| TRAVELS OF DURSMIRG VOLUME IV THE ROGUES OF ST. AUGUSTINE AND OTHER SOCIAL MISFITS Chapter 15 |
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Step right in and meet some of our dear friends that we consider St. Augustine’s “FUN PEOPLE”!
Pierre and Shirley Thompson;
Right behind Henry Flagler and his descendants in real estate riches low-key easy going “Lucky Pierre” as he was
called by his closest friends was a self made asset builder.
A local boy made good, Lucky Pierre grew up on the streets of St. Augustine. He went to a military school during
WWII that was adjacent to the fabled Fountain of Youth tourist attraction on Magnolia Street. (The present day
Flamingo Apartments building.)
That WWII military school building was situated on the land previously owned by the Lady named Lou; the original
Diamond Lil who was made famous by the great poet Robert Service in his epic poems about the Yukon in the days
of the Klondike gold rush.
That military school building later went on to become the Flamingo Apartments, which my wife Jane and I purchased
in the late 1970s.
Pierre certainly became a pillar of the community with everything that he did and made St Augustine a much better
place to live.
His business was insurance and real estate.
By attrition and persevering attention to detail his financial empire grew on integrity that included his insurance and
real estate business plus shopping centers, apartment buildings and other business complexes.
***
An interesting and humorous story that Lucky Pierre loved to tell; One day as he sat in the lounge over at the St.
Augustine Yacht Club, a stuffed shirt type dressed in his gleaming white starched gentleman captain’s outfit puffed
up like a strutting Tom turkey came and sat down next to unassuming Pierre.
The stuffed shirt captain pompously proclaimed; “Do you see that 75 foot white Hatteras docked at the end of the
pier?
That’s mine and what kind of yacht do you own?”
Pierre smugly smiled and modestly replied; “a 14 foot sailfish,” and watched as the hot ticket stuffed shirt slowly and
coldly slinked away.
Lucky Pierre had a net worth that could have bought and sold that stuffed shirt a dozen times over but then Lucky
Pierre didn’t have to flaunt his fortune.
Pierre was the proverbial square peg in the round hole. A social misfit he was, beyond a reasonable shadow of a
doubt.
One of Pierre’s biggest pleasures of all in life was to slip off quietly in his no frills little fishing skiff and spend the day
peacefully just gunk-holing the creeks and waterways hook and line fishing with his old time crony buddy.
This was Pierre’s fulfillment in life and he was truly happily contented beyond belief because he sincerely didn’t have
to impress anybody to find real fulfillment of life.
Lucky Pierre was frugal and unpretentious but at the same time generous with no questions asked he freely helped
anybody that was down on their luck. He would even help some of the worst back stabbing jerks that had previously
screwed him over royally.
The world could use more of this kind of no questions asked kindness; Pierre was no fool with his money though, I
can still remember waiting in our camper van for Pierre to check into a fabulously plush hotel over in Ireland.
Pierre was back in a few minutes and I said; “you sure checked in quick.”
Pierre responded; “Too high priced…drive on!” He had the money but was not going to throw it away frivolously.
“Uncle Pete” as Pierre was affectionately known to his family was with out a doubt the most low key and unassuming
person you were likely to meet in little old St. Augustine. Until recently he never ever owned a new car but always
had a very respectable machine to drive.
Lucky Pierre did find a real gem when he married his Shirley who he met in St. Augustine’s most upscale restaurant
and lounge, the White Lion, where she was the featured entertainment with her incredibly beautiful singing voice.
These two people seemed to be the perfect marital match and my wife Jane and I have had some of our most
memorable moments and good times with them doing positively outrageous things that almost always involved
singing, laughing and joking.
This is Lucky Pierre with one of his nearly new autos at the corner of Radio Road and Dufferin Street
when he came to pay us a visit. Our home was at 56 Dufferin and our Flamingo Apartments across the
street behind Pierre.
This story doesn’t stop here and next you must meet another part of this eccentric out of the loop group.
Enter Ron and Brigid Barnes;
BARNES, RON AND BRIGID;
Ron aka “Barnsy” was one of St. Augustine’s and the worlds number one social misfits, a square peg that made a
perfect fit in the Old City.
Tall lanky perpetually smiling and grinning big Ron came from Canada…escaped that is!
We asked Barnsy where he grew up and then realized that he never had. Nonstop jokes and one-liners were
always so absurd that Barnsy would be laughing so hard by the time he finished that his laughter became so
hilariously contagious it infected one and all. Then expressionless straight-faced deadpan Brigid would with a smirk
exclaim; “Ron!, you silly bugger you are full of hops!”
Barnsy and wife Brigid were a perfect pair, the clown and the straight-man comedy team. They left Canada in a very
home made 42 foot steel sailboat named Rover that was Barnsy’s first boat building attempt. It was perfectly crude in
every way but then so was our Barnsy.
Barnsy had to be the luckiest person I have ever met. With his “I don’t give a damn attitude” coupled with a totally
fearless mind-set Barnsy didn’t have a single reservation about blindly tackling any adventure.
Barnes lack of boating skills and knowledge was nearly complete, and as close to 100% as he could be, but that
didn’t stop flamboyant buoyant Barnsy with his make-shift contraption he lovingly referred to as his vessel.
Barney’s loving wife Brigid knew even less than he did but stuck resolutely by his side through screwed up fiasco
after fiasco but they somehow miraculously survived, only slipping by with the luck of the Irish.
We would all shake our heads in amazed disbelief.
Barnsy did have one advantage after all; his totally Irish wife Brigid did possess a small degree of common sense,
and that miniscule amount of common since was probably responsible for seeing them both through many of their
unthinkably insane blind luck adventures.
Ultimately St. Augustine drew these social misfits by its magnetic force but first they spent a winter in Boston and
then a year and a half at Annapolis on their way south to their boat “Rover’s” ultimate home.
Brigid lost several fingers to an unprotected fan belt aboard their boat so their trip was not totally a venture of good
luck.
If you ever did see these two handling a boat you would be utterly astonished that they ever got anywhere. It was a
don’t give-a-dam lark and somehow a laughable joke they both found hilariously funny no matter what kind of
calamity beset them. This comic team was the exclusive crew of their very home-made boat Rover that wouldn’t
qualify for yacht status.
Accompanied by his adoring in her Irish liberal sort of way wife Brigid, Barnsy made music everywhere he went.
Barnsy strumming with his single chord on his beat-up old out-of-tune guitar and straight faced Brigid plucked away
at her lap top electric autoharp with its electronically synchronized rhythm that always managed to draw an
enthusiastic sing-along crowd.
Gleefully prompting absentminded “Stomp-en-Ron” with punch lines and lyrics Brigid would exclaim to all; Barnsy,
you are a silly bugger, you are full of hops! Barnsy just loved it…he wasn’t good, just loud and he didn’t even need
an amplifier. Enthusiasm is what he had plenty of and he was always the last one to quit a party…the last man
standing. How those two ever got home after some of their blasted-away benders is a total mystery to me.
