and Words
Saw you walkin’ out on sentimental street
What you doin’ out there?
Who you tryin’ to be?
I know what you’re thinkin’
‘Cause I’ve been there myself
I’ve been kicked so many times
I don’t know nothin’ else
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
On a typical winter day in South Florida, I start the moderately long drive from Palm Beach to Miami. The forecast may be cloudy, but the sun still beams and casts hard shadows upon the hot pavement. Well, I call it comparatively hot. I now live in Washington where it is around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Florida’s 70’s seem downright balmy. The southeast coast of Florida was my home during my late childhood, and in many ways, I still consider it my home. This is not an account of a particular trip, but it is instead an amalgamated account of many such trips.
Beautiful beaches line the southeast coast of Florida, ones that I took for granted while growing up. Uniformly along that coast, there’s a freeway, Interstate 95 (I-95 for short) that follows that coast. It consistently runs around a 15-minute-drive from the actual coast. It allowed for easy access to the beaches, but similarly it was far enough away to avoid many of the problems from being right on the beach. If we were to follow it north, it’ll run all the way up the east coast to Maine; I’ve driven it to Connecticut. If we were to drive it south, it eventually empties into Miami, directly onto South Dixie Highway (US1).
While Night Ranger released this song, “Sentimental Street” during my time in high school, I didn’t develop a fondness for it until years later. In some ways, this very website mirrors that song, though in blog format instead of musically. Today, in that spirit, I invite you to come along on that drive with me on Interstate 95, in many ways my Sentimental Street. Strap into that figurative passenger seat.
Glades Road – In 2006, my mom underwent knee replacement surgery; this was the exit to that hospital. We were optimistic that it would alleviate her pain, since she could barely stand. We looked forward to years of her living without pain. Tragically, she suffered from a blood clot in recovery and would never wake. For days, we stayed bedside hoping that she would wake, but she did not.
I remember taking this exit for days while we each took shifts sitting next to her; we feared that she’d wake up to strangers. Every time I think about this my mood darkens; I hope to never use this exit again.
Copans Road – I took this exit to hand deliver a single red rose to a young woman on her birthday. Yes, I thought I loved her but never spoke up. Truthfully, we didn’t know each other in a meaningful way. It wasn’t an altruistic, selfless love by any means, but closer to infatuation. We figuratively danced for years before it finally fizzled out.
I hear through friends that now she lives in Tampa and wouldn’t mind seeing her again, though only to reminisce.
Commercial Boulevard – There was a Chinese restaurant by the name of Dragon Spring near Commercial Boulevard and University Drive. My mom owned that business for a couple of years during the early 1980’s. This is where I spent more weekend days than I care to remember, in possible child labor violations.
Occasionally, I’d wander off for hours in protest to explore a number of the local businesses. This included an Albertson’s and a bookstore where I picked up my Deluxe Rubik’s Cube, which I still fondly keep nearby.
Davie Boulevard – We took this exit to return to my childhood home. This is where I spent too many days on two wheels, 90-degree heat, and 90% humidity, without ever using any sunscreen. That bicycle, a Stormer which I bought with my own money, was my priced possession. I learned to navigate every street in the neighborhood. I spent too much time in Sunview Park, less than a block from my home, though I never participated in any organized sports.
South Plantation, my high school, was also off this exit. The school was a lot less Southern than the name would indicate. Like any other student, I enjoyed good times and endured bad times in high school. I excelled in competition, and I endured exclusion… All within the confines of those walls.
State Road 84 – This was an alternate road to my home from the freeway, depending on your approach.
However, this was also the road closest to Gran Prix Race-O-Rama, a colossal arcade that happened to be close to my home, alleged to be the world’s largest. It is here that I fell in love with playing Pac-Man. The arcade games ran off tokens, not actual quarters. I spent way too much time, and possibly money, playing this game. They closed it a number of years ago; it saddened me to hear that.
Years later, when I had the opportunity to buy the coin-op, cocktail table version of this game; I did for $350. It nostalgically sits a few feet away from me as I type.
Sheridan Street – Right off this road is a park affectionately known as TY Park. I have literally never heard anyone pronounce its name, Topeekeegee Yugnee Park. It was a common destination for both some unofficial high school functions as well as some college-time functions. All we ever did was gather for BBQ’s or picnics. More than once I’ve been struck by a water gun or water balloon in this park.
It’s also the first time I saw the aforementioned young woman (recipient of a red rose on her birthday) in a bikini top. I’m sure my mouth was agape upon first seeing her that day.
Hallandale Beach Boulevard – There’s a Denny’s blocks away from the freeway on this road; it is roughly the midpoint between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. It became the meeting place for a collection of ABC’s (American Born Chinese) after our late-night parties and club nights. Most of these ran late already (past the typical 2am closing), but sometimes we wanted more time together.
This was the very Denny’s where I shook a ketchup bottle too briskly and got it on my friends’ hair.
Ives Dairy Road – This was the gateway into Dade county; its northernmost exit. I had a couple of friends from that ABC bunch that lived off this exit. They attended North Miami Beach high school, which was a rival school in math and computer contests a few years before.
When we weren’t meeting late at night at a party (or club) we may occasionally meet at a mall. There are two malls close to this exit, Aventura Mall and 163rd Street Mall. It was at this second mall where I got my ear pierced when I attended college. My mom insisted that she “didn’t want to see me with an earring”, so I bandaged it when I next saw her. She asked me about the bandage but didn’t demand that I take off the earring. I still wear an earring to this day.
Palmetto Expressway (826) – During the years when I attended the University of Miami, I lived much closer to campus. It was often easier to take this freeway (826) to go farther west. This freeway is unconventional in that it runs east/west right off Interstate 95 for a few miles. Then it abruptly takes a left turn and runs north/south. If you should happen to enter in different locations, its designation will confuse you.
Two of my off-campus apartments resided minutes off this freeway, so I’d often take this exit instead of traveling further south on Interstate 95.
Interstates 195 & 395 – These two freeways intersect with I-95 on the north and south respectively; they extend out to South Beach over the water. If you remember scenes from Miami Vice driving over a bridge at night with the city lights rippling over the water, it was likely on one of these freeways. We drove over these freeways to reach dance clubs with the occasional teen night, where those of us not old enough to drink would be able to attend. Dance clubs like Club 1235 (long since closed) hosted the lot of us while we danced until exhaustion.
Friends and family once hosted a surprise birthday party for me on the actual beach. I could see the black night sky over the Atlantic, lacking the familiar glow from the city lights. Upon the end of that party, my older sister accidentally drove off with my kid sister’s car keys. This was long before mobile phones were common, so she was effectively stranded. On this night, a number of us engineering students (and gearheads) hot-wired her car with a wire and a couple of screwdrivers.
Southwest 7th Street – This road leads to my final destination. It is a cemetery in Calle Ocho. My parents rest here close to the entrance. My mom outlived my dad by nearly 29 years, but they rest together now… close enough to hold hands. I make a point of coming to visit them whenever I return to South Florida. However, it’s not out of a sense of cultural or familial obligation. I genuinely miss them; they were great people. Sometimes I visit them with family, but I also come here alone. It feels different.
In a symbolic way, this is a way to go back to where it all began, with my parents. It became a backward stroll through history. Thank you for making the trip with me.