Always leave something behind
“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place. We stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” ~ Pascal Mercier
My stool says Dan Ackroyd. Len’s stool says John Candy. On Green Street just off Duval in Key West in Captain Tony’s Saloon, each bar stool bears the mark of someone who had come before. Len and I were about to sit on Ackroyd and Candy.
Think about it.
Two of the greatest comedians ever, who more than likely defined much of our existence during the 1970s and 1980s, sat on these rickety stools, underneath a canopy of signed dollar bills and a menagerie of padded bras abandoned by ladies who obviously had one too many of Tony’s rum punch concoctions. Look around and you’ll find stools inscribed with the likes of Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, even Sean Connery. They all left their mark on the bar that preceded Sloppy Joe’s. Not sure if they left a bra or not.
This proves that no matter where you go, you leave a part of you behind and you take a part of the place with you. A name on a stool, a dollar on the ceiling, a memory on your heart.
There’s also a spot in the Keys where another piece of us remains—on No Name Key, a pub appropriately named No Name Pub. It’s far off the main drag, deep within the protected deer preserve, yet travelers always seem to find it. The parking lot is always full with cars and for sure, Harleys. It, too, has a ceiling layers deep of dollar bills and servers proudly touting its half-a-million purse. I always think one day, I’ll walk in and the ceiling will be stripped bare and the owner, gone.
Four years ago, we left our mark here, our #twocootstravel dollar bill; we returned just last week, sat in the same booth and searched for it, but it had long since been covered. Len’s cousins Sal and Helen introduced us to this secluded sanctuary and urged us to leave our initial bill. Today, Sal has left us, so we leave a bill in his honor. For Sal.
We return to Key West every time we get an opportunity, partly because of family but always because of peace that the southernmost point provides. New destinations always excite us for we never know what we’ll discover; repeat itineraries, which are few, allow us to relive cherished memories.
Just so you know, we only leave dollar bills. Never a bra.
(Editor’s Pen, Spring 2017, Georgia Connector)
