[Jims5543]

Some friends of mine used to live in the Keys in the late 70's early 80's when all this was at its height.

The stories they could tell. To this day when I see a soccer mom with a Conch Republic bumper sticker on her van or SUV I laught at them.

The Conch Republic was what the Keys called themselves when they tried to succede from the US.

There is a Regetta called the Columbus Day Regatta my friend was on a yacht with his lawyer. He noticed the district Judge, a few other judges, many lawyers and some politicians all on this huge yacht with them, tons of coke and hookers.

My other friend, his dad used to sit outside at night in the Keys and watch for the Helicopters coming in to either drop or pick up I cannot remember. Once the chopper left he would wander around and find the "work area" after they had left. He was able to scrape together enought pot and coke to make a tidy living. There was so much they did not care if bail had a hole in it. They just kept on moving and let it fall where it fell.

When the Government decided to put a stop to the gravy train coming out of the keys by shutting down US1 and searching everyone the Keys Succeded from the USA for 10 minutes in protest to the marshal law that came down on them. Hence the Conch Republic.


I personally witnessed the change in South Florida in the mid 80's as the bad people in Miami started to move up the coast into Ft. Lauderdale (where my wife lived when I dated her) and Hollywood them points north. The boatlift made Miami a madhouse for many years.