Helloooo 2007 When's 2008 going to be here? ©

January 1 2007……………brb

January 2 2007

Ok I feel better now……….

January 3 2007

I’m getting to old.

It’s a new year and new adventures lays ahead for all of us………
False alarm.
Isn’t life the gift that keeps on giving?
Sure there are those occasions where it takes a bit from you and even a chunk, but you know, it’s only making room for something new.

I went out New Years Eve to my local bar only to find out that it was closed for a private party.
Pfffft
So I headed off to plan B, the bar on the next block.

I am at the very center of where I was over twenty years ago.
This Pub was once a leather goods store when I was a kid and had turned into a pub when the leather goods store closed down.
Next to it was where a hotel once stood before it mysteriously burnt down.
It was here I grew up among the bikers, hookers and drug dealers.
It was here I watched all of my youth and that of others disappear into a nightmare.
I guess you could say it was inevitable I would take up one of the rackets offered on this seedy side of society.

The people then were a lot different than the ones here this day.
The crowd back then was rough and tumble; everyone had a weapon be it a knife or the occasional gun but most arguments were settled with boots and fists.
No rules
The guys were decked out in black leather, Levis and the testosterone was thick in the air.
There was no deception here they were all tough and dangerous from the 13 year old punk to the 80 year old man sitting in the corner playing with some 16 year old hooker’s pussy.
Old man Hank got more pussy that anyone I can remember and they went to him, he didn’t pay for it he was just nice to everyone and his daughter Jasmine was ………..cough cough …ummmm ok I was drifting a bit.
The women were tough and gorgeous.
Most had this wild untamed fire in their eyes that told you that you were looking at a mustang and you better be ready for one hell of a ride if you got the chance.

Today as I’m bellied up to the bar it has changed.
The bar inside is decorated with all sorts of beer slogan crap and TVs everywhere.
I counted 32 taps of beer, all different beers.
Fuck, back then you got what ever came out of the one tap and it was called beer period.
Not even one bullet hole in the ceiling to give it that…ambience.

The crowd, were in their twenties, standing around drinking their exotic beers in a glass made by the brewery specifically for that beer with its name on it.
We were lucky to get a clean glass when I was there in my younger years and if you said anything about it being dirty the bartender spit into it and wiped it clean.

They were dressed in the latest fashions, which looked like they came out of the Salvation Army’s bin.
Dull draby greens, grays and shades of both, colors my grandmother would wear.

Mike and I sat at the bar and stared at this massive menu on the wall that must have had hundreds of types of beer.
There were more types of beer on the list that there were people in the place.
Then we looked down the length of the bar at the taps standing at attention waiting for the command to fill a vessel full of nectar.
I was beginning to miss that one tap bar.
The bartender came over and we ordered a couple of pints of Guinness.
Mike and I have been drinking it at home lately and it wasn’t bad.
Have you ever seen Guinness come out of a tap?
Hair grows faster.

We got our beer, saluted each other and took a sip.
Mike asked me if I remember the first day the place opened 25 years ago.
The bartender took my money and he turned to the register.
Judy turned and gave me my money.
She had a nice set of tits and knew how to flaunt them but if you didn’t notice, you wouldn’t get served.
I turned in my chair and a wall grew out of the floor to the ceiling separating the room into two separate rooms.
The bar spilled out five more feet on either side.
A tabletop game of space invaders replaced the fake plant by the brown door.
Looking past the window Quizno’s changed into the Blue Moon Café.
The bar was lined with the boys slamming back tequila shots washing them down with beer and laughing.
The green door opened and three of the handsomest brothers you ever saw walked in.
Blonde, blue eyes all of them and looked out of place here.
They should have been on a California beach surfing, but they weren’t.
There would always be a roar when one of the guys walked in and a round was bought.

“They’re gone now”?
I turned and looked at Mike.
“No, no they’re not, not as long as one of us is still around to remember and then we will be together like before one day”
We downed the beers back and ordered another round.
The crowd was dead and there was a good band playing.
People don’t dance any more, weird.

The manager spotted me and came over to say hi.
He used to work at my regular pub as the manager there until there was new owners and they didn't need him.
He was surprised to see me but not as surprised when I told him the other place had been booked by a group of strippers for a party.
John’s eyes just opened up like big apples but not as big as Mike’s.
He asked if I was kidding, I told him that there was a private party at the bar and that’s when Tim walked in.
I told him if he didn’t believe me that I would prove it.

