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Vic Socotra

Author: Vic Socotra

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June 10, 2016 Vic Socotra

Senior Moment

10 June (1951) Senior Moment Gordy Howe, the greatest hockey player of the age, and my greatest sports hero as a kid, chose my birthday to join the big Production Line on heavenly ice. I am honored to share the day with him, and it makes me tingle a bit to think that my arrival […]

June 10, 2016 Vic Socotra

The Way to Kailua

Each of the Hawaiian islands are unique and special places, and they are a long way from bustling Arlington. This is just a preliminary take on what I expect to be a memorable excursion. First notes: Travel out of Dulles on Wednesday morning is a plus. Try it, if you can. The crowd is thin, […]

June 10, 2016 Vic Socotra

A Sovereign State of Mind

Life and Island Times – June 9 2016 A Sovereign State of Mind Key West’s reputation as a quirky, go it alone place is well known to moderns, since its tongue-in-cheek secession in 1982 was covered by national print and broadcast media outlets. Back then, Conchs rebelled against the Federal government’s road block quarantine of […]

June 8, 2016 Vic Socotra

TARDIS

Life and Island Times – June 8 2016 TARDIS A beach-goer on Tuesday morning moves away from a crashing wave at Higgs Beach in Key West Tropical Storm Colin was downgraded to a tropical depression Tuesday as it cleared mainland Florida and headed into the open Atlantic Ocean. Forecasts for the Lower Keys include thunderstorms […]

June 8, 2016 Vic Socotra

Building 213

It was an anonymous box on the oldest Naval reservation in the nation: the Washington Navy Yard. Building 213 is gone now, part of the re-development of the Washington Navy Yard. I had been meaning to tell you story, but did not get around to it. I am in a cab shortly to Dulles and […]

June 7, 2016 Vic Socotra

Another Erection in Key West

Life and Island Times – June 7 2016 Another Erection in Key West Peary Court at night From the mid-1960s through 1993, the large undeveloped US Navy property at White Street and Palm Avenue was used as a park by Key Westers. Marlow had salvaged lumber from torn down housing units in 1974 to rebuild […]

June 7, 2016 Vic Socotra

Wrapping Up

(Vic is shown here wearing the shirt that commemorates his impending 65th year of continuous, successful, sustained respiration on the planet Earth. It reads even more ominous than it sounds. It is a gift from a Black Labrador Retriever, discerning literary critic and Patriot). We jump around a little like Ricochet Rabbit here at The […]

June 6, 2016 Vic Socotra

Balalaika

This is a season with two anniversaries that are so significant and profound as to mention them before we do anything else. First is the one that is tantalizingly close but impossibly far away. We all knew someone growing up who had been there when Ike’s Armada steamed across the Channel to disgorge their cargo […]

June 6, 2016 Vic Socotra

Men Who Talk With Trees Part II

Life and Island Times – June 5 2016 Men Who Talk With Trees Part II This morning your scribe sat down to read what he had found the previous evening. In a 2002 story Jeff Klinkenberg of the St Petersburg Times connected the dots of two tree addicts in the Keys that Marlow knew (Nick […]

June 6, 2016 Vic Socotra

Men Who Talk With Trees Part I

Life and Island Times – June 4 2016 Men Who Talk With Trees Part I During the island fires two years ago, Marlow’s yard was awash in fire ash. The orange red residue was piling up and staining everything in sight, including W’s much beloved German sports car. Something had to be done. Upon consultation […]