It’s Still... Five O’clock Somewhere
Dr. Pfister at a classic, old-style Bahamian (with a touch of Cuban) 1920s hotel in downtown Key West
After following me for the last 115 blogs, my readers probably feel they have a handle on what makes me tick and which direction I go when the wind blows…
This blog contains some transparency on my part, but therein lies the connection and importance of the writing of this tribute. When asked who are my mentors and iconic figures that I admire and would love to emulate, the immediate answer is my parents.
My dad had a bad heart and couldn’t take the cold and snow, so he opened a small burger and seafood restaurant in the Florida Keys at the entrance of the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon.
Every November, from my birth until the end of sixth grade, we headed down to live in our small fishing house on a bay in Marathon. And every April, we packed up and headed back to Hinckley with the manager waving in the rear-view mirror, promising to take care of the house and restaurant until Fall.
While working in the restaurant all week, dad always rested on Sunday (and somehow we almost always ended up in Key West for family time at various friends’ restaurants). My dad worked with several of the shrimp boats to get seafood for the restaurant and, me being a young kid in Key West and being able to run around on a real live shrimp boat… well, that was about as close to heaven as a kid from Hinckley could get.
Dr. Pfister aboard Hemingway’s boat, the Pilar
My next iconic hero, after my father, I found in Key West…
I learned about him through the stories, legends, and urban myths of this man. This man boxed his way down the docks, fought giant billfish from Key West to Bimini, and even tried to stop a German U-boat off the Bahamas with a hand-held machine gun. A man who lived in Cuba, Africa, and Key West, he also wrote poetry, prose, and various volumes of adrenaline-driven experiences in wild and exotic places.
His book, Green Hills of Africa, was the catalyst in getting me to spend several weeks at a time (every year during the 90’s) taking dental and mission supplies to the inhabitants of Namibia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.
Earnest Hemingway lived a super full life and documented his experiences — with such intensity and conviction — that he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Yes, Key West will do that to a person. The ambience of swashbuckling pirates of yore is everywhere… and the smell of adventure and excitement rides the salt breezes that caress the palm-lined roads.
If you find this hard to swallow, drop into Sloppy Joe’s, Hemingway’s number-one speakeasy (they have an elixir that can help).
Dr. Pfister at Sloppy Joe’s, Hemingway’s number-one speakeasy
Once I got through dental school and started traveling with my wife, it was suddenly the 80’s…
And in our first trip to Key West, I found a new Hemingway (the second iconic figure of my life, aside from my parents). Not always having the time to read the long narratives of Earnest, here was a man who artistically wove island life experiences… with a sailor swagger… and presented it over the rhythm of a six string. And all this, from a man born in Pascagoula, Mississippi in 1946.
Jimmy Buffett was born James William Buffett. He flunked out of college the first round (creativity is sometimes hard to keep on a conventional path). But, according to Wikipedia, he eventually graduated from Southern Mississippi with degrees in journalism and history (like that was really necessary).
Dr. Pfister in Key West, his old stompin’ grounds
Both Hemingway and Buffett would probably agree that a college degree gives one an elusive form of credibility, but true insight and soul are needed to capture some of life’s simple pleasures and experiences to put them into prose or verse!
It helped that Buffett’s grandfather was a sailor who cruised the Pacific and Caribbean. Jimmy wrote in his song, “The Captain and The Kid,” that he never missed a chance to sit on his grandfather’s lap to listen to nautical tales, as he could feel the excitement and allure of the sea in his grandfather’s voice.
Musical success or acceptance didn’t come easy to Jimmy, as his first album, “Down To Earth,” failed and left him bankrupt in 1970. The ironic twist of this album’s failure was that Jimmy would go on to spend the next five decades writing and singing songs about faces and places on a journey down a road less traveled — all in a down-to-earth style of entertainment.
Where Hemmingway captured the feelings and grit of back alley Key West (and life for that matter) in novels, Jimmy could, in just a few words and chords, telepathically move a person or audience to the very spot that would make the lyric-explained experience... real. Buffet has been referred to as a Mark Twain storyteller, but when I’ve heard him in concert or listened to his albums, I would sooner call him a portal provider for brief experiences in far-off places. As you listen to his music, the very simple, straight-to-the-point lyrics creep into your heart and soul as if you were simply having a discussion with someone. And before you know it, your brain jumps on board and you are experiencing what he is conveying in the song, be it sponge cake, brown L.A. haze, or stepping on a pop top!
Dr. Pfister in downtown Key West (leaning on a recent hurricane casualty)
Jimmy will probably be most remembered for his 1977 hit Margaritaville, which he started writing in Austin, Texas, after having several margaritas and saying, “You guys have such good margaritas, you should call this place Margaritaville!”
Wikipedia states that he finished writing the song at the Marathon Key entrance to the Seven Mile Bridge (while traffic was stopped due to an accident on the bridge). As a kid, I remember many-a-time there were accidents on the very narrow Old Seven Mile Bridge. The current one was built in 1982 and is twice as wide as the old. People would drift into my parent’s restaurant to wait or drink it out!
There is a part of me that would like to think Jimmy finished that song on the same bar stool I sat on as a kid. We can dream can’t we? Margaritaville was a trademark song for him, as it represented an anthem about escapism and salt life in the tropics. It stayed on Billboard’s chart for 22 weeks. It was the turning point of Jimmy’s life and career, and he would launch a business empire of the same name, worth over a billion dollars today!
Our younger generation could take heed of a bankrupt, college flunky who didn’t give up on himself and followed his heart, as he focused on the things that really mattered in life.
Entertaining and making people happy was what Jimmy Buffett said his career was all about. And if you think about it, very few of us can say we have had the same impact on the world. That’s why I feel Jimmy Buffett touched me more than any other singer in my life. Like Jimmy, I’m in the business of making smiles. As my staff and I enjoy seeing people smile when they get their braces off, maybe Jimmy was the best icon I could have had!
We were given a gift…
Jimmy Buffett entered our world on December 25, 1946 — Christmas Day. Twenty-seven studio albums later, multiple New York Times bestselling books, television appearances, movie appearances, Grammy nominations, and the list goes on... Jimmy would say, “Who cares about that, let’s make some noise with this ole six string!”
I have followed bands and rock, country and pop since the 70’s. I sure would have bet that Keith, Mick, or Rod would have been on the bus home long before Jimmy. Let’s be honest — life isn’t always fair.
Dr. Pfister captures a sunrise in Florida, where he spent many of his formative years
Yet, we all know every sunset is followed by darkness, which is followed by a sunrise and the birth of a new day.
The sun has set on Jimmy Buffett, but as with the sunrise, let his music and songs lighten our hearts and our daily lives knowing there is a little fruitcake in all of us!
According to his family, Jimmy passed peacefully surrounded by his family, friends, dogs, and music Friday night, September 1, 2023. One of his songs talks about diving and… if you ever get into murky water and into trouble and don’t know what to do… follow the bubbles up and you will be ok.
Hopefully, Jimmy has followed his own advice and is in concert tonight with a stadium full of oil-drenched Parrotheads.
And please remember… for Jimmy’s sake… it’s still 5 o’clock somewhere.
Fins up,
Dr. Pfister