Key West, Florida
Thursday, May 3 through May 9, 2018
Clear, 89° most days
“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” — William Least Heat Moon
Key West is one of those cities that have different personalities as you meander the streets within Old Town. It is a beautiful small town that still has a laid back mentality even with “all of the tourists covered in oil” wandering around. Cruise ships dock and the town fills up with people who are scurrying about trying to take in as much as they can while their ship is docked at Mallory Square. When the cruise ships are not in port and there are no festivals going on in Key West, it has that charm of a Southern town complete with a few more than the normal strange characters found in most small communities. There are the fishermen, the shop owners, the artists, and the writers along with a few former modern day pirates who come here to fulfill that need for the uncommon things in life. Does time ever pass in the Florida Keys? Everyone and everything in Key West seems to go at its own pace, right down to the ice melting slooooowly in your margarita glass. Of course, it’s not all limes and leisure as shopping, walking, and taking in the sights are high on everyone’s list of things to do. There are the Jet Ski rentals, deep sea fishing charters, even the sunset dinner cruises to do on any given day. Everyone is on island time and for good reason, it is easy to slow down here from your normal pace in life outside this island atmosphere. We came here for three days but extended the stay to a week as the sunrises and sunsets make you want to linger to see one more before leaving town. The night life is always a main attraction with all the small music venues, bars, and offbeat places one may find on any backstreet in Key West. Duvall Street is a main gathering place but there are so many other interesting places just off this main drag, pun intended.
There are always people gathering close to “The Southernmost Point in the Southernmost City of Key West” each afternoon in Mallory Square to watch the sun slowly sink into the ocean. It is amazing how many people take time out of their day to stop what they were doing, come to this gathering place with other people and enjoy the ritual of the sun slowly sinking below the horizon each day. It really puts things into perspective with your busy life. We can often times be so busy and miss out on the small things going on around us each day. Seeing the sun rise or set is a lesson that has stayed with me all my life since first visiting the island in my teens.
"See you at Sunset" has a special significance in Key West, Florida. It's an invitation to partake in a spontaneous celebration as jugglers, tourists, clowns, fishermen, psychics, island musicians, artists, food vendors, and friends gather each night to celebrate the close of another day in Paradise.
Many noted figures have enjoyed the sunsets from Mallory Square over the years. Audubon wrote glowingly of the glorious Key West sunsets while visiting in the early 1800's, and legend has it that Tennessee Williams initiated the ritual of applauding the sunset at Mallory Square, gin and tonic firmly in hand. His museum just off Duvall Street on US1 is a great stop to learn about his time living here and the people that were part of his life. Key West has inspired many writers and artist who completed much of their successful work from little studios in their homes on the island.
The contemporary incarnation of Sunset Celebration really took off in the late 1960's as groups of carefree hippies descended upon Key West and Mallory Pier in search of paradise. The way that the sunset ceremony got started is that all the "freaks" as drug users were called in the sixties, used to go down every evening high on LSD to watch Atlantis rising mythically out of the cloud formations at sunset. There were about 30-40 regulars, many of whom lived in Fogarty house.
The Key West Cultural Preservation Society, Inc. (a not for profit corporation) in 1984 drafted guidelines for participation and negotiated a lease with the City of Key West with the understanding that CPS would manage Sunset and ensure its artistic integrity. The rest is history, as they say.
Sunset Celebration continues to be an internationally known attraction that supports a cottage industry in Key West. It has become an incubator for the arts, and a launching point for many visual and performing artists. Sunset can be credited with attracting and inspiring the development of a generation of talent known throughout the world.
We did the typical tourist things; rode the Conch train giving the history of the island and visited Ernest Hemingway’s house on Whitehead Street just around the block from Sloppy Joe’s, the bar, where Hemingway hung out with his close friends (“the mob”) whose adventures in around Key West are well known. They drank, sport fished for giant marlin, and several were the basis of characters in his books. Hemingway’s boat “Pilar” code named after one of his future wives (He was still married to the current one at the time) was captained by Gregorio Fuentes. Fuentes served as the basis for the character Santiago, in The Old Man and The Sea. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 104. Hemingway’s house sits on one acre, the largest plot of land for a single family home in Key West. It is right next to the Lighthouse said to have been the beacon to find his way home after a night of drinking at Sloppy Joe’s bar.
