I never visited Key West with my dad, but memories of him were all over the island when the family and I visited in December. Much of it was because of the flats fishing boats tied up at the marina next to our hotel. They were everywhere. Daddy loved to fish, and he had a little flats boat he kept at the house in Vero Beach, Florida. He would spend hours out in that thing scaring up whatever he could find in the seagrass beds and mangrove forests along the Indian River. Years ago Daddy, my Uncle Max, Stephen, and my brother, Kyle, would have a weeklong fishing tournament at Thanksgiving where the one who caught the least number of fish had to take home the SPAM Cookbook for the year. It was more about shaming the loser than celebrating the winner.
Part of it was the laidback Florida vibe so reminiscent of our Thanksgiving trips to Vero Beach. For a man who hated going to the beach, Daddy sure loved Florida, and Key West kind of oozes the mid-century shabby chic island sophistication that was part of Florida’s brand in the early to mid 20th century. It feels frozen in time particularly in the Old Town historic district where we spent all of our time. Duval Street is a wealth of bars and restaurants, many of them open air with outdoor seating and live music. Mallory Square on the western end of Duval Street hosts a sunset celebration each night complete with street performers and a spectacular sunset. The food was delicious, and the drinks were fruity with lots of rum.
The thread that really tied my dad to Key West for me, oddly enough, was Ernest Hemingway, Key West’s most celebrated former resident. Key West loves Hemingway. He lived there for many years in a beautiful home on Whitehead Street that was purchased for him and his second wife, Pauline, by her wealthy uncle. The house and grounds are now open to the public as a museum and includes his lovely writing studio out back and around 54 descendants of his famous polydactyl cats (they have extra toes).
Hemingway loved Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Old Town which was a short walk from his house. This was good because he drank there a lot. When it moved locations in 1937, Hemingway took the urinal urn from the old place back to his house where Pauline turned it into a fountain in the backyard. We, of course, made a pilgrimage to Sloppy Joe’s while we were doing all things Hemingway, and sat right next to Papa’s Wall with all the photos of the winners of their Ernest Hemingway Look Alike Contest. We even got to see one of the past finalists in person.
Like my dad, Hemingway loved his fishing boat, the Pilar. (Had they been contemporaries and, you know, known each other, I think they would have been friends.) He spent a lot of time on that boat deep sea fishing, traveling to Havana which is 90 miles away from Key West, and hunting Nazi U-boats during World War II. It is believed Hemingway based the character of Santiago, the elderly Cuban fisherman in The Old Man and the Sea, on Gregorio Fuentes, the captain of the Pilar and Hemingway’s fishing buddy.
Hemingway lived quite the adventurous life. Injured on the Italian front during World War I, he spent much of the 1920’s living in Paris with his first wife, Hadley, as a struggling writer and foreign correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star and hanging out with the likes of Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He moved to Key West around 1928 with second wife, Pauline, and in 1937, he left for Europe again to cover the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance. He moved to Cuba in 1940 and lived there for twenty years—interrupted by a short stint as a war correspondent for Collier’s Magazine during WWII—before moving to Idaho at the end of his life. Because Hemingway seemed to enjoy falling in love more than staying in love, there was a third Mrs. Hemingway (Martha Gellhorn) and a fourth Mrs. Hemingway (Mary Welsh Hemingway). He died by suicide in 1961.
Hemingway wrote like the newspaperman he was off and on during his career—short, declarative sentences and spare, descriptive prose. He got his start in writing short stories, and that is how I know his work best. He was considered by many of his time as the greatest American writer since Mark Twain, and during his lifetime he published seven novels, six collections of short stories, and two nonfiction works.
His most celebrated work was the novella The Old Man and the Sea. Written in 1951 and published in 1952, it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was referenced in his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. It was also one of my dad’s favorite books, and I remember him telling me the story when I was a little girl.
Which is why everything came full circle for me when we visited the Key West Art and Historical Society in the old Custom House. Guy Harvey is an artist and conservationist best known for his drawings and paintings of marine life, particularly sportfish like marlins and such. His artwork appears on clothing and housewares, and Daddy loved Guy Harvey t-shirts. He had so many he could probably have worn a different one every day for a month and did when he was in Florida. Guy Harvey, the artist, meets Ernest Hemingway, the writer, in an exhibit at the Art and Historical Society which displays 59 pen and ink drawings Harvey made of scenes from The Old Man and the Sea. The drawings cover the walls of the wide staircase of the historic building from the first to the third floor, and they have a short passage depicted from the book on each drawing. It took a while, but I read each and every one. Harvey’s drawings are collected in the book, Santiago’s Finest Hour. The museum gift shop was out when we were there, but I’ve got one on order that should be here shortly.
When it came to the Lost Generation—the ex-pat writers in Paris of which Hemingway was one—I always preferred F. Scott Fitzgerald, probably because I loved The Great Gatsby so much, so I’m a little late to the game digging into Hemingway’s work. I tried reading The Old Man and the Sea in middle school—because, Dad—and found it ponderous, so I put it down without finishing it. However, last weekend I read the copy I picked up at the Hemingway House and loved it, and I’m looking forward to reading the collection of his short stories I picked up. Maybe I’ll try another novel if all goes well with that. Ken Burns has a fascinating three-part documentary on Hemingway called Hemingway (naturally) which explores his life and his writings. I watched it on Amazon Prime. It’s not free, but it was worth the $2.99 per episode I paid for it. Hemingway did live an interesting and adventurous life.
I highly recommend traveling to Key West if you’ve never been there before. There is so much history there, and it does feel like stepping back in time. I loved it and can’t wait to go back.
Interesting Stuff From the Interwebs
This is totally the kind of thing my dad would have done if he’d thought of it.
Eight-year-old Dillon Helbig wrote an adventure story called “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis.” He skipped the publisher and slipped his 81-page handwritten and illustrated book into the shelves at his local library. It now has a waiting list 55-people long.
An 8-year-old slid his handwritten book onto a library shelf. It now has a years-long waitlist.
Avocado toast was a hit! I heard from several people who are already deeply in love with the delicacy and a few trying it for the first time. It’s always good to try new things! (Except the Hemingway Mojito I tried in Key West. It tasted like alcohol infused grass. It also set me back $16, as Stephen likes to remind me.)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Until next time,
Karla