The Key West Character
RUSS ERICKSON
Travels With Kinky
PHOTOGRAPH BY Anastasia Drabicky
Most days you can find Russ Erickson and his parrot, Kinky Friedman, sprawled in hammocks hung beneath the 350- year-old gumbo-limbo tree in Nancy’s Secret Garden—a tropical refuge off Free School Lane. Erickson, 64, has been coming to Key West every winter for 20 years, the past few staying in the garden of his good friend, Nancy Forrester. “This is old Key West you know,” he says, gesturing to the lush surroundings. “It’s the only quiet place in the city. Once this is gone, it’s gone.”
When he’s not tending the garden or taking care of the 16 other macaws and cockatoos who likewise find their home in the garden (Hammerhead, the scarlet macaw pictured here, is just one of them), Erickson brags about Kinky. The blue and gold macaw speaks three languages (English, Spanish and Parrot), eats pizza, helped campaign for friend and namesake Kinky Friedman—the American singer and humorist—during his 2006 run for governor of Texas and, most impressively of all, “goes caca on command.”
Of all the places the two have traveled—including Austin, Asheville, San Francisco—Key West remains the favorite. “We’ve got a good life here,” Erickson says with a pat to Kinky’s head. “No one has a better life than we do. Our main goal is to stay warm. That’s not asking too much.”
—Emmy Nicklin