truman in key west

In April of 1945, Vice President Harry Truman got a new office.
FDR was dead and Truman took to the Oval office as the 33rd President of the United States.
He was 61 years old.

Now, whether Truman as President was good, bad or indifferent isn't the point here. The point is the reality he stepped into.

Shut out of FDR's inner circle, Truman was minding his own business, doing the very little there is for a Vice President to do, when out of the blue he gets the call. President Roosevelt is dead and you're the man. At his swearing in Eleanor Roosevelt told him, "you're the one in trouble now Harry."

And it was true. . .
Two wars; one not quite wrapped up, another with no end in sight and a contentious congress. (sounds familiar doesn't it?)
He's also got a British prima donna and a Russian gangster nipping at his heels and then, there's a huge atom-splitting secret project he's got to get his head around.

The man really stepped into a steaming heap of it.
But it's his job and he steps up to the plate and handles it all the best he can.
(which is all any of us can do)

Anyway, by November of 1946 the wars are over, the bomb's been dropped, the dust has settled, it's getting cold in D.C.
and Truman is exhausted.
Remember, he's a 62 year old man at that point and, 66 years ago, (when this all happened) 62 was an older guy.
His doctor recommended that he "take a vacation in a warm climate" and Harry did. Where did he take it?

Key West.

The navy accommodated him in the house on their base that had been the naval command center during World War II. Today that house is an attraction called the
Truman Little White House.


Now if you gave it any thought and weren't a political pundit trying to put negative spin on the President's leaving town, you'd realize that any sitting President's vacation is a working vacation. That's the nature of that job. The President is
always working.


When Truman came back to Key West for his 2nd visit in 1947, he knew that wherever the President was, so came the White House. With newer technology, he could direct the government from anywhere. But in Key West, he could go fishing, play golf and lounge in the sun too.


Truman visited our fair city every year of his Presidency from November to December and from February to March. Returning to Washington in January, presumably,
for the State-of-the-Union.


Judging from these old pictures, it looks like he had himself
a hell of a time.

earth day

"It seems to me, that if the government really wanted to incentivize "green living", they might adjust an individual citizen's income tax rate, commensurate with the size of that individual's annual carbon foot print.
We all might step just a little bit lighter"

Arthur Winstanley

New Year's Day
Martin Luther King Day
Groundhog Day
President's Day
St. Patrick's Day
Mother's Day
Armed Forces Day
Memorial Day
Flag Day
Father's Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Thanksgiving Day
Pearl Harbor Day
Christmas Day

Earth Day
every day

wet weather

Key West is gray and raining on this Saturday morning.
There's a light 5 knot wind with gusts to 10 and low, rolling thunder on the horizon that spooks Max the cat. It feels like about 70 degrees.
I like it; a great day for Clam Chowder and a salad for lunch.

So with nowhere to go and not much to do (last night's lovely guest has already gone home) I'll take time to write a bit.
I've got Sgt Pepper's playing on the i-Tunes and I'll take some time to let my mind go wandering.
("where it will go-oh, where it will go-oh. . .")

Spike

Well Spike (my now very large cactus plant) has been at it again; flowering.
I always say I love when he does that and always take time to sit out on the porch to admire him doing his thing.
Spike started out as a single cactus lobe I pinched from a small wild cactus plant I saw the first time I went to Ft. Zac,
12 years ago.
(I know your not supposed to do that in a state park but, what the hell)
I potted the single lobe and since, he's grown into the big boy he is today.

I'm gonna use yesterday's pictures of him to thread together whatever comes up while I write on this rainy day.


Tax Time

So that was tax time.
I don't do my own taxes, Louise, my CPA, takes care of it for me. All the same, every year I spend a day or two looking over the last year's financials and making a copious list of
proposed deductions.
(I work as an independent contractor).
It makes Louise's life easier (and I'm all for that) and it gives me a clear picture in one frame of how the year's business trend went.
(blah, blah, blah. . .)

Anyway, this year was a new thing.
The entire process happened happily but I never laid eyes
on Louise.
In past years I'd sit with her in her office for an hour or so and we'd go over stuff. Then a week or so later I'd stop back at the office, sign on the line, write a check, pick-up my copies and they'd mail the return from their office.
This year was a little different . . .
While I did need to go to the office to drop off the initial paper work, Louise was with another client. I didn't interrupt, left the stuff with her secretary and beat feet.

Louise called the next day to confirm that she had the stuff and why don't I just e-mail my list of proposed deductions? I did.
A few days later her secretary called and said we were good to go. I paid Louise's fee with plastic over the phone, the return was filed electronically and they mailed me my copies.
I know none of this is strange magic or anything but this was a first and, if your interested in how stuff works,
it might make you say "hmmm. . ."


