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| Congratulations Grampa!!! |
An age old concept in the infantry involve
what are labeled “drills”, usually at squad level, to prepare the squad to
handle tactical situations such as react to contact, etc., etc. A number of those drills are considered “hasty”
as they call for reacting to a rapidly developing, usually unplanned for
situation. In my never ending quest to infect the civilian world with military
culture I morphed the hasty concept into one of my favorite civilian activities
– the doctrinal pub crawl. The Hasty Pub Crawl was born yesterday.
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| Inside Ralph's Yesterday |
I had planned on journeying back to my
hometown to visit Keene Friend again but I received word in the late morning he
was being released from the hospital. He’s still not out of the woods as he’s
still tied to an oxygen bottle but at least he’s home. He had a veritable squad
of friends vying to assist him on the move home (he engenders that type of devotion
through his bone deep excellence). He asked that I postpone my visit which
freed me up for the rest of Saturday.
The cold weather has kept me
housebound for the better part of March and as luxurious as the Man Cave is I
didn’t want to consign myself there for yet another afternoon/evening. I also
had to redeem my honor for failing to properly mark the passing of St Patty’s Day.
I texted my First Friday crew to see if anyone was up for a quick, no “Hasty”,
pub crawl down Worcester’s Shrewsbury Street. To my surprise and not a little
bit of pride they all agreed to meet me at Brew City and we were off.
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| At the BBC |
The Brew City ladies were surprised at
our Saturday appearance and were still recovering themselves from a very late
night attending to St Patty’s Day celebrants. After crawl initiation ceremonies
and gatherings we headed across the street to the designated “dive bar” which
is a prerequisite for any self-respecting pub crawl. Ralph’s Tavern more than
fits the bill and we’ve never had a bad time in this very welcoming
environment. They don’t take credit cards which emptied my bill fold since it
was my round to buy but a great time nonetheless. A very friendly guy (think it might
have been Ralph) kept stopping by to talk with us. He even gave us some free
songs on the jukebox which resulted in the predictable oldies. There was a very
morose looking older gentleman attached to the end of the bar who perked up at
one point. “Ralph” came by later to thank us and said the morose guy was a
regular who was dying of cancer but loved Elvis songs which we had played. So
the pub crawl accomplished the required humanitarian act.
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| The Parkway |
We wound our way through the sidewalk
snow banks to reach a recently opened British Beer Company. I was deeply
offended to find they were out of their signature Monty Python Grail Ale but
the atmosphere was every bit as welcoming as I’ve found at other BBCs. I had to
force myself to abide with an Irish Red in honor of the recently departed Irish
saint’s day. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the crowd and even considered moving
a First Friday there at some point in the future (following the requisite consultations
with the Brew City Ladies of course).
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| She Turned The New Stools into a Jungle Jim |
We made the turn back up Shrewsbury
Street for our final stop – the Parkway Restaurant and Bar. I love the Parkway
which is a sports bar with a nice vibe. The vibe is taken to a new level during
this time of year as the NCAA March Madness was in full flower. It was great to
see tables of fans from different competing schools rooting for their teams.
Since this was a hasty crawl and I hadn’t obtained the critical element of a designated
driver we declared victory after the Parkway and headed back towards our cars
at Brew City. It was during this walk that one of the ladies took a header into
one of the ubiquitous snow banks. She immediately understood she would be a
long time living this act down despite her protestations about Worcester not adequately
clearing the sidewalks. We were of a nearly unanimous opinion the fall was more
“ale related”.
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| Loves Making Waves |
So I did end up spending the evening
in the Man Cave, solitary except for my puzzle piece consuming friend Buddy the
Wonder Pooch. It was entirely more tolerable though for the afternoon of
friendship and shared laughs with the pub crawl crew. I also feel I’ve
accomplished a service to the civilian world by categorizing a new doctrinal
term – the Hasty Pub Crawl.
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