When a hurricane came through, my ex and I were ordered to evacuate the little cinder block house we inhabited and stay in the navy school, perhaps the sturdiest structure on the island. We parked our little red Triumph Spitfire on the navy base's baseball field, which was on high(er) ground. I went looking for the squat hot cinder block apartment where we lived but sometime in the last 50 years it had been replaced, with a larger more upscale structure. It was right down the street from a large parcel of land that was all boarded up in 1965.
When next I visited this island, in the mid 80's the Bar Association Section meeting was held behind those boards -- in the newly renovated Marriott Casa Marina Hotel. The original Casa Marina had been built by Henry Flagler, at the end of Flagler Avenue. The road, Highway 1, which ends (or begins) here, was not a road 100 years ago, but a railroad. The Casa Marina is now a Waldorf Astoria Hotel after an additional renovation.
We were on a budget back in the mid 60's. Movies on the navy base and reading of the NY Times Sunday edition were our primary leisure activities plus swimming in the base pool and shopping at the PX. The Jewish high holy days took place during our time here. In my Ensign's white uniform my ex and I attended the local synagogue, which has long since been replaced by a larger modern structure. The congregation raised funds by offering ritual honors to those who could afford to buy them. One man gave his honor "to the Navy boy". Later, my ex said: "He's taken!" when the gentleman, a local merchant, tried to introduce me to his daughter. Another merchant invited us to the post-prayer feast at his home following services. There I ate my first gefilte fish, home made by his black maid. My father was right! I didn't know what I had been missing.
The island was at a nadir in the 60's which I imagined got worse when the navy shut its base and pulled up stakes here. Duval Street was undergoing a repaving job which lasted most of our two months. Sloppy Joe's, on Duval, Hemingway's favorite bar, was a stop for us then, no trouble finding a place at the bar.
But I have been told that it was the departure of the navy which created the start of the tourist boom here. One thing remains the same: the roar of navy jets taking off from the naval air base on adjacent Boca Chica Key, due east of here. LOUD! Another thing is new -- I don't recall it in the past: as in the Caribbean nations, chickens roam the streets, their crowing ringing out in the night. you might call them free range chickens.
OK, Roger; enough nostalgia!
We visited "The Little White House", Harry Truman's favorite retreat during and following his term of office. We enjoyed an excellent informative tour by docent Rene. The navy came to Key West early in the 19th century, long before Florida was a state, and created a base to fight our enemy -- pirates!
-- in a warm place -- Key West was chosen. The position of base commander being vacant, that officer's residence was used. The President loved it here and the navy improved, expanded and redecorated it for his future use. Other executives have used it too, most recently, Collin Powell, as Secretary of State, to work out the settlement of the Balkan War. The place was sold to a developer who wanted to develop Tank Island, across the harbor. He needed easements and the State said: "Sure, IF you fix up the Little White House and give it to the state as a tourist site."
We had a pretty good dinner on Lene's birthday at "Flaming Buoy". The original proposed name was "Flaming Buoy and Hot Grill." Key West, like Provincetown, has a lively gay segment of its population.
We had breakfast at "Blue Heaven", highly rated and decent and a lunch in a very nice retro Chinese restaurant (when have you last seen Chow Mein or Chop Suey on a menu?) because we were cold walking home during the rare all-day rain. We do not eat deserts so we were not able to patronize a desert restaurant named "Better Than Sex."Its menu has suggestive double entendred names.
The rain came after the day I scrubbed ILENE's topsides. I used FRS to get the rust stains out near where the anchor rode has been shedding pieces of rust. It worked well.
We visited the two iconic sites of Key West:
We had a nice dinner aboard with Alice and Danny. Well, left over sausage, pepper and onion with pasta, red sauce and cheese, plus salad, wine and fresh fruit. No one went to bed hungry. Alice is a friend of Lene's from NY, now living in North Carolina and married to Danny. I had never met either of them before. They are here on a land vacation, found we were here via Facebook and we got connected. Lovely people and a nice evening.
Ernest Hemingway's house was a repeat tour for both Lene and me, though we had each visited it in the past with others. The crowd there reminded me of the Sistine Chapel in July. Another excellent informative and entertaining docent with what might be called Key West attitude.
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| One of the 45 six toed cats that have the run on the place, on the marital bed. |
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| His study in loft above the caraige house where he worked from 6 a.m. each day and wrote most of his books |
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| Papa Hemingway surrounded by his four wives, one of who bought this house for him. |
And while the light house has been here since the mid 19th century, it was not on the tourist list until recently. Unlike the lights of Scotland described in a book review in a recent post, this one was set way back from the sea, on high ground, and made of brick. It was decommissioned in the 1960's. The picture of it is from the Hemingway House balcony. We climbed the 88 steps and saw the museum in the keepers' house.
We will be here in the Bight for a few more days.
Some more nostalgia...
ReplyDeleteBefore joining Roger on the Hammerberg (DE-1015) in Newport, I attended ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) school in Key West in Jan-Feb of 1967. As a bachelor, I stayed at the BOQ near a heliport on the east side. My only transport was a bike I bought for $15. I recall seeing Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf at the local base theater. My weekends were spent at the Key West Naval Sailing Association which had about six 13' Enterprise sailboats. Near the end of my stay, the Fleet Sonar School put out the word that the Annual Intercommand Regatta was being held over the weekend. Tony Russell, an enlisted STG3 from Buffalo whom I had sailed with a little, and I offered to represent the Sonar School. I was informed that a doctor from the Naval Hospital had won the regatta a number of years in a row, and our role was not to come in last. There were two heats of 6 boats each, with the top 3 from each heat racing in the final. Well to make a long story short, in the first heat, we tacked along the shore while the other 5 chased each other out in the seaplane channel. We found some wind, and won that race by maybe 100 yards. In the final race, the other boats chased the doctor, while again we kept close to shore. The halyard on doctor's boat broke (it wasn't very windy, so I don't know why). We won that race by so much that I timed it - 4 minutes before the next boat crossed the finish line. Well, they gave me the trophy, I put it in a paper bag in the basket on my bike, and presented it to the CO on Monday morning. We were quite pleased when our photo showed up in the Naval Base newspaper with the caption "the FSS team brought the trophy home after a three year stay at the Key West Naval Hospital".