Pacific Posts

Friday, June 25, 2021

Arnold and Newlin: California Nevises 1961

Some photos of the Nevis family in California circa 1961. Leonard sometimes invited Bill, Hazel and Laura out sailing on his sailboat. Hazel and Bill visit Clear Lake and its nearby neighbor Borax Lake in northern California. They visit Bill's family in the Central Valley, enjoying a picnic at Mooney Grove Park (now part of Visalia).

Laura, Hazel, Bill, and Leonard on Leonard's sailboat, Newport Beach, California, circa 1961
Laura looks very young here, so this might be circa 1955 instead

Hazel at Borax Lake (also called Little Borax Lake), circa 1961

Hazel, Clear Lake, California circa 1960

picnic with Nevis relatives in Mooney Grove Park, with Hazel on far left, Stanley Mello, Raymond Mello, Don Rose standing

Stanley Mello, Bill Nevis, Don Rose, and Raymond Mello in Mooney Grove, California, 1961

Lucille Nevis with sons Walter and Larry, circa 1961

photo by William E. Nevis, circa 1961 or 1962

Hazel, Lucille, Leonard, and Walter at Rim Forest in 1961 or 1962

next post Arnold and Newlin: Spring and Easter 1961

previous post Arnold and Newlin: John and Mary Mason on Dog Island 1961

first post in Flashbacks How the Nevis family came to California

first post in Arnold's Story July 1943

first post in blog Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold and Newlin: John and Mary Mason on Dog Island 1960

John and Mary Mason visit Arnie and Newlin in Florida. They all visit Dog Island, located in the Gulf of Mexico, off Florida's panhandle), where in 1959 Arnie and Newlin had bought a lot on the island for $5000 to be able to build a beach house close to Newlin's family, and John and Mary bought an adjacent lot. Both lots had beautiful high dunes facing the Gulf and a sandy road behind them with St. George Sound beyond. To reach Dog Island one took a county-run ferry from Carrabelle, which got discontinued for a while in the 1970s. After the ferry service stopped, the family had to get there with a motor boat towed by car from Gainesville to Carrabelle.

John and Mary Mason, Dog island, Florida, circa 1960

Newlin and Arnie on Dog Island, circa 1960

Google Maps shows Dog Island and Carrabelle; the gray dot is roughly where the two lots lay

Around 1975 Arnie took out a loan to start building a house on the lot but quickly lost interest after he had a heart attack and was very fearful of being too far from a hospital emergency room.

Over the decades hurricanes flattened the dunes and eroded the Gulf side of the lots, depositing the sand on the Sound side. Newlin was able to buy back some 15 feet on the road side for another $5000 to maintain her property as a buildable lot, but by the 1990s another 50 feet lay underwater in the Gulf and she determine the property was largely worthless. Every few years the Franklin County tax collector would try to reclaim back taxes but Newlin refused to pay for valueless land. She tried to give it away to Florida State University, but they wanted her to pay the closing costs and she would not do that either. Newlin and the Masons attempted to see the two lots together as a single parcel but there were no buyers.

Oddly, the island has had the same shape on maps for over 400 years, after first being charted by the French and named Isle des Chiens (Ile des Chiens in modern French) in 1536. I guess it just shifts a bit toward or away from the mainland due to storms.

next post Arnold and Newlin: California Nevises 1961

previous post Arnold and Newlin: 1960 Gainesville

first post in Flashbacks How the Nevis family came to California

first post in Arnold's Story July 1943

first post in blog Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Arnold and Newlin: 1960 Gainesville

In the summer of 1960 Arnie accepts a position split between the J. Hillis Miller Health Center in the Neurology Department and at the College of Engineering at the University of Florida.

He buys a house in a neighborhood called Libby Heights (a name given by the developer but not really used by Gainesvilleans) near an elementary school and a city park. The house at 3448 NW 11th Avenue had four bedrooms, a living room, dining room, two state of the art bathrooms, and a kitchen that was open to the family room. The theme colors in the house were pink and mint green.

Newlin arrived at the end of the summer eight months pregnant, so Linda, Elise, and Newlin's sister Eloise came down from Crawfordville to unpack and arrange the house.

back of the house in Gainesville, circa 1961

a couple dozen pine trees surround the house; over the years most were cut down

Arnie volunteers to investigate the credentials of the committee
who denied tenure to a colleague in the School of Forestry

Joel circa 1960; cameras or photographers always triggered tears for a few years

Allan's ID bracelet for the University of Florida Hospital circa 1960

Newlin in the 1960s

Arnie wore a bow tie through the 1950s and switched to a skinny tie (a four-in-hand necktie) by 1960.

Arnie in the 1960s

Allan and Joel circa 1960

Joel and Allan in front of the fireplace at 3448 NW 11th Avenue

Joel and Allan, circa 1960

card for fathers of newborns to present at the nursery window so a nurse can identify their baby, instructions, September 1960

card for fathers of newborns, information side, University of Florida Shands Teaching Hospital, 1960
"Baby Nevis 9-19-60 0940 AM"

birth announcement for Andrew Jason Nevis

Newlin with newborn son Andrew, Gainesville, Florida, 1960

Newlin with newborn son Andrew, Gainesville, fall 1960

Newlin with sons Allan, Andrew and Joel, Gainesville, 1960

Joel, Allan and Andrew Nevis, Gainesville, fall 1960

Arnie's certificate of proficiency in the basic sciences, State of Florida, November 15, 1960

next post Arnold and Newlin: John and Mary Mason on Dog Island 1960

previous post Arnold and Newlin: 1960 Los Angeles

first post in Flashbacks How the Nevis family came to California

first post in Arnold's Story July 1943

first post in blog Leonard's Story: May 29, 1943

Arnold and Newlin: 1960 Los Angeles

Although these photos are stamped May 1961 and June 1962, they probably date from 1960, before Arnold and Newlin left California for Florida, and just developed later. Newlin is pregnant with Andrew in the following shot, but he was not born until September 1960. The location of the first set of photos is likely Knott's Berry Farm, an attraction in Buena Park, California. The second set are in the back yard of their rental in Westwood, near UCLA. And the last set are at Bill and Hazel's house in Glendale.