“PAPA” HEMINGWAY LIVED LIFE TO THE FULLEST PERHAPS WAS “BIGGER” THAN LIFE
Having walked in Papa’s footsteps, drank in his favorite haunts, visited his homes, stared at the family photos on both sides of the Atlantic, viewed the sunset from Havana’s Malecon not far from Ambos Mundos the Hotel whose room 511 displays the uniform the writer wore as an ambulance driver during WWI which later would fuel his novel “Farewell to Arms”. It was a young man who left America’s breadbasket to “go to war”, it was a story that would repeat itself throughout his life, Ernest Hemingway was always going on one more great adventure … MAYBE HIS LIFE ENDED THE SAME WAY.a href="
CLICK HERE FOR ERNEST HEMINGWAY BIO from Wikipedi Perhaps he is best summed up by actress Marlene Dietrich, a close friend, who commented on his life to his biographer: “I suppose the most remarkable thing about Ernest is that he has found time to do the things most men only dream about. He has had the courage, the initiative, the time, the enjoyment to travel, to digest it all, to write, to create it, in a sense. There is in him a sort of quiet rotation of seasons, with each of them passing overland and then going underground and re-emerging in a kind of rhythm, refreshed and full of renewed vigor.” It was perhaps that he had reached a point when life no longer refreshed and that he decided to end his life as had his father, uncle, sister and brother and decsendents since in Hemingway fashion but he is remembered richly still for the life he did live. His writings today still bring in seven figures annually testifying that his tales, many thinly disguised from his own adventures, are still appreciated for his gripping tales with his economy of words and they sell. Tours visit both the 15 acre villa in Havana and the corner lot in Key West Florida only 90 miles and a ocean away, a trip Hemingway made many times, in “Pilar” the boat Hemingway bought to cruise the Caribbean, outfitted once to attack German Subs, his home on the sea and window to another world. Today, it sits at the Cuba home awaiting renovation, the Cuba government spent $1 million to renovate the Villa itself, called Finca Vigia (Lookout Farm) – Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cojimar Cuba where the American writer lived happily for a while with his wife Martha Gellhorn (he was married four times). – Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cojimar Cuba , and their two sons Patrick and Gregory.<a href="
“> The 15 acre grounds are crowded by tropical plants, particularly fruit trees, which attracted lots of local boys who ventured onto the grounds to gather fruit. Hemingway was impressed by the local boys ability to throw rocks and knock the fruit free from the high trees. Wanting his sons, to mix more with the locals, Hemingway started a baseball team which he coached and he provided gloves, bats, uniforms, his sons played and neighborhood kids filled out the roster. The team took on challengers from all over Havana and soon, the players who heard Hemingway’s sons call Ernest “Papa”, they too called him “Papa”, in fact, so did their parents and so did the teams they played against. That’s when he became known as “Papa”. Still Papa is remembered fondly and still appreciated for his tale “OLD MAN AND THE SEA”, a literary masterpiece which the Revolution adopted as an omage’ to the Cuban People and still the Cuban people love him. Today you can have your photo taken at the El Floridita Bar on Obispo street, in Old Havana where the novelist Ernest Hemingway spent many hours drinking his favorite Daiquiri’s and today a bronze Hemingway sits there still where almost all the tourist get their picture taken with the famous Pulitzer prize winning, Nobel Prize winning writer as he holds court at the famous bar. In Key West, Florida the Conch Republic’s parallel is “SLOPPY-JOE’S”, a downtown corner bar where each July they have the annual “Papa Hemingway” LOOK-A-LIKE Contest, where one year the winner didn’t even have a beard, last year’s winner, a barber from Mesa, AZ, did sport a fine beard. As you walk around the two homes, look in the closets, bookcases, wall hangings, view the photographs, numerous animal heads, African decor, you know this is the home of a restless individual, someone always getting ready to go somewhere else or going off to explore new lands. Its true his depression drove his mood, so did his health and he was a man’s man to whom fear was a stranger and he died in the autumn of his life…
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CLICK HERE TO TOUR HEMINGWAY’S KEY WEST Walk in his steps through his home to his favorite bar Sloppy Joes and the fence he pissed on …
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SOUTHWEST PHOTO JOURNAL 
Thanks PK. I love this. I’m so happy you are having, what looks like, an awesome time post Citizen.
February 22, 2011 at 7:09 PM
Thanks lady, its keeps me busy and out of trouble plus I am having fun…hope all is well…
February 22, 2011 at 10:17 PM