days and it would still be raw inside. It becomes an acquired Thingy to eat
turtle eggs--it's like they are always gooey. Turtle egging is now banned but back then it was a barrel of fun.  I always carried my cast net and caught some mullet also.  When we got hungry we would eat a raw turtle egg or A Mullet On A Stick. We would ride the beach south to Flagler Beach and north to Pablo Beach.  Hold It Jerry---there's a history story to be mentioned there,-------
Ok--ok,--ok---I'll tell it.

Pablo Beach is now known as Jacksonville Atlantic and Neptune Beaches. This all began prior to 1884 with families camping out on the beach. Now the story.-----

This person, William E. Scull and wife, Eleanor, moved and camped out on this section of beach. They pitched their tent along with others that were already there.  Will and Ellie (we got on 1^st. name basis) lived in one tent and ran the first general store from another.  They applied for
a post office under the name of "Ruby", named after their oldest daughter. They ran the post office from the general store and mail arrived once a week by boat from Jacksonville. 

In the mean time a group of money men thought up the idea of a railway from Jacksonville to the beaches.  They wanted to develop a summer resort for the snow birds from the north. The Jacksonville and Atlantic Railway Company was chartered in 1883 to build sixteen and a half miles
of narrow gauge railway from South Jax. to the Ruby settlement.  The money men acquired many acres of prime oceanfront property and divided it into lots. On November the 12th, 1884 the Ruby settlement was ready for
the first buyers of the sub-divided lots. Some fifty buyers arrived by excursion boats and thirty four lots were sold that day for a total of $7,514. The name "Ruby Beach" didn't have a ring to it so it was renamed Pablo Beach in 1886. There were six luxury hotels built to accommodate
the vacationers but they burned down in the fire of 1890.  The rail company went belly-up and Henry Ford bought it as part of his Florida East Coast Railway System. He changed the rail system to standard gauge in 1900 and extended it to Mayport Fl. In 1910 a oyster shell sort of road was made in the vicinity of the present Atlantic Blvd. dividing
Neptune and Atlantic Beach.

Pablo Beach was incorporated on May 22nd. 1907, and in 1925 the name was changed to Jacksonville Beach. That's the story of Pablo Beach, Now---back to Turtle Egging...

When the big turtles come up to lay--they left a track that was visible in the sand. Lights or noise would spook them and they would turn and go back to the water without laying. This is known as a "wheel and turn." When we saw one track going to the hills,--we knew the turtle was up there. Now Picture All This Fun We're Having. Quietly
get out with no lights--crawl on our stomach,--fight mosquitoes the size of birds,--sand in our mouth and eyes,-body filled with sand,--help the turtle dig a hole.--catch the eggs with our hands while she laying them,- and help her cover the empty hole. 

Once she started laying--you could have lights,--take pictures,--clean her back,--talk and everything--she would not stop laying until the last egg had been laid. The girls thought we boys had discovered something new about the beach fun---the Ole Timers had been doing it for years.
When the girls were with us--we took in the amusement rides at Pablo Beach---they were the ones with the money. We would get back to SA around daylight and drop off the girls.

I would call up my Uncle Fatty Rogero and he and I would sit down and eat a dozen or so turtle eggs for breakfast. With turtle egging it wasn’t the idea of getting the eggs to eat as much as it was having a barrel of fun with good friends and relatives. Turtle egging is now banned but I know I could enjoy eating about a half a dozen right now if it were legal. THE FUN DAYS OF TURTLE EGGING.

Jerry Delany

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