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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

KERMIT AND R.A.

1 have related elsewhere in this book how I was doing a little land trading during the time I was Band
Director at Columbia High School, particularly in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Some of my buying and
selling of farms was done on my own with information I obtained from one source or another, but I
bought and sold several farms through a Real Estate Agency known as Horne Realty, of which Kermit
Horne was the Owner and Licensed Broker.

In the same office with Kermit, R.A. Greene had an Insurance Agency, and he and my good friend
Merrill Williams sold various kinds of insurance, and occasionally R.A. would also get involved to
some degree in Real Estate Sales.

I became a more or less regular customer of the Agency run by Kermit Horne. And during our business
relationship 1 got to know Kermit and R.A. and Merrill quite well and we formed a life-long bond and
friendship, which extends to this day, except that Merrill Williams passed away a couple of years ago.

Merrill was never a partner with us in the business, but we formed a Partnership consisting of Kermit
Home, R.A. Greene, Lenvil Dicks, and a mutual friend of all of us, W. L. Summers. W.L. Summers had
a Septic Tank Company, and he was of great assistance in the business of supplying some of the utilities
to some of the land we were selling, which we sold sometimes on commission, and sometimes
purchased land ourselves and resold it at a profit, rather than collecting a commission.

W.L. passed away several years ago, so that only leaves Kermit, R.A., and myself.

We did a thousand things together, and grew to be extremely close friends, to the point where we could
almost read each other’s minds. That friendship still exists today, and maybe to a greater degree than
ever, due to the fact that all three of us have already lived longer than we probably ever expected. 1
happen to be the oldest of the three, with R.A. next after me, and Kermit a year or two younger than
R.A. However, we have to keep in mind that we are all old codgers.

Before the Interstate Highway System came into existence, we happened to get some knowledge that
was of profitable results to us, and we soon learned that there was money to be made in developing Real
Estate for commercial purposes around Interchanges.

At that time, the general public did not know what a Limited Access Highway was, much less
understand the concept. After we found out that there would only be certain points on an Interstate
Highway, sometimes many miles apart, we soon realized that these on and off ramps were going to be
very valuable properties, due to the fact that a restaurant, motel, or service station, could only be
expected to survive at those locations, because that was the only places that the traveling public could
get to them.

Therefore, we found a way to learn the probable locations of these Interstate Interchange areas before
the plans were ever drawn for the highway, and we would attempt to acquire properties at those
locations in order to resell it after the highway was built. In addition to buying property for resale, we
also kept it in mind that motels would be a very profitable venture on such a highway, and we acquired
several tracts to build motels of our own.

Ill

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