Key West, Florida, is more than a place. It’s a spirit, a funky energy that enters your soul and takes residence in your worldview as well as your inner vision. A state of mind more than a city; a way of life more than a place to live. It’s a lifestyle, not a destination. All expressed in the absurdist poetry that is Key West, a language not spoken anywhere else in the country.
But even recognizing all this, I didn’t fully have a grasp on the essence of the town until I spotted several older men playing bocce ball. I asked another observer if lawn bowling is popular because many people of Italian descent live in Key West.
“Oh, no,” she chuckled. “It’s popular because you can play bocce with one hand and hold a drink in the other.”
Welcome to Key West. Turn a corner on a nondescript street or pass a random restaurant and guitar riffs assault your receptive eardrums. Either that—or it’s a rooster crowing. Actually a lot of roosters—they’re everywhere.
Many a house bears a plaque dating to the 1800s—and a number of other historic markers a century earlier. Old Town, the largest predominantly wooden-housed historic district in the country—featuring almost 3,000 structures—is deserving of a truth-in-advertising award. There’s a sign near Duval Street, the town’s epicenter, which reads: “On this site in 1897, nothing happened.” This is probably one of the only spots in Key West where that’s true.
Renovated cigar factories share space with Victorian mansions laced with gingerbread trimming; upscale art galleries reside next to tacky T-shirt shops. Fashion, funk, and frivolity define the town; art and shlock and whimsy coexist on the same bar stool. Those stools are there in abundance, and many claim that Ernest Hemingway, the most famous Key West resident, occupied that seat, as well.
His home is one of the most visited sites in the city. The tiny second-story studio where he wrote his memorable novels remains exactly as he left it; photos, books, and furnishings recall his life there of more than a decade in the 1930s. Stuffed heads of animals he shot on safari adorn the walls. You can almost feel the presence of the quirky and fairly disturbed author everywhere. Almost as famous as Hemingway himself was his beloved six-toed cat, Snowball, dozens of whose descendants still reside there.
An equally notable but very different personality also resided in Key West, but only in the winter. Harry S. Truman’s Little White House has its own colorful history, with tales of lively poker games and “loud Hawaiian shirt” contests our 33rd president enjoyed with staff and guests.
It’s also rumored that he insisted on downing an early morning “shot of bourbon followed by a large glass of fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice,” allegedly on the advice of his doctor. Hemingway, an ardent imbiber himself, would most certainly have approved of his neighbor’s breakfast ritual, which might have made both welcome visitors at Schooner Wharf. This spot boasts the earliest happy hour in town, beginning at 7:30 a.m. The theory is that you can’t actually drink all day if you don’t start early.
Hemingway, a hunter of game; Truman, a hunter of humor; Mel Fisher, a hunter of treasure. And his own museum contains treasures—both literal and figurative—for the visiting public. The intrepid fortune-hunter spent 16 years seeking the wrecks of Spanish galleons that sank in 1622 off the coast of Key West. The $450 million treasure included more than 40 tons of gold and silver as well as emeralds, Chinese porcelain, and other precious artifacts. But even more fascinating than the exhibits themselves is the story of his search for the valuable cache.
These are the three attractions for which Key West is most famous, but peeling back the proverbial onion proffers many more enticing sites: the always enchanting botanical gardens; the oldest wooden house with its original furnishings, artifacts, and island history dating back to 1829; Tennessee Williams’s small cottage that lends insight into another literary giant; and my favorite, the Shipwreck Treasure Museum. There you get to relive the lives of wreckers—either those brave souls who saved people and ships careening off the dangerous reefs surrounding the island or greedy pirates who pillaged the lost treasures, depending upon your perspective—who played an important part of Key West’s vibrant history. The resulting salvage industry is what Key West is built on. For a time, that enterprise made the tiny island the richest city per capita in the United States.
For me, the best way to experience the inimitably funky charm of the town is to just wander the streets, laughing your way from one T-shirt slogan to another, most of which can’t be repeated in a family newspaper. And should you get hungry, be sure to stop at Blue Heaven, where in the 1930s Hemingway, an amateur boxing aficionado, refereed matches—yes, he certainly did get around.
When You Go
For more information: fla-keys.com
Fyllis Hockman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at Creators.com. Copyright 2021 Creators.com
