NAS Air Show, El Alamo, Still no dogs at Schooner Wharf

Over the weekend the Key West Naval Air Station, located on Boca Chica Key, just a few miles and two keys up from Key West, hosted their annual Air Show last weekend. What a great show it was as well! F/A 18’s, F16’s, Fat Albert, C117, P51 Mustang, Corsair, T6, …. The list goes on….. oh yeah… The Blue Angles as well! What a great show it was. A day full of adrenalin surges as the jets and planes zipped by. The most emotional for me was the fly by of the current USAF F16 flying wing to wing with the Army Air Corps P51 Mustang of WWII (The USAF was not formed until after WWII). The most thrilling was the Blue Angles. However, the scale of excitement for the entire day was never below an 8.5 on a scale of 10 the entire day, regardless of what was happening at any given time. Hats off and a salute to the Key West Naval Air Station, for extending their hospitality to the public for the weekend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO-lxauD5pA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k3EfCbcFZI

Meanwhile, back on Duval, it seems that Five Dollar Stores are ramped. Barkers with heavy Israeli accents, stand outside the stores all day long hollering “Evey ting in da store fy dolla”. Speculation on the streets suggest all of these stores are tax write offs for their Israeli owners, who send their kids here to run them, in lew of military service back home. Other’s say they are laundering operations. Who knows if any of this is the case or not, however? Outside 109 Duval, once a bar that Jimmy Buffett cut his teeth on before he became famous, today the Five Dollar Store, an early twenty something barker with a contemporary pork pie hat, suddenly breaks into a silly dance after he does his accented “fy dolla” cry. His friend with him gives him a hi five, as they are trying to impress a passing gaggle of American Beauties. The girls look at them awkwardly, until one says he looks like a complete jackass. They all screech into laughter as they continue down the street. Suddenly, the sound of a radial engine bi-plane distracts the attention on Duval, as a symbol from a by gone era gently floats by in the sky and all is good on the streets of Key West.

Sat in with Bobby D. and Sampson, of Cool Breeze at Robert Douglas’ open Blues jam at El Alamo, Monday evening. Had a blast! Jim Clark was on drums and an unknown harp player sat in as well. It was a lot like being chauffeured around in a limo with those guys! Everything just seemed to care of itself. Nice! Damn good to play electric again too. Big thanks to Frances Lynn Sally Galbraith for taking the great picture as well!

Schooner Wharf still is being pressured by the city, not to allow dogs in. I wrote a letter to The Citizen (the local paper) about it, however they didn’t publish it. The State of Florida has a provision saying that local government may over-ride the state law, which says dogs are not allowed in eating establishments. Like Michael McCloud asked on stage, if those of us with dogs in our homes don’t have any problems, why would things change in an out side eating establishment like Schooner Wharf Bar? I fully concur. Having dogs in bars has been an age-old tradition in the Keys. Who’s the Einstein that’s decided to subject Schooner Wharf Bar to mainland mentality? Who ever it is, they should move back to the mainland and good riddance to them. The question should be left to the policy of the bar/restaurant itself, not some jerk that wants to take the Keys out of the Keys. Next thing you know they’ll want to tear down The Key West Customs House so they can build a high-rise condominium, or perhaps move historic Clinton Square itself in the name of “Progress”. Thinking like this belongs on the mainland, thank you very much… and don’t let the door hit you in the ass when you leave.


All The Best From Key West!