Author Archives: Jeffrey Ann Koontz

BEACH KID MEMORIES Carefree to be, as a bird that sings; To go my own sweet way . . .                           ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE      Commenting on my childhood, my mountain-boy husband often says, “You had the greatest life as a kid.  You lived on the beach, you went there any time you wanted, you couldContinue reading

THE EDUCATION OF GRANDMA Education is the best provision for old age. ARISTOTLE [384-322 B.C.]         I’ve mentioned before that my great-grandfather valued education.  I suspect it was because he didn’t have a whole lot of it himself.  He was born in 1861, when all young men had to work very hard to survive.  IContinue reading

GRANDMA AND HER FATHER Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.  CHARLES DICKENS       I want to tell the story of my maternal grandmother, Evie Wilson Boteler.  I don’t know how many installments it will take to share my memories of her; there are many, as she lived to be ninety-three.  At my age, IContinue reading

MY AUNT PEGGY Ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. SAMUEL RUTHERFORD [1629]                                                       I want to write a tribute to my Aunt Peggy, who was a very important person in my formative years.  She died in the 1960s.  Although this story is bittersweet, my next one will reflect herContinue reading

GRANNY      The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes.                                                                                                                                               RALPH WALDO EMERSON [Nature] 1836                 My great-grandmother knew me, yet she didn’t know me.  She could sometimes speak my name and talk to me, but her voice was very soft and a little bit garbled.  She was alwaysContinue reading

GRANDDADDY                                                         By the work one knows the workman.                                JEAN DE LA FONTAINE   [1668]      I never heard exactly why my grandfather came to Florida, but I think it had to do with the land boom.   Henry Plant had extended his East Coast railroad over to the West Coast, so Clearwater was experiencing aContinue reading

SHADY SIDEWALKS            I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree                                                                                                 JOYCE KILMER [Trees] 1913       I have been gone from my Florida childhood home for decades.  I’ve made regular visits but as everyone knows, it’s not the same after a while; so many things change.  I’m oneContinue reading

WINTER GUESTS After World War II, when they were retirement age, my grandparents started a business venture. Native Floridians, they opened their home to “winter guests.” Their children were grown and I think it evolved naturally from my grandmother’s inborn hospitality and my grandfather’s experience as a contractor. He remodeled the upstairs into four apartmentsContinue reading “Winter Guests”