Redneck Riviera

One of the founders of our company finally took a much needed vacation, and spent a week in Destin, Florida.  He tells me it's called the "Redneck Riviera", and claims it boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, with powdered sugar-like sands and crystal clear, emerald green waters.  From the back of the postcard:  "The city of Destin is located on a peninsula separating the Gulf of Mexico from Choctawhatchee Bay.  The peninsula was originally an island, but hurricanes and sea level changes gradually connected the island to the mainland."

Ernest Hemingway

Second in a short series of writer postcards, short because I only have three.  This postcard of Ernest Hemingway's Florida (Key West) home, was sent to me by Sandy and Duke, at the beginning of their trip throughout the US and Canada.  Sandy is one of my loyal postcard senders, and I'm looking forward to following their adventures through the postcards they send.

Postcard collecting is often serendipitous, as was the case with this one.  As Sandy mentions above, "...I stopped into the museum and they had just found some old postcards."  I love that!  Not clear exactly when this postcard was made, but I'm guessing 60s.  Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in 1961.  By that time, he was living in Idaho, having left Cuba (and Key West?) in 1959.

I thought a lot about Hemingway and his novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, when I was in Spain.  I got the feeling that the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent 40 year (FORTY YEAR!) Franco dictatorship are two things the Spaniards don't really want to talk about much.  Not that I spent a lot of time talking about this with Spaniards, or even asked the questions.  It's just a feeling one gets.

Florida

For whatever reason, I don't think of Florida as being part of the South.  It is as if it's its own region..  Howevever, if you've been on the panhandle part of Florida, you know that's a place that definitely feels like the South.

The postcard on the left is from Talahassee, on the panhandle.  I've been there once. 

Talahassee was the closest airport to Ochlocknee, Georgia, the location of one of two white clay mines in the world (the other being somewhere in China)., and the source of clay for a brand of cat litter, Control Cat Litter. [Many cat litters are made of clay.]  I was the account executive at the ad agency that did the advertising for Control Cat Litter, and the brand manager decided we should all visit the source of this special clay, to see if we could find any information that could be used in advertising messaging.   I don't remember that we did, and it was a long way from San Francisco to that clay mine in Georgia.  I do still have a lump of that clay in my office.

The Control Cat Litter brand no longer exists, but as usual, I discovered something interesting while searching the web to see if it was still around.  Ever heard of Geophagy?  It means eating dirt, or clay, and this white Georgia clay appears to be of particular interest to geophagists, if such a term exists.  If you're interested, you can purchase it here.

The postcard on on the right, of Key West, included a message on the back that said:  "If you ever come to Florida, skip everything else and come sraight to Key West."  I imagine it to be a bit like San Francisco in the tropics, but smaller:  lots of eccentric, colorful, and interesting people drinking a bit too much booze, but sporting killer tans, and wearing Hawaiian shirts and flip flops.  It may not be reality, but that's how I picture it.

Miami Serpentarium

In a random continuation of an animal theme this week, today's card is about snakes and their venom. Pictured is Bill Haast, "Venom Poster Boy" of the Miami Serpentarium.

The Serpentarium, probably still in operation (although the website is "under construction") was once and may still be a major tourist attraction and working laboratory. Bill Haast extracted venom from snakes daily, always in view of visitors to the lab. He was bit hundreds of times, and believes there is medicinal use and life-extending properties in snake venom. At 95, he might have a point.

Colorful Parrots

While we were six not four this weekend, we were a bunch of colorful parrots, chattering away, each with a colorful and vibrant past and present. Six women, all from the same graduate school, gathering together for a weekend of laughing, drinking margaritas, catching up, walking, gossiping, reminiscing.

Two came from the east coast, one an expert in speech recognition software, one a top ranked triathlete in her age group in New York City. One came from New Mexico, where she lives with the two children she adopted when she was working in Moscow. Another came from the SF Bay Area, where she is a top corporate lawyer. One lives in the LA area, on hiatus from the last company she started and sold.

We'll do it again in two years, next time on the east coast.

Florida Welcome Station

One thing I've noticed about almost all the postcards I've looked at is very few of them have any dates or any copyright information on them. Hmm.

Here is a prime example. I know this postcard is not current (duh!), but the only way I can figure out when it's from is to try and identify the cars in the photo. The blue car looks like something from the early 60s.

It's definitely before state tourism departments got as slick as they are now. You can tell that by the (lack of) photo art direction on the front or the straightforward copy on the back.

Birthday Balloons Over Florida

This postcard is from my friend Duke's mom, Ramona and this posting is to honor her. She died this year, but the postcard and message capture her so well. A total character, an adventurer and a wonderful wonderful spirit. I love that she spent her 65th birthday taking a hot air balloon ride in Florida, where she lived. Her sense of humor comes through loud and clear.

Pink Flamingos in Florida

I love the pinks in this card.