Tuesday, April 6, 1965
Tuesday April 6
$18.600 scale, $2.16 catfish. Peggy had a package from Ann, was a beautiful lacquer finish musical just box from Japan with a misty thin red silk scarf for Tricia inside. No explanation or note. Peggy is sure happy with it, Tricia a little unhappy. I wrote to Ann today, will have to write again tomorrow. Also sent a card to Keith Whaley, has chicken pox, and one to Scholz's. Baked a chicken for supper, also 2 lemon and 1 lime pie. Dady ate with us, gave him a lemon pie to take home. Was real warm today but a cool breeze, perfect weather. Ray went gator hunting about 8.30 with Bub. Last nite that skunk didn't spray, we smelled him 5 nites in a row, Ray's hunted him but hasn't seen him yet. He must live under the house. They killed a gator 4 ft. $ each.
Musical Box
Peggy still has the music box.
Gator Hunting
Often when Ray and Bub would go gator hunting, they’d go off Nova Road which runs from St. Cloud to the east coast. Much of the land on either side of the road was—and is to this day—owned by the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Central Florida. Click here to read about the Mormon Ranch.
I drove the Nova Road back and forth to the beach regularly in the 90s. I packed my 1978 VW bus with friends and surfboards and we’d traverse the vast and deserted land, encountering very few other cars on the road. My experience was a far cry from what Myrtle experienced in 1965.
Peggy recalls, “In the later afternoon, Mama would load up Tricia and I in the truck and we’d drive Daddy and Bub out along Nova Road. They’d be lying down in the back of the pick-up and when the spot was right and there were no other cars in sight, they’d bang on the window. Mama would stop and they’d roll out of the back with their croker sacks and .22s and disappear into the swamp.”
The next morning, Myrtle and the girls would come back and drive up and down that stretch road. When Ray and Bub were done hunting and no other cars were coming, they’d come out of the swamp, sacks full of skins, hop in the back of the truck and lay down. Myrtle would drive them back home.
