Visiting with Mr. Knight. We hope to see Mr. Knight again very soon!
Mr. Knight keep doing your 30 minute a day workouts and traveling the world! You are welcome in Alabama always. Hope to see you again someplace wonderful soon. You are a delight and pleasure to be with. Thank you for loving our family! We love you too!
When Earnest Hemmingway found out that his favorite bar had lost it's lease he was there to buy some of the things the bar owner was ripping out of the walls. This is a lovely drinking fountain for the cats but the basin is actually the old urinal that came out of the bar. His wife tried desperately and with a lot of success to disguise it with tiles. She wanted him to get rid of it. He told her when she got rid of "her" pool, he'd get rid of "his"! Too funny!!
We tried to eat at Blue Heaven but there was a long wait. This photo is for our friends Sondra and Hank, we tried!
The all too funny, Floyd's barber shop. It is not Mayberry but funny!
The t-shirt photo was taken for Chuck.
This in ground pool cost $30,000 dollars back in the 1930's! When he and his wife at the time got a bid to have it put in their garden, he said no way, too much! When his wife at that time found out he was having an affair, as soon as he was off to Europe with his girlfriend, she had the pool installed. When he got back and saw the pool there he told her she was going to spend his last "red cent". In the concrete, she had a penny encased as to relish the fact that she did at least try to spend his last red cent!
Being a tree lover/hugger we had to snap a picture of the Banyan tree. It was right near the estate of Earnest Hemmingay. The corner shot of Earnest Hemmingway's house is exactly that, a corner of the block. His estate takes up the block. Can you imagine what this would sell for today (if the real estate market was good)??
The extra large chocolate chip cookies were tempting but we were on our way to what we were hoping would be a really special Key West type of lunch and Cuban atmosphere. The big reddish building is a dance center and the large statue was just too great to pass up a photo!
Key West is certainly and interesting place!
The two big attractions were to see the homes of two famous people. One person you have heard of, or 99% of you have, Earnest Hemmingway. He is dead and gone. The other, Mr. Edward Knight. About 75% of you may know of him. He is alive and well, living on his island in Key West at the age of 94! What a wonderful man. Full of stories about Key West back in the 30's, what World War II was like in Key West, knowing Earnest Hemmingway, knowing President Truman, all the musicians that sat and played the same piano that he invited Kathleen to play in his home. Seems that Xavier Cugat was a regular there. His influence of Cuban music in Key West still exists today. Mr. Knight made many trips to Cuba and speaks of those days very fondly. We had a wonderful history lesson and really think the wold of Mr. Knight.
Our tour into Earnest Hemmingway's home was made really great by our tour guide. Stan from Ohio! He was great. Although Earnest Hemminway did not live in this home very long, he did most of his writing in a small guest house behind the house. This is where he wrote his classics, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. What we did learn was he was a very young man when he lived here. He was only 31 years old and did not resemble those grey haired pictures you see of him all the time. He was a dark haired nice looking man. Maybe that is why he was such a ladies man! He had 4 wives and many girlfriends. His love of cats still lives on. There are about 20 cats that still live on the property there. A special species of cats with six toes no less. One cat, named Frances, was on his king sized bed and never stirred while we looked through his bedroom. Almost looked stuffed but opened one eye and gave us a look!
The house is built on the highest point in Key West which is 16 feet above sea level. Very smart on his past. He got cross windsthat kept the house cool and he even had a basement in this house which is unheard of in Key West! He kept his favorite wine there, as it was very cool in the basement.
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