“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” ― Oscar Wilde

September 6, 2019

 

“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.”
― Oscar Wilde

The arrival of fall is someone subtle in the Florida Keys, temperatures continue to hover in the 90s many days and if you don’t have a calendar sometimes it can be hard to tell that the summer has ended and the fall season is upon us. September is typically one of the slowest months of the year in Key West as far as tourist and activities as the height of hurricane season and back to school tend to keep a lot of vacationers away.

 

This year marks the second anniversary of when Hurricane Irma hit the lower Keys and people were already jittery as we all monitored the path of the most recent Category 5 storm Hurricane Dorian. We were in its path in some of the early models but thankfully for us, it stayed north of here, instead devastating the islands of the Bahamas before turning North along the coast and heading to North Carolina.

The scenes of utter devastation coming from the Abacos have been absolutely heart wrenching. During the years that I worked at Reef Relief we maintained an environmental center at the Captain Roland Roberts House in Green Turtle Cay, which happens to be a sister city to Key West and felt the brunt of the storm’s impact. I certainly wish for nothing but the best for our friends there. 

Thankfully the Key West and Florida Keys community has been quick to respond with a group calling itself Key West Cares forming almost immediately to raise funds, collect donations and offer to assist in any way possible for those in distress in the Bahamas. We here are keenly aware, but that for a simple twist of fate, that could be us facing total devastation.

While the approach of Hurricane Dorian did cancel one of my favorite annual events over the Labor Day weekend, the annual Brewfest, I am in no real position to complain much as that is just a slight blip on the screen in the totality of the carnage that the storm wrought. There were still a couple of brewfest events that went on as scheduled and I attended a couple of very subdued pool parties. 

 

The high school football season has kicked off and I always enjoy attending the Key West High Fighting Conchs games. They have split their first two home games of the season beating Dade Christian fairly handily 49-20 before dropping the game to Baron Collier 29-17 to open the season 1-1. Football games are a slice of Conch life as much of the community turns out to cheer on the home team and I always run into a ton of friends attending the games, even though I like to watch the action from the opponents sideline as you can get much closer to the action there.

 

Of course the onset of the Fall season means something else entirely in Key West as the run-up to our largest annual celebration Fantasy Fest which is held at the end of October, begins in earnest. Kathy has joined a group of artists and creative types in creating costumes and the float that will lead this year’s big Fantasy Fest parade. The group, Mozart’s Orchestra, has already been busy designing elaborate costumes and working on float preparations at the Armory building.

 

They will be the opening float of this year’s parade and have already gotten off to a great start in creating costumes and more for the musically themed float. It is a big honor and responsibility to lead the parade and they could not have selected a more talented and dedicated group who will be working hard for the next two months leading up to the parade.