7X64 and 'Yote.....You two have just messed-up my day..and night...and tomorrow...and...and...and. Well as a Native Conch- KEY WEST HIGH graduate ('66), to read your lines and not be able to go back home due to illness and injury prohibiting travel... I suffer in grief as I write- my younger days were spent as you described....almost to a tee.
My younger brother and I used to go across BOCA CHICA cut from where the Ferry used to dock at the end of STOCK ISLAND and fish in the Mangrove channels behind the NAS along OLD BOCA CHICA ROAD up to where the old bridge was burned and caught all the Mangrove Snapper you wanted(the larger ones we called 'Dog Snappers'), Groupers, and a Jewfish or two ( now called Goliath Grouper due to all this Politically Correct B.S.).
I got a chance to go back for a couple weeks in '91 upon my return from GULF 1,but in all honesty, it just wasn't the K.W. I remembered as a teen....But I still have my memories and I'll take them with me when I cross over.
Thank you two for evoking them tonight.
WILL.
