Key West Cemetery 2013

Dogs aren't allowed in the Key West cemetery and considering the sort of ill mannered inconsiderate world we live in that's probably a good thing. Not everyone is as obsessive as I am about carrying plastic bags, I find.

So that morning Cheyenne walked in Big Pine with me until she had had quite enough and let me know in no uncertain terms. "Is she all right?" an anxious cyclist paused to ask...of me leaning casually up against my car reading a book on my phone. "I think so," I replied looking at my snoring dog, totally relaxed, not a care in the world...I figured she couldn't be better, walked as far as she wanted with breakfast waiting at home and my soft couch to complete her nap in. Yeah, I think you could say she was "all right."

So when I went to town later I had no dog but I arrived early so I did have time on my hands before I met my wife for drinks and dinner.

Naturally I pondered where to go and the cemetery came to mind immediately. Below we see Mario Sanchez's refurbished tomb. The Key West intaglio artist who died not so long ago is getting an exhibition in Cuba soon as the Southernmost City and La Habana try to work out closer ties, over the objections of the Miami Cuban community for whom a life in the US has been no compensation for losing the revolution of 1959.

The Ley West cemetery has been featured on this page before in various formats and I always enjoy a walk there as it is as much a repository of history as it is a serene place in which to contemplatethe mysteries of life and death. Key West Diary: Famous Dead People and the are plenty of less well known people buried above ground and with photographs in a style I associate with my childhood in Italy:

Cuba has suffered more than one revolution over the years and there is a section devoted to the Cuban martyrs confirming what I mentioned earlier about the ties across the Straits of Florida.

Beyond being a lovely peaceful spot in the middle of the city, the cemetery retains it's primary function of being the active last resting place of the residents of. Key West. Over the years complaints have been legion about the state of disrepair of the cemetery with overgrown grass fading paint and tumbledown tombs lending the place an agreeably gothic air. However what made the cemetery look mysterious also grieved the relatives of the people buried there so finally the city has funded improvements and as you will see in the pictures the cemetery is looking quite spiffy while retaining its old look.

Indeed I found a new mausoleum under construction. The water table is close to the surface here so, like New Orleans the Key West cemetery is famous for its above ground crypts.

It is in the center of the island which is also the center of the city today but in the 19th century this area was on the periphery of the city which covered the land north of Truman Avenue, which used to be known as Division Street, as it divided the city from the hinterlands. So the graveyard now lies directly under the flight path to the airport...

 

The photographic possibilities here are endless and visitors are always here wandering and looking. I fit right in!

 

 

You can't keep a wild chicken down in Key West, anywhere it seems. Notice how trim the grass is though.

Scooters and dogs are banned from the cemetery for bad behavior, cars and bicycles aren't though bicycle tours have been banned on the grounds of clogging the paths. I think it's too bad as the more people see what lies in the cemetery the more they might appreciate the city's dense cultural past, a side to Key West not clearly displayed where most visitors hang out.

I nod in the direction of this small plaque every time I pass the main gate pillars. An old friend from boating days.

I had been trying to get to the ceremony for the homeless and poor buried in the pauper's section but I was late. Members of the Navy walked out as I arrived, they were carrying the folded flag from the ceremony when the presiding minister Reverend Braddock was called away suddenly to assist a pedestrian in medical distress and all the activity and life faded away and I was left alone among the graves.

Outside the severe wrought iron fencing life went on, but until the gate was closed at six I was secure and snug in the world away from the world that is the Key West cemetery.

 

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Deuce's Off The Hook

My wife's two week vacation has started and she wanted to mark the event by trying a tequila at a bar on Front Street underneath the Rooftop Cafe. I am, I confess no great fan of tequila but I am a great fan of her teacher's vacations because they make me feel less guilty about my peculiar twelve hour schedule which allows me lots of days off. So I was guilt tripped into going which was okay.