“How’s it going Tim”, Tim is one of the regulars where I normally drink?
“I’m doing fine”.
I look at Tim and asked him straight out if there was a private stripper party at our regular bar.
Now I know Tim well and I know when you ask him a question he always stops and thinks carefully about the question and who asked him
He looked at John then at me, back to John then he says ”Yeah, there was”.
John started to think and Tim gave me a questioning look.
John is good at thinking especially where there are naked women involved.
I saw him once get on a stool and lick the screen of the TV because there was a woman with big tits on.
There must have been 10 years of nicotine on that TV.
Mike looked at me and asked me in a low voice why we didn’t go to see the strippers instead of coming here.

We ordered another round and John came to the conclusion that it wasn’t to busy and he was going to say happy new years to the guys at the other bar.
“Hmm, yeah sure you are but before you go how about a tequila on the bar tab”.
We all got a shot and slammed them back.
John said he would see us later and took off up the street.
Tim said the bar was closed and what was the deal about the strippers.
I told him it was just a joke.
Mike looked a little disappointed.
We talked for about twenty minutes and ordered another round of beer.
Just As they came to the table John walked back in all wet and red.
“WOW what did the strippers do to you”?
He told us that the bar was closed, the door locked and there was freezing rain outside.
Well duh, it’s a private party you got to give the secret knock so someone will open the door.
The bartender gave us our beer and waited there.
John wanted to know the secret knock.
I looked at John then the beer and he told the bartender to put the beers on the tab.
OK you have to go to the window where the stairs are and using you key go: taptaptap taptap taptap taptaptap taptaptap tap taptap.
We sat there and let him practice for a bit on the bar top while we drank our beers.
We thought that since John was such a sport and bought us drinks we ordered a round of tequila and toasted him.
Right after, he got up and started for the door when I grabbed the umbrella behind the bar and passed it to him, it was raining and cold outside.
Taking it, he walked out the door and we watched him slide by the window like a tightrope walker on a thin line.
We started laughing.
Tim said John was going to kill me and was probably right, at least get me barred until spring.
We were getting a good buzz now and the band started hammering out some ZZ Top’s “My Heads In Mississippi”, which pretty much foretold my immediate future.
Another round of beer and shots arrived and the party was beginning to roll.
Mike let out a “OH YEAH BABY” and almost gave six people a heart attack, then shot back some tequila.
That’s when we saw this umbrella fly by the window and then John slide by with his arms waving around like propellers.
After getting in without the umbrella he told us by the time he got there he forgot the secret knock and no matter what he tried no one let him.
We got him tequila to warm up and tried to show him the knock again but he decided it wasn’t worth going out in the freezing rain again.
The band was great and we were having a good time even some of the drab crowd look like they were having fun.
I know I saw a couple blinking with the beat.
John staggered over as midnight approached to see how we were doing for beer and bought us another round shots.
I don’t know how many we had up until then but I know it was more than the two beers I had planned on.
Mike was just rockin and Tim was lost staring at some blonde’s cleavage, I kept an eye on the blonde’s bf to make sure Tim didn’t loose his head.
John looked at his watch for the time and went over to the band and talked to lead singer and had him start the count down and everyone started counting down the time.
Five
Four
Three
Two
One
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!
Everyone started blowing horns and spilling beer everywhere, hugging, singing and kissing.
Tim was trying to make his way to the blonde.
Mike and I were calmly watching the TV.
The bartender said Happy New Year to us, the waitress said Happy New Year to us; we were glued to the TV.
John walked over with a stupid hat on blowing a horn and said Happy New Year.
Mike looked at John and pointed to the TV and said.
“There’s two more minutes left before 2007”.
I guess the rest of the world doesn’t go by John’s watch.
John just stared at the screen.
When the REAL New Year came around we wished each other a Happy New Year and had another shot.
For the next hour we drank some beer and shots then made our way home after.
Mike walked through the door up the stairs and disappeared without saying a word.I know he was wasted or on his way there
I sat up until 7:30am reading some blogs and talking to everyone as they came on and wished me a Happy New Year.
Before I finally said goodbye to 2006 once and for all I thought back to one memory for about 10 minutes, finished my beer, shut the lights and went to bed.

Well, that was my night with friends, old and new, here and gone.
I hope all of you all had a great New Years Eve.

Hmmm I wonder what happened to Tim?

Walker