The Early Years: 1945-1963

Martin grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida in the mid-20th Century. He attended elementary school at West Gate Elementary and enjoyed baseball and motorcycles.

Martin and Vera - as the writing (probably by Katherine) states "May 47 2 yrs"

2760 Oswego Avenue

The Varney (and later Barnes) household for some 40 years at 2760 Oswego Avenue. This photo shows some local flooding, probably after an afternoon thunderstorm or possibly something more tropical. A drainage ditch/canal ran behind the house along the avenue. The car appears to be a 1953 Buick Special which dates the photo to somewhere in the mid-1950s. After Katherine's death in 1993, the house was demolished.

School Days

Only the first image was identified with a school year (1951-52) which would coincide with the First Grade. My best guess would be that the second photo was at about 12 years-old (1957) and the third at about 14 (1959).

Portions of Martin's Second Grade report card. The best comment is from the third period teacher, "Martin talks too much..." So it begins! Mrs. Moody is pictured on the right.

Baseball

The original newspaper clipping was pretty beat up, but this was the team Martin played for in 1957 when he was 11 or 12 years old. He's in the lower right with the unfortunate crease folded through his face.

According to an associated certificate, the Rubin Construction Baseball Team of Howard Park was the City Champion of the Junior Optimist Recreation League in 1957.

J.M. (Jake) Rubin, the sponsor of the team, went on to start a foundation in the area, the JM Rubin Foundation. Wouldn't it be neat to know what became of the rest of the kids on the team?

Motorcycles

Martin enjoyed a lifelong love of motorcycles. When he was 15 (1960) the incident noted in the clip above took place. It's a little hard to tell from the pictures, but there is a noticeable dent towards the front of the fuel tank and the rear of the bike, near the license plate, got mangled a bit. Unfortunately there was no date or publication information with the newspaper clipping.