Cocaine and Oil Embargos Fucked Everything Up
The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 initiated a series of events that ultimately destroyed Sunny Isles and almost took down Miami with it. When an economy depends on tourists driving from NYC and the price of gas is doubled, it creates a ghost town. Cannabis smugglers saw demand for their product drop but another product was suddenly in demand from rich people. Motel employees out of work, with connections to smuggling, turned to a more lucrative product than cannabis.
I decided to go to MDJC and began study to become a Respiratory Therapist. Worked at PGH in NMB and absolutely loved the hospital environment, especially the ER. Met a very special group of people who studied hard, worked hard, and played hard. It was a loving and caring environment, where I witnessed some of the most horrific things that can happen to a human body. Cannabis eased the pain of witnessing the carnage, it helped me feel better when I felt like hell.
Somehow, this "stoner" worked full time while going to school full time and earned an A.S. degree in R.T. with a 3.8 GPA.
In the mid 70's, I got married, bought a house and continued going to school in Pre-Med at U of M. The Columbian Cowboys began taking control about this time and the ER got very busy. Old friends from Sunny Isles didn't get involved but finding onshore transportation became a problem for them. I was supposed to see the surfer at a Jimmy Buffett concert at Gusman but I had to work 2nd shift. He said people responsible for bringing in most of the cannabis for the east coast were there. Guess "You Had To Be There".
Like Woodstock, that concert marked the end of a era for the old school runners. Last saw the Italian at a Chuck Mangione concert at Gusman, snuck up behind me and said, "Didn't I tell ya, he's the fucking Italian Mote Zart!" Got the Grower's Guide by Frank-Rosenthal and started my first indoor grow with seeds from the surfer, under a Grow-lux.
When the 70's turned to 80's, Miami was simply unbelievable compared to what it was ten short years before. Another oil embargo caused the doubling of gas prices, yet again. Cuban castaways were welcomed but Haitian "boat people" are drowning or washing up on affluent beaches.
The Cowboys let it loose at the Dadeland Mall while 150k of Cuba's marginalized, frequently criminal castoffs are flooding an already overwhelmed infrastructure. "Scarface" did, in fact, have a little friend, lots of them. They weren't Cuban, they were Columbian. Headless Torso Found in Canal did not even make a front page headline, the same canal where my dog used to swim. A girlfriend of the first bisexual woman I'd ever known is murdered at a beach resort with a finance guy and it doesn't even get reported in the media. Becoming the Murder Capital of the U.S. was easily accomplished.
I’m coming home up I-95 from Jackson after a 3-11 and things are not right, too many lights and too much activity. I get home and my wife is freaking out, saying there are snipers taking shots at drivers on I-95. Cops get away with beating a black guy down and murdering him, so they burn the motherfucker down, worst race riot in U.S. history at the time. I have a son now and as much as I want him to be around his grandparents, great-grandparents, and uncles, I realize this just isn't where he needs to grow up.
Then Ronald Reagan was elected and John Lennon died, so I decide to get the fuck out and head to the mountains.
