The Florida Keys: 200 Years of Paradise | Full Documentary

Comments · 637

• MO

  @MoniqueE.Rivera1099 · 3 years ago (edited)

  Key West. My ancestral hometown since 1870. My maternal grandfather, José L. Rodríguez (1898-1986), was Hemingway&apos;s captain for the Pilar during his Key West years. (My grandfather is the man pictured on the far right at minute <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKSW_peQP3c&amp;t=2123">35:23</a>). Thank you for this program! &lt;3

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• DO

  @dontegibson6270 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Being a African American woman and finding out that my grandmother was born in key West in 1933 I always loved the state of Florida That&apos;s my number one place in the United States if I had any choice to live will be there and now I see why I love that and the ocean so much rest in peace Grandma Love you

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• MI

  @mikecallahan9993 · 3 years ago

  i moved to Marathon in 1975 and became a comm fisherman, it was a great place to live and explore. but now in 2023 its sad. it is now been overrun by big business high rents. its so bad that most of the work force is bussed down from the mainland. Paradise has been lost in lieu of the all mighty dollar. After hurricane Irma it just got worse. RIP florida keys

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• RO

  @robertwilkins8357 · 3 years ago

  I moved there Oct. 6 1976 and I got to see Paradise before new people came in the 90s and it changed sad what has been done to Paradise for ever. I got old there. I am no longer there . All those nice families I met, was the best of my life,. I am 82 now . I photographed before the fools changed it. My memories are priceless.

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• RO

  @robroooal4930 · 3 years ago (edited)

  Driven the highway and spent a week in key west. &nbsp;One of best times of my life.

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• MR

  @Mr91495osh · 1 year ago

  My family was shipwrecked on the keys reef in 1843. They were taken by lighter boat to key west. They set up their house and a shoe factory. <br>As they family grew, new generations moved to Coconut Grove 1893. My grand father Howard, my dad and I grew up in the same house. We had 3 1/2 acres on Bayshore Drive.

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• KA

  @karenokeane6461 · 3 years ago

  This was an engaging and beautifully edited narrative. &nbsp;Thank you.

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• CA

  @caryleepierce2605 · 2 years ago

  My late wife moved to Key west with her best friend in 1970 &nbsp; She loved the keys. &nbsp;Sadly became so expensive she couldn’t stay, which worked out otherwise I would not have ever met her years later. RIP Babe

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• JI

  @jimmccandless4307 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Florida &nbsp;Keys! &nbsp;I am 72 now and my Dad bought a motel there in the 1950&apos;a (Grassy Key)! I recall the coconut palms &nbsp;the key limes , and the sight of todays catch rolled up in newspaper &nbsp;!!. &nbsp;Back in those days &nbsp;I &nbsp;recall the swarms of lobster 🦞 &nbsp;darkening &nbsp;the shore line. Everone was so excited &nbsp;! Conch where everywhere i saw conch thrown up on the shore in heaps ! Smell was awefull. The greed of a few decimated the conch population ! &nbsp;Shameful! <br> &nbsp;Well so many horseshoe crabs seemed &nbsp;to be everywhere. &nbsp; Awesome &nbsp;creatures there where no shortage of. <br> &nbsp;Daytime &nbsp;was the most excellent, &nbsp;as when the sun started to set the mosquitoes where so bad you couldn&apos;t see the docks in front of our home ! After late night you could hear the mosquito &nbsp;abatement trucks flooding the skys with pesticide to eradicate the mosquitoes &nbsp;.. Sounded like aircraft crash landing, scared my mother to dearh..<br> &nbsp;Well our uncle &nbsp;John Hlebo who served on the USS BANG submarine &nbsp;seevice during WwII joined us. WHAT a life, &nbsp;free America wss in those days ! All our Family &nbsp;friends and neighbors &nbsp;where living in Paradise ! <br> &nbsp;Hopefully You and others will have a chance to enjoy &nbsp;GODS Blessings !

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• BR

  @brettvonhenneberg-romhild3535 · 3 years ago

  I once woke up in a drunk tank in Key West with three stitches in my face after paying a homeless man to buy liquor outside of a cemetery, stealing a cart and eating the pavement in front of Ernest Hemingway&apos;s house. Ah, youth is a gift of nature. I have the scars to prove it.

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• DU

  @Duschbag · 3 years ago

  My wife and I visited Islamorada for the first time in the Mid-80&apos;s and fished out of Bud-N-Mary&apos;s many times for Bonefish and Tarpon. We we&apos;re instantly hooked and fell in love with the Keys. There is only one Keys and I am proud to say I have supported Captains 4 Clean Water a few times. When I learned of what those Guides were working for, I knew I had to donate a few times. I have life long memories of the Keys and my late wife. 💔

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• HA

  @hannahpumpkins4359 · 2 years ago

  I lived in Marathon for a long time - it&apos;s an amazing, beautiful, fun and laid-back little drinking community with a serious fishing problem.

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