They sell beer as well as fermented cactus juice and I had a bottle of something peculiar looking from Colorado. One has to suppose, if one lives in deepest darkest Dixie, that anything out of Colorado these days, a state where the hallucinogenic weed is liberated as it will never be in strait laced Dixie, will have to be a little odd but the beer was okay, not too hoppy at all and more interesting than most wheat beers. My wife had a jalapeño cucumber tequila or some such thing that tasted of grass clippings and gunpowder but she seemed happy. She was happy enough to chat with the bar tender, a native Texan who ended up coming to Key West from Austin to pursue an education which seemed as odd as Colorado in light of the excellent educational opportunities at her alma mater UT. Nevertheless Ashland, who seemed unusually smart and thoughtful has a Plan, which puts her ahead of many of her contemporaries and graduating nursing school is just the start. Too bad Key West can't sustain youngsters like her.

Her original idea was to be a marine biologist of some sort, put off Galveston by the murky Gulf waters of Texas' coastline (I empathized, recalling a cold front I sat out in my freezing cold sailboat anchored in brown frothy waters off Galveston one Spring on my way to Florida) so she came to Key West to try her luck. Then she discovered marine biology students are very passionate she said with emphasis about their subject matter, and she realized she lacked their level of interest in sea life. She decided to beat a retreat while she had time figuring nursing would offer better opportunities.

A wedding party showed up and as Ashland asked them if they wanted their usuals I deduced they had been bracing for the forthcoming nuptials with a fair few tipples in the tequila bar. I seem to recall rather more furniture moving and sitting around looking serious as plans were made before my wedding. Perhaps I just remember the good bits.

It was time to move on and my wife had decided that a new place on Simonton was where we would eat. We had heard from several people that the place was over the top and we were ready to tear ourselves away from our favorite, Santiago's Bodega and risk something new. I'm glad we did. The view from the outside was dark and serene not at all the diner decor I had imagined.

With a name like Off The Hook you'd expect fish to be on the menu and there was plenty to be had, including shrimp oysters all the way through the hogfish and duck bacon which sounds gross but probably isn't.

Service was just as you'd like it, attentive, informed and not oppressive. At first the place was half empty but even when it became packed our server Sophia kept an eye on us and was the consummate pro, which was a really pleasant change from haphazard service one frequently encounters. Untrained servers ruin a meal out for me.

The restaurant has applied for a wine and beer license but the city has even unable to produce the required document ever since the place opened last November which fact struck me as profoundly odd as this place has been a restaurant or deli since I can remember. Happily we had already decided we had had enough alcohol and planned to have water with dinner but we were advised we could have a free glass of red or white with dinner until they get the ridiculous piece of paper. Or you can bring your own which I think can be a really smart idea no matter what the circumstances. Nevertheless we were fine with chilled filtered Chateau du Tap 2013:

The mussels were excellent and the broth was tangy with white wine and some sort of citrusy element that made it tart. It was a great change from the sweet tomato broth that seems the inevitable accompaniment for mussels and clams. We had conch fritters just because we haven't had any in years and they were better thank expected. I have a bit of prejudice against the fritter owing to the fact that it is usually just a corn ball deep fried and is essentially a hush puppy masquerading as fried conch. In this case the little balls of corn were liberally supplied with pieces of conch and could fairly be said to meet the description of a true conch fritter. The horseradish dipping sauce was excellent and unexpected.

We shared a main course to leave room for the deep fried Oreos but in the event we ran out of steam. We got the hogfish stuffed with crab and it was perfect. The coleslaw was light and fresh and the sweet potato tater tots were piping hot and crusty. Our server suggested ketchup or syrup but I waved away the ketchup intrigued by the syrup. I am not one to usually mix sweet and savory, I don't like the idea of pineapples on pizza for instance, but in the case the syrup did something magical to the dish, mixing the flavors and requiring a brush with coleslaw to clear the syrup before taking a bite of fish.

I asked why this place is called Deuce's...and Deuce himself came by to answer, an enthusiastic beaming face that looked, not surprisingly, much younger than me. This place deserves to succeed, with table and bar seating and soon the stupid alcohol license, safely after the holidays- duh!

I only wish the habit of putting TVs in these places would kindly die a death, especially in a place with superior food and excellent service, television is crass. No luck so far on that, but Off The Hook is worth a visit. Just sit with your back to the screens.

Key West on Dwellable

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Changes

I read in the paper that the Studios at Key West had found a way to move out of their eleven grand a month rental at the Armory on White Street and bought this place for 2.2 million bucks. Which deal will be good for Key West and artists everywhere who will get a chance to participate in their hugely varied visiting artists programs.

