OKAY one more, with words......

Sorry, lots of photo's,
years of fun,
millions of memories,
and gosh only knows how many stories, jokes, and bonds of friendship amongst us, made us look forward all year,
to our yearly pilgramage,
to Capt Tony's,
where you did not have to be anyone, or anything,
just smile, and laugh, and meet new friends,
and old friends,
in a different light.
I personally felt a connection with not only Capt Tony,
but his off the beaten path bar of touristy Key West,
becuase it was locals, and down to earth folks,
and great sing alongs,
and the place where I and my friends,
still had more fun, than,
well,
anywhere.
Capt Tony, even at the last visit,
was vibrant, and happy,
to be in his bar,
the nicest thing he ever said to me,
after,
'you're the girl I wanna marry'
was,
'you, you and your friends,
(in his italian casanova accent)
you make my bar alive,
and fun,
and its like,
like it used to be in the day.
Come Marry Me!'
then he would grab for skin and such,
and smile for a photo.
I and Mike, were one of the few'yankees' ever invited to his home,
to play tuesday night poker, with the Key West Locals,
no one past Big Pine besides family was ever invited,
and I felt honored that we were considered,
Locals, in his town,
the town where he made Jimmy Buffet a star,
the town where he buried his anger at life and death,
in fishing and drinking with the likes of Ernest Hemingway,
his political agenda when he ran for Mayor of Key West,
was,t shirts, shorts, and warm hearts,
take care of your neighbor, and welcome the visitors.
He won by a landslide victory.

His daughter wrote him a letter in March 2005,
he gave me a copy of it one day,
and said, 'read this someday, not now, but someday'
TJ Tarracino
To My Father.
I am currently 18 years old, and when I was born, I had no idea that my family would so odd,
would be so different. My father is currently 88 years old and was 70 when my mother had me. I grew up my whole life with a father who could have been my great-grandfather in some other families. But there is a difference between my father and other people his age. His body is old, but his mind is as sharp as mine, if not sharper. I agree that people do stereotype others by age, .......growing up I would make new friends, and they would find out how old my father was, and they would begin to make presumptions about how he lives his life. Most people, like my friends, would start to create images in their heads about what my father looked like, they would picture an old man hunched over with a cane, no hair, and suspenders. But after they met him, they ended up thinking he was really cool, and how he wasn't how they excpected him to be. That is becuase my father never let himself fall under the stereotype of an 88 year old man, he has always been, and always will be, Capt Tony, and nothing else.
the point I am trying to make, is that in all of my fathers life, he never looked at an opportunity and said to himself, "I'm too old to do this, or I'm too young to do this" He always did what he felt, and said what he wanted. I have come to strongly believe that the reason why people find him so interesting is that he has never followed the same path as others have done at his age. He found his own path, cleared a sway, and has always fought through every obstacle until he could over come it. He is the definition of "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" I think he fought his whole life, just to be his own person, and to show people that it's okay to just be yourself.

This was written when Capt Tony first began getting ill,
and he passed it on to a few friends over the last few years,
he said he has never been so proud,
of his family,
his town,
and his own personal being.

Cheers,
sk.