Once Upon a Time in the Florida Keys

By Xlibris US

The author grew up in South Eastern PA, graduated from high school in 1950 and after several part times jobs he completed a course at Temple U. He found a job with one of this country's first foreign car dealerships in Exton PA. Later married and self employed for ten years now with three children. Both the author and his wife were tired of the cold winters, sold their business and moved to the Florida Keys. The Keys then being very laid back, sparsely populated and warm all year around was deeply appreciated. After buying a restaurant, bar with a marina in Key Largo the author got to meet all sorts of people, people of the nature he had never experienced. Actually even at the age of 37, I would feel safe in saying I grew up in the Keys, just in a manner of speaking. There were all sorts of experiences here, many unexpected. None really harmful but amusing and many times hilarious. It just was the character and nature of the residents and those passing through. The author having actually participated or witnessed some of these events, events that would likely never happen on the mainland. Life in the Keys was anything but dull, and it sure was different. Sometimes more like an adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493172733

Book preview

1

In the Beginning

This is a story of life’s experiences while living in the US out islands, better known as the Florida Keys. The Florida Keys is a series of small islands reaching one hundred and eighteen miles into the Gulf of Mexico. These islands or keys as they are called run in a south westerly direction from the mainland.

We, meaning my wife our three small children and myself were peacefully living in Chester County, Pennsylvania we had a nice house in the country, and at a safe and comfortable distance we had nice neighbors. Having recently sold our business, the property and all related equipment we realized were simply too young to retire.

I had begun to enjoy a cocktail late in the afternoon while sitting in a lawn chair in the shade of our garage. From here I could watch traffic in front of our house, enjoy the weather and I had an excellent view of the neighbors, the ones next door, the ones just beyond theirs and across the road as well. Mary Jean would occasionally join me for this afternoon relaxation.

My sitting in plain view with a drink in my hand was noticed by the working wives as well as the stay at home wives. Being it was a friendly neighborhood we would wave and perhaps yell hello, or something to that effect.

My daily serenity was first intruded on by our next door neighbor, she was a grade school teacher and she was usually home early. After her seeing me there daily she came over and I offered her a chair and a drink, she accepted and sat down.

This daily occurrence continued and soon some of the other wives joined us, well somehow the husbands were unappreciated of this friendly daily get together, as dinner was not ready when they got home. So his little social event came to a rather sudden halt. My serenity was reestablished.

My wife was enjoying her time at home with the children and doing all the things young mothers do, like shopping, shopping, shopping and visiting with friends. But I was sort of at loose ends, I tried a few things but found little satisfaction from these endeavors, including a less than expected income. I had resorted to traveling to North East, Maryland on a daily basis to the marina where we kept our boat.

I was working there as an engine mechanic and on weekends I worked as a salesman. Then one day the managing partner approached me and asked if I would be interested in being his partner in a boat yard or marina in Florida. This of course was a surprise question and I had no instant answer but I said, let me think about that and I will let you know.

Let’s simply call this person John, John was likely 10 to 12 years my senior, he was stocky and always with a witty sense of humor. He and I were friends prior to my taking the job there as we had bought a boat from him a few years earlier. We presently had a larger boat that we kept at his marina and our friendship continued.

John appeared to be a good business man and the marina operation seemed to run smoothly. I have seen irate customers go into his office madder than all get out, usually because their boat was not ready for the weekend. These same people would emerge smiling believing they got a very good deal on a new boat. John could sell a dead man a new suit with two pairs of pants.

I recall some things that happened at John’s marina that one might say were unusual. John liked to party, the yacht club was next door, we had all been there for a New Years celebration. On the way back to our boat some lady fell overboard. This is Maryland in January, John says, ah just leave her alone she is not bothering anyone. Well we did fish her out.

Next I am sleeping on our boat when John’s step daughter started banging on the cabin door, wake up, wake up Uncle Johnnie wants you on the phone. Needless to say all the commotion woke up my wife and our 3 little ones. I find some clothes and make my way to his house, and pick up the phone, yeah John. You gotta come help me, he explains. He had taken some guests to dinner on the company boat a 48’ Roamer, and now he can’t get any lights on.

I did not know exactly what to expect but I got in the company car and headed to a restaurant by the name of the Grainery, which is on the Sassafras River, in Georgetown, MD. Once there I find a boat load of drunks. I got the gen set fired up, lights on and OK, see ya.

No No John says I want you to take us back to the marina. I fussed a little and realized he would not manage this river as crooked as it is, so I managed to recruit some line handlers and we were off. Now I am the designated captain, the equivalent of today’s designated driver. I have one drunk on my right telling me to steer left and another drunk on my left telling me to steer right.

I managed to clear the bridge of them by telling them where the liquor locker was. With great help from the spot light I managed the crooked river and headed past Turkey Point up the NE River, once the marina was in sight John says, OK I will take it from here… . So what does he do, he runs the boat aground. So we sit until the tide changes, what does John do? He sits on the salon floor playing jacks. I wanted to club him.

John knew we had stashed the money we received for our property and business not having any particular plan for the future. Perhaps John realized this, never the less the plan was a 50/50 type ownership. He would match our investment, we would work the place and he would send us customers and new boats for us to sell, as he was a well established Owens Concord Yacht Dealer.

We had been to the Florida Keys with John and his wife Patsy in 1965, just prior to that we were in Florida for an Owens sales meeting which took place in the Bahamas, I might add all expenses paid, what a blast. We had a good time during this trip, we knew John was a heavy drinker but he was a funny drunk, Patsy drove the car and we traveled to Key West, which is the most distant inhabited key.

