JAX CURIOSITY SHOP: 

             BLUE-JEANED MAILWOMAN

(Source of picture: Florida State Archives)

What an interesting view from the top of the Mayport Lighthouse in 1922.  Of course, this photo shows Mayport during the day; very little could've been seen from the same vista after dark.  Kerosene lamps lit the community, for electricity didn't come to Mayport until 1936.  Even then, it appears that the Great Depression and World War II made it difficult to buy big-ticket items.  Not until WWII ended in 1945, for example, did many Mayport residents replace washtubs & washboards with electric washing machines.  

MAYPORT'S "LADY MAILMAN" -- Whereas South Florida can boast of its "barefoot mailman," Mayport can counter with its blue-jeaned mail lady.  Women didn't usually wear dungarees in 1935, but when Ruby Houston began to deliver mail that year, she chose them as her part of her unofficial uniform.  

Houston carried the mail across the mouth of the St. Johns River between Fort George Island and Mayport.  Braving treacherous winds & waves, she used a rowboat until river traffic forced a move into a motor-driven vessel.  When fog or high seas hid her little boat from sight, people on either side would stand by their own craft in case she needed help.  According to gossip, Houston often fixed her motor with a hairpin.  In actuality, the mail lady revealed, her hairpin came in handy on only one occasion.  

The intrepid Houston ran her route for five years, twice each day except for Sundays.  A native of Amelia Island, Houston had learned the waterways of northeast Florida at an early age.  She often rowed her own children through the rivers & creeks of the Fort George area.  

Ruby Houston lived her later years in Jacksonville Beach, passing away in 1981.

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