(When Barnsy made music he was known as “Stomp-en –Ron”.)
PARTY TIME, TALLY GRAVES, BRIGID-RON BARNES AND JOHN GOLDEN
In the above photo taken in our front yard at 56 Dufferin Street we were celebrating another 4th of July with a pot-
luck yard party. Banjo picking Tally Graves was a retired FBI agent who came to St. Augustine and went into
business big time with McDonald and Dairy Queen franchises. Playing the bucket drum was John Golden the only
professional in the group who was a former member of the Atlantic Philharmonic Orchestra.
(In the background of this photo is the very bay and creek across the marsh grasses that Ponce de Leon sailed up
on his voyage of discovery back in 1513.)
Easy going happy-go-lucky don’t give a damn Barnsy made a perfect miss-match with his stubborn stick to it no
matter what 100% Irish lass that loved her silly ass bugger Barnsy no matter how outrageous he ever got. Brigid
could get pissed…not easily, but when she did get pissed she was totally pissed. There was no turning back…slam-
dunk case closed! (Except with her Barnsy.)
Just how these two party animals ever got to St. Augustine is a drawn out and convoluted story. Barnsy in his other
life led a semi straight-laced existence, was married to an almost humorless woman and in suit and tie had a 9 to 5
conservative job with a Canadian insurance company.
What happened?
The real Barnsy finally floated to the surface!
He built a real home made boat and his new creation was his first boat…Rover that was unmistakably not a
production line model.
He hooked up with Brigid and together they set sail south.
First it was to Boston where they spent a winter and partied to the point that ultimately for survival sake they had to
leave town, just to get rested up.
Their next stop was in Annapolis, Maryland where they had further perfected their party routine that was now gaining
momentum and it took them a year and a half to say goodbye and ramble south in their rusty “Rover” to St.
Augustine, the town that was made especially for the socially misfit Barnes.
Living frugally aboard their Rover they quickly settled into the local St. Augustine bar-hopping and party scene
routine hitting every happy-hour to munch-up the free-bees.
Brigid took a job working as private secretary for the richest guy in town, Pierre Thompson.
After walking two miles to get to her job Brigid found out that her relationship with the boss definitely was not love at
first sight.
After her first day at work Brigid stomped home with no intention of ever returning to her job again.
Brigid absolutely did not communicate well with Pierre and Pierre had never encountered a real Irish woman with
such steel willed inflexibility. There was however some hidden attribute in Brigid’s resolute tenacious attitude that
Pierre found commendable and extremely admirable. Brigid definitely was not your average social climbing
sycophant...right was right and that was that!
Period!
As long as it was Brigid’s way!
The next day Brigid didn’t show up for work, Pierre thought it over, felt pangs of guilt and made a special trip over to
the Barnsy’s humble little homemade boat Rover to make amends with a bucket of fresh fish and plead for her
return.
Brigid thought that her bridges had been burnt and was obviously moved deeply by Pierre’s overture of friendship
and compassion.
(Pierre had never met a woman that wasn’t just a humble servant before and this lady had more than spirit so
pensive Pierre wanted this iron willed one of a kind no-bull-shit woman on his team.)
Brigid did come back and a close life-time relationship was cemented and Brigid turned out to be Pierre’s best
business asset and respected friend.
Whenever Pierre was at loggerheads with city hall Brigid would march down with blood in her eye and demand
prompt justice and affirmative action! Believe me she was not going to be put down or put off and she let those
“buggers” down at city hall know that she meant business! Nobody was going home until Brigid got Pierre’s permit or
license…Brigid got results and Pierre would just shake his head in disbelief and silently smile in grateful gratitude.
Pierre knew that even with his huge amount of influence that he would never get the service and respect from city
hall that Brigid absolutely demanded…lucky Pierre! And so the team of two was formed.
Over the years “Lucky Pierre” as we all became found of calling him, made it a point to make it to all of the wild, loud
and hilariously fun cookouts and sing-along parties over at the Barnsy’s “Rock Bottom Boat Yard”.
Pierre and his lovely wife Shirley and the Barnsy’s even vacationed together…Jane and I caught up with them in
Ireland and England and that two week party of nonstop events would easily fill more than a chapter all by itself.
(The six of us traveled in our new campervan across Ireland and we were treated to a nonstop sing along and
hilariously outrageous jokes. As soon as Ron would let up Brigid would pick up the slack and we all damn near
pissed our pants in uproarious out of control laughter when the stories and songs went from outlandish to
outrageously absurd.)
Back to the Barnsy’s St. Augustine story; it wasn’t long and a super land deal was landed by the Barnsy’s.
Of course Brigid was working in the office of the boss of St. Augustine’s most prestigious real estate company and
was right there to seal the deal.
Here is what the Barnsy’s got; three commercial building lots two of which were water front on the San Sebastian
River. This deal was made to order for the Barnsy’s. A place for them to tie up their home-made boat Rover and
plenty of room on the already commercially zoned lots for Ron to weld up his steel hulled boats…and thus the Rock
Bottom Boat Yard was born.
Barnsy struck up a deal with the famous naval architect Tom Colvin to build the Gazelle sailboats and the Rock
Bottom Boat Yard was soon up and running with plenty of back orders.
A $500 old used house trailer made a quick and easy no frills office, guard shack and also doubled as party
headquarters complete with toilet facilities.
This truly was the rock Bottom Boat Yard and Barnsy wouldn’t spring an extra nickel for a single up grade and even
refused to buy liability insurance.
Brigid here used some basic business good sense and got a minimum liability policy just so she could sleep at night.
Her boss, Lucky Pierre just happened to have one of the largest insurance companies in town.
Barnsy did eventually plan some capitalistic expansions to the Rock Bottom Boat Yard that included a bulkhead and
dock but you could bet that he frugally cut every corner to the bone.
Well, this would require a building permit from city hall.
Besides the city building inspector several self-appointed do-gooder busy bodies made it their personal business to
dictate their own self-righteous agendas and tagged along with the city building inspector to over see that the letter
of the law was applied to their know-it-all standards.
This is where push wouldn’t come to shove. The ladies contingent of self-righteous do-gooders was headed by a
woman in her own private perpetual snit who got some kind of self gratifying orgasm out of raining on someone else’
s parade.
Enter St. Augustine’s own battle-ax wielding warrior Gusty Tempest; the lady with her very own vendetta against one
and all.
In the course of the inspection tour directed by Barnsy, “snitty” Gusty Tempest informed Barnsy that he could not
possibly build his bulkhead because he would have to cut down a tree to do so and pointed out the young sapling.
Well, “snitty” Gusty Tempest was used to brow beating all that crossed her path but this was her first encounter with
Barnsy.