Urgent Care

Have you ever been to one of those "Urgent Care
Medical Centers"?
You find them in places like strip-malls.
I hadn't until last week. It was my first time, for nothing major, and was in and out in well under and hour. In fact I spent more time in the waiting room than I did with
the doctor.
I hate waiting rooms and figure if there's a hell for me, (which I don't really believe there is) it would be a crowded waiting room with FoxNews on the TV, a rack of magazines about obstetrics and I'd be sitting between a woman with a crying baby and an old guy muttering to himself.

Anyway these places are literally assembly lines for
medical care.
You pay at the gate, see the doctor with the tired eyes, take care of your need and "next!". . .

I'll tell you, these don't get me as the places you'd want to be if you got really sick.
But the price is right so they draw the crowd.
Americans. . .
What will we think of next?

Conch Republic Days

Our annual "Conch Republic Days" (more about that in a later post) started yesterday and today I thought I'd start covering some of the events.

Among other things, today's scheduled includes "The Great Conch Republic Drag Race".
It's a foot race down Duval between dozens of drag queens pushing rolling queen size beds, each bed with a pajama wearing rider under the covers.
It's scheduled start is 1:00 this afternoon but it's 12:45 now and still raining like crazy. So I don't think they'll make it
in the wet weather today.
Maybe tomorrow.

Now where's that clam chowder?

buddy's truck

Buddy Owens is a fixture in Key West;
An ol' bubba, and a friend.
He owns and operates "BO's FishWagon", a funky open air eatery on the corner of William and Caroline
here in Key West.

Designed to look like a ramshackle shack with old license plates, an outboard motor, ropes, buoys, hubcaps and hastily hand painted signs decorating the walls and this rusted out old pick-up truck outside on the William Street edge of the FishWagon's property.
(it used to have a naked lady mannequin sitting behind the wheel and waving out the window but she seems to have found another gig.)
The ashtrays are old tuna fish cans and the condiment holders; Corona six-pack cartons. . .

You get the idea.

Anyway, a few years ago, either the city or the cops or code enforcement told Buddy he had to move the rusted out old pick-up truck off William Street.

Well, move it Buddy did and for a good long time there was no rusted out old pick-up truck for the tourists to stand around taking pictures of each other sipping their margaritas.
(another Key West attraction bites the dust)

But then one day, as if by magic, the rusted out old pick-up truck was back on William Street, planted in it's old spot.
But sans the naked lady.

Could she have been the issue upsetting the sensibilities of our city fathers?
Or was it, as someone told me, it had to be moved because that rusted out old pick-up truck was illegally parked?

hmmm. . .

the wreckers

This post hopefully compliments my last post "Mary" the salvage vessel.
(I seem to have wrecking and salvaging on the mind
this week)

Not far from where Mary is dry-docked, is "the Key West Historical Memorial Sculpture Garden".
(and isn't that a mouthful?)

It's a sculpture garden dedicated to people who have had the "greatest impact" on Key West.
It features 36 bronze busts depicting some of the men and women that made Key West a vibrant, colorful and important outpost of American culture and folklore.

I wrote about once before, in my post "Busted" a few years ago but this time I want to focus on these dudes.

This life size sculpture, "The Wreckers" is the centerpiece, more or less, of the sculpture garden.

I was on my way out of the newspaper office the other day, free from my comfortable desk and state-of the-art computer and took a few minutes to study the piece.

My thought was, for all our myths and romanticizing about wrecking and salvaging, just how tough that actual work must really have been. . .

mary

"Mary" is an old weather beaten and blistered replica of an 1850's era salvage vessel.
The wooden sailing ship has been run aground as decoration on Mallory Square since longer than I know.

Sadly, between the painted coconut and straw hat kiosks, the aquarium, shipwreck museum, conch trains and trolleys, hot dog vendors and the sponge warehouse (an overblown gift shop), not many people pay her much mind.

But me? I've got double trouble here. . .
I sail and, I aspire to be an historian if I ever grow up.
So Mary stands out for me.

Key West, of course, made it's bones on salvaging.
Ships sailing between Spain and Cuba would often run aground on the Florida reef.
Poor navigation, stormy seas and overloaded cargo ships, that were harder to control while tacking into the wind, were the main causes of the shipwrecks.


If the lookouts spotted a ship on the rocks, they'd holler " wreck ashore" and the salvage crews would man their boats, much like Mary, and race to the wreck.
The rule, as I understand it, was the first Captain to reach the wreck would be the"salvage master" and entitled to the lion's share of the plunder. Plunder which, after it was hauled back to town, could be either kept by the salvage master or
sold at auction.


