esrosedotblog

KEY CHAIN

Hurricane Wilma did a job on Key West FL:

Key West Tries to Get the Party Restarted

We are KW veterans. We saw it through its transition from as a low down end-of-the-world dive to a favorite gay resort. It then reverted to the newest bestest place to be. The sexually ambivalent Calvin Klein bought a home there and the immuminati followed.

We still visited, often combining a drive to the Keys with stops at South Beach or other stops in Florida.

There was a time we thought we might live there. We used to do this all the time; everywhere we went. We had a fantasy about a defunct gas station near Duval. John may still have the plans for it.

We lasted even unto the beginning of its current state as a haven for the 'parrothead' Jimmy Buffet fans; a cruise ship day stop; a loud and raucous, well, expensive dive town. It had come a full circle.

When it was 'nothing' it was great fun. I had my very first snorkelling there. The town was proudly half Cuban with a large dollop of hippy-gay. People came for the bone fishing and the quiet that pervaded away from Duval Street.

In its way, it was a southernmost New Orleans. Its architecture was unique and it had the Hemingway House. It had a little railroad that went around town on rubber tires. It had the Truman vacation 'white house'. We used to go to a place called The Pig; a cuban diner that only served pork dishes.

Once, we went to a carnival and rode on an elephant. Great ride; swing and sway. We used to go down to the sunset at Mallory Square and they had buskers and other 'acts'. I remember a wonderful guy who had trained cats.

There was a place where they used to harvest and slaughter turtles which is now a turtle refuge. You could buy aloe products in Key West before they were anywhere else. Great memories.

It was always a bit on the outlaw side. Lots of violence. One year I dragged my business partners to a meeting there and we went walking. We walked and walked and eventually realized we were lost.

A guy came along, a black guy, who told us that we ought to get out of there and fast. We were walking into one of the roughest areas. This is when Key West was at its prime as a drug smuggling port.

We changed course.

Oddly, while Key West is surrounded by water, it has no beach. It sits on coral rock. Well, there is a place where they cart sand in. And that is its whole problem. It has no depth. They bury above ground.

They have not even put the houses on stilts as they do up the coast in FL. The place has always been hurricane country. Now, with the big storms and warming it will be even harder to stay dry there.

Did I mention that we always had a good time in Key West? The first time we went it was so cold that we had to sit with blankets on in the room. It rained. But we were newly in love and didn't mind. There was The Monster; an outdoor disco. There was a lot of action all around us. It was one of the first places other than PTown where you could hold hands.

The last time we were there we stayed on a side street at the very east of end Duval Street; a nice house with the coldest pool I have ever gone into. Cold water. A Key West thing.

The place had changed radically. In one way, it was still like Provincetown. The real estate values had cranked up so high that only people like us could afford to stay there. Our landlord was one of the 'new Key Westers'. A lovely house and yard with a pool in a water logged town. That level of affluence.

I ran down Duval early every morning and some of it was the same. Sloppy Joes was still sloppy; drunks; broken glass and vomit. The money-laundering t-shirt shops were still there laundering money off the day-trippers. But it was sadly plastic and changing over to the chains.

I mostly remember that we didn't feel OK holding hands.

A sad end to a wonderful place.