Ron Barnes is tall, well informed, extremely articulate and very loud.
Barnes instantly boomed back with; “You are a stupid woman!”
“Snitty” Gusty Tempest with her hands on her hips retorted “And Mr. Barnes you are a male chauvinistic pig, how
dare you call me a stupid woman?”
Barnes resolutely stood his ground and said; “I didn’t call you a stupid woman because you are a woman, I called
you a stupid woman because you are stupid!”
The bomb shell had been dropped and this matter would be brought before the city council.
Well, yes indeed the matter was placed on the councils docket for the next public meeting.
Ron and Brigid were both there and ready for verbal action and their case was placed 2nd on that days agenda.
The meeting was called to order and their turn came and they were passed over, then the next and the next until the
meeting was finally adjourned. Nobody wanted to face off with the Barnsy’s…at least not in public and they quietly
were granted their bulkhead and dock permits. Ron and Brigid were truly a team to be reckoned with.
Brigid was late to marry and she was well on her way to becoming an old maid when she and Ron had tied the knot.
That made Brigid just about the happiest woman in the world.
Brigid was so excited that she just couldn’t wait to show her prize off to her family back in Ireland.
Well the day finally came when Brigid had her Irish family all together to present her new husband Ron, Ron shook
his head “no” and replied; “I am from rent a husband and Brigid only has me for a month”. The family just cracked
up with wild Irish laughter and loved and adored Ron Barnes from that moment on.
Ron’s humor was loved in a special Irish sort of way. I can still remember in Ireland when Ron returned to visit he
entered with this opener for one of his jokes;
He asked if they knew how an Irishman put on his underwear. Ron’s sister in law quickly responded;
“I don’t know but I bet it will be vulgar.”
Yes it was!
Ron responded with his giddy giggles;
“Yellow in front and brown in back”.
This wasn’t the end of “Stomp-en-Ron’s” “Rent-a husband” prank. When they got back to St. Augustine Ron got
some friends that had a print shop to print him up some business cards;
RON BARNES
RENT-A-HUSBAND
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Ron had a field day handing them out but Brigid went absolutely bull-shit!
Now she never did get mad at her ever-loving Ron but she went simply ballistic at their friends with the print shop,
Fran and Roy…how can you figure?
An interesting quirk in Ron’s personality was that he absolutely didn’t give a damn…if the car ran why change the oil
or grease it?
If the boat floated…OK.
Service and upkeep never took any of Barnsy’s absurd nonstop party time.
Well, one day Stomp-en-Ron and Brigid noticed an abnormal amount of water in the bilge of their Rover which was
their home and humble abode where they resided.
(Remember the number one rule of boating…the water is supposed to be on the outside!)
Ron found the problem in a few minutes and fixed it. Simple, the water was running in through a rusted out hole in
the propeller shaft log.
(This is the tube that covers the propeller shaft on the inside of the hull.)
A few turns of Saran Wrap did the trick.
For Barnsy this was a permanent repair and as far as he was concerned the case was closed on that problem and
he never gave it another thought.
By and by he did put his Rover up for sale and believe it or not he got a buyer. The deal was agreed upon but the
buyer was a thousand dollars short. Barnsy wouldn’t budge a cent on the deal so the eager buyer headed home to
Savannah to get the rest of the cash.
On the way home the prospective buyer had a debilitating auto accident so he would never be able to use the Rover
and that was the end of his one and only prospective buyer.
Ron never did get another buyer and one weekend when Ron and Brigid returned home to their floating home
Rover from an out of town trip they found their Rover resting on the bottom…remember the number one rule of
boating, it was broken and Stomp-en-Ron’s Saran Wrap repair job went past its “good till date”.
Barnsy’s history of make shift repair jobs cost Brigid some of her fingers. Years earlier while they were back in
Canada Brigid fell victim to one of Ron’s haphazard make-do boat repair jobs when an exposed fan belt instantly
altered Brigid’s life.
Brigid had a heart of gold but was as Irish as Irish as you could ever get.
She and Ron loved the best deals in town that included “happy-hours” with free snacks and ½ price drinks, local
sing-along bars and jug-band honky-tonks. Whenever the bar-room pace slackened Stomp-en-Ron and Brigid
jumped in to keep the place in hysterical laughter at fever pitch…what a pair!
Even though the number one thing that they did dearly love was a good deal their generosity knew no bounds. If
they were giving out beer you could bet that it was the cheapest brand-x in town that was on sale as a loss-leader at
the supermarket. As far as the Barnsy’s were concerned there were only two kinds of beer, warm and cold…damn
the expense!
I can still remember one day when Jane and I stopped by the Rock Bottom Boat Yard office, guard shack, party
headquarters and crash pad in their $500 house trailer and spotted a jug of the most expensive cream sherry on
the market at the time.
Myers Number 44 American Cream Sherry.
We immediately recognized it as one of the wines that we cherished the most and would only dole out in very small
sparing amounts as a topping for French ice cream. Well, Brigid noticed our interest and told us that one of the
salesmen that called on the boatyard had dropped it off as a gift.
Brigid asked if we would like some and we eagerly responded affirmatively.
Without batting an eye Brigid emptied the entire contents of the entire jug into two huge tumbler sized drinking water
glasses.
We felt like a sacred cherished air loom of ours had been desecrated and Brigid sincerely thought that she was
doing us a big favor.
There really must be something to this thing they call “the luck of the Irish”.
The commercial building lots that Ron and Brigid paid $20,000 for when they first came to town a few years earlier
and used as a boat building yard, party headquarters, a place to tie their own boat and dock rental for more than
ten years fetched them nearly ½ a million dollars when they bailed out.
JOHN RYDER AND WIFE MURPH., signed the guest book aboard our boat Dursmirg June 23, 1975
John was slightly stodgy and a borderline couch-potato who was a captivator of his classes as a high school teacher
of civics; his students just adored him like some space age cult leader.
Inquisitive and public spirited John was also active in lots of civic activities like the annual summer season theatrical
production over on Anastasia Island named Cross and Sword, a reenactment of St. Augustine’s history whose
devoted and dedicated enthusiastic actors came from the community. Lots of fun was had by all including the
spectators who were more than likely to see in the production familiar faces of the town folk.
This production was filled with lots of pomp and ceremony, smoke, bells and whistles that gloriously reenacted St.
Augustine’s early history with a huge list of mostly local actors who all passionately captivated the full house
audience night after night through the summer season.
John never failed to be in the annual St. George Street Colonial Times pageant and various other enactments
around the Oldest City where he could dress up in his very own distinctive period costume to act out his own
fantasies, which he dearly did love to do.
John’s uncle, Pat Bernard owned the WFOY radio station (Fountain of Youth) and was well connected around town.
Pat found John and Murph a house with five waterfront lots over on Salt Run on Anastasia Island for $13.000 an
incredible price even back then.
