Reaped

My Keene Friend finally had a Saturday off yesterday which presented a great opportunity to recapture some of the pub crawl magic that he wasn’t able to participate in.  My wife was more than willing to release us to the wild so she could finish up Christmas shopping undistracted by husband or taxes.

Released to the Wild From The Stage

We started out with lunch at the head of the square in Keene at the Stage Restaurant which had been Edmonds Diner when I was growing up.  My wife gave us our marching orders and then departed for parts unknown.

The Crawl Begins!

My Keene Friend and I started at the Pour House where I forgot once again to ask if they sold t-shirts. The Pour House is also right on Central Square and offers great views of the city passing by.  I texted my former crawl buddy and my son sent a very pointed message that the Keene Friend would actually have to drink beer to receive credit for the crawl.  I immediately provided proof that he was earning his stripes.  This was the first in a string of annoying texts I sent both of my kids to keep them apprised of our progress (something I’m sure they were interested in).

Proof

We also cautiously reached out to the Cantankerous Friend who was in Keene for the weekend.  At first his mother claimed she didn’t know who I was talking about when I asked for her son. After she realized it was me and there was no way she could deny knowing him she reported he had taken his dad to the race track for the day.

Scores

Despite this obvious blow to our morale we made our way down the street to the crown jewel of the crawl - Scores.  We spent most of the afternoon in this new sports bar mesmerized by over 24 televisions tuned to a wide range of sporting events.  Since the college was out of session for the holidays we had the bars almost to ourselves all day.  We had a very perky waitress who launched on a truly impressive rendition of the day’s specials.  I didn’t have the heart to interrupt to tell her we were on a liquid diet for the afternoon.  I eventually relented and secured some wings for our sojourn. 

The Great Table Top

This really is a great bar, how could you not like a place with a laminated table top showing A-Roid getting his face handed to him by Varitek in 2004.  We were forced to reach out to my brother in law to settle a quandary about the names of the Red Sox eye candy for the past decade.  He was unavailable but my sister displayed an amazing recall of an aspect of Sox lore:  Jenny Dell, Heidi Watney, Hazel Mae, and Tina Servasio.  Of these type controversies are pub crawls made.

Some of the TVs in Scores - Only Some

As the sun set we headed further down Main Street to the Lab and Lager for a solitary beer.  We ran into a high school classmate who remembered my Keene Friend but not me.  The same very personable bar tender from the first crawl was on duty and was gearing up for the annual Christmas Party in the pub scheduled for today when they lock the doors and serve themselves for the evening.

The Lab and Lager

Our next stop was Penuche’s, right next to the elementary school where I went to kindergarten through 2d grade and conveniently close to the Keene Friend’s home.  We were walking in when the Keene Friend stopped to introduce yet another high school classmate.  This was a special surprise for me though because it turned out to be a guy who was my best friend in the aforementioned elementary school across the street a half a century ago (yikes!). 

Penuche's - Still Standing

We hadn’t seen each other in almost that long a time and spent the better part of an hour catching up with each other.  We had been virtually inseparable when we were young and it was so cool re-establishing contact after all these years; definitely the highlight of the crawl.  He was eventually summoned home by his wife while mine was still unheard from.

She did eventually return to the Keene Friend’s home to find us in a semi-catatonic state on the couch.  She squired us to Margarita’s for the last stop on the crawl and dinner.  We were just finishing up when the call we were dreading (I mean anticipating) came in reporting the imminent arrival of the Cantankerous One.  He arrived with his typical flourish and managed to insult everybody at the table within the first thirty seconds.  After he accomplished his given task he settled down and we spent an enjoyable time catching up and laying plans for the day after Christmas Party at the Keene Friend’s house.

A long day but well spent because of the people I got to hang out with. 

Cantankerous Friend, Wife, Keene Friend At Margarita's

I’m going to revise my estimate for the surety of a white Christmas which seemed like a lock just a few days ago with better than twenty inches on the ground.  The snow is disappearing at a frightening rate.  These are views out the back door from yesterday morning and then this morning. 

Yesterday Morning

This Morning