The sign moved me to take the picture and so it goes. It was they said the declining membership of the Freemasons that encouraged them to sell and their presence has vanished into history. It will be one more place where old timers will get a leg up on newcomers by referring to this place by its former identity.

I had forgotten that Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden has relocated the parrots to a new place on Elizabeth Street but the sign has appeared, or at least I noticed it for the first time. The garden went down to economic defeat a few years ago for what seemed like the rather measly sum as I recall of around $160,000 but Key a West was unable to come to the rescue. We live in difficult times I suppose, and must make do.

However on the cheap or free front something is happening at the library. The lovely little garden next to the library is now open to all comers. Why now? Dunno. Who made that fine decision? Beats me. I hope they elect to leave it open too. There's a couple of benches in there which makes it an excellent picnic spot.

Havana One has gone from Mile a Marker zone on Truman Avenue and is soon to be replaced by Lupita's, the rather tasty Cal-Mexican place currently on Bertha Street in a No Parking Zone, which is never good in a Key West, even in New Town. In a town packed with Cuban food Havana Key West (as Havana One's new incarnation is called) is moving to 703 Duval for breakfast and lunch, tied in some way to aka west Liquors per their website. Havana-Key-West-Restaurant

The old bargain books across the street is closed of course and nothing seems ready to replace it. It was an odd place, give it that, with shelves and nooks filled with dusty books and of all things, a gym all the way down the corridor. It looked like the wardrobe to Narnia but instead of children sweaty people in wet clothes carrying towels popped in and out.

I liked the books and amazingly enough they are still there though the shelves with the old fashioned paper pornography are bare.

This place is new and I'm guessing its a sign of the times, as Key West's population ages in response to the high cost of living. Medical equipment? I don't know what CPAP is exactly but I'm pretty sure it isn't anything remotely to do with the crap I thought I read at first. I loved the advertising, new active oxygen packages for the new active you - who need supplemental oxygen just to breathe. The idea of struggling to breathe gives me nightmares. I nearly drowned once and let me tell you it's not the peaceful death the uniformed tell you it is.

I mentioned recently I miss the old straight friendly resort with the open air movies and here is, if not the real thing, at least their long lost logo. Not having front license plates on cars is one cultural advantage Florida, among other southern states, does offer people with something to say!

I surprised myself when Cheyenne dragged me past this burned out hulk, still gracing the main drag into town with its blackened moldy interior and broken roof. Inside it looks like the devil' swimming pool, so it's not surprising no eager developer is leaping in to gentrify the former Kyushu Japanese restaurant.

Who needs Japanese when the Eastern Europeans have moved into town? I am a philistine in matters sushi because it seems to me if I am going out to eat the least they can do is cook it for me. And pierogis are definitely cooked.

I wonder if we will have live through a period of stability again. It seems like everything is changing all my life. It makes spectating an interesting sport.

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On And Off The Key West Porch

One of Cheyenne's salient traits is her immense fund of patience. To me at least, doting as I do on her, she appears to be extremely patient. She puts up with me dithering over her at home, when out walking she ignores anything that tries to distract her from her appointed pursuit of smells. This cat would have driven me mad had it pursued me as doggedly as it pursued Cheyenne, yet she simply pretended it wasn't there.

I've seen her ignore Key deer to the point of making them crazy with curiosity as she stands there and chews grass alongside them. She never even sees chickens as they scatter on her approach. All she notices are the pizza crusts and cold fries in her path. Cats need have no fear of this tremendous force of nature:

We were ambling up Virginia Street earlier this week and we passed a mother fussing over her child in a stroller. The mother said something to me in heavily accented English and my ears simply wren't attuned to her Slavic intonation. She sounded like she had a cold and was hocking up a huge loogie. What she was actually saying, with some fierce Russian annoyance, was that her toddler was afraid of Cheyenne. Had she been empowered I'd have gone straight to the gulag, not passed go nor would I have collected two hundred bucks for my trouble. Mind you being afraid of Cheyenne sounds like a recipe for a very timid life indeed. Some people know how to enjoy winter in Key West:

It gives me pleasure to see people commuting by bicycle. It is a hugely desirable lifestyle among the self consciously ecological types Up North yet in Key West it is simply the cheapest most effective way to save money for booze in a bar later. Cycling is not a fashionable sport for most a Key west riders. My nephew who used to ride and race obsessively on a bicycle didn't think much of a key west Asa destiny too , too. Flat. And limited. I think he has a point but as a bicycle commuter destination it's about perfect.

