I don’t think of myself as a social being but I think I end up looking that way. I was at the Tropic the other night for a talk about Ft Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas and very good it was too.
Standing outside waiting for the others of my party to escape the crowd I was accosted.
A couple from New Jersey, long time visitors to Key West spend far too much time on this page sbd wanted to say hello. I hope I didn’t disgrace myself but then another couple stopped by…I managed not to faint because they were all very gentle with me. I am really sorry I didn’t drag them a block up the street to meet Rusty. But Paula was there finally to manage my life and she took the reins and led us off to dinner. I was full of admiration for the blog readers who accosted me with charm and overcame my social ineptitude.
Mind you, I can smile for the camera. Unlike Paula’s Dad who in person is really funny but he looks at a camera like Winston Churchill with indigestion.
On the subject my wife says she is shy but I wouldn’t know it from the way she makes and maintains long distance relationships. I get exhausted by all the socializing she creates so what follows is a short and most probably incomplete list of what it takes to learn to be a visitor and guest in the town where people live their own full lives.
Doug lives downtown and has for as long as I can remember. He loves his Huskies and you’ll seem him cycling downtown on a tricycle with furry partner. We appreciate our dogs.
I have admired Doug's tenacity in a city that chews people up and spits them out. He and his wife have made Key West their home in a way few people seem to manage.
They take joy in Key West, in friendships forged and new friends who have a habit of dropping into town. Doug’s retirement doesn’t look much like mine but we share a contentment and an appreciation for this town.
Chuck and Wayne of course. Remarkable success story of learning to live in the Keys and Kry West.
Rachel and Kristi holding down the fort without me. Rachel has twenty years in dispatch and started three years before me. Kristi has more than a dozen in the room. Their partners are both city employees which steady work gives relationships a chance. They both own their homes so they have stability. Success stories.
Carol hired Layne as a teacher taking a chance on the lawyer who wanted a new less stressful career. Carol threw amazing parties in her sprawling tree house in New Town supported by rental apartments she carved out of the house to make it economically viable. She’s retired to her long desired Old Town tiny house part of a cooperative of small units in a landscaped lot out of the flood zone. Happiness in a small package.
Nick lives with three rescue dogs and extended family across the island. One of the reasons I didn’t go completely nuts sitting up all night answering 911 for more than a decade. And below Keith from New Jersey with a wicked sense of humor and the smarts to get his own place in New Town. He used to own his own business but realized working for city is the best retirement plan in Key West. A few more years…
My dentist of all people. Claude gets it, the van thing. He travels every chance he can and posts pictures on Instagram at his account msflossdaily I think it’s Africa pretty soon.
Jonathan last seen in Maine. Sailor and circumnavigator married to one of my wife’s best friends. We sat on the deck listening to the rain and drank red wine and I thought of the other sailor who inspired my travels Webb Chiles the writer.
I met Robert sailing the Bahamas in the 1980s. He’s retired to Cudjoe Key with Dolly. He came to Key West in 1976 and watched the bicentennial fireworks from the deck of his boat. A life spent on and under the water as a fisherman and later an employee at the marine sanctuary he initially opposed. He’s all about conserving the oceans.
Me, the shadow drifting through their lives.
Nicole, a healthy reminder of some of the challenges faced by Keys residents. Tough people.
