FAST BUCK FREDDIE’S

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All good things come to an end. Nothing is forever.

Fast Buck Freddie’s closed down three years ago. Support for a store of its quality no longer existed.

I loved Fast Buck Freddie’s! Great stuff! Expensive prices! Nothing cheap. It was not a place you shopped in often. Anything purchased there was a treat.

I recall 15 years ago buying my wife a mask for Fantasy Fest. A gold eye mask with big green feathers. Looked terrific! It should have. Cost me $125. The mask sits to this day on my bedroom dresser on top of a glass head. I got it in the divorce.

Whenever I made a Fast Buck purchase, it was based on impulse. I walked in one day and saw this elephant chair. Short. Heavy. I could never have lifted it. With a pair of two foot tusks. I knew immediately where it would look good in my living room. $1,000.

My Boston granddaughter Samantha was visiting. She was 12 at the time. Grandpa offered to buy her a tee shirt. Why or who or what directed us to Fast Buck Freddie’s for the tee shirt, I cannot recall. I remember however that the tee shirt for my 12 year old granddaughter cost $60.

I am not listing complaints. I loved every minute I spent in Fast Buck Freddie’s and every penny I spent. The place was the Taj Mahal of Key West!

Its street windows were long and huge. The best window displays in Key West! I doubt anyone would dispute the representation.

Over the years, the building housing Fast Bucks was owned individually or jointly or whatever by Tony Falcone, Jimmy Buffet, and David Wolkowsky.

Tony Falcone operated Fast Buck Freddie’s for 37 years. The store has been empty for three years. Falcone has done everything possible to get a Key West type occupant in the store. To no avail. CVS is going to open a drug store in place of Fast Buck Freddie’s. Falcone feels bad. However, he had no choice. No one can blame him. Money is money. He hung onto an empty store way too long.

CVS in its new location will be blight on Duval Street. Such is progress!

My house was shown two times yesterday. No one bought it.

There were two highlights in my day yesterday. A visit with Jim Wallace at Joy Gallery. He has my Jack Baron’s for sale. The other was dinner with Lisa and the family last night.

Cameron is back from Turkey. He brought Robert and Ally each a fez. Bright red with a tassel. Robert wears his all the time, except when sleeping. He looks Turkish. Ally was not thrilled. She never wears her fez.

After dinner, I did something I never do. I was driving home. Suddenly had a desire for a soft chocolate ice cream cone. Dairy Queen! Oh, so good!

Enjoy your day!

A TYPICAL KEY WEST THURSDAY

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Sorry for the delay in getting this blog out. Friday morning is my TV/internet show and things get tight time wise.

Yesterday began with a haircut.  By Lori. A tiny very thin woman with long blond hair. A beauty to behold! I enjoy our conversations when she is cutting away. Not that much to cut these days. She takes a #1 and slides it over my head.

Visited the bank again.

A couple of weeks ago, the grandkids and I had lunch together. I was babysitting. I took Robert and Ally to lunch at Pepe’s. They had never been there.

Ally had a cheeseburger. I tasted it. Delicious! I have craved one for Louis ever since.

Ergo, I went to lunch yesterday at Pepe,s. Me and the newspapers. Ordered the large cheeseburger. Great taste!

Key West cheeseburgers were made famous by Jimmy Buffett. Cheeseburger in Paradise.

I occasionally would eat in the drug store. The one where Buffet got his inspiration for the song. It had  small tables and an old type drug store sitting counter. Drugs and lunches for sale.

The cheeseburger was not special. However, I always ordered it out of deference to Buffet. The drug store was purchased by a bank. A bank replaced a bit of Old Key West. Not nice.

My afternoon was spent working on this morning’s TV/internet show. It may be the best I have done. I had  a feeling it was special as I did it. All kinds of today/crazy things discussed. Like how Social Security has been stolen from us and additional examples of governmental waste. If you missed the show, it is on You Tube. Today’s show goes on tomorrow. Merely go to You Tube and enter Lou’s Legal Hour.

