Holiday

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776

John Adams to Abigail Adams

Philadelphia July 3d. 1776

Had a Declaration of Independency been made seven Months ago, it would have been attended with many great and glorious Effects. . . . We might before this Hour, have formed Alliances with foreign States.—We should have mastered Quebec and been in Possession of Canada. . . . You will perhaps wonder, how such a Declaration would have influenced our Affairs, in Canada, but if I could write with Freedom I could easily convince you, that it would, and explain to you the manner how.—Many Gentlemen in high Stations and of great Influence have been duped, by the ministerial Bubble of Commissioners to treat. . . . And in real, sincere Expectation of this Event, which they so fondly wished, they have been slow and languid, in promoting Measures for the Reduction of that Province. Others there are in the Colonies who really wished that our Enterprise in Canada would be defeated, that the Colonies might be brought into Danger and Distress between two Fires, and be thus induced to submit. Others really wished to defeat the Expedition to Canada, lest the Conquest of it, should elevate the Minds of the People too much to hearken to those Terms of Reconciliation which they believed would be offered Us. These jarring Views, Wishes and Designs, occasioned an opposition to many salutary Measures, which were proposed for the Support of that Expedition, and caused Obstructions, Embarrassments and studied Delays, which have finally, lost Us the Province.

All these Causes however in Conjunction would not have disappointed Us, if it had not been for a Misfortune, which could not be foreseen, and perhaps could not have been prevented, I mean the Prevalence of the small Pox among our Troops. . . . This fatal Pestilence compleated our Destruction.—It is a Frown of Providence upon Us, which We ought to lay to heart.

But on the other Hand, the Delay of this Declaration to this Time, has many great Advantages attending it.—The Hopes of Reconciliation, which were fondly entertained by Multitudes of honest and well meaning tho weak and mistaken People, have been gradually and at last totally extinguished.—Time has been given for the whole People, maturely to consider the great Question of Independence and to ripen their Judgments, dissipate their Fears, and allure their Hopes, by discussing it in News Papers and Pamphletts, by debating it, in Assemblies, Conventions, Committees of Safety and Inspection, in Town and County Meetings, as well as in private Conversations, so that the whole People in every Colony of the 13, have now adopted it, as their own Act.—This will cement the Union, and avoid those Heats and perhaps Convulsions which might have been occasioned, by such a Declaration Six Months ago.

But the Day is past. The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not.—I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.—Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY

The Glorious 4th

I noticed last Friday how traffic was building and  he town was hopping. I worked all weekend including Friday and there was a higher volume of 911 calls than usual so I figured people were in Key West determined to squeeze the most out of  tomorrow's summer holiday. ZI took a quick look around.

I honestly don't get the bar scene. For me sitting in a noisy environment surrounded by people gradually losing their inhibitions and frequently their good manners while paying through the nose for a drink  that I can have at home for much less... it makes no sense to me.

And besides that people come to Key West  specifically for that privilege. When I travel exploration is high on my list and when its time to sit back a  crowd is not what I seek out.  Luckily I am unusual because this city thrives on urgent crowds seeking alcohol. They throw in a bit of history and the bars argue over which really was Hemingway's preferred. I struggle to picture Hemingway in either of them but when you think about it the bars in those days just looked a bit different but their function was the same. Most likely he'd be massively at home being bought drinks and cheered on for his derring-do. 

 People will tell you the t-shirt shops the bars and the drunks make Duval Street unsuitable for children. I have no children so I haven't a  clue but I do know from talking to people the grungy nature of Duval Street is appealing. I guess in a world that is overly preoccupied with being clean and safe Key West is still promoting its alternative bad boy image and trying to look edgy. It works.

I'd like to see Duval treated differently, as an open air market, a pedestrian zone with shade trees and benches, a place that would attract people not repel them.

I still think about Church Street in Burlington, a place I visited a couple of years ago when in Vermont and I was impressed by the outdoor cafes, the food stands, busy shops and tons of people milling around talking and playing music, throwing horseshoes and generally treating the street as a playground. Duval doesn't even offer anywhere to sit for fear the bums will take over.

And then there are the businesses that have closed and there is nothing apparently to tell property owners to make the empty buildings at least look presentable. 

But these are considerations that don't amount to much. Key West is a summer playground and that's what matters.

 Old City Hall is getting a  face lift and the clock face wrecked by Hurricane Irma has been fixed.

 The scooter parking out front used to be a trench filled with rainwater and trash. They fixed that too with cement and everything:

Small steps.

Irma's Effects

For some reason my neighborhood, close to Hurricane Irma's landfall is ringing lately to the sounds of hammers and saws. Repair work is in high gear 10 months after the 150 mph  winds landed here

The tourist infrastructure has been repaired and so the face of daily life in the Keys proceeds as normal. But off the beaten paths where people live insurance companies have not been so forthcoming.

The boats that washed up have been cleared at vast expense but there is still crap in the water, unexpected branches and humps of dirt....

I found a couple of gas stations on what appeared to be limited rations...that was a flashback.

