With Halloween just around the corner, it might be fun to highlight some of the scary things that call the Florida Keys, and the waters surrounding them, home.
To start, waking up in the middle of the night, turning on a light and seeing a cockroach crawling on the counter can be startling. While they are completely harmless and cannot bite, they do have little spikes on their legs that poke if you grab one. They’re scariest when they spread their wings and fly. If they land on you, or in your hair, it can elicit a scream.
Other creepy crawlers include spiders and the orangish Florida Keys giant centipede, which can grow up to 8 inches long and has scores of legs that make it twist and run really fast. In the same arena, watching a scorpion crawl up the wall in your house can be scary. People used to grease the legs of their beds so they couldn’t crawl up and get between the sheets.
Snakes can be a fright. My wife used to scream when she was working in the yard and one slithered out. After living with a backyard herpetologist for the last 20 years, she doesn’t scream any more. All they do is eat things like insects, mice and rats – varmints often featured in haunted houses.
Sharks can be scary, more for the baggage they carry than anything they do. In 1975, Steven Spielberg’s summer blockbuster “Jaws” cast them as bloodthirsty monsters and they’ve paid the price ever since. In reality, they are not the monsters they have been portrayed to be. According to the International Shark Attack File, Monroe County has had 17 unprovoked attacks since 1882. Sharks are the last thing to worry about.
For anyone enjoying one of the Florida Keys’ premier features, the waters surrounding the island chain, sunburn is a more substantial threat. The sun can be brutal on exposed skin and leave it a scary red color. Wear your sunscreen!
Seeing a crocodile in the wild can get your heart pumping. They are becoming a more familiar sight as their numbers continue to rebound. The American crocodile differs from more aggressive, bona fide man-eaters like the Nile crocodile and the saltwater crocodiles found in Australia. Over the last century, only a handful of crocodile attacks have been documented in Florida. Alligators, by contrast, are a different story. While South Florida and the Florida Keys have both alligators and crocodiles (the only place in the world where they coexist), neither poses a threat in the Keys, unless your name is Spot or Fluffy.
Hurricanes can be scary, especially when they are treated as a party and not given the respect they have earned. Fortunately, advances in weather forecasting have made them much easier to navigate. On that note, fingers crossed for the continued balmy conditions.
Some drivers sailing down the Overseas Highway can be truly scary. One problem with having a single lane traveling up and down the island chain is that not everyone drives the way you want them to. People can get frustrated and drive like they have more important places to be. It is much easier to relax, enjoy the views and go with the traffic flow, even if it takes a few extra minutes. Tickets are expensive, accidents cost more and sometimes take lives, which is the real horror.
The Keys are home to traditional scares of a more Halloween nature, too. Key West is considered one of the country’s most haunted cities. One of its spookier residents is Robert the Doll. Nothing is scarier than Robert, whom some consider the most haunted artifact in the county.
Wild things have been said about him. Robert stands 40 inches tall and is stuffed with excelsior, or wood wool made of slivers cut from logs. The eyes are shoe buttons, and the face, originally, was painted blue and red like a court jester. Those colors have long since faded, and all that is left of the façade is the doll’s spongy countenance.
Robert has developed his own unique history, much of it passed around by people sipping rum and telling tales. The doll has zero affiliation with Chucky and his successful “Child’s Play” film franchise. An angry Bahamian servant didn’t stitch the doll together. Rather, the Steiff doll was a birthday present. Steiff is the German company that produced the first teddy bear.
The Ottos, a prominent Key West family, brought the doll here. Thomas Osgood Otto was a third-generation doctor who married Minnie Elizabeth; they moved into their home at 534 Eaton St. in 1898, where Robert Eugene, the youngest of three boys and a girl, was born.
Robert Eugene Otto was given the doll on Oct. 25, 1904, as a present for his fourth birthday. He gave the doll his first name and kept Gene for himself. He also dressed him in the sailor suit he wears today. The two were inseparable. For a spooky sleepover, Robert’s old haunt is now a bed-and-breakfast. The Victorian-style structure is home to the Artist House.
Today, Robert lives at the Fort East Martello Tower Museum. Sometimes, when you take his picture without asking first, people say Robert makes bad things happen. A wall at the Civil War-era fortification is decorated with letters apologizing for taking his picture without asking permission. Just in case, ask first! For a truly haunting time, check out David Sloan’s Robert the Doll Experience, where the doll’s fascinating history is shared while Robert sits in the room with his stuffed toy lion.
Robert the Doll’s 122nd birthday was last Sunday. Happy belated birthday, Robert!
There is one truly horrifying Keys experience, perhaps even scarier than Robert, that some people can’t help but fall into. It is known as the Key West vortex. The Key West Gravity Chronicles’ Facebook account documents its victims. According to the page, “Yes, our beloved island has mysterious and powerful vortices that grab hold of unsuspecting locals and tourists, often nullifying their ability to resist gravity and then pinning them to the earth.”
There might not be anything scarier than waking up and seeing yourself pictured on the site. Be careful out there. Happy Halloween!