John was a small boat sailor and had a fair weather little open 16 foot sloop rigged sailboat he moored in his front
yard that eventually took a trip to the bottom in one of the many storms that frequented old St. Augustine.
John donated his sunken little sailboat to the Marineland Studios to be put in their big plate glass exotic fish salt
water tank on permanent display for all to see. And that was enough boats and boating for John.
We were always invited over to John and Murph’s outdoor oyster roasts in their front yard on the Salt Run
waterfront…”bring your own booze”.
The local oysters were only harvested in the months of the year that had an “R” in them, so from September on
through April it was oyster roast season in St. Augustine.
John and Murph also contributed a gigantic caldron of French onion soup that was John’s specialty and he took
special pride in its preparation. It was with out a doubt as good as French onion soup gets but John was extremely
heavy handed on the salt. John’s huge kettle of onion soup was a real gas to go with the fresh steamed oysters.
We were always happy to be amongst the congenial guests.
A piece of sheet metal was placed over an open wood fire atop cement blocks and the raw in the shell oysters were
then placed on top. Next a wet burlap bag was placed over the oysters and they would steam open.
Dipped in molten butter mixed with Worchester sauce and garlic they were terrific.
The quantity of oysters we all consumed was absolutely astronomical and it was rumored that the oysters made you
sexy.
As our dear old friend Stomp-en Ron Barnes used to exclaim about oysters; “I ate a dozen oysters and only eleven
worked!”
No matter how many oysters or how much French onion soup there was it wasn’t quitting time until nothing remained
and everybody was stuffed beyond capacity.
Many times Jane and I would sail from our from our dock across the harbor and up Hospital Creek to John and
Murph’s waterfront home for their oyster roasts on their beach.
When the party was over we could simply dinghy out to our anchored little Columbia 26 foot sloop named El Barco
and snooze until the spirit moved us the following morning.
Confabbing with friends on the bay front beach around the crackling driftwood fire that was sending sizzling sparks
skyward and odiferous sweet scents of wood smoke commingling with tantalizingly savories of salt water steam and
succulent St. Augustine oysters has left us with lovely lifetime memories.
These were the good times and the lasting memories of the best of St. Augustine’s social misfits.
So, thank you John and Murph so very much
Kimski’s; Brad and Jean
Brad was a tall lean pleasant looking good natured chap in his mid-twenties with a head of sandy colored curly hair
that he let grow into an un-kept frazzle and a beard to match who lived an easy going semi-beach-bum lifestyle
bankrolled by his wealthy old man.
Brad’s sweet easy going little wife Jean fit right into Brad’s easy going life style perfectly and they were an amiable
compatible like-minded team. Unworried and unhurried sweet smiling little Jean also came from the same era of St.
Augustine’s economically affluent.
Brad and Jean started out their married life together honeymooning and backpacking around Spain and fit right into
the hippy drop-out period of the hanging out cannabis crowd.
This was not a frugal honeymoon experience and whenever the spirit moved them Brad and Jean would luxuriate in
five star self indulgence and then just wire home for extra loot.
Our first winter of 1972-1973 in St. Augustine Jane and I got acquainted with fun loving easy going laid back Brad
and Jean.
Jane and I truly enjoyed our friendly fun loving get-togethers with free spirited Brad and Jean along with their inner
group of St. Augustine’s younger social set.
This community group many times gathered to party over at the Kimski’s apartment above Brad’s fathers Standard
Oil gas station across The Bridge of Lions on Anastasia Island.
(Brad’s well to do father owned several gas stations plus the distributorship of the Standard Oil Company for St.
John’s County.)
Every Sunday evening Jean would fry up a huge batch of her special recipe St. Augustine style deep fried shrimp
and invite a group of friends over to enjoy the fabulous feast and Jane and I became regulars.
A Sunday sail heading out the St. Augustine inlet for and offshore adventure that landed us enough Spanish
mackerel for our group to stuff ourselves on. From left to right; Jane Grimsrud, Nick the Canadian owner of this 34
foot homemade Ferro cement sailboat, myself John Grimsrud and Jean Kimski. Check out St. Augustine’s unique
skyline with its prominently protruding buildings from left; the Atlantic Bank building, Flagler’s Ponce de Lion Hotel
converted into Flagler College, church cupolas also built by Flagler and the distinctive Castillo de San Marco
waterfront fort.
(A brief note about the owner of this lovely sailing yacht built and single handedly sailed by our newly acquainted
friend Nick; Nick had a tragic youth winding up in a military camp with his mother in Yugoslavia after WWII where they
suffered several years as displaced persons. They ultimately settled in Canada where Nick built this lovely yacht all
by himself and then sailed down to Florida. As he approached St. Augustine in the night sailing off shore he decided
to pull in and took a heading for the lighthouse. Nick’s old chart didn’t show the new inlet some distance from the old
lighthouse and he sailed up on the hard packed beach going firmly aground at high tide. His problems weren’t over
at this point because some local looters possibly direct descendants of St. Augustine’s pirates began to loot Nick’s
stranded boat with him still aboard. The grounding did physical damage to his boat and he ultimately had to have it
trucked into town where he could do repairs before he could sail on. Jane and I heard about Nick’s plight and went
over to see if we could be of some assistance to him. Nick was very paranoid and standoffish…we certainly
understood his disposition after we finally heard the story of his first encounter with St. Augustine’s residents on the
beach.)
Back to Brad and Jean Kimski;
To this day that feast is our all time favorite fried shrimp recipe and it always gets raves and we think of Brad and
Jean whenever we treat guests to this elegant specialty.
Find that recipe in the end note of this book.
Jean gave us a very special little sweet aloe plant and that convoluted story can be found in the end note of this
book.
Brad had a wood working shop where he unenthusiastically produced a small quantity of cabinets and other
varieties of custom cabinetry, mostly for family and friends.
Brad did not advertise or seriously solicit business.
He clearly did not need the money.
Brad and Jean were regulars at our dear friend John Ryder’s beach front oyster roasts where we met many of the
local St. Augustine party goers in our age group who were mostly sailors or want-to-be sailors.
Brad was one of three brothers that you will meet next and Jean was one of six brothers and sisters, and they all
grew up in St. Augustine.
In their unique ways all of these people were in someway social misfits and that is perhaps why we all hit it off so well
together.
Jerry Kimski was the straight arrow of the three Kimski brothers. Jerry dressed conservatively well and tended to his
father’s business keeping the office running smoothly with due respect and minimal screw-ups.
Polite, courteous, well mannered and neatly dressed square peg Jerry always gave the impression of being the
model of middle class conservatism.
I am sure that his parents were proud of him.
Jerry didn’t drink excessively like his two brothers but he did love his cannabis and perhaps that is part of the reason
he had such a low key easygoing and placid non-aggressive personality.
