![]() ![]() In the Key West area, this pretty much confines me to flophouses and trailer homes-like the one, a pleasing fifteen-minute drive from town, that has no air-conditioning, I figure that if I can earn $7 an hour-which, from the want ads, seems doable-I can afford to spend $500 on rent or maybe, with severe economies, $600Īnd still have $400 or $500 left over for food and gas. My first task is to find a place to live. I am "baby," "honey," "blondie," and, most commonly, "girl." In this parallel universe where my father never got out of the mines and I never got through college, Happily, though, my fears turn out to be entirely unwarranted: duringĪ month of poverty and toil, no one recognizes my face or my name, which goes unnoticed and for the most part unuttered. I am terrified, especiallyĪt the beginning, of being recognized by some friendly business owner or erstwhile neighbor and having to stammer out some explanation of my project. ![]() ![]() Soon realize, is that it's not easy to go from being a consumer, thoughtlessly throwing money around in exchange for groceries and movies and gas, to being a worker in the very same place. Mostly out of laziness, I decide to start my low-wage life in the town nearest to where I actually live, Key West, Florida, which with a population of about 25,000 is elbowing its way up to the status of a genuine city. ![]()
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