Ed’s Early Years
This page is a work-in-progress
Edgar Douglas Christman was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on November 26, 1929. His parents were Monseurat Adela Josephina “Jo” Carles and Ola Edgar Christman.
Monseurat Adele Josephina Carles was born in 1903 in Catalonia, Spain, near Barcelona. Her father Emilio Carles was a member of Spain’s diplomatic corps. The family left Spain when Jo was three years old for his service in South America and Mexico. When Jo was twelve, the family moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Emilio served as the consul from Spain. Jo was an unusual person: she was beautiful enough to be named Miss Jacksonville and intelligence and determined enough to become a business executive on her own merit. She learned to drive a car, attended Stetson University, and wanted to become a lawyer.
Ola Christman was born in 1889 in Johnston County, North Carolina. His ancestors were German who immigrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania. They later moved to Salem, NC. Frederick Thomas Christman married woman from the Below family, and there are both Christman and Below houses in Old Salem. When Fredrick became Baptist the family had to leave Salem. Their grandson, Thomas Ruffin Christman, married Virginia Alice Hocutt, who were parents of Ola. The Hocutts were English. Ola’s mother Virginia Alice died when he was three years old. He went to live with her brother, his uncle Joe Hocutt. (the Farm in Eastern NC)
Ola served in the US Navy in World War I. He was married to a US Army Nurse, Berneice Long, who died of illness during the war.
Ola later moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where he worked at the Jacksonville, Florida Railroad Terminal, which served as the headquarters for five railroad systems. He came the Assets Comptroller and then Comptroller.
Ola met Jo when he started taking Spanish class, and she was his teacher. She had not become a lawyer after all, but worked at the Monticello Drug Company for Dr. T.S. Roberts, Sr, the company founder. She did all the translations for the company’s business in Mexico.
Ola and Joe married in April 1928.
Young Edgar was born with striking white hair and crossed eyes. His eyes required four operations, all of which were done at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Ed rode the train by himself to Baltimore, where he was met and looked after by Eva Jones, RN, a friend of Ed’s father who worked at Hopkins. The train rides mesmerized Ed, especially the pullman cars and the elegant pullman porters. Ed complimented the porter on one of these trips, saying “I want to be like you,” which got a big, generous laugh from the porter. Ed said later, “He must have thought I was a nut, a little white-haired boy wanting to be a pullman porter.”
Ed’s parents did not pamper or protect him from life; in fact they taught him to drive and to shoot a gun, neither of which skills he used more than a time or two, fortunately.
As a child, Edgar had four best friends in his neighborhood and was treated equally. The boys played baseball and football on a vacant lot nearby, and they played dodgeball in the back yards. They rode bikes. Ed was a fast runner and a good thrower. He did crash into a parked milk truck once when going out too far for a football pass, and he occasionally got into mischief, just like any boy.
Ed went to Fishweir Elementary School and to Robert E. Lee High School. He was on the high school track team for a year.
The rival high school was Andrew Jackson High, which was across town. One year, at the Thanksgiving Day football game, Ed and three or four others played a prank. One had a car and they drove to Jackson High. Ed, the most skinny and lanky boy, shimmied up the Jackson High flagpole and put out the Lee flag. Then, one of the boys, perhaps Ed, called the principal to tell him to look outside. Ed was sure he was going to be found out, arrested, and sent to jail, but all was well and a good story remained.
Jo Christman was a non-practicing Catholic, and Ed was baptized in the Presbyterian Church. The family attended St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville.
Ed and his father enjoyed sports, and they saw the Jax Tars baseball team. They also saw the Yankees at spring training, getting autographs from Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Bill Dickey and others. In the late 1930s, he traveled to the World’s Fair with his mother and saw a game at Yankee Stadium.
As an only child, Ed found in the radio a daily companion. His favorite programs included news with Lowell Thomas, sports (baseball!), comedy, and suspense programs. Ed was allowed by his parents to take his supper on a tray and eat supper in the living room, next to the radio, and eat with Lowell Thomas.
Ola took Ed back to North Carolina to visit Uncle Raymond and his other Hocutt relatives. Ed remembers the farm with its cotton fields in eastern North Carolina. In winter there was sometimes snow. Uncle Raymond played an important part in his life.
One of Ed’s childhood highlights was to attend the January 1, 1942 Rose Bowl game, which was moved from Pasadena to Durham, NC, due to the attack on Pearl Harbor just a few weeks earlier. Ed and his father rode the train to Durham where they got to see the game, which featured Duke versus Oregon State.
to be continued…
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