{"id":499,"date":"2024-03-06T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2024-01-30T16:46:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T16:46:06","slug":"a-florida-rescue-mission-1978-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"A Florida Rescue Mission [1978-79]"},"content":{"rendered":"

He’s got a gun<\/em><\/p>\n

For a combination of reasons I ended up spending Christmas 1978 in Florida.  1.  I\u2019d already decided to put my political roots down in Minnesota instead of South Jersey.  2.  My best South Jersey friend, Bob, had finally accepted the year-old break-up from his girlfriend, and felt it was time to move on.   3.  Our dear friend Leslie needed a ride to Miami.   4.  My sister Fred (real name Stephanie Jancis Nancy Nicholas Dawkins*) had moved to Madeira Beach, Florida, and somebody needed to deliver the family Xmas presents.  Last but not least, Carol Finlayson had asked us to rescue her sister.<\/p>\n

________<\/p>\n

*Mom & Dad thought Fred was going to be the last Dawkins kid and gave her all their favorite names still left over to give their kids.  However, Fred\u2019s Uncle Bob \u2013 who already had heard her name was Stephanie Jancis Nancy Nicholas \u2013 peered into the bassinet upon her arrival home from the hospital (as a two day-old) and announced to the assembled clan \u201cLooks like a Fred to me.\u201d  She\u2019s been Fred ever since \u2013 all her teachers called her Fred  and her husband does to this day.<\/p>\n

________<\/p>\n

There were many great things about Bob (who’s sadly passed on).  He was a clutterer and tall.  He was rich and he was kind.  He was a good frisbee and tennis player and taught me most my pool shots.  And he made me LOL.  The reason why tallness was a great thing has to do with the cluttering.  He was a pack-rat and the dashboard on his ten year-old Volkswagen Van was like the rings of a tree:  If you went ten layers down you\u2019d find things from ten years ago.  By 1978 you had to be tall to see to drive.  The reason richness is on the list is because his wealthy family had insisted on buying him a new Volare station wagon for the trip as they didn\u2019t believe the Volkswagen Van was safe.  Kindness because what finally got Bob to leave town (and give up on re-uniting with his ex) was Carol’s request to rescue her sister from a cult in Ormond Beach, FLA.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The cause of an upcoming domestic quarrel<\/p><\/div>\n

Eventually I ended up Amtraking it to Minnesota (from Seattle) because Bob was literally driving to the Ends of the Earth until he found a new place to settle down.  When we ran out of perimeter to the country in Seattle, and Bob was planning on continuing to Alaska, I bailed because \u2013 unlike Bob \u2013 I did know where I wanted to end up.  And it wasn\u2019t because of a girl.  It was because Minnesota has had \u2013 almost forever \u2013 the best politics in the nation, and I had a Ten Year Plan to get elected to the Legislature.  Politics was my girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow:  First a Detour<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

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He’s got a gun For a combination of reasons I ended up spending Christmas 1978 in Florida.  1.  I\u2019d already decided to put my political roots down in Minnesota instead of South Jersey.  2.  My best South Jersey friend, Bob, had finally … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1716,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/1716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/andydawkins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}