For some people a bicycle is their only means of getting around. This guy was sleeping it off on the porch of an unoccupied house, his bicycle nearby.

The future of commuting for all of us is smaller cars. Europeans pay. Two and a half times as much for. Gas as we do but they still clog their streets and roads with cars. They drive smaller and more fuel efficient cars. Imagine how cheap our commutes would get with 60mpg cars....and how easy to park a car smaller than a full sized truck.

Virginia is one of two states that has outlawed radar detectors, though they are legal here. I looked into them after my last speeding ticket - the ticket was $130 the radar detector $500, so I didn't buy one. But this tag with the fuzzy cover on it looks like it might mess up cameras tires at particular angles. Hmm...that can't be legal can it?

All of which is very interesting but I was also thinking about animals in this essay. Like Key West's famous wild chickens which are ignored by my dog, so they stand around looking at us impertinently. Very annoying. "Kill!" I order my dog. She ignores me.

One reason I loathe the chickens is not because they are noisy, they are, but because they are messy. This section of sidewalk was murder to walk on as the wood chips were like marbles underfoot. And the only reason the mulch was all over the sidewalk was...Because of the damned chickens.

I may get annoyed at the chickens but other people get mad about lots of other stuff in this crowded little town. Like who dumps their trash where, and why.

As a result of this sort of irritation I double bag Cheyenne's droppings and either haul them home on the gas cap of the car or I dump them in a. City trash can. You'd think people would be grateful to see trash in their capacious trash cans rather than littering the streets. However because folk are weird they'd rather wade through garbage than share a four foot tall trash can. It's good for Cheyenne though as you'd be amazed at the amount of food left on the ground. Against all odds dogs are smarter than people 67% of the time, studies show.

 

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Derek Walcott, A Caribbean Poet

“The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.”
― Derek Walcott

I saw this quotation outside the home of painter Rick Worth who lives where a true Key a West character used to live until she died not so long ago, the noted bottle home of Carolyn Fuller Bottle wall made artist a Key West icon | KeysNews.com. It occurred to me that there may be some few people who have not read the poetry of Derek Walcott of St Lucia in the West Indies, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature..

Derek Walcott - Wikipedia,

After The Storm

There are so many islands!
As many islands as the stars at night
on that branched tree from which meteors are shaken
like falling fruit around the schooner Flight.
But things must fall,and so it always was,
on one hand Venus,on the other Mars;
fall,and are one,just as this earth is one
island in archipelagoes of stars.
My first friend was the sea.Now,is my last.
I stop talking now.I work,then I read,
cotching under a lantern hooked to the mast.
I try to forget what happiness was,
and when that don't work,I study the stars.
Sometimes is just me,and the soft-scissored foam
as the deck turn white and the moon open
a cloud like a door,and the light over me
is a road in white moonlight taking me home.
Shabine sang to you from the depths of the sea.

So often the Nobel prize for literature seems to reward writers who, as hard as it is to say it, deserve their obscurity. Over the years I have tried to read and thus understand why some few strange names seemed to have been picked as though at random by the Scandinavians... Elias Canetti anyone? Canetti, Man of Mystery | I tried to read Auto da Fé and got nowhere when he got the Nobel in 1981.

But Walcott is an easy poet. I suppose that's no great thing to say about a writer in a world filled with pulp, but his poems inspired by the world he grew up in, is poetry revealing the Caribbean to those of us who have the misfortune to think it is a place that it is not. Yet Walcott is also very much a man of the rest of the world too.

Midsummer, Tobago

Broad sun-stoned beaches. White heat. A green river. A bridge, scorched yellow palms from the summer-sleeping housedrowsing through August. Days I have held, days I have lost, days that outgrow, like daughters,my harbouring arms.

Derek Walcott, an antidote to midwinter.

Key West on Dwellable

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