You Just Can Not Make This Up

In 1983 a friend of ours had a private sale of his things.  He was trying to raise money for medication. We purchased his pasta maker and gave him extra cash. He said that he would come over and show us his favorite pasta recipe. I remember we had a fun night making past. His recipe was. In a large frying pan add ½ stick butter lots of olive oil. Sauté a diced onion and garlic. Then ad a can of anchovies in oil.  Cook until the anchovies have dissolved. Then add cooked pasta. A couple months later he passed away due to AIDS. His family would not claim the body. A group of us came together and raised the $85.00 for cremation. We never knew what happened to the ashes. Every time we make this pasta, we think of Rodger.

On Netflix there are several great series on the 1980’s drugs in Miami. “Narco” and “Griselda” are just two of the great ones. The 1980’s were a wild time for the LGBT community in South Florida too. There was the Marlin Beach Hotel with the famous Jules Verne Room and The Copa, just to name a few. I remember we were in Miami in the early 1980’s with a crazy fun friend who spoke Spanish. We were walking around looking at all the mega yachts. One of the yachts had armed men on board. Our friend asked them in Spanish “Who owns this Yacht?” The armed guard replied “I’m going to act like you just did not ask that!!! Move on NOW!!!” Our friend turned white and said we got to get out of here now. Thinking back…. How lucky we were. The 1980’s were very wild. We were so young and so naïve.