Club Harem in Winter Park, Florida is being sold to the city. The plans are for it to be immediately torn down. It's time.
But for those of us who've lived in Central Florida for a while, it will always be affectionately known by its former name, The Booby Trap. Years ago, it lived up to this name - painted in natural flesh tones. Even those who wildly protested The Booby Trap would go out of their way to point it out to others. It was an early Orlando tourist attraction.
Decades ago my husband was the minister at Community United Methodist Church in Casselberry, Florida, a suburb of Orlando, and two miles from where I currently live. At that time Casselberry, a quiet bedroom community, had several "gentleman's clubs." The most famous was Rachel's World Class Men's Club. I was never there but I heard it was luxurious. And I wanted to see inside.
Every year Ken would receive, at the church, a special invitation to dinner at Rachal's. It came in a big pink envelope. I would beg him to go and take me with him but he never did.
It was, and is, fun to tease about these clubs. But what they are, are strip clubs. Lots of sad stories have come out of these clubs. With our current emphasis on human trafficking we all have come to understand that tragic things happen in and around these places.
One day, all those long years ago I was talking with some cool old ladies in the church. I was teasing about how curious I was about the gentleman's clubs and asked them if they'd like to go check one out with me. Turns out, they already had.
They described it as an embarrassing, bad experience. It was amateur night. The church ladies said several very drunk young women got on stage and tried to fulfill their fantasies of being strippers. It was very sad, indeed.
I'm happy to say that most of the strip clubs in this area are gone. However, Rachel's World Class Men's Club is still here. And it still advertises itself as luxurious. Since I don't go out much at night anymore, I doubt that I'll ever see the inside. They are open for lunch but I can't imagine how sad and pathetic it would be to have lunch at a strip club.
***
