Hurricane Milton

Detroitgator

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I'm pretty sure everyone lived at Gatorwood at one time or another.

When we got to Gainesville with our "car full 'o schit" from Michigan, we stayed in a motel and had about 4 days to find a place to live. We really liked Gatorwood, but it was "expensive" at $395/month for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath (sounds crazy doesn't it? That would be $2400/month now). They had two units open: one on the first floor of building 12, which was on the fence/perimeter, and one on the third floor of building 6 facing Archer. You never take ground floor, especially on outside perimeter...

And one of my Wife's close friends (@CDGator ,she's the one that lives in Chattanooga) and her sister lived in Williamsburg at the time.
 

secgator

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Here is what the really scarry part was mentally while it was going on because of information we knew from the guy across the hall... locking your doors didn't matter. I'll type up what we did later.
We already know....you went full McGyver and created some kind of bomb out of toothpicks and a D-cell battery, so if anyone tried to break in they would be blinded by the shrapnel of exploding wood splinters directly into their eyes, which caused them to stagger around blindly at the break-in point......where you meticulously had placed nails to pop up vertically from the floor which were triggered by the exploding toothpicks--causing the perp to be pierced numerous times by direct hits from below them. In essence, rendering the perp helpless and injured so LEO could arrive and apprehend.

Am I close?
 

Detroitgator

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Never lived there, but did attend a few parties there.
When they started enforcing parking, people would stack cars 3 to a spot vertically where they could with the "stickered" car "blocking." I remember on game nights when parties would be going on and the two trucks would come trolling around, people would stand out on the balconies throwing eggs at the tow truck. :lol:
 

78

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When we got to Gainesville with our "car full 'o schit" from Michigan, we stayed in a motel and had about 4 days to find a place to live. We really liked Gatorwood, but it was "expensive" at $395/month for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath (sounds crazy doesn't it? That would be $2400/month now). They had two units open: one on the first floor of building 12, which was on the fence/perimeter, and one on the third floor of building 6 facing Archer. You never take ground floor, especially on outside perimeter...

And one of my Wife's close friends (@CDGator ,she's the one that lives in Chattanooga) and her sister lived in Williamsburg at the time.

I think we all did the car full of shyt thing. I drove mine straight to a house on SW 21st St. off Williston Road. Old Chicago buddies owned it. Man did we have some good times at that place.

Williamsburg is where two of the massacres happened. Coeds. Freshmen. First week of class was always a hectic time with lots of new faces. Rolling just blended in.
 

CDGator

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And one of my Wife's close friends (@CDGator ,she's the one that lives in Chattanooga) and her sister lived in Williamsburg at the time.
My HS friend and future roommate lived in Williamsburg at the time. One building to the right actually. I moved in there the next summer. Hated that complex and we were very happy to move over to Oxford Manor for safety reasons.
 

Detroitgator

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We already know....you went full McGyver and created some kind of bomb out of toothpicks and a D-cell battery, so if anyone tried to break in they would be blinded by the shrapnel of exploding wood splinters directly into their eyes, which caused them to stagger around blindly at the break-in point......where you meticulously had placed nails to pop up vertically from the floor which were triggered by the exploding toothpicks--causing the perp to be pierced numerous times by direct hits from below them. In essence, rendering the perp helpless and injured so LEO could arrive and apprehend.

Am I close?
:lol: Kind of. :lol:

I'll do this with bullet points:
  • As I said, it was a very strange, irrational time for EVERYONE in Gainesville, especially for those in the 3 apartment complexes, and then for us personally because of the things we knew from Bill.
  • After the discovery of Christa Hoyt (2nd scene), we knew that the killer was VERY comfortable being in the apartments for extended periods of time, that he was mutilating/posing the bodies (and about Christa's head), and then after Chris found (and Bill ID'd, Chris called Bill immediately) Manny and Tracy, that the killer may have already been inside the apartments.
  • This is what drove our irrational fear of someone already being IN the apartment.
  • After they found Christa, Gatorwood delivered cut wood to all apartments to wedge in the sliding glass doors to prevent them from opening (and sliding glass doors figured into both Gatorwood and Christa's apartment).
  • To "barricade" our door, we had a solid wood about 3x5' table that I would put flush against the door. On our balcony, I had one of those standard Weider type benches with iron plate weights, and the bar was threaded with those "star locks." I could then use the threaded bar with plates between said table and wall and "thread out" the big plates flush with the table and a wall.... that door was NOT going to open inward.
  • To this day, there is a side of the bed that my wife and I still call "the killer side" and guess who gets to sleep on it? :lol:
On a related note, while channel surfing last night, Copycat was on :lol: highly underrated movie!
 
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Detroitgator

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I think we all did the car full of shyt thing. I drove mine straight to a house on SW 21st St. off Williston Road. Old Chicago buddies owned it. Man did we have some good times at that place.

Williamsburg is where two of the massacres happened. Coeds. Freshmen. First week of class was always a hectic time with lots of new faces. Rolling just blended in.
Yes, that's why I mentioned it... :lol:
captain obvious hotels.com GIF
 

Detroitgator

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I'm pretty sure everyone lived at Oxford Manor at one time or another.
True :lol: it's still up and running... on the UF FB Family page, incoming freshmen parents still ask "what about Oxford Manor?" and it invariably gets SEVERAL "I lived there 3X years ago!"
 

78

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Great place and would have been even better without the speed bumps. Fortunately we were closer to the front than the back.

Unless the place is at an intersection and people use it as a shortcut past a red light, I fail to see the need for speed bumps.

Were yours long or esp tall speed bumps? I really hate the short stumpy ones. Feel like I have to take my car in immediately for alignment.
 

78

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True :lol: it's still up and running... on the UF FB Family page, incoming freshmen parents still ask "what about Oxford Manor?" and it invariably gets SEVERAL "I lived there 3X years ago!"

Honestly, I wouldn't know the place from Adam. Hadn't even heard of it before today.
 

Detroitgator

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Honestly, I wouldn't know the place from Adam. Hadn't even heard of it before today.
Truly an OG apartment complex in Gainesville, very likely the first one ever on Archer Road. It was across the street from Gatorwood.
 

78

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Truly an OG apartment complex in Gainesville, very likely the first one ever on Archer Road. It was across the street from Gatorwood.

And just like that it came back to me. That was Old Archer Road if I recall correct.
 

Wuerffel4Pres

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Danny Rollins struck the year before my sister arrived at UF and three years before I arrived. My entire time at UF was mostly training to lock every door when I closed it. Still habit. My parents beat that in my head.
Your sister and my brother arrived at UF the same year.
 

78

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Actually, I've been f'ing this up MASSIVELY! I've been saying "Oxford Manor" when I meant "Mount Vernon"!!! :lol:

Yep, remember it well. That was my old hood when I lived on SW 21st. Worked part time at the Amoco car wash at Archer & 34th St.
 

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