LIVING HISTORY
10
VERO AT 100
frequently and checked every car and inspected each boat
number during the war.
“I was about four years old when my father first brought
me and my family to live on the river when we were caring
for the Winter Beach Bridge,” says Anderson. “My father,
William ‘Emmet’ Walker, was appointed by the county to
get people over the bridge to fish or go in the ocean. There
weren’t many people that lived over here, but I learned
later that the night flying aviators were being watched from
the German U-boats that were cruising the waters where
we lived.”
Anderson says they enjoyed helping their father crank
the lever to open the bridge and bring people from around
69th Street to Jungle Trail and vice versa. Between salting
fish for visitors, bringing seafood to Sebastian and filling
the family dinner table, Walker had his own boats docked
at the river to take people out for a little pocket change.
“We lived on the barrier island side in a small house on
land next to the bridge,” says Anderson. “I loved to follow
my daddy around everywhere and catch fiddlers (tiny
crabs) to sell as bait to the fishermen.
“There was always someone at the bridge, a cousin or an
uncle. When they gave three short toots, they would open
the bridge gate. Opening the bridge was fun, but we were
required to keep the area clean as well as regular chores. We
would play in the mangroves or climb trees with the Metz
or Jones families, but we still had to take care of chickens
and some goats that would headbutt you all the time.”
The young Walkers had to go to school in Vero. It took
about an hour to pick up the students at the Wabasso
Bridge along the way. The county would not allow them >>
John Walker, back row, manned the Winter Beach Bridge with his wife,
Elizabeth, holding little Dewey. Front row, from left, Janet, Lena and Huey.
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