The Divorce and the Move

 Chuck had many fond memories of growing up in West Lake Wales.  The family lived there till his Mom and Dad began having marital problems, and they leased the property out, and the family moved into town to a house on Cohasset Avenue.  They lived there for less than a year.

His mother decided to move back to Cedar Key and after the move she and Papa got a divorce.  Chuck and two of the sister’s were still living at home moved with her.  The older sister, Ilene had married Varnell Campbell and lived there, and Hoyt had joined the Navy. 

The family had always visited Cedar Key as often as possible while Chuck was growing up.  His dad and mom were Native Cedar Keyans and still had numerous family members living there. When he was growing up he used to spend a lot of time in the summer during school vacation in Cedar Key.

Chuck was fourteen when his mother moved back to Cedar Key with him, his sister Delores (Teeny) and sister Barbara Helen (Bobbie), his daddy had bought the building on Second Street (everyone calls Main Street) which years later became the  L&M Bar.  It was not a bar when Papa owned it. 

The Building is the one on the front right.
Photo courtsey of Carmen DayWilliams

Several years later he sold the building and at some point Lawrence & Melrose Clark bought the building, and built the bar in downstairs and that’s when it became the L&M.  Their family also lived upstairs where Chuck, his mother and two sisters had lived. Other families lived there between the time Papa sold it and the Clark’s bought it.

His mother’s, brother’s Chester (Chetter), Leotis (Bum or Odie Boy), and Leo Collins taught him how to hook ‘n’ line fish and how to net fish.  His daddy had a boat built for Chuck, and Chuck named it the ‘Seabo’.  He had to pay Papa back on a percentage basis out of what he made fishing.

Whenever he was not in school he was fishing and he made good money.  He didn’t quite finish the tenth grade before he quit school.  He and the Principal had a misunderstanding one day. 

The Principal started hitting him with a long cane switch and Chuck jumped up and punched him in the stomach and ran out of the school building and never went back.

To be continued