tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54389412012-02-16T02:40:14.927-08:00Young FloridaA collection of my observations and experiences during 3.5 years of living in FloridaJohn Madziarczyknoreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1066536191509185672003-10-18T20:55:00.000-07:002003-10-18T21:03:11.623-07:00The sons of fire, the sons of ice, and the sons of air battle in the Keys. The sons of air provide good fodder for the assaults from the other two camps; they willingly fall into our traps and are tortured when they see the reality of our world.
The sons of ice want to kill and disable them, want to melt them and control them,
The sons of fire want to stab, punch, and assault them without anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1066535574338033662003-10-18T20:43:00.000-07:002003-10-18T20:52:53.746-07:00The problem with the keys, at least where I lived, was that none of the beings which inhabited it besides us was really native to the area.
They had come down like vultures, seeking something new in the lands to the south, having been shaped by the evils of the mountain lands they set upon the islands with flesh which burned at the touch of the sun and set about converting the islands into anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1066534878551510802003-10-18T20:36:00.000-07:002003-10-18T20:41:18.113-07:00Darkness and decadence in the Keys.
The Key in which I lived was swarming with evil beings who inhabited it by day, concealed as humans, but who at night would take off their human disguise and come out as the demons they were, having no regard for social convention, morals, or custom. The evil ones would spread through the streets, doing their things, while the pious among us, those whose anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1058474200772934092003-07-17T13:27:00.000-07:002003-07-17T13:36:40.840-07:00I know this is a Florida blog, but before I left on a trip I wanted to get something down about Michigan, where I was born and raised....
My major point about Michigan is that Michigan is truly a pagan state; it's tough to describe, but we're a forest people, we're connected to the forrests, we came out of the forests, and we still have connections to it. The forest or sylvan, as wendel berry anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-105770368889509862003-07-08T14:50:00.000-07:002003-07-08T15:34:48.826-07:00The Hitchhikers
About the only truly interesting event which happened during my stay in the Keys happened at the end, when I was already surly at tourists and a semi-local with local friends and connections....
Here I am, pursuing all of these weird studies via the Internet and the FKCC library, hating all the commercial aspects of the Keys, living in a tiny house with tile for flooring with myanonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1057168389026753342003-07-02T10:46:00.000-07:002003-07-02T10:53:08.923-07:00Pepes was and is my mother's favorite eating place down in Key West; I liked it too, it certainly had character, but if faced with a choice I'd prefer some of the more modern and European places to eat scattered around the old town.
But Pepes surely is something to see; it's located at the edge of the water on the southwest side of things, near the large parking garage as well as the large anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1057167917546892192003-07-02T10:44:00.000-07:002003-07-02T10:45:53.886-07:00Exiting the theater the feeling was renewed, and I cruised back to Big Pine Key in the dark satisfied that I had done something different, something special.anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1057167843521159662003-07-02T10:21:00.000-07:002003-07-02T10:44:03.463-07:00Actually, attending Dr. Strangelove at the Cafe Noir was not my first non-tourist activity in Key West, non-tourist meaning an activity beyond getting supplies and doing basic shopping on south side of the island. That honor would have to go to seeing "Boys don't cry" in a theater which doubled as a movie house one night in the spring. The theater was a sight to behold, the entire environment it anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1057120042347878702003-07-01T21:13:00.000-07:002003-07-01T21:27:22.366-07:00Florida Keys Community College is a sight to behold; on the Key immediately preceding Key West it sits, a post-modern extravaganza of block buildings, brightly colored, connected by red walkways perched on the second floor, well above the ground, with exposed red painted pipes connected to it's drainage system running up and down the blocks....
In the middle of the blocks lies a courtyard, anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1056546711514012622003-06-25T05:40:00.000-07:002003-06-25T06:11:51.620-07:00Key West's old town......
I remember the first time that I saw Key West's old town......I had seen it before, when my grandparents had took me down there to see the aquarium on a visit, but it was a site to see the second time that I saw it. Like many another exploring expedition, the first time I got to Key West's old town I was hopelessly lost; the process of getting down to Key West to anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1055612268991497272003-06-14T10:24:00.000-07:002003-06-14T10:37:48.993-07:00Gainesville's personality problem....
I live in a town which has some ambiguities which interfere with daily living....
To be precise Gainesville is a town in north central florida which can't decide if it harkens back to the confederacy or to Miami Beach. And then, after presenting itself as a town for all of Florida the locals get up in arms about it destroying their culture, which they anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054328817856089922003-05-30T13:51:00.000-07:002003-05-30T14:06:57.743-07:00But before the Keys race has to be addressed, since race is a part of what I've experienced in Florida and part of what I've seen. Race, in a liberal university town like Gainesville, is a strange duck. Gainesville epitomizes the liberal dichotomy about race: go into the library and you'll see black kids running around, screaming, fighting, doing a thousand things which, if they were white, they anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054321388214417932003-05-30T11:48:00.000-07:002003-05-30T12:03:08.133-07:00There was also constant talk of Cuba, not just because of the Elian Gonzanles tradgedy, although that brought it front and center. People around us had been to Cuba, had sailed their ships the 90 miles it took to get from Key West to Cuba, arrived at a harbor, and had a good time for a few days before coming back. Back then Castro had a policy of tolerating otherwise ne'er do well Americanos who anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054320299241155752003-05-30T11:37:00.000-07:002003-05-30T11:46:58.256-07:00I was initially cut off from everyone that I knew before; and I'd moved so many times that that included only a few people, mostly the people that I knew at college before I dropped out. I soon found internet access at the library, which was a storefront in the main commercial plaza, where the Win-Dixie was. I reclaimed, or was it claimed, my e-mail address, but to no avail; I got a message from anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054319820263278932003-05-30T11:25:00.000-07:002003-05-30T11:37:00.200-07:00My relationship to the two was complex; after all, a kid, not even twenty, and, what's more, someone who was at least towing the establishment sort of lifestyle in form if not in substance, I was somewhat suspect around hedonists in their forties who had been through it and didn't care. But eventually I made peace with them and gained a sort of status in the group.