Straight-arrow Jerry never missed an oyster roast over at John and Murph Ryder’s and was just one of the regular
group except that he wasn’t any competition for the beer which made him somewhat of a stand out in that crowd of
guzzlers.
next chapter
Pierre and Shirley Thompson;
Right behind Henry Flagler and his descendants in real estate riches low-key easy going “Lucky Pierre” as he was
called by his closest friends was a self made asset builder.
A local boy made good, Lucky Pierre grew up on the streets of St. Augustine. He went to a military school during
WWII that was adjacent to the fabled Fountain of Youth tourist attraction on Magnolia Street. (The present day
Flamingo Apartments building.)
That WWII military school building was situated on the land previously owned by the Lady named Lou; the original
Diamond Lil who was made famous by the great poet Robert Service in his epic poems about the Yukon in the days
of the Klondike gold rush.
That military school building later went on to become the Flamingo Apartments, which my wife Jane and I purchased
in the late 1970s.
Pierre certainly became a pillar of the community with everything that he did and made St Augustine a much better
place to live.
His business was insurance and real estate.
By attrition and persevering attention to detail his financial empire grew on integrity that included his insurance and
real estate business plus shopping centers, apartment buildings and other business complexes.
***
An interesting and humorous story that Lucky Pierre loved to tell; One day as he sat in the lounge over at the St.
Augustine Yacht Club, a stuffed shirt type dressed in his gleaming white starched gentleman captain’s outfit puffed
up like a strutting Tom turkey came and sat down next to unassuming Pierre.
The stuffed shirt captain pompously proclaimed; “Do you see that 75 foot white Hatteras docked at the end of the
pier?
That’s mine and what kind of yacht do you own?”
Pierre smugly smiled and modestly replied; “a 14 foot sailfish,” and watched as the hot ticket stuffed shirt slowly and
coldly slinked away.
Lucky Pierre had a net worth that could have bought and sold that stuffed shirt a dozen times over but then Lucky
Pierre didn’t have to flaunt his fortune.
Pierre was the proverbial square peg in the round hole. A social misfit he was, beyond a reasonable shadow of a
doubt.
One of Pierre’s biggest pleasures of all in life was to slip off quietly in his no frills little fishing skiff and spend the day
peacefully just gunk-holing the creeks and waterways hook and line fishing with his old time crony buddy.
This was Pierre’s fulfillment in life and he was truly happily contented beyond belief because he sincerely didn’t have
to impress anybody to find real fulfillment of life.
Lucky Pierre was frugal and unpretentious but at the same time generous with no questions asked he freely helped
anybody that was down on their luck. He would even help some of the worst back stabbing jerks that had previously
screwed him over royally.
The world could use more of this kind of no questions asked kindness; Pierre was no fool with his money though, I
can still remember waiting in our camper van for Pierre to check into a fabulously plush hotel over in Ireland.
Pierre was back in a few minutes and I said; “you sure checked in quick.”
Pierre responded; “Too high priced…drive on!” He had the money but was not going to throw it away frivolously.
“Uncle Pete” as Pierre was affectionately known to his family was with out a doubt the most low key and unassuming
person you were likely to meet in little old St. Augustine. Until recently he never ever owned a new car but always
had a very respectable machine to drive.
Lucky Pierre did find a real gem when he married his Shirley who he met in St. Augustine’s most upscale restaurant
and lounge, the White Lion, where she was the featured entertainment with her incredibly beautiful singing voice.
These two people seemed to be the perfect marital match and my wife Jane and I have had some of our most
memorable moments and good times with them doing positively outrageous things that almost always involved
singing, laughing and joking.
This is Lucky Pierre with one of his nearly new autos at the corner of Radio Road and Dufferin Street
when he came to pay us a visit. Our home was at 56 Dufferin and our Flamingo Apartments across the
street behind Pierre.
This story doesn’t stop here and next you must meet another part of this eccentric out of the loop group.
Enter Ron and Brigid Barnes;
BARNES, RON AND BRIGID;
Ron aka “Barnsy” was one of St. Augustine’s and the worlds number one social misfits, a square peg that made a
perfect fit in the Old City.
Tall lanky perpetually smiling and grinning big Ron came from Canada…escaped that is!
We asked Barnsy where he grew up and then realized that he never had. Nonstop jokes and one-liners were
always so absurd that Barnsy would be laughing so hard by the time he finished that his laughter became so
hilariously contagious it infected one and all. Then expressionless straight-faced deadpan Brigid would with a smirk
exclaim; “Ron!, you silly bugger you are full of hops!”
Barnsy and wife Brigid were a perfect pair, the clown and the straight-man comedy team. They left Canada in a very
home made 42 foot steel sailboat named Rover that was Barnsy’s first boat building attempt. It was perfectly crude in
every way but then so was our Barnsy.
Barnsy had to be the luckiest person I have ever met. With his “I don’t give a damn attitude” coupled with a totally
fearless mind-set Barnsy didn’t have a single reservation about blindly tackling any adventure.
Barnes lack of boating skills and knowledge was nearly complete, and as close to 100% as he could be, but that
didn’t stop flamboyant buoyant Barnsy with his make-shift contraption he lovingly referred to as his vessel.
Barney’s loving wife Brigid knew even less than he did but stuck resolutely by his side through screwed up fiasco
after fiasco but they somehow miraculously survived, only slipping by with the luck of the Irish.
We would all shake our heads in amazed disbelief.
Barnsy did have one advantage after all; his totally Irish wife Brigid did possess a small degree of common sense,
and that miniscule amount of common since was probably responsible for seeing them both through many of their
unthinkably insane blind luck adventures.
Ultimately St. Augustine drew these social misfits by its magnetic force but first they spent a winter in Boston and
then a year and a half at Annapolis on their way south to their boat “Rover’s” ultimate home.
Brigid lost several fingers to an unprotected fan belt aboard their boat so their trip was not totally a venture of good
luck.
If you ever did see these two handling a boat you would be utterly astonished that they ever got anywhere. It was a
don’t give-a-dam lark and somehow a laughable joke they both found hilariously funny no matter what kind of
calamity beset them. This comic team was the exclusive crew of their very home-made boat Rover that wouldn’t
qualify for yacht status.
Accompanied by his adoring in her Irish liberal sort of way wife Brigid, Barnsy made music everywhere he went.
Barnsy strumming with his single chord on his beat-up old out-of-tune guitar and straight faced Brigid plucked away
at her lap top electric autoharp with its electronically synchronized rhythm that always managed to draw an
enthusiastic sing-along crowd.
Gleefully prompting absentminded “Stomp-en-Ron” with punch lines and lyrics Brigid would exclaim to all; Barnsy,
you are a silly bugger, you are full of hops! Barnsy just loved it…he wasn’t good, just loud and he didn’t even need
an amplifier. Enthusiasm is what he had plenty of and he was always the last one to quit a party…the last man
standing. How those two ever got home after some of their blasted-away benders is a total mystery to me.
