If I could explain the pleasure it gives me to photograph other people taking pictures of my beloved Key West I would do so. As I cannot explain it I shall not try. Suffice it to say these photographers caught up with me later when Cheyenne I parked on South Street.
My target was the fireplug at South and Whitehead Streets that passes for the southernmost point in the US. Normally this place is littered with people lined up to get their picture taken and even showing up here at three in the morning on a lunch break has disappointed me as that is the time I tend to come across drunks being creative and original draping themselves all over this monument to human gullibility.
It didn't always look like a fire plug. When I first rode to Key West in 1981 I parked my Vespa P200 in front of a sign stuck on a scabrous piece of sea wall.
A few years ago, in response to neighbors' complaints of too many people milling around here the City Commission contemplated moving the Southernmost Point, an act of derring-do that not many geographically enhanced communities could contemplate committing. I'd love to see the geographic center of North America moved from Rugby, North Dakota on a whim...Actually if they included Mexico in the equation that's exactly what they'd have to do! So you see, the southernmost point is an idea, a state of mind and not a geographic spot in reality. The actual southernmost point is visible through the fence at the Top Secret listening post on the Navy base, but no one would profit if that were the location of the fireplug...
And just for the record I have had my picture taken at this most geographic spot. Just yesterday as a matter of fact.
And there's the actual southernmost point I was talking about. The military listens to Havana through those dishes, I listen to Havana on my car radio, which I find inexpensive and really quite simple, 590AM for classical, 950AM for news of a rather dreary Soviet style of rah rah upbeat crop reports and the like, and 620AM for Radio Rebelde, and all is advertising free.
My target was the fireplug at South and Whitehead Streets that passes for the southernmost point in the US. Normally this place is littered with people lined up to get their picture taken and even showing up here at three in the morning on a lunch break has disappointed me as that is the time I tend to come across drunks being creative and original draping themselves all over this monument to human gullibility.It didn't always look like a fire plug. When I first rode to Key West in 1981 I parked my Vespa P200 in front of a sign stuck on a scabrous piece of sea wall.A few years ago, in response to neighbors' complaints of too many people milling around here the City Commission contemplated moving the Southernmost Point, an act of derring-do that not many geographically enhanced communities could contemplate committing. I'd love to see the geographic center of North America moved from Rugby, North Dakota on a whim...Actually if they included Mexico in the equation that's exactly what they'd have to do! So you see, the southernmost point is an idea, a state of mind and not a geographic spot in reality. The actual southernmost point is visible through the fence at the Top Secret listening post on the Navy base, but no one would profit if that were the location of the fireplug...And just for the record I have had my picture taken at this most geographic spot. Just yesterday as a matter of fact.And there's the actual southernmost point I was talking about. The military listens to Havana through those dishes, I listen to Havana on my car radio, which I find inexpensive and really quite simple, 590AM for classical, 950AM for news of a rather dreary Soviet style of rah rah upbeat crop reports and the like, and 620AM for Radio Rebelde, and all is advertising free.The person who took my picture was from Ft Myers visiting Key West by goes by the name of Robin; whose picture I in turn took at the point, with her massive field piece of a camera. Her husband Jerome, a fearsome former Marine lives in Japan, and far from sprouting two irradiated heads rather likes living there as a civilian.
We chatted for some considerable time and it was interesting because living abroad does things to people who see the world in a slightly different, dare I say skewed, light. When asked where I as from I ducked the question and said simply "Europe," as most interlocutors end up telling me about their Uncle's first cousin Daffyd who lives in Wales and have I met him? These two didn't, and that endeared me to them. We talked about how Japan makes for a great place to live, clean organized and well mannered which seem to be evermore desirable qualities as we sink into the mire of a contracting economy in this country.
One wonders when and how we will turn around a nation that is, as Jerome put it rather appropriately, feeling entitled. I've noticed that quality at work when people call 9-1-1 for the most spurious reasons and act as though the police department should drop everything to locate their lost id or some other odd thing. In Japan public manners are not a thing of the past, and mutual respect is still practiced according to Jerome, and I believe him.
I get the feeling that if we ever got leadership in this country that asked us to roll up our sleeves and pull together the response would be a massive shrug of the shoulders. I'd like to think I'm wrong and p[perhaps if we saw people at the top taking hits in the same we at the bottom are being asked to things might be different, but it's odd to see our leaders feeding the banks and starving us of jobs.
After all the awful news we have heard from Japan, and still hear if we know where to look it was encouraging to hear the other side of the story, and meeting Jerome and Robin gave me hope that we too on this side of the Pacific will get our chance to show what we can do when we find a leader who shows the way by example. Until then the circus it seems must continue.
We chatted for some considerable time and it was interesting because living abroad does things to people who see the world in a slightly different, dare I say skewed, light. When asked where I as from I ducked the question and said simply "Europe," as most interlocutors end up telling me about their Uncle's first cousin Daffyd who lives in Wales and have I met him? These two didn't, and that endeared me to them. We talked about how Japan makes for a great place to live, clean organized and well mannered which seem to be evermore desirable qualities as we sink into the mire of a contracting economy in this country.One wonders when and how we will turn around a nation that is, as Jerome put it rather appropriately, feeling entitled. I've noticed that quality at work when people call 9-1-1 for the most spurious reasons and act as though the police department should drop everything to locate their lost id or some other odd thing. In Japan public manners are not a thing of the past, and mutual respect is still practiced according to Jerome, and I believe him.I get the feeling that if we ever got leadership in this country that asked us to roll up our sleeves and pull together the response would be a massive shrug of the shoulders. I'd like to think I'm wrong and p[perhaps if we saw people at the top taking hits in the same we at the bottom are being asked to things might be different, but it's odd to see our leaders feeding the banks and starving us of jobs.After all the awful news we have heard from Japan, and still hear if we know where to look it was encouraging to hear the other side of the story, and meeting Jerome and Robin gave me hope that we too on this side of the Pacific will get our chance to show what we can do when we find a leader who shows the way by example. Until then the circus it seems must continue.
2 comments:
Japan?
They may be polite, but they're not all that fond of us Americans. We were shadowed in virtually every shop we visited, as if we were thieves.
Singapore is another matter entirely. It is the land of Mary Poppins - practically perfect in every way.
The world is not winding down...the US is, and places like Singapore are the new nexus.
I think we will move here in the next two years.
I don't think systemic collapse will spare anyone. As the English say life is like a shit sandwich, the more bread you've got the less shit you eat. And that matters more than where it is you live.
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