Her stories of the early South, the Civil War and the lovely ladies in their hoop skirts were fascinating to me and I could sit and listen to her by the hour.

One by one, I met the rest of the family, My mother in law and her husband, Fred Turner, a dignified southern gentleman in every sense of the word, aunts, uncles, cousins, their children and last but not least, a big husky black man named Adam Bryant who was affectionately called, "Old Daddy." He was an ex-slave and it was plain to see that he adored Grandma. He loved to fish in the river and I never saw him return to the house empty handed from one of his trips.

We stayed in a small place on the grounds of the Carlin House containing a bedroom and bath. Many newlyweds in the family had stayed there, so it was nicknamed the "Honeymoon Cottage."

On my second day In town I was taken to the heart of Jupiter. It was located in the vicinity of Center Street and Old Dixie Highway. There was a post office and grocery store in the building on the southwest corner. There were a few other places of business scattered here and there and that was Jupiter! I, jokingly, called it a dent in the road.

Harry Aicher was the postmaster but there was no mail delivery in those days, so everyone had a post office box. A lot of the citizens would congregate at the post office shortly before ten o'clock each morning and wait for the mail train to come through town and drop off bags of mail. Waiting for it to be sorted gave the people a chance to chat and catch up on the news of their friends, for local newspapers were non-existent in those days, too.

It was at one of these gatherings that I met a lot of my husband's friends and former classmates. Bessie and John DuBois, Anna Minear, Shirley Floyd, Audrey Lieb, Ruby McGehee, Herbert Wilkinson and many many more. They were a friendly group of people and made this Yankee feel right at home.

I had never gone fishing in my life, so later on that day my husband and Dan Ryan took me out for the first time. 

Bob Wilson loaned us his boat, called the "Pop Along." They relaxed in the sun and handled the boat while I did some trolling. I caught three beautiful blue fish before we reached the Damon bridge after leaving Grandma's dock. Needless to say, I was overjoyed but that elation did not last very long.

Shortly after I let out my line to try again I heard a "wooshing" sound. I looked at my companions and they were both wearing the strangest expressions. They looked as though they were trying not to laugh. When I asked about the sound I had heard, they replied that they hadn't heard a thing. I looked over my shoulder there in the river, just a few feet from the boat, was the biggest creature I had ever seen. The first thought that came to my mind was, "It's a whale!" and I started to yell it aloud. The boys just about broke up with laughter while I kept begging them to take me back to shore. When they had calmed down, they explained that it was a manatee or sea cow. I told them I had never heard of one before, let alone seen one and how ridiculous for a cow to be out in the middle of the river!

It took me a long time to live down that little episode, believe me. Especially with Dan. Every once in a while he would look at me, chuckle and then I would hear him mutter "Lillie and the whale." Come to think of it, we have lived here since June of 1968 and I haven't seen a manatee since we moved down, so they must have become pretty scarce.

My first Christmas Day in Jupiter was almost unbelievable to me. It was unusually warm so we went swimming before dinner. I was always accustomed to waking up to a white Christmas so I found all the warmth and sunshine a bit much to get used to.

I could never find the words to describe that Christmas dinner, for I had never seen so much food on one table before. Grandma had thirty people for dinner and even at that she must have had enough food to feed a hundred. Everything was perfectly delicious and, when I had finished, I was sure I would never have to eat again.

Before our wedding the folks had written to tell us that we had been invited to attend a formal dance while we were down here. It was to be held on New Year's Eve in West Palm Beach. When I learned about it I decided to buy a new evening gown for the occasion. I spent two or three days, on my lunch hour, going from shop to shop in New York trying to find exactly what I wanted. I, finally, found the dress of my dreams. It was the prettiest shade of aqua, floor length with a full skirt made of yards and yards of a new synthetic net material. As soon as we got around to unpacking, after our arrival here, I hung the new dress in the back of the closet away from our everyday clothes so it wouldn't get wrinkled.

On the day after Christmas Mary Ryan, who had, also, been invited to the dance along with Dan, asked me what sort of gown I planned on wearing. Rather than describe my new purchase I took her out to the cottage to show it to her. I reached in to the closet, brought out the dress and both Mary and I were speechless for a moment. We just stood and stared with utter disbelief.

My beautiful new dress had about four or five holes, the size of silver dollars, in the skirt. I was close to tears and Mary kept asking, over and over, "what happened?"

We soon discovered the culprits. They were some big old Florida roaches. Putting two and two together, I soon realized that what happened was my own fault. On the way down here we had stopped at a roadside stand for a glass of orange juice. Their oranges looked so good that we brought a few to eat in the car while driving. When we took our luggage to the cottage after our arrival we put the bag of left over oranges on the top shelf of the closet and forgot about them due to the exciting welcome we received. The roaches discovered the fruit and when they finished that, they had part of my dress for dessert.

Fortunately for me, all the women in the family were very handy with a needle and thread. Especially Aunt Edie Bradeen. That woman could design and make clothes that would make Edith Head sit up and take notice. Well, by pooling their talents and using some aqua thread they were able to repair the damage to my gown. Due to the fullness of the skirt and the many layers of net the flaws were hardly visible. The bride dried her tears, went to the dance and had a marvelous time.

The women of this family never ceased to amaze me. They could do anything and had their specialties, too. Aunt Sue Albertson was the baking expert. Her cakes were out of this world. They were so light and fluffy that I'm sure the only reason why they didn't float in to space was the fact that the thick, luscious frosting held them down. My mother in law was the lady mechanic. One Christmas I presented her with a frilly nylon nightgown. She liked it and expressed her appreciation, of course. However, when her son presented her with a set of socket wrenches, she reacted as I would have if he had given me a mink coat.