Key West Lou / DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS THIS YEAR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

This year’s choice politically is simple. The difference between good and evil. The Democrats the good, the Republicans evil.

Trump is rot. Everything he touches. We do not want him to finish the job he has begun on our country and us.

Who the Democratic Party is this year was clear by those who spoke for Kamala Harris last night and the Democratic Party. Doug Emhoff, Bernie Sanders, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama. They know and recognize the evil that Trump is. They spoke clearly of it and its danger. They spoke equally clearly about the goodness Harris returns to national politics.

A clearly sink or swim situation.

The Democratic National Convention on its first night drew 20 million viewers. Numbers are important to Trump. Ok, Donald. Twenty million surpassed the 18.3 million the Republican National Convention attracted its first evening.

Another significant number favoring the Democrats. Donald, you’re big on numbers. The Dems beat you again on this one.

Harris and the Democratic National Committee raised three times as much money in July as Trump.

Ho, ho!

Most of the money came in after Biden withdrew and it was clear Harris was going to be the candidate.

A bit of Buffet at the moment.

Buffett’s music career begins…..He discovers Key West.

After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1969, Buffett moved to New Orleans. There he often did street performances for tourists on Decatur Street and played for drunken crowds in the former Bayou Rum night club on Bourbon Street.

He was searching. In 1970, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee to further his country music career. He did not get many music jobs. Ended up working as an editorial assistant for Billboard. Next he signed a two album record contract with Barnaby Records. His first album Down to Earth sold 324 copies. In 1971, he recorded his second album, High Cumberland Jamboree. Barnaby claimed the label was lost before it was released. Found however in 1976 when Buffett became popular.

In 1971, Buffett worked a Nashville night club as an opening act. At the time, his first marriage was falling apart and he was heading for a divorce.

Buffett needed a change of scenery. His friend fellow country singer Roger Jeffrey Walker offered him a place to stay at his home in Coconut Grove.

That same year, the two went on a busking expedition to Key West. Busking another phrase for street performance.

Turned out to be a wise move for Buffett.

He liked Key West so much he moved there in the spring of 1972. He got involved in the literary scene. Met writer Thomas McGuire, who married one of Buffett’s sisters. He also began running with Jim Harrison, Tom Cochoran and Truman Capote.

It was a time when sex and drugs were plentiful in Key West.

Buffett was hired by David Wolkowsky to play for drinks at the Chart Room Bar in the Pier House Motel. It was there that Buffett met his second wife, Jane.

From a connection he made in the Chart Room, he was hired as first mate on a yacht owned by Foster Talge, heir to The Rival Company. It became Buffett’s day job.

Tomorrow brings us to 1973 and more of Buffett’s musical growth.

The first electric light switches were installed in the White House in 1891 when Benjamin Harrison was President. The President was so afraid of getting electrocuted, he ordered his staff to turn the lights on and off for him.

Key West had its problems over the years in accepting Blacks. I have written often of Key West’s experiences with Blacks in the 1920’s when the Ku Klux Klan was a dominant force in the community.

There was another time. The year 1906.

On this day in 1906, conductors and motormen of the Key West Streetcar were on strike after a white motorman named Pinder was fired for refusing to carry a group of African American patrons. The striking men wanted Pinder reinstated, that Blacks not be allowed as customers, and wages be increased as well as overtime pay.

St. Mary’s of the Sea Catholic Church on Truman Ave. is a a well attended religious facility. Always has been. Gays and straights welcome all the time.

St. Mary’s was dedicated this day in 1904.

Enjoy your day!

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