Originally Posted by
mvoight
I haven't been there since leaving my ship and the Navy in Mayport, but if I have a need to be in the area, it seems a bit far to drive from Daytona.
I have, but I left my ship in Naples (the neapolitano sort) in 1965. They've changed (JAX and Naples). All the better skivvy joints and locker clubs have closed, and the "Officers' Club" has changed its names to something politically correct, if not so to the bibulous set, raised on Guantanamo Rum Goodies and Flaming Hookers. There are far worse vacations than a few days in a house on Seminole Beach, contemplating sunrise and memories of the halcyon days of one's youth, while an old stereo pumps out Freddy Fender's "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights", a tune which though recorded later sums up much of my experience on the "Strip", Atlantic, Neptune and Jax Beaches, the "Land God gave to Cain."
If the OP thinks the new - new to those of us old enough to recall its predecessor, a bare step up from WWII - terminal at JAX "sux", he ought'a try spending the night in his car next parked next to C-3 on the carrier pier. When the big 'skeeters start to descend by dawn's early light, he'll wish he had a 9' celing (or any ceiling at all).