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Memories of a Pier gone by

 
Colin Vaughn of St. Petersburg and sister Kayla Suchier hang out on the St. Petersburg Pier while Vaughn’s cousin Evan Rodriguez fishes in the Pier Aquarium’s Kids’ Fishing Tournament.
Colin Vaughn of St. Petersburg and sister Kayla Suchier hang out on the St. Petersburg Pier while Vaughn’s cousin Evan Rodriguez fishes in the Pier Aquarium’s Kids’ Fishing Tournament.
Published Nov. 19, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG

I write to you about my recollections of the Pier. Not just this Pier, but the Million Dollar Pier, as well.

The first one I recall had a Moorish-designed building. In 1926, my father, Alva Everett, met my mother, France Andrews, on opening day of the Pier.

I came along in 1934 at Mound Park Hospital.

When I was 8, I made a lifetime friend, Jim Kelley. His father, Pappy Kelley, was the owner of the Pier Bait House. Along with working with my father, I went with Jim to help with the bait house. This was not work, as Jim and I did a whole lot of fishing and swimming. Jim and I sold shrimp, pin fish, cut bait, frozen bait, pelican food and cracked corn for the ducks.

Back then, the water was so clear, you could see all the way to a white sand bottom. So, people fed cracked corn to the ducks and watched them dive after it.

We rented cane poles and rods and reels. Pappy told us to give the customer 13 or 14 shrimp for their dozen. He said, "Make them happy!"

The fishing from the Pier was always good; during the mackerel runs, it was unreal.

On the head of the Pier, from the bait house all the way around to the Photo Shack, would be people fishing shoulder to shoulder. Jim and I didn't get a lot of time to fish on those days.

At other times, Jim and I would swim from the southern lower platform of the Pier to the beach at the base of the Pier and back to the platform. We would swim around and under the Pier. Jim had a rowboat that was tied up to the Pier approach.

We fished from the boat in the Vinoy basin, the grass flats east of the Vinoy fill and, now and then, the Coffee Pot Bayou.

Sometimes, we would stay at the Pier for 24 to 36 hours without going home. When we got tired, we would go to where the streetcars went under the upper structure of the building and sleep on a bench. To clean up, we took a dip in the bay and then washed off with the hose we used to spray the walk. Then, we would go into the back room of the bait house and change clothes. When we got hungry, we would take two or three fish fillets over to the restaurant, and they would fry them and give us an order of French fries for 25 cents.

One time during World War II, a Navy ship was moored at the Pier, and as Jim and I were rowing by, a sailor threw an egg at us. The war was on! We threw jellyfish at them, and they threw more eggs at us. An officer aboard the ship stopped it. I know their ship cleaned up easier than our little boat.

At some point, the area above where the streetcars pulled in at the Pier was enclosed. This became the home of the WSUN radio station. When I was in the third, fourth and fifth grades at Roser Park Elementary School, I was a member of the Bing Crosby Boys Choir, and we sang in that upstairs station. Later, the streetcars were removed, and the lower portion also was enclosed to house the area's first TV station, Channel 38.

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At 15, I met the girl who was to be my wife. Most of our dates were walks to the Pier at midnight or 1 o'clock in the morning. We would stop at Bryan's Service Station and get our nickel Coca-Colas from the machine and walk to the Pier. Wanda and I would sit on the front of the Pier and watch the moonlight on the water. Then, it was back to Bryan's to put the bottles in the rack and go home.

When our firstborn son was 2 or 3, he was on WSUN-TV three or four times holding a fish in each hand. He would hold them by the tails, and their heads would be on the ground. They would look like big fish, but he was just a little boy.

I do not recall the date of the first Pier Aquarium's Kids' Fishing Tournament, but my family and I were involved from the start. Kathy King, Norm Blake, Don Sweat, Ken Bruce and others set it up. The tournament was not done just for advertisement of the aquarium, but to get families together.

At the first tournament, our granddaughter won the award for the most unusual catch. She had a 1 ½-inch stone crab holding onto her piece of squid.

At the last tournament, there were almost 1,000 kids and parents or guardians there.

All of my children fished from the Pier until it closed. Our oldest son fished from the Pier from the time he was old enough to hold a cane pole till the day he died at 49. It was the place we took our out-of-town visitors for a lunch. They would watch the boats float by and the airplanes take off and land at Albert Whitted Airport.

The Pier has been a part of our family from its beginning. The old piers will be in our family's memories for the rest of our lives.

Arthur Everett, 82, is a lifelong resident of St. Petersburg. He and his wife, Wanda, live in the Euclid-St. Paul Neighborhood.