Every year around the second week of March I recall my first visit to Key West in 1985 which changed my life forever. I could not find Key West on a map when I first read about it in AFTER DARK magazine in January 1978. I still have that magazine. The pictures of Randy Jones of The Village People and the other boys grabbed my attention at first. But it was the story of this island where it was okay to be gay captured my imagination. I had lived in Denver, Colorado my entire life. When I started going to gay bars in the early 1970s, you could get arrested for walking across the street at midnight to go to The Broadway, a gay bar located a couple of blocks from the state capitol. It happened all the time. In 1973 friend and fellow law student got arrested in the Court Jester just for dancing with another man. It took me seven years of thinking and dreaming of going to Key West before it actually happened.
We stayed two weeks. One week at Colours Guest House now called Marerro's. We spent the second week at LaTeDa. We learned so much about the island from locals (like the houseboy who told us where to eat and where to go at night) and guys that had been to Key West many times.
I asked about beaches and someone told us to go to Dick Dock at Higgs Beach. Dick Dock - What? The Queer Pier. What? It was a long wooded pier with a bend in the middle. We had rented a car which back then was almost a necessity to get to the Keys. I quickly learned there were few places to drive once in town and fewer places to park. The beach was one of them so off we went. I recall being awed at the sight of so many gay men sunbathing on the city block long wooden pier, laying on beach towels with their bodies slithered with suntan lotion. I don't care if your gay or straight, everyone checks out hot guys and not so hot guys. We put down beach towels, put on sun lotion, and quickly learned the wood was splintery and most uncomfortable. The beach in my opinion is equally bad. I hate the grainy sand and people walking by or playing music too loud. The pier was always more civilized.
The city, the county, and the state each maintain a section of the beach. The city of Key West closed city beaches a couple of days ago because of the corona virus threat. Yesterday I went over to Higgs Beach to see if Dick Dock was blocked off. No. It was open as were the other beaches. The orders from thy mayor, the county, the governor were being defied.
The pier has been re-built several times since I moved to Key West in later 1993. The splintery wood is gone and rails protecting idiots from jumping into ankle level water had been installed. The water and trade winds remain alluring. The parking lot was full of cars, motor bikes, and bicycles of law-breakers sitting too close to each other on the sand or on the pier.
Where ever you are, stay safe. Don't do anything really stupid. Believe there will be a tomorrow because there will. Doubt that, look below. Key West came back after Hurricane Irma. All is quiet on the Key West Waterfront.
