CASA ANTIGUA / KEY WEST ROOM ESCAPE

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The Casa Antigua is an integral part of Key West history.

One of Key West’s first built hotels. In 1919. By Benjamin Trevor and George Morris. Constructed with bricks from Fort Zachary Taylor and a building torn down at the time across the street. The Casa Antigua located at the corner of Simonton Street and Rose Lane.

The facility was named the Trev-Mor Hotel. On the first floor was a Ford distributorship also called the Trev-Mor.

Ernest Hemingway is primarily responsible for the building’s historical notoriety.  He and wife Pauline arrived from Paris. they were on their way to New York. Intended to drive. Pauline’s uncle had bought them a new Ford which they were to pick up at the Trev-Mor distributorship.

The car was not waiting for the Hemingways. Late in arriving. They were told it would be there in two days. Ernest and Pauline put into the Trev-Mor Hotel to await its arrival.

Two days turned into ten before the car arrived. In those ten days, Hemingway discovered Key West. He fell in love with Key West. Remained ten years.

During the time, he wrote A Farewell to Arms.

There are other stories concerning the Casa Antigua. They remain for another day to tell. Except for the most recent one.

A new Key West attraction opened two weeks ago on the first floor. The Key West Room Escape. Sound’s like a fun place!

Sort of a search and find items of Key West historical significance.

Teams of up to eight customers are locked in a room. The room filled with all kinds of objects. The team has sixty minutes to find a hidden item. Like the missing page of a manuscript.

Clues are given. An announcer behind a window gives hot and cold clues.

The cost is $35 for an adult and $25 for 16 and under.

Sounds like a fun place. My game plan is to take Robert and Ally.

Did a late Hot Dog Church yesterday afternoon. The Back Door empty, except for Donna, Terri and Laurie. Spent a couple of humorous hours before returning home.

I continue to run tired. Kept to home basically the past few days. See the heart doctor at 5 today for the results of last week’s tests.

The semblance of a storm forming in the Gulf 50 miles off Tampa. Not a hurricane. Right now a tropical depression. Result of low pressure. Not expected to become a big deal.

There will be big time rain today and tomorrow however as a result. Winds will not be of consequence.

Appears hurricane season as a practical matter is around the corner.

East Martello Fort is going to get a $2 million repair job. Money coming from grants.

East Martello is a Civil War Fort. Built by the Union to help in warding off Confederacy ships. The Confederacy ships never arrived.

One hundred fifty five years old. Time again for a touch up.

Two strange events of a similar nature occurred in 1975.

On this date, Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. On September 9, Key West Fire Chief and convicted drug dealer Bum Farto disappeared. Both swiftly swept off by third parties never to be seen again.

Farto’s disappearance left Key West with a famous saying. On tee shirts, in the media and conversation: Bum Farto Where Are You?

Multi-talented Terri White coming over later to change a shower fixture and put together a new desk chair for me. The benefits of having a lesbian wife.

Enjoy your day!

 

A COW’S LIFE

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Many times it has been said…..In my next life, I want to be a dog. Most dogs have eternally been well treated by their owners.

Such may soon change. A cow’s life may be a better. A milking cow’s life.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal carried an enlightening article on the new Dairy Queens.

A happy cow apparently is a cash cow. Dairy Queens produce more milk!

It is a new life for milk cows. Soothing classical music is played in milking rooms, fans and sprinklers to mimic spring breezes, robotic back-scratching sessions. Plus, manure clean floors and climate controlled barns. Cows milked when they want to by robotic machines. Perhaps the best, cows sleep on water beds.

Farmers believe cow cuddling to be critical. Free from stress.

It’s goodbye to a dog’s life, hello to a cow’s life!

My day began with a haircut with Lori. Always interesting. Fifteen years now she has been cutting my hair. Then I had hair. No more today. A once over with #1 on the electric razor and I am done.

Lori never wants to charge me. She says she does nothing. I always leave her $20. It makes me feel like I still have a head of hair.

Harpoon Harry’s for lunch. Hot turkey sandwich. Read the papers. Followed by a walk around the waterfront.

Last night at 6 at the Tropic cinema, the lecture I have been waiting for. The Jewish Underground Rail Road in Key West. The room was packed.

Primarily those of Jewish extraction. I may have been the only gentile. While waiting for the doors to open, a Jewish friend asked if I was waiting to see a movie. No, I told him. The lecture. He looked at me with a some what surprised expression.

I would like to say the lecture was fantastic! Off the wall! I cannot. I slept through the whole thing. For shame!

I dozed off as it was starting. Woke during the question/answer period. Fortunately, I sat in the last row end seat. The only one who knew I was sleeping was the woman next to me.