In the early 1800s the Navy came to town and soon after that, Key West became an official U.S. port of entry. That drew more cargo ships directly here and more ships meant more wrecks and by about the time of the American Civil War the wrecking industry had made Key West the richest city in the United States.


Inevitably, with Yankee ingenuity being what it is, more lighthouses were built, nautical charts and navigation techniques were improved; and all that meant, less wrecks.


By and by, as the salvage industry faded, it was replaced by sponge harvesting and cigar making and those are stories for another time. But I can't imagine either was ever as lucrative as salvaging.
Key West's "golden age" was over.


Today Key West is a tourist economy (also not as lucrative as salvaging) and there sits Mary, weather beaten and blistered with chickens roosting in her hold; a strangely romantic reminder of a better time.

One last thing. . .

I've added a movie link; "Reap the Wild Wind" is all about Key West wreckers.
It stars Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland and John Wayne.
Released in 1942, it was produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille (so you know the cinematography is first rate).
Some scenes get a little sappy (hell, it's an old movie) but you don't need to sit through all 2 hours of the story to get the overall flavor of Key West's golden age of salvaging.

spring break

It's been Spring Break in Key West for the past couple
of weeks.

I saw this and thought, somebody had a real good time!!

artman's new e-mail address

Just a quick heads up my friends, I've changed my phone and internet service provider from at&t to Comcast.

My phone number remains the same but my e-mail address has changed.

The new e-mail address is. . .
art.winstanley@comcast.net

My thanks, as always, for all of you staying tuned in. - Art

key west wildlife center

we are not saints

Anchors Aweigh is a 501(c)3 and has been Key West’s help center serving those seeking recovery from drug and alcohol addiction in the Lower Keys for the past
29 years.
The Anchors Aweigh Club is member-owned and supported.

Although Anchors Aweigh embraces the 12 step program of "Bill W." and "Dr. Bob", they are independent of
Alcoholics Anonymous.

I attended Sunday morning meetings at Anchors Aweigh a few years ago when I decided that I was liking my beer just a little too much. (a small problem by comparison but addiction is addiction and ultimately it's all about mindset)

The reliability and work ethic of the clean and sober employees at Anchors Aweigh was caring, concerned, supportive and, at the end of the day, beneficial to my health.

So with my thanks, I'm very happy to give a little something back and help hype a special fundraiser for my old friends at Anchors Aweigh. . .

•

The nationally known "Recovery Comedy Team", presenting “We Are Not Saints” returns by popular demand to share amazing personal stories of recovery through bold, riotous stand-up comedy and their poignant, unique experiences with addiction, recovery and change.
The performance features Amy Dresner, Felon O'Reilly
and Ian Harvie

The public is invited to attend at Anchors Aweigh,
404 Virginia Street, Key West. Tickets are $20 in advance
or $25 at the door.
The comedy show is recommended for ages 16 and over.

For more information, contact: Steve at 305 849-5418.

And to learn more about Anchors Aweigh, please visit. . .
anchorsaweighclub.com

bamboo-zle

The dictionary defines the word bamboozle this way. . .
1. "to deceive by underhanded methods"
2. "to confuse, frustrate, or throw off thoroughly
or completely"

The Thesaurus offers these synonyms. . .
"deceive, delude, dupe, con, fake out, fool, misguide, mislead and misinform."

In my own lexicon the synonyms start with "sucker, scam, shaft" and get dramatically more colorful. I'd love to share but, this being a family show, I won't.

And yeah you're right, this is gonna be an ArtMan rant.

About 3 weeks ago, I was happily working away at my smoothly running computer when the phone rang. Without looking up at my caller I.D., I instinctively picked up the call.
It was a sales dude from at&t. I don't normally answer sales calls but this time they snagged me and sure, I could have ended the call really quick but he seemed warm and personable and I guess I was having one of my very rare mental moments of weakness so I listened to what he
had to say.

He wanted to offer me an upgraded service that would make my internet speed faster than a speeding bullet, give me wider access wireless networks and, the best part, would lower my phone bill by $25 - $30.
Well faster speed and wireless didn't thrill me but a smaller phone bill?
In this economy, what the hell could it hurt?
So in my moment of weakness, I agreed to the upgrade.

The product is called "U-Verse" and it was gonna be the best thing since sliced bread.

Two weeks later UPS delivered and I installed the new, unnecessarily large modem, a phone guy came over and strung a new wire from the pole to the house. Was I back in business as usual?
Well, not so much.

