Day 3 was a bit interesting as we have received word that a tropical storm may have impact on the weather. Fortunately the day was 95% dry in spite of the forecast, and we were able to get a lot of activities in. Shout out to my sister Linda who sparked my mind into thinking like my mom when we go on vacation - always look for the Black/cultural history of the town you visit. So yesterday we started off on an informal "Key West Black History" excursion.
We started off at the "Little White House" which is the residence I referenced earlier - it was visited 11 times by President Harry Truman. We decided to take a tour and learned he was EXTREMELY progressive for his time, real salt of the earth farmer boy with no college education! He also had very specific ideas about segregation and race which put him in disfavor with many of his contemporaries. He was the President who created the Commission of Civil Rights whose job it was to ensure there was no discrimination of Black contractors and employees in the Federal Government and to review current law enforcement practices, and recommend actions to the President that will protect the Civil Rights of citizens. Upon their recommendation, he desegregated the armed forces. He was also the first President to address the NAACP. Pretty radical for the early 50s when Jim Crow was looming large in the South and Dr. King was just coming to prominence.
From there we visited Bahma Village. Most of the Black residents of Key West are of Bahamian ancestry. Bahama Village is an area that historically has hosted markets and shops owned by those residents.
We went to lunch (of course) at a "southern" restaurant there called Firefly. Greg ordered a deviled eggs and a salad with blackened shrimp. I ordered pork rinds and a fried green tomato sandwich. SUPERB! The deviled eggs were OKAY but Greg really enjoyed his salad as I did with my sandwich.
But of course you can't be in Key West without getting WHAT ------> BAHAMIAN RUM CAKE! 🤣🤣🤣 No seriously I know the answer is supposed to be Key Lime Pie, but that was not my mission. For a girl who doesn't drink rum cake is in my SOUL - thank you Grandma Rhoda! Anyway, I did a Google search to discover that the Bahamian Rum Cake store no longer had a location in Key West. 😢 I could, however, get Tortuga rum cake from the original Key Lime Pie Bakery which is within walking distance of the resort. 😋 So we drove there, and made a, er ... SOME purchases. Too much to put in the luggage so we left there and went to the post office to have them mailed home. 😊
After all that walking and driving it was late afternoon and still no real significant rain so we decided to return to Bahama Village to a restaurant called Pepper Pots (yes like the Avengers lol). We had seen it earlier and it advertised authentic Caribbean food like roti and sorrel and curry and jerk, so you know we were all in. We were greeted by the most lovely little girl (about 10 or 11?) who looked like she was doing homework 🤔 but got up and walked behind the counter to help us dissect the menu to figure out what we wanted. Immediately going into teacher mode, I asked for her name and she told me Naila (sp?) I repeated it to make sure I pronounced it correctly and she confirmed. As she was talking to us her mom, Amy, came out to take over the hostess duties. I assured her that her baby girl did an EXCELLENT job! Amy helped us make our selections and was SO SWEET! Greg got ANOTHER salad with Jerk shrimp and I got the roti with curry chicken. I also got th sorrel and Greg ordered the Tamarind iced tea.
Now y'all know I can't eat that much food right? Most of that roti is sitting in the refrigerator in our room as we speak lol (as is half of the fried green tomato sandwich). Amy then began to tell us about the neighborhood. Unfortunately, gentrification has taken over even Bahama Village and they are now the ONLY Black-owned business in the community. I was shocked but not surprised. I realized that all of the kitschy stores, galleries, and restaurants were, indeed, NOT minority-owned in a community in the MIDDLE of the homes that are visibly filled with poor Black residents. It stung a little bit. Amy said they had only been in business for six months but they were doing well. When they opened the restaurant the Black residents came by and congratulated them for reclaiming space in the neighborhood. They have won awards and been featured in the local newspaper which gave them a big boom. We prayed with them and I promised to share her story with my people as well as review her on Google Eats, Trip Advisor, and Yelp. Great family - when you come to Key West be sure to visit them and support.
Fat and full bellies meant more driving! And we stumbled upon Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park where we camped out on the convertible top and watched the sunset on the Caribbean Ocean. Beautiful.
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