(When Barnsy made music he was known as “Stomp-en –Ron”.)
PARTY TIME, TALLY GRAVES, BRIGID-RON BARNES AND JOHN GOLDEN
In the above photo taken in our front yard at 56 Dufferin Street we were celebrating another 4th of July with a pot-
luck yard party. Banjo picking Tally Graves was a retired FBI agent who came to St. Augustine and went into
business big time with McDonald and Dairy Queen franchises. Playing the bucket drum was John Golden the only
professional in the group who was a former member of the Atlantic Philharmonic Orchestra.
(In the background of this photo is the very bay and creek across the marsh grasses that Ponce de Leon sailed up
on his voyage of discovery back in 1513.)
Easy going happy-go-lucky don’t give a damn Barnsy made a perfect miss-match with his stubborn stick to it no
matter what 100% Irish lass that loved her silly ass bugger Barnsy no matter how outrageous he ever got. Brigid
could get pissed…not easily, but when she did get pissed she was totally pissed. There was no turning back…slam-
dunk case closed! (Except with her Barnsy.)
Just how these two party animals ever got to St. Augustine is a drawn out and convoluted story. Barnsy in his other
life led a semi straight-laced existence, was married to an almost humorless woman and in suit and tie had a 9 to 5
conservative job with a Canadian insurance company.
What happened?
The real Barnsy finally floated to the surface!
He built a real home made boat and his new creation was his first boat…Rover that was unmistakably not a
production line model.
He hooked up with Brigid and together they set sail south.
First it was to Boston where they spent a winter and partied to the point that ultimately for survival sake they had to
leave town, just to get rested up.
Their next stop was in Annapolis, Maryland where they had further perfected their party routine that was now gaining
momentum and it took them a year and a half to say goodbye and ramble south in their rusty “Rover” to St.
Augustine, the town that was made especially for the socially misfit Barnes.
Living frugally aboard their Rover they quickly settled into the local St. Augustine bar-hopping and party scene
routine hitting every happy-hour to munch-up the free-bees.
Brigid took a job working as private secretary for the richest guy in town, Pierre Thompson.
After walking two miles to get to her job Brigid found out that her relationship with the boss definitely was not love at
first sight.
After her first day at work Brigid stomped home with no intention of ever returning to her job again.
Brigid absolutely did not communicate well with Pierre and Pierre had never encountered a real Irish woman with
such steel willed inflexibility. There was however some hidden attribute in Brigid’s resolute tenacious attitude that
Pierre found commendable and extremely admirable. Brigid definitely was not your average social climbing
sycophant...right was right and that was that!
Period!
As long as it was Brigid’s way!
The next day Brigid didn’t show up for work, Pierre thought it over, felt pangs of guilt and made a special trip over to
the Barnsy’s humble little homemade boat Rover to make amends with a bucket of fresh fish and plead for her
return.
Brigid thought that her bridges had been burnt and was obviously moved deeply by Pierre’s overture of friendship
and compassion.
(Pierre had never met a woman that wasn’t just a humble servant before and this lady had more than spirit so
pensive Pierre wanted this iron willed one of a kind no-bull-shit woman on his team.)
Brigid did come back and a close life-time relationship was cemented and Brigid turned out to be Pierre’s best
business asset and respected friend.
Whenever Pierre was at loggerheads with city hall Brigid would march down with blood in her eye and demand
prompt justice and affirmative action! Believe me she was not going to be put down or put off and she let those
“buggers” down at city hall know that she meant business! Nobody was going home until Brigid got Pierre’s permit or
license…Brigid got results and Pierre would just shake his head in disbelief and silently smile in grateful gratitude.
Pierre knew that even with his huge amount of influence that he would never get the service and respect from city
hall that Brigid absolutely demanded…lucky Pierre! And so the team of two was formed.
Over the years “Lucky Pierre” as we all became found of calling him, made it a point to make it to all of the wild, loud
and hilariously fun cookouts and sing-along parties over at the Barnsy’s “Rock Bottom Boat Yard”.
Pierre and his lovely wife Shirley and the Barnsy’s even vacationed together…Jane and I caught up with them in
Ireland and England and that two week party of nonstop events would easily fill more than a chapter all by itself.
(The six of us traveled in our new campervan across Ireland and we were treated to a nonstop sing along and
hilariously outrageous jokes. As soon as Ron would let up Brigid would pick up the slack and we all damn near
pissed our pants in uproarious out of control laughter when the stories and songs went from outlandish to
outrageously absurd.)
Back to the Barnsy’s St. Augustine story; it wasn’t long and a super land deal was landed by the Barnsy’s.
Of course Brigid was working in the office of the boss of St. Augustine’s most prestigious real estate company and
was right there to seal the deal.
Here is what the Barnsy’s got; three commercial building lots two of which were water front on the San Sebastian
River. This deal was made to order for the Barnsy’s. A place for them to tie up their home-made boat Rover and
plenty of room on the already commercially zoned lots for Ron to weld up his steel hulled boats…and thus the Rock
Bottom Boat Yard was born.
Barnsy struck up a deal with the famous naval architect Tom Colvin to build the Gazelle sailboats and the Rock
Bottom Boat Yard was soon up and running with plenty of back orders.
A $500 old used house trailer made a quick and easy no frills office, guard shack and also doubled as party
headquarters complete with toilet facilities.
This truly was the rock Bottom Boat Yard and Barnsy wouldn’t spring an extra nickel for a single up grade and even
refused to buy liability insurance.
Brigid here used some basic business good sense and got a minimum liability policy just so she could sleep at night.
Her boss, Lucky Pierre just happened to have one of the largest insurance companies in town.
Barnsy did eventually plan some capitalistic expansions to the Rock Bottom Boat Yard that included a bulkhead and
dock but you could bet that he frugally cut every corner to the bone.
Well, this would require a building permit from city hall.
Besides the city building inspector several self-appointed do-gooder busy bodies made it their personal business to
dictate their own self-righteous agendas and tagged along with the city building inspector to over see that the letter
of the law was applied to their know-it-all standards.
This is where push wouldn’t come to shove. The ladies contingent of self-righteous do-gooders was headed by a
woman in her own private perpetual snit who got some kind of self gratifying orgasm out of raining on someone else’
s parade.
Enter St. Augustine’s own battle-ax wielding warrior Gusty Tempest; the lady with her very own vendetta against one
and all.
In the course of the inspection tour directed by Barnsy, “snitty” Gusty Tempest informed Barnsy that he could not
possibly build his bulkhead because he would have to cut down a tree to do so and pointed out the young sapling.
Well, “snitty” Gusty Tempest was used to brow beating all that crossed her path but this was her first encounter with
Barnsy.
Ron Barnes is tall, well informed, extremely articulate and very loud.
Barnes instantly boomed back with; “You are a stupid woman!”
