Wandering my favorite city early Sunday morning I came across a dog friendly tourist who posed the impossible question: "When will the sun come out...?" Beats me, but it didn't look promising with all clouds overhead and no wind.
We went to town early Cheyenne and I, figuring dawn on Father's Day would give us free rein across the most visited parts of the city. I too had been hoping for crisp sunrise but we got drizzle instead. It was hot and humid for both of us.
But the visitors keep coming to Key West, and now we are moving into family vacation time in the summer. It may have been a gray overcast morning but a rental bicycle and a towel spell beach to some people, no matter what.
The landmarks of Key West don't have to be open to pull in the passersby. 
They come and they go and they come back. There seems to be an endless supply of visitors no matter what the economy does Up North. European visitors are here in numbers too, though I expect there are more Germans than Greeks these days, all things considered.
All the restaurants around town cash in on the Hallmark holidays and I can only imagine how many buffets and feasts were on offer to celebrate Father's Day. Curiously enough this holiday was started as a local celebration on a poignant note at the beginning of the 20th century in West Virginia. A whole group of fathers died in a mining disaster, 210 of them, of the kind we still see today when spending money on safety counts for less than a human life and it became a nationwide celebration as the years passed. In 1972 the people in charge made it official nationwide and now people spend money on cards and gifts and make card sellers and restaurants happy.
Splendid stuff no doubt but these red letter days on the calendar have never done much for me. I am not one for celebrating my birthday either, which as it falls on Halloween becomes an especial nuisance when people take it into their heads to think that I would rather spend my birthday in a costume, like a pirate say, when I don't even ride my motorcycle wearing a bandanna like some people...
I think on the whole holidays (holy days) as celebrated in the past were a worthy break in common people's lives that were filled with drudgery, and prior to the advent of labor unions people didn't even get two consecutive days off in a week. Nowadays these hallmark holidays come and go as ways to encourage people to find reasons to celebrate that seem as remote to me as Saint's Days do to most people today. 
How many know their saint's day? Mine is September 29th but you won't find me out buying a card or sitting down to a special meal. Instead we celebrate inoffensive culturally vapid stuff like mothers and fathers who should be celebrated for their daily heroism as far as I'm concerned. I'm not tough enough to be a father. Or a mother were that a choice.
My favorite holiday is July 4th, a day created to celebrate something real from history that I have applied to my own life. This year I expect to celebrate it, as much as one can, in a foreign aircraft flying to a foreign country where the fourth of July will simply be the start of one more dreary work week for everyone around me, and where I will be the gawping tourist for a change. So much for holidays, holy or otherwise.
We went to town early Cheyenne and I, figuring dawn on Father's Day would give us free rein across the most visited parts of the city. I too had been hoping for crisp sunrise but we got drizzle instead. It was hot and humid for both of us.But the visitors keep coming to Key West, and now we are moving into family vacation time in the summer. It may have been a gray overcast morning but a rental bicycle and a towel spell beach to some people, no matter what.The landmarks of Key West don't have to be open to pull in the passersby. They come and they go and they come back. There seems to be an endless supply of visitors no matter what the economy does Up North. European visitors are here in numbers too, though I expect there are more Germans than Greeks these days, all things considered.All the restaurants around town cash in on the Hallmark holidays and I can only imagine how many buffets and feasts were on offer to celebrate Father's Day. Curiously enough this holiday was started as a local celebration on a poignant note at the beginning of the 20th century in West Virginia. A whole group of fathers died in a mining disaster, 210 of them, of the kind we still see today when spending money on safety counts for less than a human life and it became a nationwide celebration as the years passed. In 1972 the people in charge made it official nationwide and now people spend money on cards and gifts and make card sellers and restaurants happy.Splendid stuff no doubt but these red letter days on the calendar have never done much for me. I am not one for celebrating my birthday either, which as it falls on Halloween becomes an especial nuisance when people take it into their heads to think that I would rather spend my birthday in a costume, like a pirate say, when I don't even ride my motorcycle wearing a bandanna like some people...I think on the whole holidays (holy days) as celebrated in the past were a worthy break in common people's lives that were filled with drudgery, and prior to the advent of labor unions people didn't even get two consecutive days off in a week. Nowadays these hallmark holidays come and go as ways to encourage people to find reasons to celebrate that seem as remote to me as Saint's Days do to most people today. How many know their saint's day? Mine is September 29th but you won't find me out buying a card or sitting down to a special meal. Instead we celebrate inoffensive culturally vapid stuff like mothers and fathers who should be celebrated for their daily heroism as far as I'm concerned. I'm not tough enough to be a father. Or a mother were that a choice.My favorite holiday is July 4th, a day created to celebrate something real from history that I have applied to my own life. This year I expect to celebrate it, as much as one can, in a foreign aircraft flying to a foreign country where the fourth of July will simply be the start of one more dreary work week for everyone around me, and where I will be the gawping tourist for a change. So much for holidays, holy or otherwise.
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