Doyle in NYC has a jewelry auction coming up tomorrow. From a Palm Beach collector, it strikes me as very South Florida looking. I remember working in the Castillo de San Marcos fee both. As park rangers, no one liked working in the fee booth but it was required duty for a least an hour a day.
Entry fee was .50 cents - A true bargain in the National Park Service but one day I heard this guy complain, " Geez, I pay my taxes and the government's hitting me up for fifty cents?" He stood in sock-less alligator Gucci loafers with the red and green canvas under the bit. Bleach blonde hair and over sized Porsche sunglasses on his head with a Corum signal flag watch on his wrist.
He and his wife get to the fee booth window where he throws a dollar at me. I push it back to him, "That's alright, sir. No charge." He cocks his head, "No charge." "That's right, sir. I heard you complaining and so I figure you're having some tough times. Not to worry -- I'll pick it up." What unfolded is another story but I do believe it was documented in the Ranger Log.
Michael Bastian said in an interview that it was important nowadays to wear a nice watch since everyone dressed so poorly or how else could you judge a man. That seemed pretty shallow to me -- Until I remembered that day in the fee booth.
