City of Key Colony Beach

Description

My very first look at the area was during the summer of 1932. It was vacation time from the University of Florida. Vacation time meant a couple of weeks of sailing time with school buddy, Clinton Johnson. We had sailed our 21 foot open boat from Sarasota out to the Marquesas, into Key West and were sort of coasting back towards home. We put into this place called Marathon to take on a few staples and find a couple of jugs of water. We docked at a rough and tumble facility at just about where the Marathon Yacht Club is now located and made our way the long block up to the commercial center of the village of Marathon. That being the intersection of the railroad track and the rutted path, one car wide, from the docking area. "The Store" was what you would call a general store owned and operated by a Mr. Woodburn. We made considerable purchases of canned milk, vienna sausage, corn flakes and pork and beans that exhausted our meager finances. We asked about fresh water and found two kinds were available. Five cent water and ten cent water. The ten cent water was from a clean tank that was supplied from tank cars railroaded down from Homestead. The nickle per gallon water was something else. This was from a large cypress tank into which was collected rainwater from the store building's roof. This you could say was quite a bargain, considering all of the proteins that came with the water; proteins in the way of mosquito larvae and wiggle tails. No problem really. ...

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