Twisted Key West - Egg Beats Tourist

This is a true story. The guy in the photo has nothing to do with today's story except that he was a Key West taxi driver and tour director. His name was Ramon Navarro, and no he wasn't the famous actor of the same name. Mr. Navvaro was famous for showing tourists around Key West in style.

Back in the 1890s horses were the primary horse and buggies moved people up and down Duval Street past 336 Duval pictured above. The building was once the school. Years later it became the home of Knight Realty, later Prudential Knight and Gardner Realty, and now Berkshire Hathaway Knight and Garner Realty. 

More than a dozen years ago I was a real estate agent at Prudential Knight and Gardner Realty located at the corner of Duval Street at Eaton Street in Key West.  Floor duty is the time a Realtor spends in the office waiting for someone to walk in the door or call on the telephone to inquire about buying or selling a house or other property. A lot of agents hate it because few  agents convert an inquiry into a transaction. I liked it as I aactually got buyers out of walk-ins, some of whom I have written about in my blog.

 0 Duval Street - The Gulf of Mexico

Southernmost Beach - the end of Duval Street and the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean

Duval Street runs about one mile long. It starts at the Gulf of Mexico three blocks to the north and ends at the Atlantic Ocean eleven blocks to the south. Eaton Street is one of two streets that traverse all of Old Town.  The other is Truman Avenue. This intersection is a crossroads of humanity in our little town. This is a terribly busy corner starting around 10:00 AM or so when most shops open for business. Depending on the time of year and the time of day the sidewalks can be almost impassable with tourists walking around not paying attention to anything or anyone.  Right now Key West is experiencing Spring Break with thousands of daily tourists de-boarding cruise ships mixed in with college kids, gays, and families who have flocked here for fun in the sun. Delivery trucks, cars, people on bikes, skateboarders, pedicabs, taxi cabs, trolley cars, and tour trains clog Duval Street which was made for horse and buggies. Sometimes it's enough to a person go crazy. 

I remember the events of one particular afternoon quite vividly. I was sitting at a desk in reception area of our real estate office looking out the south facing window to the intersection of Duval and Eaton. St. Paul's Episcopal Church was located diagonally on the far side of the intersection. It happened in a flash. There was no warning that I recall. For a period of only a few years there was an alternative taxi company called Egg.  On that day an Egg driver jumped out of his vehicle, ran over to a German or Dutch tourist, and cold cocked the guy knocking him to the street as his wife watched in horror. The Egg driver started screaming at the man lying on the ground and waving his hands around in panic and horror.  

The cops arrived in a flash. There is not much crime in Key West so when somebody does do something, there is a lot of whoop-ass that comes down on whoever did something wrong. The tourist started to cross the street against a red light which prevented the Egg drive from making a right turn on red. The tourist foiled the turn and the Egg driver became the Egg beater. End of true story.