Carl Levitian
member
It's been a few days since we got back from a vacation in Key west, and I've had a bit of time to process an incident that occurred there.
I hear from a lot of younger guys that they thin a cane may project a "weak" image. That maybe some predators may be encouraged by an older man on a cane. I've always had the opinion that it depends.
The second night we were in Key West, the better half and I, her sister Diane, and her fella Roy, all went out for dinner. The girls had decided on a Cuban restaurant that our landlady at the Southernmost point Guest house had recommended. The landlady, who we have stayed with on 3 previous times in Key West is Cuban, so we heeded her advice. As we'd drinking, we decided to walk and see some of the other side of Key West. The restaurant named El, Siboney, was on Catherine street a good walk from our place on the bottom of Duval street, and it was well off the tourist area on a quiet dark street. Had a great dinner, grilled gouper done perfectly, and more gin and tonics.
Before going any farther, I know that we were making some very bad mistakes of behavior. Walking back from a small restaurant down dark streets, 12;30AM, and slightly drunk, senior citizens, in a resort area with lots of down and out riff raft, was not the best plan. But hey, we were on vacation in an island tropic location, and we'd been drinking.
Walking down Catherine street, we were in a dark poorly lit area, with me and Roy in front of the girls by about a half dozen yards. Karen and Di were having a ladies talk, and Roy and myself actually started singing "Show me the way to go home." Yes, like I said, we'd been drinking. I'd say that while we were not stumbling drunk, we were happily tipsy, with a nice glow on. It had been a great day, caught tarpon in the morning, toured the Hemingway house in the afternoon, and it was Key West.
Three guys step out of an alleyway and stop in front of us, and we stop a few yards in from them. One guys starts to say something about giving them some money if we knew what was good for us, and with no warning Roy goes nuts. I'd already taken a couple side steps to the left to put some distance between Roy and me, thinking I'm going to need room, when Roy goes nuts. He starts yelling at them top of his voice 'Don't even think about it' and "Back the blankety blank off", he's gonna bust both their arms, all the while taking a step actually towards them. He's got his Blackthorn stick in an aggressive hold, and he's looking like he going to be swinging any second. I take a step forward to back him up and pick out the guy all the way to the left on my side and the guy backs up from me. All this time Roy is going back to his New Jersey roots yelling and asking these guys if they want a piece of him, and so on. Being an Italian from Paterson New Jersey and spending 20 years in the navy, Roy is pretty good at very harsh language. Very creative.
The three guys all take off running, and disappearing down and alley off Catherine street. It was over in a flash. When we went from a couple of white bearded old guys singing "Show me the way to go home" to couple of guys swinging sticks, they lost all interest in what money we may have had on us. They ran from a couple of old guys with canes.
I have to admit, I don't know how long they had watched us, when they caught sight of us, coming down the street. I don't know if having canes/walking sticks made us look more appealing as victims, or being old and maybe drunk. But one thing was clear, when we chose to fight, and all of a sudden those canes were obviously to be sued as bashing weapons, they ran. They were easily half our age, had us out numbered, and they were probably sober. But they wanted no part of a street brawl that it looked like Roy was pushing for.
I know we had some luck on our side, we violated every single rule of safe vacationing. On the other hand, soon as we went to red alert and took up an aggressive manner the three would be muggers stopped, and actually backed up when we took a step toward them. They didn't like us having the sticks in hand and looking ready to fight.
But we did take a cab at night the rest of our time in Key West. Especially when drinking.
I hear from a lot of younger guys that they thin a cane may project a "weak" image. That maybe some predators may be encouraged by an older man on a cane. I've always had the opinion that it depends.
The second night we were in Key West, the better half and I, her sister Diane, and her fella Roy, all went out for dinner. The girls had decided on a Cuban restaurant that our landlady at the Southernmost point Guest house had recommended. The landlady, who we have stayed with on 3 previous times in Key West is Cuban, so we heeded her advice. As we'd drinking, we decided to walk and see some of the other side of Key West. The restaurant named El, Siboney, was on Catherine street a good walk from our place on the bottom of Duval street, and it was well off the tourist area on a quiet dark street. Had a great dinner, grilled gouper done perfectly, and more gin and tonics.
Before going any farther, I know that we were making some very bad mistakes of behavior. Walking back from a small restaurant down dark streets, 12;30AM, and slightly drunk, senior citizens, in a resort area with lots of down and out riff raft, was not the best plan. But hey, we were on vacation in an island tropic location, and we'd been drinking.
Walking down Catherine street, we were in a dark poorly lit area, with me and Roy in front of the girls by about a half dozen yards. Karen and Di were having a ladies talk, and Roy and myself actually started singing "Show me the way to go home." Yes, like I said, we'd been drinking. I'd say that while we were not stumbling drunk, we were happily tipsy, with a nice glow on. It had been a great day, caught tarpon in the morning, toured the Hemingway house in the afternoon, and it was Key West.
Three guys step out of an alleyway and stop in front of us, and we stop a few yards in from them. One guys starts to say something about giving them some money if we knew what was good for us, and with no warning Roy goes nuts. I'd already taken a couple side steps to the left to put some distance between Roy and me, thinking I'm going to need room, when Roy goes nuts. He starts yelling at them top of his voice 'Don't even think about it' and "Back the blankety blank off", he's gonna bust both their arms, all the while taking a step actually towards them. He's got his Blackthorn stick in an aggressive hold, and he's looking like he going to be swinging any second. I take a step forward to back him up and pick out the guy all the way to the left on my side and the guy backs up from me. All this time Roy is going back to his New Jersey roots yelling and asking these guys if they want a piece of him, and so on. Being an Italian from Paterson New Jersey and spending 20 years in the navy, Roy is pretty good at very harsh language. Very creative.
The three guys all take off running, and disappearing down and alley off Catherine street. It was over in a flash. When we went from a couple of white bearded old guys singing "Show me the way to go home" to couple of guys swinging sticks, they lost all interest in what money we may have had on us. They ran from a couple of old guys with canes.
I have to admit, I don't know how long they had watched us, when they caught sight of us, coming down the street. I don't know if having canes/walking sticks made us look more appealing as victims, or being old and maybe drunk. But one thing was clear, when we chose to fight, and all of a sudden those canes were obviously to be sued as bashing weapons, they ran. They were easily half our age, had us out numbered, and they were probably sober. But they wanted no part of a street brawl that it looked like Roy was pushing for.
I know we had some luck on our side, we violated every single rule of safe vacationing. On the other hand, soon as we went to red alert and took up an aggressive manner the three would be muggers stopped, and actually backed up when we took a step toward them. They didn't like us having the sticks in hand and looking ready to fight.
But we did take a cab at night the rest of our time in Key West. Especially when drinking.
