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<\/p>\nLife and Island Times July 24 2016\u2013 Red Zorro<\/p>\n
This is from 2014.<\/p>\n
———————————————-<\/p>\n
For almost three decades islanders have watched a bare-chested man run daily in a lady\u2019s red hat. If you are on the sidewalk, his approach is announced by horse shoe clacking (he wears metal plates on the soles of his shoes to prevent them from wearing down too quickly).<\/p>\n
Next into view comes his giant red hat flapping in the wind. Always smiling, you will hear him exclaim as he passes you by in his trademark red running shorts \u201cTop of the morning!\u201d or \u201cTop of the evening!\u201d It is obvious that he cares for people, loves telling them so, and is a bit of an attention seeker.<\/p>\n
For years he ran on Christmas Day with bells on. He quit after large dogs reacted angrily. On Federal holidays, he carries a large American flag on a pole.<\/p>\n
He starts his run off at Roosevelt Boulevard and Duck Avenue and turns around at Denny\u2019s on Duval Street. When he makes his turn, he lets out a rooster cry \u201cEr-er-er-er-errr!\u201d If locals are within earshot, they echo his cry. Really.<\/p>\n
The island\u2019s nickname for him came long ago, when a woman came up to him at the grocery store and said, \u201cYou\u2019re Zorro.\u201d He was confused at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re Zorro,\u201d the woman said again. \u201cThe runner, Zorro.\u201d<\/p>\n
The name stuck.<\/p>\n
His hat draws various laughs – some who get it take real joy in it while others react sarcastically. Red Zorro is an enigma — much like Key West. He is slightly weird, but he not only knows but celebrates it. He like other self-actualized island weirdoes is a step ahead of people who have not yet figured out that they are weird.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Red Zorro running along North Roosevelt<\/p>\n
Footnote: Red Zorro is the owner of AmeriMortgage and AmeriRealty in Key West. \u201cMaking the American dream a reality!\u201d is the latter\u2019s slogan. Red Zorro\u2019s personal motto is unknown.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2016 From My Isle Seat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Life and Island Times July 24 2016\u2013 Red Zorro This is from 2014. ———————————————- For almost three decades islanders have watched a bare-chested man run daily in a lady\u2019s red hat. If you are on the sidewalk, his approach is announced by horse shoe clacking (he wears metal plates on the soles of his shoes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13581"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13595,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13581\/revisions\/13595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}