A Sunday Rideabout Downtown.

0707/1947 82/90 Blue Skies E 10/15 75%H
DOGS...10150 7312 1238 1911.

Greetings from the Hill.

A beautiful day in paradise,
the opera from Havana,
no other sounds...
quiet streets.

The painter gardener photographer
went out and about downtown
for a morning ride before noon,
no alcohol until then...
imagine this wicked town
having a 'Lords Morning Act',
very very peculiar.

"Sleep in late at the 'Eden House',
the bikes seem to have,
a business much the same
except of course the rates,
amazing what tourists pay
for a bed in paradise.

The waterfront unchanged but for
million dollar boats sitting idle,
a mortgage payment on a slip...
"That's enough to take the fun
from fishing..."
speculators have ruined the town.

"Eat it raw, there's no gas
for the grill!"

The oldman printed the first
Raw Bar tshirts, 'keep on shucking',
pretty clever at the time,
thirty five years ago.

And a few years later, Diamant,
to become the 'Schooner Wharf',
Evalina certainly ages well.

The grand old City Hall,
restored and fighting closure,
mould is a congenital disease
to only the Conchs,
"They be gone soon,
sooner or later."

"Let be and just wait,"
but sleezy streets
have sleezy lawyers.

The era of Wrecking and auctions
at the Customs House.

Key West was the largest
and richest city
in Florida,
pirates and wreckers,
cuban cigars and a war base.

"Prohibition and a Depression
could turn a good man to smuggling,"
smiled the oldman thinking
of the later exploits of Capt. Tony,
who's inventions would become
'The Cuban Crossing'...
a very very enjoyable movie,
the oldman wondered why Joe
didn't run it every day...

"I'll take a gross, Mad Jack,"
the man had style,
the very first order for both,
and the printing began.

And then the 'Monster' opened
and Key West was never the same,
without a doubt the classiest,
the most outrageous and exciting,
south of Fire Island...
Mad Jack got rich printing those,
had more funny money
than the drug dealers.

Key West was the Best.

Until Aids.

And the best all died.

Some survived
and lied
about the past.

The pirates returned
and build houses
to sell to the Gullible.

"Keeping up with Gays,
much more taste than the Jones."

Fag hags and granite table tops.

Ann at the 'Top' hosting
smugglers and politicians,
Manny and Sonny,
the view and the talk.

Then but a short walk
to the Green Parrot,
crazy Judy's Sub Shop.

"Those were the days..."

Mad Jack printed those shirts,
all originals of course.

A fine breeze in the Keys,
inside the Reef.