The Hemingway home was built in 1851 in the Spanish Colonial style, and was constructed of native rock hewn from the grounds. The home was in great disrepair when it the Hemingway’s took ownership, but both Ernest and Pauline could see beyond the rubble and ruin, and appreciated the grand architecture and stateliness of the home. The massive restoration and remodeling they undertook in the early 1930’s turned the home into the National Historical Landmark that thousands of tourists visit and enjoy today.
A unique and extraordinary feature of the grounds is the pool, built in 1937-38, at the staggering cost of $20,000. It was the first in-ground pool in Key West, and the only pool within 100 miles. The exorbitant construction costs once prompted Hemingway to take a penny from his pocket, press it into the wet cement of the surrounding patio, and announce jokingly, “Here, you may as well take the last penny I’ve got!” Tourists are invited to look for the penny, still embedded between flagstones at the north end of the pool.
The Hemingway’s personal touches still abound throughout the house. Many of the unique furnishings are European antiques collected during their stay on the continent. The trophy mounts and skins were souvenirs of the Hemingway’s African safaris and numerous hunting expeditions in the American west. Ernest’s presence can still be felt in his studio where he produced some of his most well-known works. In addition, very visible and living links to the past are the descendants of Hemingway’s cats. The story goes that Hemingway made the acquaintance of a sea captain who owned an unusual six-toed tomcat, which captured Ernest’s fancy. Upon his departure from Key West, the captain presented the cat to Hemingway. Today many of the numerous cats that inhabit the grounds still possess the unusual six toes.
Ernest’s friends Charles Thompson, Joe Russell (also known as Sloppy Joe), and Capt. Eddie “Bra” Saunders, together with his old Paris friends became known in Key West as “The Mob.” The Mob would go fishing in the Dry Tortugas, Bimini, and Cuba for days and weeks at a time in pursuit of giant tuna and marlin. Everyone in The Mob had a nickname, and Hemingway was often referred to by his friends and family during this time was “Papa”—it was a moniker that eventually stuck with him throughout his life. Hemingway’s Key West was a town unlike any place he ever experienced. It was filled with interesting people, ranging from well-to-do businessmen and lawyers, to down-on-their-luck fishermen, to shipwreck salvagers.
Throughout his career, Hemingway freely used the people and places he encountered in his literary works, and many Key Westers appear as characters in his novel “To Have and Have Not,” a novel about Key West during the Great Depression. (Information gathered from The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum)
The houses are very close together due to the limited space on the island and now all are required to have metal roofs on them. The fire of 1886 destroyed almost sixty percent of the homes and businesses. 18 major cigar factories, 614 homes, government buildings and warehouses were destroyed. (*”Voices of History”) It was thought that the fire was started by the Spanish who were fighting against the Cuban revolutionaries; Key West and the cigar industry were funding the Cuban cause.
I cannot finish this post without mentioning the great food found in the many mom and pop type restaurants here. There is a wide variety of food to be had on this island as this city is a cultural melting pot from many lands. I noticed more Asian and Thai food places this trip. The many Cuban or island influenced “dives” on the backstreets throughout Old Town have the wonderful smells and music emanating from their doors.
Many of the places have fresh seafood and everything eaten on this trip has been wonderful. I have kind of felt like Bubba Gump since I love shrimp and have eaten it so many different ways; fried, boiled, scampi, shrimp po-boy, and blacken shrimp and grits to name a few. There has also been Mahi Mahi, fried & grilled fish tacos, fish and chips, conch fritters several times, and grouper. With all this fresh seafood around it is hard to justify eating a steak or some other meal.
Leaving tomorrow to start the trek back north will be a bittersweet time as the sunsets each day remind you that life is not to be missed and the warm sea breezes bring with it a soft music, if one chooses to listen. As advertised, Key West is truly the island paradise - inspiring everyone to enjoy, have a great time and leave with wonderful memories of a slower time.
*Additional photos will be posted on the Facebook page – Traveling Life’s Highways