As I stumbled home along the 1.25 miles of Duval Street in Key West after eating what may have been my last blackened fish sandwhich on the pier I couldn’t help but remember some of the other times I’d been there over the past 40 years. I’d been there first as a young man in my twenties with my best friend Marty and our dogs Dobie (mine) and Cody (his) of course not knowing that eventually Cody would become mine after Marty’s tragic murder. We tried camping on the beach that trip but could never quite figure out a place where the police wouldn’t find us and roust us awake in the middle of the night. I remember coming back again with my young family after marrying my wife. once staying for a week at a fancy penthouse timeshare right overlooking the gulf and another time renting a house in the Truman Annex. I never imagined that that loving marriage would end or really that someday I’d be back as an old man with my 25-year-old son and my new (last) puppie Jerry.
Duval itself has really not changed nearly as much in the last 40 years as I have. There are still many of the same old hotels and bars that Hemmingway drank and wrote in. Really the biggest changes are the technology of the tourists as most people now are holding their cell phones to navigate their directions. Several younger locals that I’ve talked to have said in wonder that they heard/believed that the 70’s were the best times to be on Key West and expected me to tell them how much it had changed. They were each a bit taken aback as I described (from my perspective) how Key West has actually seemed to change much less than many other nice places from that era. Everyone now (Literally every tourist) walks around looking at their cell phones for directions and tourists rent electric carts and scooters to get around but it is really has changed MUCH much less than Boulder Colorado or Berkeley California to point to two places that I know well.
People are incredibly mellow and happy.
For anyone that has never been here all I can say is I highly recommend it. and yes I finally (after forty years) found what I believe to be the best Key Lime Pie on the island. But that is a matter of personal taste. and I recommend you spend the time making your own decision. I hope to come back again (I truly do) but if not I am very grateful for the pleasure that Key West gave me in my lifetime.