Ocean Drive

I've taken to early morning strolls up and down Ocean Drive to relieve some of the stress of recent weeks. Like IanIvy, I am plagued by insomnia and find myself in a dazed state of mind in the mornings.

It seems that Lifetime has been airing reruns of the sequel to The Golden Girls, The Golden Palace. I've received many calls asking if it was filmed at The Palace, but it was The Carlyle--on our block--which was used as the setting. Back then there were only two active businesses: The News Cafe and The Palace. All the Art Deco hotels were retirement homes and I remember my first visit in November 1989. My stroll then down the Drive was very different.

One would walk down Ocean Drive and immediately see change was coming. On one side was a beautiful, palm tree lined beach and on the other a strikingly untouched stretch of hotels from the thirties. Time had forgotten this part of town, relocated the "action" to the area of The Fountainbleu, and left it in a perfect time warp. One woman, Barbara Capitiman, set out to preserve this strip from being torn down and all the hotels were occupied by the elderly. That first night I walked down and observed these people sitting on their verandas; all of them had a strange look on their faces. It was almost like fear. The march of gentrification was clearly being heard and they knew their time on The Drive was coming to an end. I remember feeling badly for them that night and wondering where they would be relocated to. I spent that night at The Warsaw Ballroom and had my first encounter with what would later become an obsession: The Latino Boy.

The Latino Boy was an exotic creature I had only heard tales of. He was colorful, even flamboyant. He didn't seem to be restricted by all the laws and traditions that had bound me and my peers up in New England; in fact, he seemed to openly defy laws and tradition. I was thrilled. He wore as little as possible where I had been taught to wear as much as possible. To this day I find myself buttoning my top shirt button only to have it undone by a Latino; they can't STAND to see that button used. The tropical weather encouraged the wearing of as little clothing as possible, and that suited me fine; I knew it would be only a matter of time before I would be among them.

It didn't take long for me to forget about the old people.