KEY WEST LOU / I RODE ON STREETCARS

On this day in 1885, the first commercially operated electric streetcar in America opened in Baltimore.

I recall riding streetcars in the late 1930s when I was a very very young boy. The streetcar preceded the bus as public transportation. I caught the streetcar in its last stages of existence. By World War II, everything was buses.

We were poor back then. Though I did not know it. It was public transportation for our family. After the war everyone had money, however. Late in 1945, my father ordered a new car. It took two years to arrive. I can still recall how thrilled my father was that he owned a car. A two tone green Nash Ambassador.

It was August 10, 1985. Johnny Carson, long time star of NBC TV’s Tonight Show, was in Key West to visit the site of the Atocha as the guest of Mel Fisher.

Mentioning Mel Fisher brings Jean Thornton to mind. She knew Mel. Harassed him till he agreed to take her out to dive. This was many years ago. Jean became the Key West Golden Girl as a result thereof.

Jean was visiting from Birmingham with her fellow school teacher friend Debbie. They struck oil! Gold coins and emeralds.

Changed Jean’s life. Soon no longer a school teacher.

Beside the condo all these years in Key West, Jean and husband Joe travel a lot. Next week, it’s Alaska.

I recall Jean telling me that whenever they take a long trip, which is often, she sells a few of the gold coins. Still able to do it 38 years later.

Great going, Jean! Enjoy Alaska!

The Citizens’ Voice this morning re the Keys “traitors” who attacked the Capitol on January 6. Marathon residents. The husband was retired military and also on a disability pension. The comment: “Funny how he can’t work, but can storm the Capitol.”

A Palm Beach editorial today titled Personal Benefits of Slavery Bring Ridicule to Florida. Last paragraph right on: “The implication that slavery was somehow good for its victim is inaccurate, outlandish and abhorrent. Nothing good came from slavery, America’s original and ongoing sin. Yet here’s our state once again on a national stage facing a thunderous laugh track response to its defense of a teaching standard that’s indefensible.”

Recent Keys heat has been anywhere from high 80s to low 90s. Yet feels over 100 degrees.

Nearly all Southern Florida has been under an excess of worsening heat. The last two days the worst.

The National Weather Service in Miami said the high “feels-like temperatures as high as 115 degrees in some places.”

Comment on Twitter today: “I’m so old I remember when school didn’t start till after Labor Day.”

That’s me!

A concluding comment.

The length of my blogs vary. Today’s short. Tomorrow could be 1,100 words.

I do the same research beginning at 5 every morning. Hit the same sites. Sometimes the news isn’t new news. Sometimes whatever I research fails to interest me, turn me on, excite me. In those circumstances, I don’t wish to bore you nor myself. So my blog is short as it is today.

It’s how the cookie crumbles.

Enjoy your day!

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