I was in a thoughtful mood yesterday. My thoughts had to do with my life and Key West.
I discovered and started visiting Key West 26 years ago. Bought my home here 16 years ago. Retired to live full time in Key West 8 years ago.
My life has changed. There has been a total transformation over the years. I no longer dress. It is hard to remember the last time I wore a suit and tie. I do wear long pants (khakis or jeans) about six times a year when it is cold. I rarely know the date or what day of the week it is. I always wear shorts. Crocs, sandals or sneaks depending on the occasion.
Everyone else who has spent a number of years in Key West is as I am. A wonderful world!
I referred to Don’s Place yesterday as the adult playpen of the world. It is typical of Key West. Key Westers enjoy playing games. Just as when they were kids.
Yesterday was the 1st Annual Don’s Place Masters. Seventeen of us played before a huge crowd. The bar was packed! We putted on the bar floor into plastic cups. Not easy. Don’s floor is three different stages of concrete. The undulations were amazing. You could not see them. However, they were there. It was like putting on the closest cut greens ever. A light touch of the ball took you ten feet passed the cup!
The plastic cup holes had miniature flags on them. Hershel served as warden. He had signs saying Quiet Please. The whole scene was like for real.
We played 14 holes. The course was laid out with 7 holes. That is all there was room for. We played the layout twice. I had the highest score. Consistent with my life long lack of physical dexterity. I also attribute it to my age. I was the oldest person playing. Keith won. The spread between his score and mine was a city block!
I have been a Mad Men fan since the show’s inception some ten years ago. Last night was the first show of the new season. I was disappointed. As I was with last season’s shows. The story line has become boring.
However, credit must be given to the accuracy time wise of the presentation. It was around 1970. The accountants were taking over businesses, penny pinchers who knew nothing about a particular business running them. The sex. Wow! Women’s clothes and hair perfect for the time.
The show brought me back.
Do we understand? What has been going on in Europe can easily cross the Atlantic and happen here. I refer specifically to protests and demonstrations and neo-Nazism. A body of water is no protection from what has been and is occurring in Greece, Italy, France and England.
We have experienced a touch of it in recent days.
There is Charles Bundy in Nevada. Apparently a man of principle. He opposed federal intervention re his cattle raising. Of itself, nothing to get excited about. What did concern me was the 1,000 armed people who came from all over the United States to defend Bundy against the government. Militia men. Dressed in military camouflage uniforms. All carrying a weapon. All prepared to shot if the government took steps they deemed improper.
You wonder why gun rights have become so important in the United States. There are a sizable number in our society who do not trust government. They are anti-government as government exists today. They arm themselves in preparation for the day the government turns, from their perception, on them.
It almost happened in Nevada this past week. It did not because the government backed off. Whether correct, I have no judgment.
Then there is the neo-Nazi movement. Thus far primarily visible in Europe. Yesterday, in the United States. A group of neo-Nazis killed three Jews at two different Jewish Centers in Kansas City.
Does Kansas City represent the beginning of overt anti-Semetism in this country? Perhaps.
None of this is healthy. I sometimes feel as a nation we are teetering on the edge of a cliff. We must pull back. I am not certain it is possible.
Enjoy your day!
I don’t trust the Gooferment!
“A group of neo-Nazis killed three Jews at two different Jewish Centers in Kansas City.” It was one crazy ex-KKK Grand Chieftain-type guy and the people he killed were not even Jewish, only at the Jewish Community Center for an event. The photo of the perp looks like a beaten dog and that does a disservice to canines. I blame all the endless hate propaganda spouted off by the anti-everything multi-millionaire media hacks who stoke the crazies fire to turn a good profit.
I agree that none of this bodes well for a nation armed to the teeth. There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with guns if any kind, people however, that is a totally different story.
Why do I get the feeling that Lou changed radically when he started living full time in the Keys? I bet only his ex wifey knows for sure. ha
Diana,
Lou gives us HIS THOUGHTS on local events with a smidge of world events.
This man May or may not have had changes but his ex bitch has nothing to do with him as a man.
wow. ex-bitch wifey you write. wow. I do not know who you are, Boudroux, or if you knew ex-wifey in person, but from your typed description of her, i presume you knew her. I just thought she might have known if their moving to the Keys full-time might have produced a more than average alcohol intake on Lou’s part. That can happen anywhere but especially in the Key West area.
I agree that none of this bodes well for a nation armed to the teeth. There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with guns if any kind, people however, that is a totally different story.
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Because we won’t control people we feel the need to control the tool. Like many things human, its kinda backwards.
Sort of like saying nobody drives as some drive drunk. We have had great success making drunk driving a very serious offense and lowering the problem. Do the same with gun crimes and we are on the way. A weapon is a mechanism, the killers are human fools.
Your analogy is right on!