The first time I ever saw Miami Beach was in 1948 when I was 12 and my father took us on a vacation there.

8
years later I went to live there after I got out of the Marines. This
picture was taken in front of the apartment building on Meridian and
Fifth which my aunt managed. I was ready to go to work at Piccolo's
restaurant where I was a server and had one of the best jobs in all my
years of working. Between 1956 and 1966 I moved back and forth between
Miami Beach and Manhattan.

On
the left is one of my mentors Joseph Quint who was known as 'The Mayor
of 6th Street' where he held court everyday and which was my 'center of
operations'. (Notice in both pictures the wall, the sand and the beach.)
I don't have a picture looking at the ocean but it wasn't very far, and
it was visible, from where Joe and the beach goers sat.  Joe and Albyn
kohanski lived a block east of the beach in a studio apartment for over
25 years and Albyn would joke that the only way he could get any privacy
was to lock himself in the bathroom. They would be together for over 50
years before Joe died.

This
picture was taken in 1968 when I visited Joe and Albyn after I had lost
over 100 pounds and was living in Manhattan. Again notice how close the
wall was to the street and how sandy it was.

No
matter how many times I went to, lived in, vacation or visited Miami
Beach it wasn't until I was crossing over to Miami Beach from
Miami--folks, they are two completely different cities which many people
fail to understand--on the MacArthur causeway that I felt I had
arrived. I get the same feeling now in 2011 making that same trip, from
Fort Lauderdale instead of New York City or Memphis, Tennessee.

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On
Friday March 4, 2011 Allen and I were going to see an evening
performance of the touring company of "Jersey Boys" in Miami and decided
to go down and spend the afternoon in Miami Beach. We went to a movie
and walked on Lincoln Road after which I suggested we drive down to
South Beach, park the car and check out where I had lived on Meridian,
worked at Piccolo's and played on Ocean Drive between 1st and 10th
streets and see what had changed. I would have been better off thinking
if anything had stayed the same.

Though
I knew I was living in the best of times and that these would be, and
are, my 'good old days', little did I know that I was living, playing
and working in a 'historical' district.

(To be continued.)

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"We act as though comfort and luxury

were the chief requirements of life,

when all we need to make us really happy

is something to be enthusiastic about."

Charles kingsley, 1819-1875 English Writer and Clergyman