Today I received the first ad for travel to Cuba. At first I figured it was a joke. But it wasn’t. It was a full-fledged travel ad from the Smithsonian, for crying out loud! Ads don’t get any more respected than that.
By the time I read the ad they had me thinking of those faraway places and memories of days gone by. I remembered that when I was a child every year several people who owned small planes would gather together, fly to Key West, then follow each other on a flight down to Havana for a visit of several days. They would come back suntanned (or burned) and talking of Cuba.
Then Castro changed all that in 1959, the year I graduated from high school. At first, we were all mostly on Castro’s side. Then he turned commie on us and JFK placed an economic embargo on Cuba in 1962.
We are now dropping that embargo. Finally, at last, we will be able to visit Cuba and spend our money there again. Hot dog!
Thank you, but I don’t think I’ll go. I remember too many stories about Castro, including the fact that Cuba just flat stole much of the property owned—bought—by American people and corporations that trusted and invested in Cuba.
Most of all, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, which led us right up to the very brink of a full scale war,
I remember all of that, and I don’t want to put myself in a position where that govmint—the Cuban govmint—would have any control over me.
Back in the 1980s a friend and I flew in a four seat airplane from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to Key West. We were for a time talking to and under control of Havana Control. I was nervous the entire time.
Y’all go, Have a good time and tell me all about it when you get back.
