Take a trip along the highways and back roads of western Nassau and its small town neighbor in this five-part series: Traveling Western Nassau. Visit Boulogne, Hilliard, Callahan, Bryceville and St. George, Ga., highlighting the area’s history while telling today’s story.
Mel Collins watches out the window of Linda Jean’s as cars and logging trucks whiz by the diner near the intersection of U.S. 1 and U.S. 301.
She and husband Larry stop by the diner for breakfast most days.
“We sit at this window and watch the traffic,” she said. “It’s amazing, all the people who are texting when they go by, speeding too.”
Linda Jean Morgan has owned the diner since 1994, taking ownership from her mother, Ann Card, who retired in 1991. The matriarch opened it as Ann’s Diner in 1948. It is the oldest eating establishment in Callahan. The diner stayed closed for three years prior to Morgan’s ownership and again for another year in 2003, when she moved to Raleigh, N.C.
Morgan knew that when the opportunity arose to grab her own piece of the pie, she would have to change the restaurant’s name.
“If I’m ever going to have a restaurant named after me, this is the time,” she recalled. “The old-timers know it as Ann’s and I’m good with that, because it’s mom. It’s a heritage and we’re family.”
Times have changed. Health issues have led to a reduction of service hours for the diner. Breakfast is served Mondays through Fridays 6-11 a.m. A set lunch menu is served 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. Advance notices are sent to regular customers via texts and phone calls so that Morgan can know how much food to prepare in advance.
“That’s the wonderful thing about texting,” she said. “We send the menu out on Monday and they message back if they’re to be here or not. We call a lot of people too.”
But for Mel Collins, it all comes back to the human touch.
“We love coming here,” she said. “We’ve met a lot of friends here. We love Linda too.”
The Jacksonville transplant just likes Callahan. She and her husband moved here in 2010. The town is known for its proximity to the crossroads of the two major highways. So much so, that the Town of Callahan adopted the slogan “Callahan: Crossroads to the Future.”
Originally known as Sharon, the town was named for railroad man Daniel Callahan. The Irishman laid tracks with the Florida Railroad in the 1850s. The town became an official municipality when the charter was signed May 23, 1911. Callahan officials and residents celebrated the 100th anniversary with a daylong celebration and fireworks display May 21, 2011.
“I like Callahan because it’s a small town,” Mel Collins said. “It don’t seem to be a whole lot of crime. If I were starting out my family right now, this is where I would want it.”
And when the pair wants breakfast, they usually ask for their regular order.
“I like anything blueberry,” Larry Collins said.
Morgan prepares a special pancake batter with blueberry and pecans just for him while Mel enjoys eggs over medium, bacon, grits and biscuits.
“My bacon has to be extra, extra crispy and Linda can do it,” she said.
“Crunchy,” Larry interjected.
Justin Johnson brings his family for breakfast as much as possible.
“It’s a landmark here in Callahan,” he said.
He’s been a regular at Linda Jean’s since his high school days. He graduated from Hilliard Middle-Senior High School in 2001. Son Braxton Johnson, almost 3, loves bacon. He stands in a booth as his mom hand feeds him the fried pork cooked well done.
“He likes to come up here,” Megan Johnson said. “This is his favorite restaurant. Eggs and bacon are his favorite.”
Over at a table, Mary Vickers stops by for breakfast at least four times a week.
“It’s where you meet, greet and socialize with everybody,” she said.
Vickers prefers to “mix it up” when making menu selections. But on July 14 she chose two eggs over easy with grits, crisp bacon and a side of white toast.
“You never know who you’re going to see at breakfast, so it’s great,” she said.
Friend John Bennett is also a regular.
“I’m like a staple,” he said. “I’m here every day when I wake up. Sometimes I sit by my lonesome. But other times, we have a table full. It all depends on what we do.”
The restaurant’s service wouldn’t be complete without employees Kaitlyn Cornett, 21, and Kirby Dyal, 29. Alice Harrell, 83, washes dishes in the back. She initially worked as a server before working the night shift as a cook.
“I’ve done just about everything,” she said.
Before hitting the highway in search of breakfast or taking that road trip, travelers will need tires. For decades Clark’s Rainbow Tire and Lube sold tires for logging trucks, motorists traveling through town and residents. They also performed oil changes. Former owner Francis Clark estimates upward in the hundreds of thousands over the three-decade period that he owned the establishment.
The original location opened under John Page Sr. where the current CVS stands. It was a fuel station with a restaurant attached. W.D. Copley owned it after Page. Clark’s sister, Tina Clark Trivett, owned Tina’s Restaurant.
When the highway was widened to four-lanes, Clark built a tire store at the location. After CVS moved in, the store and restaurant were torn down. Already the property owner across the street, he opened Rainbow Tire at its current location on U.S. 1 in 2001. David Hart and Buddy Bryant operated the store for 10 years. The store was sold to Larry Brantley in 2014.
Clark recalled the primitive conditions of the roads before U.S. 301 was widened.
“I was there when they four-laned it,” he said. “Callahan wasn’t nothing but a little old pig trail back then.”
He said that since his family didn’t own a TV set, he would walk to the Calida Hotel and watch programs on a set there. The hotel was built by J.Q. and Elizabeth Whittemore. It closed its doors in 1964, years after the heyday of highway tourism from the 1920s through 1950s, according to Yesterday’s Reflections II author Jan Johannes.
“It was a little ol’ biddy TV,” Clark said. “It was snowy, but you could just make out the picture.”
Now Callahan no longer has a hotel, but has several restaurants, hair salons and auto parts stores. Many businesses are locally owned, such as the ever-popular Callahan Barbecue, known to most as “Chicken House.”
Other businesses arechain stores with national owners. A great deal of variety exists and, as Nassau County awaits new businesses in nearby Crawford Diamond Industrial Park, Callahan’s population continues to grow.