“Snitty” Gusty Tempest with her hands on her hips retorted “And Mr. Barnes you are a male chauvinistic pig, how
dare you call me a stupid woman?”
Barnes resolutely stood his ground and said; “I didn’t call you a stupid woman because you are a woman, I called
you a stupid woman because you are stupid!”
The bomb shell had been dropped and this matter would be brought before the city council.
Well, yes indeed the matter was placed on the councils docket for the next public meeting.
Ron and Brigid were both there and ready for verbal action and their case was placed 2nd on that days agenda.
The meeting was called to order and their turn came and they were passed over, then the next and the next until the
meeting was finally adjourned. Nobody wanted to face off with the Barnsy’s…at least not in public and they quietly
were granted their bulkhead and dock permits. Ron and Brigid were truly a team to be reckoned with.
Brigid was late to marry and she was well on her way to becoming an old maid when she and Ron had tied the knot.
That made Brigid just about the happiest woman in the world.
Brigid was so excited that she just couldn’t wait to show her prize off to her family back in Ireland.
Well the day finally came when Brigid had her Irish family all together to present her new husband Ron, Ron shook
his head “no” and replied; “I am from rent a husband and Brigid only has me for a month”. The family just cracked
up with wild Irish laughter and loved and adored Ron Barnes from that moment on.
Ron’s humor was loved in a special Irish sort of way. I can still remember in Ireland when Ron returned to visit he
entered with this opener for one of his jokes;
He asked if they knew how an Irishman put on his underwear. Ron’s sister in law quickly responded;
“I don’t know but I bet it will be vulgar.”
Yes it was!
Ron responded with his giddy giggles;
“Yellow in front and brown in back”.
This wasn’t the end of “Stomp-en-Ron’s” “Rent-a husband” prank. When they got back to St. Augustine Ron got
some friends that had a print shop to print him up some business cards;
RON BARNES
RENT-A-HUSBAND
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED
Ron had a field day handing them out but Brigid went absolutely bull-shit!
Now she never did get mad at her ever-loving Ron but she went simply ballistic at their friends with the print shop,
Fran and Roy…how can you figure?
An interesting quirk in Ron’s personality was that he absolutely didn’t give a damn…if the car ran why change the oil
or grease it?
If the boat floated…OK.
Service and upkeep never took any of Barnsy’s absurd nonstop party time.
Well, one day Stomp-en-Ron and Brigid noticed an abnormal amount of water in the bilge of their Rover which was
their home and humble abode where they resided.
(Remember the number one rule of boating…the water is supposed to be on the outside!)
Ron found the problem in a few minutes and fixed it. Simple, the water was running in through a rusted out hole in
the propeller shaft log.
(This is the tube that covers the propeller shaft on the inside of the hull.)
A few turns of Saran Wrap did the trick.
For Barnsy this was a permanent repair and as far as he was concerned the case was closed on that problem and
he never gave it another thought.
By and by he did put his Rover up for sale and believe it or not he got a buyer. The deal was agreed upon but the
buyer was a thousand dollars short. Barnsy wouldn’t budge a cent on the deal so the eager buyer headed home to
Savannah to get the rest of the cash.
On the way home the prospective buyer had a debilitating auto accident so he would never be able to use the Rover
and that was the end of his one and only prospective buyer.
Ron never did get another buyer and one weekend when Ron and Brigid returned home to their floating home
Rover from an out of town trip they found their Rover resting on the bottom…remember the number one rule of
boating, it was broken and Stomp-en-Ron’s Saran Wrap repair job went past its “good till date”.
Barnsy’s history of make shift repair jobs cost Brigid some of her fingers. Years earlier while they were back in
Canada Brigid fell victim to one of Ron’s haphazard make-do boat repair jobs when an exposed fan belt instantly
altered Brigid’s life.
Brigid had a heart of gold but was as Irish as Irish as you could ever get.
She and Ron loved the best deals in town that included “happy-hours” with free snacks and ½ price drinks, local
sing-along bars and jug-band honky-tonks. Whenever the bar-room pace slackened Stomp-en-Ron and Brigid
jumped in to keep the place in hysterical laughter at fever pitch…what a pair!
Even though the number one thing that they did dearly love was a good deal their generosity knew no bounds. If
they were giving out beer you could bet that it was the cheapest brand-x in town that was on sale as a loss-leader at
the supermarket. As far as the Barnsy’s were concerned there were only two kinds of beer, warm and cold…damn
the expense!
I can still remember one day when Jane and I stopped by the Rock Bottom Boat Yard office, guard shack, party
headquarters and crash pad in their $500 house trailer and spotted a jug of the most expensive cream sherry on
the market at the time.
Myers Number 44 American Cream Sherry.
We immediately recognized it as one of the wines that we cherished the most and would only dole out in very small
sparing amounts as a topping for French ice cream. Well, Brigid noticed our interest and told us that one of the
salesmen that called on the boatyard had dropped it off as a gift.
Brigid asked if we would like some and we eagerly responded affirmatively.
Without batting an eye Brigid emptied the entire contents of the entire jug into two huge tumbler sized drinking water
glasses.
We felt like a sacred cherished air loom of ours had been desecrated and Brigid sincerely thought that she was
doing us a big favor.
There really must be something to this thing they call “the luck of the Irish”.
The commercial building lots that Ron and Brigid paid $20,000 for when they first came to town a few years earlier
and used as a boat building yard, party headquarters, a place to tie their own boat and dock rental for more than
ten years fetched them nearly ½ a million dollars when they bailed out.
JOHN RYDER AND WIFE MURPH., signed the guest book aboard our boat Dursmirg June 23, 1975
John was slightly stodgy and a borderline couch-potato who was a captivator of his classes as a high school teacher
of civics; his students just adored him like some space age cult leader.
Inquisitive and public spirited John was also active in lots of civic activities like the annual summer season theatrical
production over on Anastasia Island named Cross and Sword, a reenactment of St. Augustine’s history whose
devoted and dedicated enthusiastic actors came from the community. Lots of fun was had by all including the
spectators who were more than likely to see in the production familiar faces of the town folk.
This production was filled with lots of pomp and ceremony, smoke, bells and whistles that gloriously reenacted St.
Augustine’s early history with a huge list of mostly local actors who all passionately captivated the full house
audience night after night through the summer season.
John never failed to be in the annual St. George Street Colonial Times pageant and various other enactments
around the Oldest City where he could dress up in his very own distinctive period costume to act out his own
fantasies, which he dearly did love to do.
John’s uncle, Pat Bernard owned the WFOY radio station (Fountain of Youth) and was well connected around town.
Pat found John and Murph a house with five waterfront lots over on Salt Run on Anastasia Island for $13.000 an
incredible price even back then.
John was a small boat sailor and had a fair weather little open 16 foot sloop rigged sailboat he moored in his front
yard that eventually took a trip to the bottom in one of the many storms that frequented old St. Augustine.
