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| Inside the Lab N Lager |
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| Penuche's Starting Point |
This year was the biggest yet since a
large number of the friends that have joined us over the years were high school
classmates there was an effort to make it an official high school reunion
event. I wasn’t that invested in the idea although I welcomed the additional personnel.
I was going to do it anyways. My favorite cousin didn’t make it this year so
the GPS monitoring device I had set up to insure we could track his location went
to waste.
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| In The Cobblestone |
The stalwarts were there. My son is
the only person to attend each of the prior five crawls and he was at my side
again, having obtained his annual dispensation from the ABFA (and the BRS for
the first time). Great Aunt and Soxfather journeyed again from Rhode Island and
my sister remembered to eat before the crawl began, having learned some hard lessons
in prior years. The core group of Keene Friend, the Cantankerous One, as well as
my best friend from kindergarten were with us from the first pub to the last.
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| Outside the Lab N Lager |
There was a representative showing from
the high school class this year. Each year one of my high school classmates who
likes to hang off cliffs with her fiancé, complains about the lack of female representation.
That was certainly solved this year as a number of female classmates showed up.
One of these steadfast young ladies was recovering from a broken leg that will
require a knee replacement but she gamely made her way to each of the bars and
was officially designated as the hero of the crawl.
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| Inside Margarita's |
We started out at our usual starting
point, gathering at Penuche’s literally across the street from where a couple
of the attendees and I went to kindergarten. My kindergarten friend seemed to
have an in at each of the bars we stopped at which leads me to question what
this young man is doing with his free time and why I wasn’t able to do the
same. A good starting group assembled including a new attendee this year, a
retired Fire Captain from northern Maine. We’d been in cub scouts together. Of these
type memories are connections forged.
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| Outside Margarita's |
We made our way up to Main Street and
the Cobblestone Pub. Kindergarten Friend introduced us to the owner of the place
who was seated at the bar. He promptly bought an entire round for the whole
group. I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Cobblestone but crawls require
forward momentum and we couldn’t’ fall into the trap of lingering too long if
we were going to make our appoint rounds.
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| Soxfather, Son, Keene Friend And River Boat Captain Inside Pour House |
We crossed the street to the Lab ‘N
Lager which is always a fun stop. Any bar that combines a dog and beer in their
name cannot fail. We got our usual window seat as the college kids who had raised
themselves from their Saturday stupors started to appear and gawk at the white
haired pub crawlers. We had to bypass our next scheduled stop, Kilkenny’s,
because it was packed.
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| Into the Pour House Turn |
I love Kilkenny’s and always worry I’ll
return each year to find it has closed because it is the designated dive bar of
the crawl. As we approached from across the parking lot I noticed the outside tables
were all packed and I walked in the door to find it completely crammed inside
as well. While this was good news compared to my fears of closing it meant we couldn’t
get bogged down there as our group had grown too big. So it was back across Main
Street to Margarita’s who had more than enough room to take us in.
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| Scores!!! |
Kindergarten Friend’s daughter worked there
so the connections continued. We commandeered five tables, pushed them together
and put the waitress to work keeping us lubricated. A large number of attendees
finally caught up with us here including the cliff hanger, the river boat
captain, and in a huge surprise, my Favorite Panamanian. My wife usually avoids
contact with us until much later in the day but she dove right in after only a
brief time spent shopping for bathroom tile.
We stayed longer at Margarita’s since
we had skipped Kilkenny’s. The only problem with this much larger group was
getting them moving at the appointed time. I took up the challenge by issuing a
loud five minute warning which several of my classmates took up in the same manner
as a dedicated jumpmaster seeing the drop zone approaching.
Dark was falling as we headed up to Central
Square for what has become known as the “Pour House Turn” . The Pour House is
located where Sears used to be and is probably the quietest of all the bars on
the crawl. I was delighted to find Keene Friend 2 and his wife waiting for
arrival as we walked in. We call it the turn because this is the penultimate bar
and we change direction there to return down Main Street to our final
destination, Scores Sports Bar. We tried to convince some of the younger Pour
House patrons that we had escaped from the local old folks home and had to keep
changing bars to stay ahead of search parties.
Scores had just opened when I first
started these crawls and from the second year has always served as the final
resting spot (I know – poor choice of words). The college kids have ruined the
tradition of having beer towers waiting for us which is probably not a bad
thing. It serves as a great final destination because it’s centrally located and
always has enough space to accommodate our large, somewhat boisterous, group.
Additional people came and went as the
banter which had been non-stop from Penuche’s continued. This is what the pub
crawl is all about, while drinking is certainly part of it, the most important aspect
is the time with friends and family. I count the time I got to spend with my
son, sister, brother in law, and those awesome high school classmates as the
best possible birthday gift. I particularly enjoy the jousting between my son and
Cantankerous Friend who is always in search of an adversary. I also don’t discount
the pleasure from getting very nice hugs from two of my dream girls from high
school days, but I digress. I can’t wait for next year.
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| The Other Birthday Boy (r) in Scores |
Now back to that “recovery” comment. I
always came through the crawls and aftermath fairly well, much to the consternation
of my son who suffers the day after. He steadfastly refuses to believe in the
magical healing qualities of Alka Seltzer. I was pretty tired because I’d
thrown in some work for Deckzilla Dude both on Friday night and Saturday
morning. We had to bump out the studs in the new addition in order to accommodate
the required level of insulation. This was a rush job since the insulation guys
were scheduled to show up on Saturday morning.
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| Wielding a Nail Gun for First time Deckzilla Dude Safely Behind Me |
Deckzilla Dude trusted me with use of
his high powered nail gun which wasn’t without a few moments of consternation
from anybody within range. I found it hard to get used to and had a number of
situations where I double tapped the nails instead of cleanly applying one. I
blame this on my military training. We got the job done but I showed up for the
crawl a little more gassed than usual. We returned home on Sunday and immediately
set about painting the guest room in preparation of the FBR’s arrival in a
couple days. We were just about finished when we got her on the phone and she
asked if we had painted it purple which is her favorite color. We hadn’t but we
subsequently did. She has that effect on us.
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| Insulation Going in |
It was a long day as the last thing I want
to do after a pub crawl is to paint, one of my least favorite activities. Luckily
my wife is not similarly encumbered and she did most of the fine work leaving
me the more mundane heavy splashing portion. No matter how tired I am though, nothing
can remove the smile I find plastered on my face as I recall the time spent
with those wonderful people on Saturday.
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RECURRING CHARACTERS
BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR
- First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA –
Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law, formerly known both as MEF – Most Excellent Fiancé
& MEG – Most Excellent Girlfriend; Wingman – my son
in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school
from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great
Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since
grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract
women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also
a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to
monstrous dimensions once my wife got involed in planning; Maine and
Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters,
my wife is the 3rdmusquetera (musketeer); Buddy – AKA
the Wonder Pooch – family dog, a black lab – hates squirrels, died
in 2017; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy,
son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the BRS; PanaGals –
female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia –
inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived
& their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close
friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife
(of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday
of the Week; Excellent Boss – my former direct boss at
work; Deckzilla Dude – senior citizen
carpenter/contractor; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of
public who come to every Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on
public assistance along with demeanor issues
It was a truly wonderful time! Sorry I had not realized it was your birthday. Laurie Jameson
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