Patsy, having lived in various parts of South Florida previously was to our advantage, she knew where the interesting places were and which of the dozens of restaurants were the better choices. Patsy was younger than John by about 10 years, she had a daughter by the name of Karen, and she was about the same age as our daughters. I don’t believe I ever knew where her father was.

John’s offer sounded good, maybe too too good as we later found out. As it turns out he did not have any particular place in mind, so he and I traveled back and fourth several times looking at possibilities. We looked at several that were definitely no no’s we listened to the realtor’s sales pitches, usually we evaluating the properties we had seen during the return flight north, over drinks of course.

We, on one occasion found a restaurant and marina operation that was closed and for sale, it was located on the ocean side of Key Largo. It also could include a motel type operation at another location but we were not interested in that.

The place was not fancy but during this time back in 1969 there was nothing fancy in the Keys, it was down home style at its best. As a matter of fact there was not much there at all, not even a traffic light.

Next door to the restaurant was a fish house by the name of Keys Lobster, it was owned by a group of hard working fishermen. There was deep water access and the dockage was protected. However you might call the docks deteriorated compared to the ones we were used to. There were a few private homes in the neighborhood as well, some were a work in progress.

We returned home and talked this over, and over, and over. My wife being the good sport that she was agreed. The decision was made we would sell our home and move to the Fabulous Florida Keys. Sound exciting? Or perhaps better named, an adventure, you bet.

This decision was partly because we were tired of the cold snowy winters, plus our two daughters were scheduled to be bused into town to the larger middle schools. Reports were not good regarding the treatment of small girls attending the local middle schools. Previously they attended a small country school where classes were small. Our son was not yet school age.

We located a house for rent close to the marina, it was located on a canal and was facing the ocean or what is known as the Florida Straights. This house was all concrete and up on concrete stilts, it was much smaller than the house we were leaving, we had four bedrooms and a recreation room which included two fire places.

This was a two bed room house with small closets and minimum storage, when I say minimum I actually felt it was next to none. It seems these houses were originally built with the Miami weekenders in mind and storage was not an issue. Even in our early years of marriage we had accumulated too much stuff. The ground level housed the laundry room and a small storage space, the balance was single car port like space.

There was no grass to mow, what you would expect to be lawn was all pea rock. No grass to mow no snow to shovel, this is a good thing. Nor was there any shrubbery to amount to anything, as it turns out most everything is built on coral rock, the entire island was coral rock. Pea rock is just that, small mostly round pebbles colored from white to a brown, they were constantly loose under your feet.

The canal had been cut to provide waterfront home sites, it appeared there was a deep water canal from these properties to the ocean. This we found out later in many cases was not true, only a realtors selling point, or better yet a deception.

The drag line which was responsible for removing the rock could only reach so far, leaving a shoal between the homes and the actual deep water. After living there as long as we did, we found this was not an isolated case. I often wondered how many disappointed home owners there were in the Fabulous Florida Keys.

2

The Move

We placed our home on the market and it sold within a few days, it sold so quickly I wondered if we had priced it too low.

I parted with three cherished vehicles which included a 1954 Corvette, which was completely restored, a 1964 Fuel Injected Corvette with two tops and a 1957 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery with a 327 cubic inch engine built to Corvette specs. I hated to do this but transporting them to the Keys was cost prohibitive and there were no indoor storage facilities on the island.

The movers were called, an estimator arrived with pad and pencil he prepared an estimate which of course was higher than expected, however we accepted. Estimate, yes exactly that, after the truck is loaded they weigh it and an exact price is then established. At this time you could be between a rock and a hard place, if it is more than you expected or willing to pay they will gladly unload the truck, but not for free. We are still learning about this game.

Included with the household items, I also had my tools and some machines that I planed on using in the marina. This helped increase the moving fee to much higher amounts than estimated due to the weight of the machines.

As mentioned before I had sold all our cars except our two Chevrolet 1966 station wagons. These two cars would transport us, the 3 kids, two girls and one boy. Two dogs, one of which was a poodle and the other a basset hound, and two gerbils to Key Largo. The back of both station wagons were filled with personal items.

The two girls and the poodle rode with their mother, our son and the basset rode with me.

The load in the back was up level with the lower part of the windows, I noticed that the basset lying on the load was busy turning her head as cars passed us; she was turning her head following them just like people watching a race, or a tennis game.

I thought at first I was getting road fatigue but Ed our son also confirmed what I was seeing. One thing to remember, owning a basset hound is very favorable as they worry for you, just look at one and you will see what I mean.

We had a hotel reservation in Richmond VA, but on arrival we find they don’t like dogs. Arrival there was later than expected and we now had to find another hotel, one that likes dogs.

We did in fact find such a place but being late we were on our own, as all the bell hop types had gone home. I never imagined how important personal blankets and pillows were to small kids. They, meaning all three had to have their very own pillows and blankets. So here we go through the lobby two parents, three kids and two dogs complete with enough bedding for a scout troop. I refused to carry the gerbils into the hotel and left them in the car.

Up in the elevator we went, we had two rooms, I had our son and the basset hound, the girls and the poodle were with their mother. We were all tired and sleep came quickly, except for the basset. She sat in front of the full length mirror and barked at herself all night. Woof… . Woof… Woof. I had an indication this was not very well