John donated his sunken little sailboat to the Marineland Studios to be put in their big plate glass exotic fish salt
water tank on permanent display for all to see. And that was enough boats and boating for John.
We were always invited over to John and Murph’s outdoor oyster roasts in their front yard on the Salt Run
waterfront…”bring your own booze”.
The local oysters were only harvested in the months of the year that had an “R” in them, so from September on
through April it was oyster roast season in St. Augustine.
John and Murph also contributed a gigantic caldron of French onion soup that was John’s specialty and he took
special pride in its preparation. It was with out a doubt as good as French onion soup gets but John was extremely
heavy handed on the salt. John’s huge kettle of onion soup was a real gas to go with the fresh steamed oysters.
We were always happy to be amongst the congenial guests.
A piece of sheet metal was placed over an open wood fire atop cement blocks and the raw in the shell oysters were
then placed on top. Next a wet burlap bag was placed over the oysters and they would steam open.
Dipped in molten butter mixed with Worchester sauce and garlic they were terrific.
The quantity of oysters we all consumed was absolutely astronomical and it was rumored that the oysters made you
sexy.
As our dear old friend Stomp-en Ron Barnes used to exclaim about oysters; “I ate a dozen oysters and only eleven
worked!”
No matter how many oysters or how much French onion soup there was it wasn’t quitting time until nothing remained
and everybody was stuffed beyond capacity.
Many times Jane and I would sail from our from our dock across the harbor and up Hospital Creek to John and
Murph’s waterfront home for their oyster roasts on their beach.
When the party was over we could simply dinghy out to our anchored little Columbia 26 foot sloop named El Barco
and snooze until the spirit moved us the following morning.
Confabbing with friends on the bay front beach around the crackling driftwood fire that was sending sizzling sparks
skyward and odiferous sweet scents of wood smoke commingling with tantalizingly savories of salt water steam and
succulent St. Augustine oysters has left us with lovely lifetime memories.
These were the good times and the lasting memories of the best of St. Augustine’s social misfits.
So, thank you John and Murph so very much
Kimski’s; Brad and Jean
Brad was a tall lean pleasant looking good natured chap in his mid-twenties with a head of sandy colored curly hair
that he let grow into an un-kept frazzle and a beard to match who lived an easy going semi-beach-bum lifestyle
bankrolled by his wealthy old man.
Brad’s sweet easy going little wife Jean fit right into Brad’s easy going life style perfectly and they were an amiable
compatible like-minded team. Unworried and unhurried sweet smiling little Jean also came from the same era of St.
Augustine’s economically affluent.
Brad and Jean started out their married life together honeymooning and backpacking around Spain and fit right into
the hippy drop-out period of the hanging out cannabis crowd.
This was not a frugal honeymoon experience and whenever the spirit moved them Brad and Jean would luxuriate in
five star self indulgence and then just wire home for extra loot.
Our first winter of 1972-1973 in St. Augustine Jane and I got acquainted with fun loving easy going laid back Brad
and Jean.
Jane and I truly enjoyed our friendly fun loving get-togethers with free spirited Brad and Jean along with their inner
group of St. Augustine’s younger social set.
This community group many times gathered to party over at the Kimski’s apartment above Brad’s fathers Standard
Oil gas station across The Bridge of Lions on Anastasia Island.
(Brad’s well to do father owned several gas stations plus the distributorship of the Standard Oil Company for St.
John’s County.)
Every Sunday evening Jean would fry up a huge batch of her special recipe St. Augustine style deep fried shrimp
and invite a group of friends over to enjoy the fabulous feast and Jane and I became regulars.
A Sunday sail heading out the St. Augustine inlet for and offshore adventure that landed us enough Spanish
mackerel for our group to stuff ourselves on. From left to right; Jane Grimsrud, Nick the Canadian owner of this 34
foot homemade Ferro cement sailboat, myself John Grimsrud and Jean Kimski. Check out St. Augustine’s unique
skyline with its prominently protruding buildings from left; the Atlantic Bank building, Flagler’s Ponce de Lion Hotel
converted into Flagler College, church cupolas also built by Flagler and the distinctive Castillo de San Marco
waterfront fort.
(A brief note about the owner of this lovely sailing yacht built and single handedly sailed by our newly acquainted
friend Nick; Nick had a tragic youth winding up in a military camp with his mother in Yugoslavia after WWII where they
suffered several years as displaced persons. They ultimately settled in Canada where Nick built this lovely yacht all
by himself and then sailed down to Florida. As he approached St. Augustine in the night sailing off shore he decided
to pull in and took a heading for the lighthouse. Nick’s old chart didn’t show the new inlet some distance from the old
lighthouse and he sailed up on the hard packed beach going firmly aground at high tide. His problems weren’t over
at this point because some local looters possibly direct descendants of St. Augustine’s pirates began to loot Nick’s
stranded boat with him still aboard. The grounding did physical damage to his boat and he ultimately had to have it
trucked into town where he could do repairs before he could sail on. Jane and I heard about Nick’s plight and went
over to see if we could be of some assistance to him. Nick was very paranoid and standoffish…we certainly
understood his disposition after we finally heard the story of his first encounter with St. Augustine’s residents on the
beach.)
Back to Brad and Jean Kimski;
To this day that feast is our all time favorite fried shrimp recipe and it always gets raves and we think of Brad and
Jean whenever we treat guests to this elegant specialty.
Find that recipe in the end note of this book.
Jean gave us a very special little sweet aloe plant and that convoluted story can be found in the end note of this
book.
Brad had a wood working shop where he unenthusiastically produced a small quantity of cabinets and other
varieties of custom cabinetry, mostly for family and friends.
Brad did not advertise or seriously solicit business.
He clearly did not need the money.
Brad and Jean were regulars at our dear friend John Ryder’s beach front oyster roasts where we met many of the
local St. Augustine party goers in our age group who were mostly sailors or want-to-be sailors.
Brad was one of three brothers that you will meet next and Jean was one of six brothers and sisters, and they all
grew up in St. Augustine.
In their unique ways all of these people were in someway social misfits and that is perhaps why we all hit it off so well
together.
Jerry Kimski was the straight arrow of the three Kimski brothers. Jerry dressed conservatively well and tended to his
father’s business keeping the office running smoothly with due respect and minimal screw-ups.
Polite, courteous, well mannered and neatly dressed square peg Jerry always gave the impression of being the
model of middle class conservatism.
I am sure that his parents were proud of him.
Jerry didn’t drink excessively like his two brothers but he did love his cannabis and perhaps that is part of the reason
he had such a low key easygoing and placid non-aggressive personality.
Straight-arrow Jerry never missed an oyster roast over at John and Murph Ryder’s and was just one of the regular
group except that he wasn’t any competition for the beer which made him somewhat of a stand out in that crowd of
guzzlers.
next chapter
