I have been drawn to the water lately and apparently I am not alone. I got to see a whole range of people hanging out at Higgs Beach.
Not all of them alive. The African Cemetery is coming along nicely and should be quite spectacular when it's done:
It's the estimated burial site of several hundred more or less freed slaves found on a ship bound for Cuba, liberated and dropped off in Key West and pretty much abandoned by the government until they were "repatriated" to Liberia, a corner of Africa they knew nothing about. They survived in Key West thanks to the representative of the Federal Government, the Post Master who fed them and housed them and was never reimbursed by the government for his trouble. Across the street we find the dog park which makes me want to get a Labrador or two from Florida Labrador Rescue. Then I'd have to get a sidecar for the Triumph.
And the West Martello Tower home to the Garden Club written about in January of this year:
http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2009/01/ghostly-west-martello.html 
Immortality is available if you have enough cash. For everyone else there is a chance to appear on the Internet if you are enjoying the beach, as a place of rest or as temporary accommodation:
Or as a place of work. Higgs beach is in the city but is actually owned and operated by Monroe County. The county has offered it to the city but the city has said, no thanks, we can't afford it:
The county found some money to tart up the beach and also some cash to pay off-duty details to have a Sheriff's deputy patrol the beach.
But this is the land of the free and you can't ban people from the beach because you don't like the look of them, and people complain in the paper all the time about the residentially challenged at Higgs Beach:
Others use the beach as a place to enjoy the view as they exercise:
Or to keep up with their diaries. Journaling they call it nowadays, turning nouns into verbs, without so much as a by-your-leave.
I have been drawn to the water lately and apparently I am not alone. I got to see a whole range of people hanging out at Higgs Beach.
Others use the beach as a place to enjoy the view as they exercise:
Or to keep up with their diaries. Journaling they call it nowadays, turning nouns into verbs, without so much as a by-your-leave.
Welcome one, welcome all.
7 comments:
Conch:
I have to admit that the nouns into verbs things really chaps my ass... Why am I "antiquing" with my wife when we used to go looking at antiques? I used to get caught up with my e-mails, now I'm "e-mailing"... And I hate the "doing" coffee thing...I much prefer to simply drink it...
Dear Sir:
It is a great comfort to me to know that when I arrive in Key West, probably as an indigent, the municipal government will no have been ordinancing my kind off Historic Higgs Beach.
It is unlikely I will be recognized as an indigent, however, as my BMW comes with a tach.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
The beauty of English is that it is a vibrant labguage and people keep changing it which is annoying for old people like us. There's not much we can do either.
The freedom to screw up the language is matched by the freedom not to buy a mortgage and live on the streets and be smelly and mentally ill and unable to look after oneself. Or we could be like other industrialized nations and take care, as the Good Book puts it, of our lesser bretheren. Or we could be like Cuba, as so many callers to the Key West Police Departemnet seem to wish, and we could enforce social expectations with no regard to laws. Freedom sucks. thats the "cynical" note for the day.
Mr Conchscooter:
Now we see that there's hope for us Northerners who can now make plans to include Higgs Beach in our retirement plans. Can we re-arrange the furniture ? I'm thinking that we can move those tables from the shelters and park our m/c's under cover.
We can borrow your plastic sheds and surround a small area near the beach for a more secure 'home' and have a cup of tea while we read and snap pictures of the setting sun.
bob
bobskoot: wet coast scootin
Dear Bobskoot Via Conch:
Careful Bob... He will turn on you in heartbeat, pink crocs or no. At the merest suggestion that I would show up as a bum, he dragged "Commie" Cuba into the discussion.
Bob, I spoke with a man who can get me deluxe hotel accommodations for my visit. He said nothing about Higgs Beach. Maybe he meant a battered writer's shelter.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
If Bob shows up he will be treated with the same deference accorded to all Canadians that show up here in the winter. The French posing as Americans (the "je me souviens" crowd) are treated similarly.
Bums like riepe get a mattress in an air conditioned tent and a free bus pass into town. And sitting privileges in the parks until they close. It is not a stimulating life but it is all they can manage poor things. Tachometers are not allowed in city limits, nor are RVs over 20 feet (6.4 meters) thus riepe is banned by default.
Dear Sir:
I noticed that the Yamaha SR400 comes with a tach.
Conspiracy, eh what?
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
Post a Comment