Perseverance, a fortunate sweater, and an uncanny resemblance to one of many world’s most iconic authors. That was the successful method that helped a 69-year-old man from Key West, Florida, win the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest title this weekend within the Southernmost Metropolis within the U.S.
A Key West native, Tim Stockwell, captured the coveted title, beating out greater than 100 contestants to make the highest 5. And it was in that closing spherical that he supplied a compelling story as to why he deserved to be “Papa 2025.”
His fortunate allure? A thick wool sweater, just like the one Hemingway wore, which he bravely donned within the sweltering July warmth.
“This sweater has been worn by seven different earlier winners and I’m very grateful and glad to have the ability to name it the eighth,” stated Stockwell, who moved to the island from Michigan in 2019 and has participated within the occasion ever since.
This 12 months’s contest happened over three nights, beginning with 131 contestants, then 24 semi-finalists, and at last the highest 5. The placement? Sloppy Joe’s Bar — a frequent hangout for Hemingway when he lived and wrote in Key West throughout the Nineteen Thirties.
The competition featured three youthful look-alikes, together with 6-year-old Keefer Haynie from Baton Rouge. It’s a part of the annual Hemingway Days Pageant that honors the legacy and literary mastery of the writer who wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “To Have and Have Not” and different classics throughout his Key West years.
Throughout his plea to judges, Stockwell recounted his favourite story that showcased the writer’s softer aspect. He stated that Hemingway fashioned a baseball crew of Cuban children known as “Gigi’s Stars” and offered a gaggle of boys — together with his personal sons — with a discipline on his property. He additionally gave them new uniforms, bats, balls and gloves, pitched for each groups and by no means saved rating.
“The way in which he taught these younger males to turn into younger males, play truthful, be trustworthy, be simple – he taught these youngsters dwell a life well-lived, they usually benefited from his generosity and his kindness,” he stated.
Stockwell is the most recent ambassador for the bearded brotherhood generally known as the Hemingway Look-Alike Society, a corporation that mixes camaraderie and scholarships to help Florida Keys school college students.
“He broke all of the obstacles for these youngsters,” stated Stockwell. “They’d an ideal alternative. I’d prefer to proceed that. And that’s why I’m proud to name these guys my brothers.”