From the question/answer period. Stalin was anti-Semitic. He killed and threw Jews out of eastern Europe countries controlled by him through the 1920s.

America was anti-Semitic during the same years. Warren Harding in 1921 and Calvin Coolidge in 1924 had legislation passed limiting Jewish immigration. I have to add, Italian also.

History records both immigration laws as rigging the system against Jews.

Don’t ask me how the Jews got to Key West. I slept through that portion. However once here, there were underground tunnels in Key West. they hid and/or were moved through them to safety.

After the lecture, it was off to the Chart Room. Congenial John bartending. Ken and Alice there. Two people who worked hard, raised a family and now have almost totally settled in Key West. Purchased a home on White Street. Both always good company.

Things I learn. Gatorade is a Florida discovery. It was conceived in a University of Florida lab in 1965.

Today is Joseph’s birthday! Joseph, former manager of Hot Tin Roof. He and I are celebrating his birthday together tonight at Berlin’s.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

DEE…..AIDS HELP

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Two dear friends are fighting cancer at this time. One is Terri. I have spoken of her many times. Presently doing chemo twice a week.

The other is Dee.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. Key West had its annual candle walk and ceremony. The ceremony at the former White Street Pier.

Dee participated.

Dee has a Doctorate in Psychology. After college, she ended up in the Keys. Bought a home on Cudjoe.

Found employment with AIDS Help in Key West. Spent the next 25 years of her life working with AIDS Help. Committed. Dedicated. Helping AIDS victims became her life cause.

Dee retired several years ago. Took a teaching position at Boston University. Returned to Cudjoe as frequently as possible.

Two years ago, she was diagnosed with throat cancer. A 4. Surgeries and chemo followed. She survived. She was in remission.

The cancer has returned.

Dee participated in the ceremony last night. She returns to Boston today. Monday she is back in the hospital to see what can be done.

I wish her well. As with Terri, two nice people who do not deserve what is happening to them. Nor does anyone.

I was landlocked all day yesterday. Could not get out of my home. Keys Electric was trimming trees. They had been doing so all week on my block. Finally got to me yesterday.

They spent the entire day cleaning my overhanging foliage. The pile grew ever so tall in front of my driveway.

I did not care. Had no plans for the daylight hours.

Last night, it was a manicure with Tammy. At 7. Her last customer of the day. She and her staff work hard. From 8 in the morning to 7:30 at night. Some of the girls work 7 days a week. Others, 6 or 5.

Tammy is from Vietnam. She has been here 15 years. Became a citizen last year. Married to Rick. They have two children.

Tammy not yet totally Americanized. Still no turkey on Thanksgiving. She cooks only Vietnamese food. Never cooks special on the holidays.

She says her family does not like American food. I tell her if she does not cook it for them, they will never know if they like it.

Santa Claus came up in our conversation. No Santa Claus. The children are 9 and 7. Just a story they have been told. Tammy is Santa Claus! She provides the Christmas gifts. They do have a Christmas tree.

Sounds harsh. Not. It is her and her husband’s way. The children have been raised to understand. Everyone happy. No one sad.

Tammy and the kids do celebrate Halloween. Tammy dresses, also. Accompanies her children to protect them.

I grabbed a quick bite at Outback afterwards.

Don’t forget Larry Blackburn’s photo show tonight from 6-9. He does great work. The place, Duval Square. I plan on being there.

Caught a news release on the internet this morning re the Michigan City Rotary. One hundred years old!

Significant! However, the Key West Rotary is 101 years old. Formed in 1915.

Why no national publicity last year for the Key West Rotary?

Diana Millikan is into William Hackley’s life! She writes the “negro” rent paid yesterday was to a different person than the previous. Which would mean Hackley has two rented slaves.

A major disgrace. Standing Rock. Native Americans seeking to protect their drinking water and ancestral remains. Federal, state and local governments fighting them. Working in effect on behalf of the pipeline company.

Though government forces have hit the Native American protesters with grenades, water hoses, rubber bullets, stunning devices, etc., the Native Americans have not fought back. Not one iota. They are protesting similar to Martin Luther King and Gandhi.

Things will hit the fan so to speak next week. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has told the protesters to move by December 5 or they would be trespassers subject to arrest. Six to eight thousand of them.

Those already arrested by local police for various reasons have been placed in large dog cages. Sitting on concrete floors. Temperatures freezing by day and night.

Terrible! The land the protesters are occupying is considered Indian land by the Native Americans and many knowledgeable in these matters. The federal government has no right to be on the land or telling the protesters what to do.

Never the less, the federal government participates against the Native Americans.  Supported by state and local police departments. And a mercenary group, Tiger Swan. It is presumed the mercenary militants paid for by the pipeline people.

An American disgrace. One that can only get worse.

Enjoy your day!