Not being able to find gas was a huge headache before and after Irma and a constant source of frustration. Now one of the Shell stations appears to have given up altogether on offering higher grades of fuel. Weird.

The campgrounds in the Lower Keys got mashed. The Sugarloaf KOA appears nowhere near ready to reopen yet.

New fences mark the path of the storm.

Houses appear abandoned in some places, damaged and unattended.

We  don't  need another storm this summer. We didn't really need Irma.

A Desperate Hike

I cannot deny life in the Florida Keys can feel claustrophobic sometimes. You step outside and long for a hill or a valley or a view that stretches to a horizon infinitely far away. But the reality is life is lived at ground level and the amount of land available is not much so you end up feeling grateful for what you've got. And most often the wilderness that isn't water looks like this:

Last weekend Rusty and I were looking forward to a few days alone at home together so when we  took off on a walk we had nowhere to be and indeed no one to answer to as my wife is in Italy learning Italian. I sought out a spot where no one was parked and we could amble alone. Spending my nights answering 911 makes me allergic to conversation with strangers and walking the mangroves clears my head.

We started down a Sugarloaf trail that we have visited before, a former state roadway perched on a causeway feet above water on either side, a nice firm surface to walk with no mud after the recent rains. I had an audio book on my phone courtesy of the BBC,  a reading of Ben Hur oddly enough, a story I hadn't read since school and  the various soothing voices filled my  head with no demands except to listen and enjoy. No conversation required there or from my dog. 

You'd think it would be a short walk as these islands are small and narrow and confining but in fact the whole trail from the parking lot to the end is three and a half Google miles, as mapped. Out in the middle of nowhere we ambled along together. I didn't plan to walk to the very end but an hour into the walk I was feeling fine and even though the sun was high overhead we mutually decided to just keep going. To the end of the trail...

I have walked the entire length of this trail once before with my elderly Labrador and I ended up carrying her part of the way home as exhaustion overcame her. I had no fear my little dingo would wear out.  I was a bit wrong on that score, but we marched along briskly at first...

I remembered the benches along the trail near the end including this absurd one out in full sunshine. I guess in winter it would be less of a griddle but why walk here in the relative cool of winter when you can come in summer, at noon in 95 degree heat?

 The other bench had a little shade and we stopped here on the way back an hour later.

The trail doesn't vary much and suddenly it ends in a rather uninspired way. You'd like a viewing platform or shaded seating or some other thing  (a water fountain?) but it ends abruptly in the remains of a bulkhead and the posts of the road bridge that led off to Geiger Key across the water. 

 Civilization!

I pointed my telephoto lense on the water more as evidence of having arrived than anything to see. Rusty refreshed himself in the clear crisp saltwater under the mangroves and pretty soon it was time to turn back and face the three and a half mile stumble back to the car.

We were a  weary pair on the walk back. The sun was directly overhead and the heat was intense, up where I was breathing and I am sure down there 18 inches above the roadway where Rusty mooched along. In reviewing our progress I couldn't help but feel Rusty would be right to be a bit irritated at me.

I allowed this hike to unfold as long as it did. I knew what was coming and the poor dingo had no idea. However my penance was wearing Crocs in that unrelenting heat and as my feet sweated the rubber rubbed and pretty soon I was enjoying the sweet and much deserved pain of blisters forming on the pointy parts of my feet. 

Plus we had no water so I was doing us both in with my insouciance as it were. Bloody stupidity really but it was a mere matter of feeling deprived not of killing ourselves. You would think that humans can't walk five minutes without a bottle of water close to hand. I'm here to say you can walk four hours in the sweltering heat with no ill effects, and not carrying the weight of water felt pretty good actually.  I found a discarded bottle with some water in it and Rusty liked that real well. He had two bowls back at the car and I drank enough to feel better. Don't follow my example but rest assured you are more resilient than you think.

We had been out there by ourselves and aside from the boat at anchor all we saw in the way of human locomotion was a military plane overhead. I liked the solitude even after I had out walked my radio play and Ben Hur  was happy in old age and Messala met his deserved end. How Hur's sister and mother managed to stay sane after being walled up for seven years struck me as a bit of a  fictional liberty, but there we are. The BBC iPlayer is a wondrous app.

I hobbled for a few days on my torn up feet. Rusty slept for 24 hours solid and didn't pester me for a walk for two days more so all in all it was a great success. As Edmund Hillary put it after scaling Everest: "Well we knocked the bastard off!"

Rusty was unimpressed at completing the longest back country walk in the Lower Keys.

Clouds

My pursuit of the best possible cloud formation to express the power of a summer thunderstorm has been eluding me all the eleven years of this web page's existence. I started this blog in June 2007 as Key West Vespa and  still I can't capture the magnificence of the summer anvils overhead. Feeble:

 I found a clever reflection in one of the salt ponds on Big Torch Key, but still not a thunderhead.

 A little bit of filter to make it look aggravated:

 The heat this June has been searing even by local standards:

 So while Rusty sniffs around I seek out my ultimate thunderhead which so far escapes me.

 I got a lot of nice variations on the mangroves,blue skies and white clouds.