Social solidarity was easier anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054319097198321882003-05-30T10:50:00.000-07:002003-05-30T11:24:57.123-07:00The deer were the least of it. It took me a while to get settled down; one day in the mail a package arrived. It was addressed to me by my long suffering roomate from school, who put up with me as my college career entered it's death throes. Inside was a book, "Life's Little Deconstruction Book", and a card signed by a few of the people that I was close to at school.
The thing that confronts anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054312664086109802003-05-30T09:33:00.000-07:002003-05-30T09:37:44.036-07:00My island doubled as a federal nature preserve, on account of the Key Deer which lived there. Big Pine is one of the only places in the Florida Keys where the miniature Key Deer live. They're Virginia white-tail deer who migrated down to the keys before they became cut off from each other, and gradually adapted to the conditions by shrinking.
They were actually the nicest animals that you can anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054312370638922462003-05-30T09:29:00.000-07:002003-05-30T09:32:50.603-07:00I think this story is hilarious; you might not. It comes from living in a place where things like this happen all the time; drunk people, stoned people, doing really stupid things. Gallows humor becomes attractive.
There are other funny stories having to do with the keys; one time a homeless man was arrested because he was caught drinking pure cream from the carton in a grocery store; it was anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054312072721683852003-05-30T09:16:00.000-07:002003-05-30T09:27:52.683-07:00My interest was never in ships, although that's what....
Keys life, especially Big Pine, revolved around a few constants, one of which was Biz-Baz, Bizzare Bazaar, a radio program on the Keys' classic rock station in the mornings whereby Keyzers could announce ships, furniture, etc... that they had for sale and on which the hosts could have a good time looking over the morning's paper.
Anotheranonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054311369434365922003-05-30T09:14:00.000-07:002003-05-30T09:16:09.410-07:00The complex of pipes was dismantled when my mom and Brian came down to prepare the house for my grandparents in the winter. The yard was totally overgrown, the house in disrepair. They reported that cleaning it up and getting back in running order was like pioneering. Hence the gravel, which they added.
anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054311247559168152003-05-30T09:06:00.000-07:002003-05-30T09:14:07.516-07:00The house connected to the trailer which I stayed in was built on stilts, and you had to go up two flights of stairs to reach the top. Underneath was an enclosure, a sort of large room which was supposed to only be used for storage, but which was turned into a comfortable sweet by our friend Brian, comlete with tv, two chairs, fridge, microwave, and bathroom. The house had a large yard in front, anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054310799326155162003-05-30T08:54:00.000-07:002003-05-30T09:06:39.310-07:00Key West itself is different than people expect; or maybe it's just what they expect. Maybe that's part of the problem. Tourism in Florida is a tabula rasa on which everyone who comes here projects their own images of what Florida is to them, or what Key West is to them, etc....
It's somewhat disconcerting to see people put so much at stake on places which they've never been, and which they onlyanonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054310041717556132003-05-30T08:38:00.000-07:002003-05-30T08:54:01.683-07:00I was there, and am still here, officially to convalesce from a mysterious disease which rendered me virtually unemployable and unable to continue in college. Much of my time was spent shuttling back and forth trying out new medications.
During that time I lived through the years that normally define a person.
The Keys, especially the lower ones, have their own culture, one that is referred anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054309122855647292003-05-30T08:27:00.000-07:002003-05-30T08:38:42.826-07:00Big Pine Key is at the top of the lower keys; the keys, for those not initiated into the mysteries, are divided by locals into three areas: the upper keys, consisting of Key Largo and a few other large keys, located closest to Miami. These keys are the most populous and most developed.
Following a gap of quite a few miles where the keys are small and sparsely populated are the middle keys, anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054307435630667072003-05-30T08:03:00.000-07:002003-05-30T08:10:35.610-07:00I've lived in three places during my stay in Florida: Big Pine Key, Ocala, and, currently, Gainesville, home to the University of Florida. I'm originally from Michigan, but moved here somewhat against my will shortly before Christmas of '99.
I say somewhat involuntarily because I came here directly from college, directly from dropping out of college and being picked up by my mother, who, anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054306887013516412003-05-30T07:57:00.000-07:002003-05-30T08:01:27.016-07:00I created this blog because, first, I've lived through some interesting times in Florida which I think that people may be interested in a second, because the other blogs I run are anonymous, and have to be that way because of their content, and after a while I got itching to tell people about stuff where I could use actual names, places, and dates.
anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5438941.post-1054306451707553372003-05-30T07:53:00.000-07:002003-05-30T07:54:11.700-07:00Hi there, this blog, Young Florida, will be about my experiences here in the sunshine state. My name is John Madziarczyk; I've experienced Florida off the beaten track, and I think that this rare view into it will be interesting for y'all out there shivering up north.
anonymousnoreply@blogger.com