FIRST TIME NOT A TURN ON

Key West of the 1970’s continues.

A few days ago, I mentioned Poet Laureate Richard Wilbur as one who encouraged other writers to spend time residing in Key West. One a friend from their Harvard days together. John Malcolm Brinnin. A talented writer of poetry and biography.

He visited in 1975. Not his first time, however. His first visit a total disaster. Key West was lucky he even returned.

Brinnin briefly visited Key West in 1945. A trip to hell.

He took a Trailways bus to Key West from Miami. He had to stand the whole way. All seats were full with “booze sodden sailors returning to base.

La Concha was full. He was allowed to sleep on a sofa in the lobby.

The next morning, Brinnin walked about the town. He noted the dilapidated conditions of the then Key West. Included were “dead trees on ruptured sidewalks.” A local told him they stemmed from a hurricane some 15-20 years earlier.

He arrived at the ocean. Took his shoes off. He began to “feel out the contours of a buried mound of something” beneath his feet. Turned out to be “the swollen belly of a dead dog.”

So much for Key West. He returned to La Concha, picked up his bag, and was on the next bus out of Key West.

Brinnin returned again in 1975. He stayed at the Pier House. He partied with Truman Capote and David Wolkowsky. He continued visiting. By the 1980’s, he was a resident.

After he was settled in, Brinnin described Key West as “a perpetual paradise.”

Turtles receive extra special treatment in Key West. Due to the Keys’ Turtle Hospital. A big deal when a once again a healthy turtle is returned to the ocean.

Jack-O-Lantern was returned saturday. One thousand people shouting him good wishes as he clomped into the water at Sombrero Beach.

He was named Jack-O-Lantern by the Hospital staff. He was brought to the Hospital on Halloween.

Jack a 150 pound loggerhead. He had been found floating and entangled in trap line. When found, he was floating upside down.

The Turtle Hospital treated Jack for entanglement injuries and severe intestinal impaction.

The cold spell still with us. At 6:30 this morning when I began this blog, the temperature was 64 degrees. The high today projected at 72.

Hello Sam! Forgot you! Truly sorry!

Recall I was with Steve and Cindy at the Chart Room friday night. Sam is Steve’s sister. We have never met. She must rarely visit Key West. However, Steve is always telling me how she daily reads the blog, loves it, and loves Louis!

How can I not like Sam!

Steve and Cindy were leaving saturday on a cruise out of Miami. Sam was joining them.

Sam, come visit. I would very much enjoy sitting and chatting with you at the Chart Room.

Trump is playing with dynamite. I hope he is a teflon person and avoids a “real” war he may already have initiated.

Trump continues to challenge Iraq and Iran. His words not those of peace. He promises horrendous U.S. sanctions if Iraq retaliates. He threatens to attack Iran if it carries out its promise of “severe consequences” if hostilities with the U.S. are escalated.

Iran has said in recent days that it has the capacity to respond on U.S. soil.

A Jewish solidarity march was held yesterday in New York City. The group marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. The march held in response to the rise of anti-Semitism in the greater New York area.

I was impressed with the march. An internet photo showed the march extending the bridge from one end to the other in length and width.

The march reminded me of the protests we have been seen in Iraq the past few days. Nowhere the same in number. However, the New York City police reported there were “tens of thousands.”

The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos lived 8 years in Beijing and the past 6 in Washington. He recently wrote an article covering China’s growth during the last 25 years.

Osnos says the 2 capitals he resided in are wrestling “to determine who will dominate the 21st century.”

To the point, he wrote: “When I started studying Mandarin, 25 years ago, China’s economy was smaller than Italy’s. It is now 24 times the size it was then, ranking second only to America’s, and the share of Chinese people in extreme poverty has shrunk to less than 1 percent. Growth has slowed sharply, but the country still has legions of citizens vying to enter the middle class. It is estimated that a million Chinese people have yet to board an airplane.”

A side note. Russia’s economy is in decline. China’s is still on the rise, though slowly. I am not sure where the U.S. stands. I believe we are in decline primarily because of most of Trump’s dumb moves.

Every time the U.S. offends, screws, pisses off a friend, the friend turns to Russia and/or China for security, love, and to do business.

We are running out of friends.

On this day in history, though in different years, 2 U.S. Presidents married their sweethearts.

In 1759, George Washington married Martha. They were married 40 years. Did not have children. However Martha brought to the marriage her 2 children from a previous marriage which George happily raised.

In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara. They were married 44 years. Barbara was 18 when they married. She grew to be America’s mother, loved and respected by all.

Enjoy your day!

 

4 comments on “FIRST TIME NOT A TURN ON

  1. Lou, I’m not sure I agree with you about everybody loves Barbara Bush. There’s a whole bunch of lame and delusional trump devotes who hare her guts because she spoke out with her feelings about the “chosen one” and of course because they just love to hare.

  2. Our friend Iraq wants us out now. After US Defense Dept. said OK in a letter, we had to scramble off a denial. We said it was just a simple clerical error, just like Hillary’s emails, no big deal, what’s the fuss all about?

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