50 years of memories on Krycul Avenue
You turn off Krycul Avenue just before the River of Life Christian Center and head west on a long, dusty driveway. Massive oak trees spread majestically in front of you, and to your left, several goats lounge in the shade behind a fence, bleating contentedly.
The road opens up to a 10.4-acre parcel of land, containing a Seminole Heights-style yellow bungalow, a blue mobile home and a white house. A large shed and red barn are serving as the focal point of a large yard sale on this sunny Saturday in Riverview.
Sadly, it is probably the last yard sale. The property has been sold to a developer, and townhouses will be built if applications for rezoning the area are approved by Hillsborough County officials.
Already, some of the oak trees are marked with white paint, designating their inevitable uprooting.
“This will probably be all cleared out in six months,” Dallas Smith said.
The sale ends a three-year process for Smith, 55, who grew up on the property.
“We decided then that it seemed like the right time to sell,” he said. “If we could hold it forever, we would.
“I have a lot of memories here.”
Smith, 55, grew up on this property, moving from Tampa to Riverview with his family when he was 4. When he got married in April 1983, his father, Howard Smith, gave him an acre of land just east of the yellow bungalow to build a house. That’s where his son, 30-year-old Aaron, grew up. Both men are now linemen for Tampa Electric.
“We used to call this area ‘The Compound,’” Aaron Smith said of the family property.
Riverview was a much simpler place when Howard Smith and his wife, Betty Rose Beckham Smith, bought the property for $2,000 and moved to Riverview in the late 1960s. Howard, a construction worker, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Born in 1925, he enlisted in the Army in April 1943 and got his basic training at Camp Blanding near Jacksonville.
Howard saw military action at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and won a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his actions overseas. He married Betty Rose Beckham, who was born in Athens, Georgia, in Hillsborough County in October 1960.
In the late 1960s, the Smiths bought the Riverview property. Howard bought a yellow bungalow in Seminole Heights that had been built in 1930 and had it moved to an area that had been nothing but orange groves and fish farms. U.S. 301 was a two-lane highway, and traffic was nonexistent.
“He bought the bungalow that was at the corner of Sligh and Nebraska avenues,” Dallas Smith said. “It cost him $250 for the house and $1,200 to have it moved out here.”
Howard Smith originally raised dairy cows but decided to make a change.
“Grandpa switched to goats,” Aaron Smith said. “They made the news a month ago.”
Ah, the goats. Records at the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser’s Office shows that the Smith property is zoned for agriculture, including goats. But these goats tend to wander, and in February 13 of them broke loose and wandered north to the Villages of Lake St. Charles subdivision, where a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputy used his cruiser to herd the animals and get them back home safely.
“There were a lot of funny Snapchats about the goats,” Aaron Smith said. “I didn’t realize until later that they had made the evening news.”
“They’re always getting loose,” Dallas Smith said.
As Dallas talked, a woman could be seen nearby, walking a baby black goat on a leash through the property.
“Is that a family member walking the goat?” he was asked.
“No, she just decided to bring it to the yard sale,” Dallas replied.
At least the baby goat had company.
Howard Smith died in March 2012, but his daily trips to the Beer Shed at 4 p.m. won’t be forgotten. Neither will his sense of humor. He had four mailboxes set up at the roadside on Krycul Avenue. The top one said, “Air Mail,” and, in descending order, they read, “Bills,” “Junk Mail,” and “Checks.”
“He took the air mail box off when he converted the mailboxes to metal,” Dallas Smith said.
Recent winds from hurricanes knocked the boxes down, so only one graces the property now.
Howard Smith also had a serious side, taking an active role in the community. He served as a Boy Scout leader for Troop 173, and the Scouts would meet in the upstairs section of Smith’s barn.
Dallas Smith was a member of the troop his father led, rising to Eagle Scout; his project for earning the badge was a cleanup at nearby Hackney Cemetery.
“I mowed the grass there and pressure-cleaned the tombstones,” Dallas said.
Howard Smith’s obituary lists him as a past president of the Old Car Club of Hillsborough County. He was proud of his yellow, 1931 Model A Ford. Even though the yellow bungalow where the Smiths live is being rented out, there is still a painting hanging on the wall showing Howard Smith standing next to his car outside his home.
Betty Rose Smith, meanwhile, spent nearly a decade before her death in August 2006 as a member of the Red Hat Society, a social group for women 50 and older.
“She’d wear these big red and purple hats,” Aaron Smith said. “Grandma was the Queen Mum.”
Lest you think Betty Rose and Howard were sedate senior citizens, both of them drove Harley-Davidson motorcycles, according to their grandson.
There was a gathering on the property after Howard’s memorial service in 2012, with Oladepo Ogomodede, the jazz-playing saxophonist who performs in the Winn-Dixie parking lot at U.S. 301 and Lake St. Charles Boulevard, providing the music.
Riverview has changed in the 50 years since the Smiths moved onto their property off Krycul Avenue. U.S. 301 is now a six-lane highway that can barely handle the volume of daily traffic. Apartments, townhouses and single-family homes are springing up and down the U.S. 301 corridor, adding to the congestion.
While Dallas Smith sympathizes with Riverview’s growing pains, he also knows he cannot afford to maintain the property anymore. He has worked at Tampa Electric for 34 years and lives in Ruskin and hopes to retire within the next decade. Aaron Smith has lived on the property for the last decade in a large motor home.
Dallas Smith said he is unsure who bought the property, other than to say it was “a group.” All business matters are going through his real estate agent, he said.
Giving up a piece of old Riverview is difficult, Smith said, but it is time to let it go.
“I’m looking at it as a business. If I’d have won the lottery, I’d have kept it,” Dallas Smith said. “It’s a shame it’s got to go.”