Bocce last night! We continue to play poorly. A gross misrepresentation. Lousy is a better description. We lost 2 of the 3 games.

To add to the shame of it, the other team had three new players. This is their first year. Only four showed up to play from the opposing team. Which meant the four had to play all four games. They played with honor! Nice guys! However, I was extremely unhappy when we lost 2 of 3 games.

No play offs for us again this year.

Tonight, Jenna! In all her pure unadulterated form. Sometimes I wish she were adulterated. Jenna does not tout a bible. She does not need one. Lines from Scripture roll off her tongue with regularity.

We will have a good time together. We always do.

Enjoy your day!

NO ONE SNEEZED

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Once you have lived in Key West a few years, you can pretty well predict the weather. Not just by day. By parts of a day, also.

Yesterday however I was wrong! Way off!

The morning had started warm. Then it suddenly got cold and breezy. I predicted it would shortly turn warm again. The weather would sneeze and the tropical sun return.

No one sneezed.

It was cold all day. High probably 70. During the night, the temperature was 62. At the moment it is 63. The high for today is projected at 72 and the low at 63.

I was out last night. Wore long pants and a sweatshirt.

I spent a couple of hours chatting with friend Captain Peter at the bar of the Chart Room. Sheila was leaving as I arrived. Emily bartending.

Peter and I have become bar buddies. Good! It is always a pleasure to chat with Peter.

Peter shared with me two interesting things he observed on tuesday.

Peter spends his days at Fort Zachrey Taylor beach, assuming the weather is good. Tuesday it was. He always sits in the same spot. Everyone knows him.

From his beach perch, he sees can see the length of the beach.

The jelly fish are in. Peter says they are not jelly fish. They are Portuguese Man of Wars. Who am I to argue with him.

The strong wind coming in off the Atlantic has caused the Man of Wars to be thrown up on the beach. There they lie. Even though dead, their tentacles still sting. A poison shoots out.

A tourist decided to pick up one of the Man of Wars. A mistake. Her finger got stung. Then she committed another error. She put her finger in her mouth and tried to suck the pain out. A no no. The poison will cause the mouth to swell. Followed by difficulty in breathing.

As Peter was running to help the woman, one of the park rangers arrived ahead of him. The ranger had a bottle of vinegar. He quickly had the woman fill her mouth with the vinegar. Vinegar prevents and/or reduces the swelling.

The woman walked away A-OK.

Peter made another observation from his beach chair. He saw a young lady walking and running down the beach. NBC TV cameras filming her. The beach had been cleared ahead of her apparently for safety as well as room reasons. Peter was permitted to remain where he was. Someone said he is here every day and is ok.

Sound mysterious? Not really. Peter claims the young lady was Chelsea Clinton. Makes sense if it was. She is a special correspondent for NBC. The only problem is yesterday’s newspaper and other media made no mention of her presence. I telephoned Key West’s great investigative reporter Sean Kinney to see if he knew. He knows everything. No answer. No call back as yet.

Cindy and Steve came into the Chart Room later. Cindy has been Jimmy Buffet’s Key West secretary for years.

She and Steve have recently adopted a dog from the dog pound. Cindy was carrying the dog. She told us it was a rat terrier. It was bigger than normal. A pleasant contented animal. Cindy says since they got their new friend, she has found a couple of dead rats on  her property.

On the way home, I stopped at Outback. Ate a whole meal again. This time lamb chops. I thought I was going to devour the bones, also. I fear I am pushing my luck food wise.

This morning AT 10, my TV/internet show. The Key West Lou Legal Hour. I have selected some interesting topics for discussion. Listen in and enjoy.

The show is available via television from Key West through the whole of Miami-Dade County on Comcast Channel 87 and U-Verse Channel 19. Available world wide via the internet. www.tvcomcast19.com.

Enjoy your day!