It was cold up north

I went north to Ohio over the holidays and it was COLD, the temperature was in the 20's and 30's. . In Cuba when the temperature gets down to 68 we turn on our Cuban furnace ( light the oven, open the oven door, and put a fan by the door). Those people keep their homes at 68 degrees and then walk around in T-shirts while I had on a coat and hat and gloves.

I was there with my friends Mike and Kathey visiting their families. When Mike's sister came to the house she asked my if I just got in. I said no I've been here all day and she said she asked me because I still had my coat on.Then Mike's daughter came in and asked me where I was going. A little later Kathey's brother came in, asked why the house was so hot, looked at me and said he was glad he got there in time to see me before I left. I just don't understand why people live north of Miami.

I love all the craziness at Christmas time . The kids opening gifts, the TV blaring and everybody talking at the same time. While all this was going on I saw on the TV that it was a record cold in Philadelphia and although I couldn't hear the TV it looked like the Liberty Bell cracked from the cold. I hope they can get it fixed.

Traveling during that week was crazy. After the terrorist tried to blow that airplane security at the airport was insane. We got to the airport 2 1/2 hours before our plane loaded and just got to the gate on time. We are back in Key West now and I'm looking forward to seeing my friends at La Te Da for lunch on Fri. and hearing about their holidays.
Juan

Any Day Now

A couple of week ago friends of mine who had just came back from Taboga, A little island off the Pacific coast of Panama,told me an interesting story. It seems they were in a bar on the island and the owner was the spitting image of a friend of ours that was lost at sea some years ago. They asked her if she had a sister from Key West but she said she was an only child and she has never been to Key West, except for her red hair they said she could have been her twin.

This was the first time I thought about my friend in a long time, so here's her story. Meg Fizer was a cute little blond woman who was a 6 pack boat captain that loved to take people out to the back country for snorkeling and dolphin watching.But the real reason she went there is because she had an old document from the 1700's that told about a buried treasure on one of the islands.Every chance she got she would search those mangrove islands. She would pull away from the dock and yell "any day now". 8 years ago we had a hurricane come through the back country and created a small island,well it was only a sand bar but it stayed above the water surface even at high tide.

One Keywester a guy named Bruce thought he could claim it for himself . He put a flag on it and named it Bruce Key. The National Marine Sanctuary said he couldn't claim it because it was in the sanctuary. Bruce said it wasn't there when the sanctuary was made so he thought he could. The Sanctuary hired a scientist to create a computer model that proved all the sand that made the island came from the sanctuary and only moved around a little and was in there all the time.

Meg was hired to take the scientist around on her boat while he did the survey. She asked him if she gave him weather history for the last 200 yrs. could he show her what the islands looked like back them. He said yes it would be simple.

A couple of weeks later Meg walked into the Breakfast Club at the Schooner Wharf Bar, slapped a $100 bill on the bar, said the drinks were on her,got on her boat, yelled "any day now" and sailed away. Later that afternoon a storm came in and Meg never returned to her dock. The Coast Guard, Marine Patrol and private boaters spent 5 days searching for her but didn't find her or her boat.

It's a sad story that my friends reminded of but if you're ever in Taboga look for the bar and tell the owner Key West said hello. P.S. the bars name is HOY ES EL DIA.

The Trolly Driver's Tragedy

The story begins with the unexpected visit of Mona's sister Bianca from Cuba. What was thought to be a short visit evolved into a very long stay.

Mona's husband Stan never like Bianca, she thought he was unworthy of being Mona's husband because Bianca and Mona's father was a wealthy cigar maker in Havana and Stan was only a trolly driver in Key West. Their apartment on United Street was just two rooms and Mona was pregnant with their first child, so Stan tried to avoid Bianca staying away from her as much as he could by hanging around the Green Parrot Bar.

Most days you would find Stan drinking with his buddy Rich. When Stan did come home he would argue with Bianca and that would lead to fights with Mona who would defend her sister. One day Rich came over the apartment to get Stan and he met Bianca. Rich thought she was very beautiful and asked her out. Stan did not like it that Rich was interested in Bianca so he told a story about how she was an immoral woman and had an affair with a student of hers and slept with many men in Cuba. Rich was very upset and broke up with Bianca.

When Mona was consoling her Bianca confessed that she went through all of their father's money and she couldn't go back to Cuba. Bianca found Rich and told him that Stan's stories were all true. but Rich couldn't forgive her and sent her away. Bianca was so upset she tried to kill herself and Stan called a doctor and got her committed to an asylum. Two weeks later Bianca was taken away.

Mona almost lost her baby and was so angry that she threw Stan out. Stan was only trying to save his wife from her sister and now he moved in with Rich and not happy at all.

Bianca is still in the asylum, Rich moved out, Mona moved to Miami and won't let Stan visit their son, Stan quit driving the trolly started drinking and now is homeless.

My story and first blog.

Hello my name is Juan Perez and I am a story teller who lives in Key West Florida. This is a brief history of myself.

I was born in Cuba in 1940 and in my youth spent much of my time at Havana harbor working on the docks for tips. I first met Papa Hemingway when I was just a small boy. Papa would send me to the local bars to get him cigars. I remember one time he even let me go fishing with him on his boat the Pilar. He had this great camera that he said he had used to photograph Nazi spies . I told him I would love to learn how to take pictures so I could make money with the tourists that came to Havana. He gave my a camera and I started taking pictures, and still do today. You can see some of my pictures hanging on the walls at Papa's house in Cuba.

When I was in my teens one of my favorite pastimes was playing baseball and I even got to play with Fidel Castro . Fidel and I became good friends but then he started getting really political and we would have many arguments. Fidel would go off in the woods and try to get as many men as he could to follow him in his quest for a new Cuba. Sometimes he would be gone for days. We had a friend named Maria that Fidel was sweet on but because he was gone so much of the time Maria and I fell in love . Fidel found out about it and I had to hide from him. It got so bad that when he started the revolution I fled the country and came to Key West.

In Key West I looked up Papa and he introduced me to many people and I started taking pictures for a living. When JFK came to Key West I was able to take pictures of him and when he found out that I knew Fidel he would sit and talk to me for hours. We became good friends and some of my pictures of him are still in the Whitehouse. JFK asked my if I would help him on a project of his . He wanted me to take pictures of the Apollo missions. Even though I wasn't an astronaut I still went up in the spacecrafts and got some great pictures, my favorite is the picture of Armstrong stepping off the lunar lander. It is a little known fact that I was really the first man on the moon.

Now most of my time is spent just hanging around the island taking pictures and telling stories. I still have some adventures and in the next few weeks I will be posting more stories.

If you ever come down to Key West look for me . My friends call me Numero Juan just ask for me.