I will try to share some of the good times of the 1960’s. These pictures have been selected not only as part of my life, but what I had access to.
I hope you enjoy and take them for what they were at the time. It was another era, I was a teen and life was full of hope, love, and fun.
Here I was probably 18 years of age and at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel with Johnny Gallo. We would go for a weekend, and then drive back. While we were there we loved going to various nightclubs to listen to music and dance.
This picture represents one of the few times I put on a suit. It was taken in the front yard of 3218 North Rome Ave, where we grew up in our later teenage years.
Here are Cousin Roseanne, Aunt Francis, and myself in Rome Ave. You can see in the background how many trophies Ray had earned while riding horses. (I’m not sure if it was any special occasion or just a casual visit we enjoyed often).
Here I am at one of my favorite places, “the beach”. Of course the picture was posed! PS, no one was on the phone!
Notice the clothing and my 1965 Mustang. It was ordered silver blue, but due to fading it had to be re-painted two years later. I decided on a midnight blue with a white top. Front tag lets me know who I am! This was taken in the alley behind the home on Rome Ave.
Uncle Tommy Zambito had a dairy on Dale Mabry and at the time it was considered country. When we had time, we would go there to shoot our 22 caliber guns. Many times I went with my cousins, Joe and Jr. and sometimes with Tommy Watson. We must have had cowgirls with us at the time of this picture. The year was probably 1966 or 1967 during college. (We never hunted, but called it hunting). We would shoot at twigs, trees, and water. We did not believe in shooting anything “alive”. Of course, there was the occasional dragon fly that would get in the way!
There were the fun trips to New Orleans. It was not as bad as the picture depicts, but I enjoyed going into bars that played jazz during that era. Pat O Brian’s and the Court of Two Sisters were my favorite places to eat and purchase a “hurricane”. Listening to jazz music in small bars was the best!
Skiing at the Causeway
It was the late 1960’s and I was working at Montgomery Wards during this time. My free time was still devoted to skiing. The picture was taken at the Causeway. Boating and skiing were always my greatest loves as sports. My boss at work appreciated my work and as a bonus would check me in on Saturdays, and gave me the day off to go skiing. He could not pay me a higher wage so this was his way of rewarding me for hard work! (Jim was a nice guy.)
Ray and the Glaspar G3
While attending Clearwater Jr. College my friend, David Kennedy, found this Glaspar G3 and told me about it. I sold our father’s boat and purchased this one as it was fiberglass, 13ft long. well-built, and a great ski boat. Ray and I are looking it over. (Not sure why we were so serious) Ray did not have an interest in boating as I did, but he enjoyed horse shows as much as I loved skiing.
Following are more pictures that I found
At first I was not sure who this girl was. When I saw it, I got excited as I thought it could be the dock located at Lake Ann and I did not have a picture of. We had built a dock that looked similar, using water from a hose and a pipe at the end that was flattened to give the water more force to place the posts. This in turn would allow the wood posts to sink into the lake bottom. I noticed the posts in this picture were smaller as we had used 4×4 planks. On 7-11-12, I emailed Bobbie Mistretta asking her if this was her sister (on our dock), as I could not remember the dock exactly or the girl in the picture. She wrote back the following: “This was at our cabin that my Mother’s father built for us in Faribault, Minnesota on Roberts Lake. The cabin is still there pretty much the same as I remember it as is the dock”.
This is the beach place that Uncle Meme owned and we spent many sun-filled days and nights there. It was a great escape and he purchased it after spending many fun days with us at Lake Ann. Our grandparents along with many of his brothers, sisters, and their families enjoyed talking outside (solving the world’s problems), as we played on the beach. It is still there today, but the palm tree is gone and the building is painted a different color with new sidewalks. In 2013, I came across the person (Jay), who owns it now and lives in Redington Beach, FL. He also purchased the apartments next to them and rents them out. The building is in great condition and still looks good today! As I take my daily walks, it is fun to look and recall an era gone… yet know it is there today for many more to experience.
Tommy Watson and Richard Terry are playing with a race car set at Christmas time. The living room on Kathleen St. provided many fun-filled hours of play, talk, television, and games. (Tommy Watson is on the left).
This is a Gasparilla Invasion that was photographed in 1938 (before my time), but the bridge and boat have remained the same for much of my life.
This is Uncle Paul, with a lady friend. I sent the photo to Joe Mistretta in 2012, and asked him about it, but he did not recognize her. This may have been before marriage, as Paul does look young.
Phyllis Zambito (Rodriquez)
Phyllis Zambito, our first cousin, is the oldest daughter of Aunt Mary and Uncle Tommy. She and her sister lived one street over when we were kids and we often played together. Some of the games were Zorro and I would try to knock things out of her mouth using a handmade whip. She did not enjoy that game, so we did not play it often. Other times, it was just exploring the back yard of Nonno’s house. Phyllis, Ray, Bobby, and I would play at our home on St. Louis, making tents or running around or jumping on our father’s bed from his dresser. One day, she happened to be the last one jumping and broke the bed frame. (It probably was already cracked from all the jumping, but she got blamed). Dad asked Uncle Tommy to repair the bed, to which he was not happy about! We were all scared at the time and never did it again, but what a laugh we had when it was over. Aunt Mary, her mom, was the “cool one”, who took trips visiting New York and the Empire State Building.
This picture includes my Uncle John Mistretta on the left and Uncle Meme on the right. Uncle Meme had a movie camera in this picture, but the movie in the book was filmed by Uncle John and given to me by Chuck Mistretta (Uncle Meme’s, oldest son). This is the back of Nonno’s house, the showing the garage and a shed where a concrete tub was kept. In the tub, Aunt Francis would sometimes give me a bath and now the concrete tub is kept in the carport on Rome Ave.
This picture was taken in early 1970’s. One of my best friends of the 1960’s Johnny Gallo, who is posing on one of our trip to the keys. We had visited Miami and wanted to see what the Keys looked like, so we traveled to Key West. Along the way, we would swim in some of the other Keys and were amazed at the number of reef fish we saw right off shore. It was a time when the Keys were pristine and natural. While in Key West, we saw many sites including Hemingway’s house, the Conch Train, and had our first experience eating Key Lime pie. Traffic was light enough then, that we were able to stop on a bridge to take a photo. If we were not taking photos, we were stopping somewhere for a swim and observing the waters and corals. It was our first experience with the Keys and we were amazed! Since then, I have shared the story of how many reef fish we saw right off shore. While swimming underwater we actually had to chase the fish away; as they were so plentiful. As the years went by, so did the number of fish you would see on a reef. Even though they have become more protective of the reefs now by not letting you anchor or even stand on a reef, the damage is done! I’m not sure if it will ever return to how it was, but that explains how life is today. Please keep in mind all the wonderful places, people, and things that are in your life and rediscover these memories with those you love.
Johnny became a minister and gave he the eulogy at Mom’s funeral in Tampa. We did have a brief phone call or two after, but due to distance we have not stayed in contact. we did have a standing joke line which went something like this: (He only owed 1965 meals at that time. and placed the first and only dent on my car and, of course we always laughed about his digs about me.)
I realize this chapter, may not show the tone of the era, but I wanted it to portray some of the ways of life, and places that we enjoyed growing up (including clothes, sports, and places we visited).