A VERY INTERESTING DAY
A remarkable side trip through Jupiter history began for me the day I met Sue Dewey. Ironically, the Town of Jupiter was celebrating its 75th Anniversary on that day. I spent most of that morning of in Jupiter's Information Systems department going through the archives of old Council meeting minutes doing research for this web site. While Town minutes are interesting on the whole, they are hardly exciting stuff. I left with a lot of questions and few answers, but in reality I was just killing time waiting for my scheduled 1:30 PM Town Hall tour group. Since becoming involved in this project, I especially wanted to see the Records Department and to take the complete tour of Information Systems. Alas, it was not to be.
THE TOUR OF TOWN HALL
At the first stop on the tour, I saw the familiar face of an important part of the Jupiter History Web Project, Town of Jupiter Records Manager Janet Whipple, . As I snapped the picture to the right, the flash startled Janet and caused her to look up and notice me. "Bill!!" Uh, oh. I thought I was going to get scolded for interrupting her spiel. Instead Janet started telling me about how I had to meet this woman who had been by earlier with a box of stuff. About 20 puzzled people looked on for a few minutes as Janet and I talked about local history. Suddenly, Sue Dewey walked in with a box of history in her hands. Janet introduced us and returned to her duties -- and the tour continued without me. Sue and I talked for quite awhile. Her mission was to learn more about the artifacts in the box and about her own family. Standing in the upstairs gallery area of Town Hall we examined pictures and diaries handed down through generations while Sue told me what she knew about her Jupiter roots. Sue's history box contained three diaries handwritten by her grandfather along with about 60 photographs of people and places in early Jupiter.
PROBABLY NOT INTERESTING?
Sue
did not seem to think that the box of items would be of interest to
anyone else because of the ordinary everyday nature of the pictures and
diaries. But almost instantly when I saw them I understood what Janet
had been trying to tell me. The diaries contain the daily happenings of a
young man in Jupiter between 1915 and 1918. Most of the photos are
meticulously documented on the backs. The answer I offered Sue that day
was access to the remarkable group of people behind this web site -- a
group that had just met for the first time a few weeks earlier. I
invited Sue to attend the next Jupiter History Web with the promise that
she would meet people who might have answers instead of questions.
THE FEBRUARY COMMITTEE MEETING
Sue
Dewey did attend the February meeting of the Web committee. The agenda
went out the window as the pictures and diaries made their way around
the table. The stories they inspired came so fast that I couldn't keep
up with them. The photos and diaries that Sue thought we would find
unimportant were described with words and exclamations like "priceless,"
"unique," and "valuable records." Many of the photos present views of
prominent people and places previously unseen even by our panel of
history experts.
Town Hall... 
