People of the Road, Part 18

Sloppy Joe’s bar is a legend of Duval Street in Key West. Though the bar is large, its claim to fame is steeped in seventy years of history and associated with one of Key West’s famous artist community. Though that community includes playwright Tennessee Williams and singer Jimmy Buffett, Sloppy Joe’s was home to one of the greatest writers of the 20^th centery: Ernest Hemingway. Sloppy Joe’s features pictures of its famous alumni and sells t-shirts with Hemingway’s mug emblazoned under the bar’s logo. If you do go to the storied bar’s gift shop, you might be rung up by plucky, cheerful Faith.

Faith is not a Key West native. She visited in 1998 and fell in love. Four years later, she lost her job in Erie, Pennsylvania. She felt she might never be able to visit her beloved island community again. So why not move to Key West?

“I’m poor here, but I’d be poor in Erie,” she says cheerily.

Faith has lived in the southernmost point in the contiguous US for eight years and has worked in Sloppy Joe’s for seven. And she loves it.

“There’s flowers, trees and music, everywhere you go,” she says. “It’s just a whole different world. No keeping up with the Joneses. And you get to meet people from all over.”

The island’s laissez-faire attitude attracts an eclectic bunch: Key West’s holidays include the Conch Republic Independence Celebration (complete with parade and drag race), Hemingway Days (short story & look alike contests) and the infamous Mardi-Gras-esque Fantasy Fest.

“You hear things long enough, they stop surprising you,” she says. “Like Fantasy Fest. The first time, I was like, ‘Oh my God!”

Of course there are things she could do without.

“The price gouging,” she says. “Wait. Change that to the chickens.”

“They’re sort of protected here,” she says, “and they start crowing at three o’clock in the morning.”

Despite her adoration for the friendliest little island, she has a ready-made plan of escape .

“Here’s my ideal vacation,” she says, “take a train all across the South, then go up the West Coast and across the North.”

Thanks for the chat and the bag to keep my camera dry, Faith!