Going to Key West soon!

Tomorrow, Matt and I leave for Key West!

We are flying from Tallahassee to Tampa, and then Tampa to Key West. This will be Matt's first flight, and I don't much like them. Hopefully it turns out alright?

We are going for my mom's cousin's wedding. She is an artist and sells her pottery in Key West. I have a bunch of family who lives down there. My mom was born in Key West and I lived there for a summer with my grandmother and great-grandparents. It's really great to have a lot of history in such a famous place--but it means I know a totally different side of the island. Most people think of Key West in terms of the gay population, or Fantasy Fest, or tourism.

My great-grandparents owned a grocery store way back in the day. And my great-great-grandfather before that. Carlos Supermarket has since been torn down, but the house they lived in has been restored by family. It was across the street from the store and is now home to a cafe and some offices on Carolina St. That was the house my grandmother and all her siblings were born in. The house my great-grandparents got married in still stands, on Simonton St. The house my grandfather built, and the only one I visited them in, is still there, just being rented out to a family friend. My mom's uncle is a doctor in Key West and has his house still--a beautiful house in the old style of architecture for the island.

I have all these stories from my family. When my grandmother broke her arm and had to go to Cuba because there were no doctors in Key West, just a vet. When she got sick and they cooked her pet rooster for chicken noodle soup--back when chickens didn't run wild but were valuable property in the depression, back before the keys tried to "secede" and become the Conch Republic, with the rooster as their national bird. When she went to Cuba for her honeymoon. When her father locked her in the store overnight so she could conquer her fear of the dark. How she would run to her aunt's house to use the indoor plumbing instead of the outhouse at her house. How there was only one movie theater and how movies cost so little. How girls couldn't go to the movies with a boy without a chaperone. So many stories about an island I haven't really seen, that no one can see now. It's been torn down, rebuilt in pastels and neons and parallel parking spots. The roads are dangerous, teeming with bicycles driven by clueless tourists who think they are in Disney World. The island turns bar scene at night. My family is too old for that island and can barely afford to live there. But, it's home for them and they make it work.