While I could still get on-line and still receive e-mail, I couldn't send e-mail. (I was e-mute).
Now, among the pile of papers that came with all this crap was a customer support number; I called it. . .
The "tech" on the other end told me I couldn't access the
e-mail server because I hadn't closed out my DSL account by paying the final bill. (no one had mentioned that before. . .)

Wasn't I dealing with the same company?
Well yes, but we do separate billing.
My thought was "you've been bamboo-zled."
Then the games began. . .

I logged on-line to the BellSouth website (which is how I've paid my bill for the last 10 years) but the bitch wouldn't let me in. So I called BellSouth but my call was automatically routed to "U-Verse". All I wanted to pay is my last DSL bill to clear the way for the new service and get back to work.
Long story short, it took, I kid you not, a half a day to finally find someone who could handle the transaction.

At that point it was 4:30 in the afternoon and the bill was paid but I was more aggravated than I'd been in a year.
It was time to just let it go, crack open a cold one and find something to eat.
"U-Verse" will keep until tomorrow.

The next morning, in much better spirits after a good night's sleep, I'm back at the computer checking the incoming e-mail (like I do every morning) and start drafting replies. No soap; the server isn't recognizing any of my addresses.

I'm back on the phone to customer support. . .

I explain the problem and suggest that with the "upgrade" maybe the port settings have changed. The customer support guy agrees (no one had mentioned that before. . .) and he gives me the new numbers.
While we're talking, I ask him how often he has to walk customers through these pain-in-the-ass problems. "Every day, 10 times a day, we have problems with the system" was his exasperated reply.

New settings in hand, I ended the call, punched in the numbers but still, no soap.
I was receiving e-mail but still couldn't send.


By now I'm in the heavy workload part of my week and it's time to "out-think the machine". I log-in to att.com and access my e-mail from there and from there, it turns out, I can send. (improvise and overcome)

Confident that I've found an effective stop-gap solution to get me through the rest of my work week, I called it, a day.

The next morning, again in much better spirits after a good night's sleep, I'm back at the computer checking the incoming e-mail. I log on to att.com (just like did the day before) but it won't let me in.
So much for my pleasant morning mood; now this is all a real pain-in-the-balls!
I've got a dozen clients looking for answers and I can't reply.
I could lose a few bucks over this!

Back on the phone to customer support. . .

After 10 minutes of "please hold muzak", a dude comes on, I explain the problem and now he's directing me to a Yahoo website to try and get at my e-mail.

A Yahoo website?? WTF???

Keep in mind, I'm not running a "dinosaur of a computer" system over here. It's a MAC 10 point something, running Adobe CS4 programs and I have 2 e-mail programs. Every thing works, every thing is backed up and the back-ups are backed up. The problem is not on my end!
I tell the support dude all that, ask him a few tech questions and he says, "we're not trained to deal with those kinds of problems" and gives me yet another number for the "Connection Specialists" (already another half day is lost on this mess).

I call, get another 10 minutes of "please hold muzak", some one answers and I explain my problem again. The voice on the other end confirms that they get calls like mine very often and they can help me. But for that help I'd need to subscribe to a maintenance service contract for $15 a month with a commitment for 12 months and would like to put that on my credit card today?

I think to myself, now let me get this straight. . .
I've been told by 3 separate support people that at&t knows "U-Verse" has problems only at&t can fix them. But to get them fixed, I've got pay for the privilege.
In my head that translated to, "you were dumb enough to get bamboo-zled into this sub-standard upgrade scam and now we're holding your internet capabilities for ransom."
This I could not abide.

Come Monday, all my on-line and land-line services will be moved to Comcast.
Going forward, I'll keep you all up to speed on
address changes.
And o sh*t, I'll have to reprint my business cards.

waterfront playhouse

Back in about 1940 a cast of local thespians and some Navy dudes came together to form the Key West Players.

For 20 years, the troupe would stage productions wherever they could find space around town and sometimes even on Navy ships that were stationed in Key West during
World War Two.

Then in 1960, with the help of Tennessee Williams, the Players got hold of an old and run-down ice warehouse, built in the 1880s, on Mallory Square.

They renovated the warehouse, transforming it into an intimate 150 seat theatre.
The Key West Players finally had a permanent home.
They christened it, the WaterFront PlayHouse.

These days, when the sun sets, the curtain rises at the
not-for-profit venue for a regular schedule of theatrical, dance and musical performances during "season" that features our pool of local talent as well as internationally
known performers.

I've been there many several times and if you're local and like live performance art, you can see what they've
got cooking at. . .
The WaterFront PlayHouse