Stories :: Then & Now

That was now, this is then

This is a collection of writings by Conch contributors, who posted their contributions under the category ’stories’. The list of posted Conch tales below is automatically organized with the most recent post at the top. Click on the title link to read the whole thing, and don’t forget to leave comments at the end!

  • Sometimes I think of John Lennon, by Frank Brownell

    • Sometimes I think of John Lennon.

    There were so many things I wanted to say:

  • The Glow, by Frank Brownell

    • A breeze that blows from across the sea…

  • The Morning’s Glow, by Frank Brownell

    • I wish you weren’t leaving town

  • Key West Sunrise Song, by Frank Brownell

    • I love to feel the south wind blow

    Upon my face in wintertime

  • A Song For T-Mac

    • Wendy Sheridan
    Key West Daze: 1975-1983
    I was 19 years old and really green when I approached Terence McGuire and asked him for an audition to play at the Bull. That was the start of discovering what music could mean for me. Terry, T-Mac, gave me a place to ‘become’. The Bull was more than a bar. [...]

  • Conchconicity in New York City

    • Wendy Sheridan

    In 1980 I left the island for about six months and went to NYC, doing solo gigs in the Village and showcases and shit. One time I had this gig in the “Other End” on Bleeker Street and lo and behold, as the people came in, one after another were from KEY WEST! Half [...]

  • How Dan Akkroyd Could Have Changed My Life (But Didn’t)

    • Wendy Sheridan
    Remember in 1977, when Saturday Night Live was new on the tube, and Dan Akkroyd wasn’t too famous yet? He was sitting there at the bar in The Bull, alone. I started a conversation with him during my break and he told me he loved the way I played the blues, that he played [...]

  • Conchcronicity and How I Almost Became the Rose

    • Wendy Sheridan
    A girlfriend from Key West, a sexy little stripper named Chris, who was Rick Fraley’s (Pacific Orchestra-bass) wife at the time, told me this story:
    She was in Chicago, working as a playboy bunny, serving a table of Hollywood bigwigs. When she said she was from Key West, they asked if she knew a certain “Wendy [...]

  • Armed and Red-headed, by Sally Reno

    • I met Jamie Alcroft when Ellen O’Brien dragged him to the South Street house for a reading. He was polite enough to mask his skepticism. Shortly, we were on the same page and have been on it ever since, although in different notebooks.

  • The Boat Bar’s Stiff, by Sally Reno

    • Around 2 o’clock in the morning, Wild Man beat a shrimper to death with a pool cue in the Boat Bar.