Turtle in Paradise (14 page)

Pepe’s Café, Key West, Florida, circa 1938

Key West children posing on the docks with five turtles and a pile of sponges in the background

Likewise, some of the characters had their inspiration in actual people. The writer Ernest Hemingway was one of Key West’s most famous residents. He was in Key West when the Labor Day Hurricane
struck, and he witnessed the aftermath firsthand and wrote about it. In true Key West fashion, he had a nickname among the locals—Papa. Kermit was inspired by my cousin Kermit Lewin. The real Kermit suffered rheumatic fever as a child and grew up to become the mayor of Key West in the 1960s. He
famously tricked Jimmy the ice cream man with the “nickel in the bottom of the cup” trick to get free ice cream, and he did tick-tock people. Killie the Horse and Jimmy were actual local characters of Key West.

The real Kermit (left) circa 1930, with the family friend who inspired Pork Chop

Finally, the Diaper Gang’s secret diaper-rash formula is a family remedy I have used on my own babies’ bungys. (It also works on mosquito bites.)

My family’s recollections, and those of many other Conchs, provided the details of everyday life in this book, and I am grateful to them all for sharing their memories.

A typical Conch neighborhood in Key West, circa 1935

Drye, Willie.
Storm of the Century: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2002.

Freedman, Russell.
Children of the Great Depression
. New York: Clarion Books, 2005.

Knowles, Thomas Neil.
Category 5: The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane
. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2009.

Terkel, Studs.
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression
. New York: The New Press, 2000.

Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys:
www.keyshistory.org

Key West Art & Historical Society:
www.kwahs.com

The Shadow’s Sanctum:
www.shadowsanctum.com

I would never have been able to write this book without the generosity of my Conch relatives, especially Cathy Porter, Kurt and Monica Lewin, and Ann Gardner. And, of course, my mother (who always shook out her shoes). I was fortunate to have incredible support from historian Annette Liggett; Tom Hambright, curator of the Florida History Department of the Monroe County May Hill Russell Library; and Jerry Wilkinson, president of the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys. Willie Drye and Tom Knowles provided invaluable insight into the 1935 hurricane, and Anthony Tollin kindly aided my research on the Shadow. Harry Knight and Della Bennett were beyond generous in sharing their recollections of growing up in Key West in the 1930s, as was author and chronicler of all things Conch, Donnie Williams. Most of all, my heartfelt thanks to my editor, Shana Corey, who started me down this path by asking if my nana was really from Key West. She certainly was!

J
ENNIFER
L. H
OLM’S
great-grandmother emigrated from the Bahamas to Key West in 1897. Jennifer is the author of two Newbery Honor Books,
Our Only May Amelia
and
Penny from Heaven
. She is also the author of several other highly praised books, including
Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf
and the Babymouse series, which she collaborates on with her brother Matthew Holm. Jennifer lives in California with her husband and two children. You can visit her Web site at
www.jenniferholm.com
.