just a little story from long ago

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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My cousin Chris and I were born one year apart, he being the elder. We lived on opposite sides of Baton Rouge but hooked up as running buddies pretty often. I was on the poor side of town, Chris was a poor boy that got a family deal on a house on the rich side of town. I had another handful of cousins on the rich side of town including Little John. As the name implies, John had to be very big or very small. He wasn't big. He also had long hair when hippies were frowned upon by the working class.

The three of us hooked up one night. All about college age, playing pool and chasing girls around LSU was always attractive. A plus, the boys bought our drinks and the girl's drinks too even when we were with them. Usually played for a glass of the cheap sweet wine that was in style then and I could win them a lot faster than I could drink them!

No girls of interest so Chris and I decided to have a little fun. We would take John to the poor side of town, but first we would properly prepare him. "Don't look any of the guys in the eye, they will think you want to fight." "Don't look at their girls either." "For Gawd's sake don't say hello to any of the girls or we will be lucky to get out alive!"

We had of course maligned both the places and people mightily. The pool halls were in ratty old buildings it's true, and the places could stand a bit of cleaning. The people in them were definitely blue collar or no collar.

John comes in the first place, takes one look, and locks his chin on his chest! Had to lead him to a table and the only time he looked up was to take a quick shot and look back down. Wouldn't go to the bar by himself to get us a round of beer. We took him another place or two but the fun was wearing off when the quick warnings we gave John were always wasted, his chin stayed on his chest!

Introducing him to Jessie was fun. Jessie was a retired oilfield roughneck who owned a hall and had arms like tree trunks. Wish I could have primed Jessie first but he was a good hearted soul, probably a waste of time. The fun was wearing off anyway when John never got curious and started looking around a little bit. All was mellow as anybody that thought anything of the long haired hippy in the place was too polite to say anything about it. My hair and beard were a little long but I was a regular, nobody looked at me twice. Chris's hair was short and he was a slow talking country boy six and a half feet tall more or less, we actually had John's butt well covered if anybody had felt ambitious. We took him home and John never went out to play pool with me again!

Chris is on my mind. He has Covid 19 and pneumonia and the word at the hospital he is in is to bet the short side. We haven't been close for years but it would still be a bummer if the Covid gets him. A good person, few like him around.

Hu
 

Maxx

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Good story, except for the last part.
Wishing the best for your cousin.
 

bbb

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hu
i started crying hearing chris may not make it
i will pray for him
 

sjm

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Good story. Thanks for sharing. A toast to your cousin's health!
 

Maniac

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Usually played for a glass of the cheap sweet wine that was in style then and I could win them a lot faster than I could drink them!
Hu

That would probably have been Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill. :thumbup2:

Prayers for Chris.

Maniac
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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Thanks to Everyone!

Thanks to everyone! I appreciate the prayers and the well wishes.

First was the Strawberry Farm which had a generous amount of formaldehyde in it, then the apple wine from the same people got real popular. It had an even higher percentage of formaldehyde. You really were pickled when you drank that stuff!

You step out of a cold dry air conditioned bar and hit the hot humid night, instant hurl! Vomit was everywhere. I had my turn. When I had enough of that stuff I swore off wine of all kinds and have never drank any in the roughly fifty years afterwards!

Another story, involves a long dead friend. Lawrance was a year older and was the one that introduced me to the cheap winee. We were going canoeing so he spent the night at my house to get an early start. Earlier than I thought. We bought five bottles of the strawberry, sixty-nine cents a bottle!

As dawn cracked the next morning I was up at the first sound of the alarm. Lawrence just wanted to roll over and die. That embalming fluid and the amount of sugar in those wines tended to have that effect. "Come on dude, time to put the canoe in the river!" Beautiful day for his first day on the river and the pint of whiskey dropped in the ice water soon restored his spirits. Something to be said for the hair of the dog, or at least more alcohol. Postponing the inevitable but we were young and healthy.

Later, working construction in the brutal 100 degree plus heat of the petro-chem plants it was easy to sort the wine drinkers from the beer drinkers. The wine drinkers dropped like flies in that heat, beer drinkers just sweated more. Almost got fired one morning. I was working at 175 feet. The water was on the second floor.

I had done my usual, drank and shot pool until after midnight, a few hours sleep, up at four to go to work. I was dry and drank plenty of water before the climb. Got to the deck I was working on and I was dry as a popcorn fart after that climb. Back down for water five minutes into the day. First person I ran into on the second floor was my superintendent. He wasn't pleased! Drank more water, climbed up again, dry again. I decided to live with it a couple hours. I was making nine and a nickel an hour plus three dollars a day travel, union construction wages at the time. Big money for an eighteen year old.

Hu
 

mfinkelstein3

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Rooting for Cris

Wishing Cris all the best to beat this Covid thing. Boone’s Farm Apple wine was the best though.
 

alstl

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Sorry to hear your friend has the covid. My Mom is 94 and had it last month but never had any symptoms and is fine.


I'll say a prayer for your friend.
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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thank you!

Sorry to hear your friend has the covid. My Mom is 94 and had it last month but never had any symptoms and is fine.


I'll say a prayer for your friend.


My cousin Chris has a ticker that isn't the best and no doubt his lungs are a bit compromised by a lifetime in auto body shops. An issue I have that never goes away. I had four little nodules in my lungs last year. Going take a CT test tomorrow and see a doctor if I don't see Sally first to see if they are all being have and I don't have any new ones.

Somebody said that getting old isn't for sissies. They were right!


Hu
 

Johnny Rosato

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Good story with a sad ending, but it ain't over yet.
Prayers for Chris' full and speedy recovery, then y'all go play some!
 

ShootingArts

Smorg is giving St Peter the 7!
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You are right!

Good story with a sad ending, but it ain't over yet.
Prayers for Chris' full and speedy recovery, then y'all go play some!

It ain't over until it is over and I have seen a prayer fix do the job when nothing else could. I saw a prayer circle of hunters and outdoorsmen pull off three saves at almost the same time. One was a twelve year old girl with a superaggressive cancer. They told her parents to ready themselves, she had two to three weeks at most. She grew up and the last I knew was happily married with several children! Can't dismiss the power of prayer even if we don't understand it.

Looks like you are going to get a pretty big piece of the storm. I am sure you know the usual routines but take care of yourself and holler if you need help!

Hu
 

TATE

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Best wishes for your cousin Chris, Hu. Praying for a miracle of modern medicine.
 

alstl

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My cousin Chris has a ticker that isn't the best and no doubt his lungs are a bit compromised by a lifetime in auto body shops. An issue I have that never goes away. I had four little nodules in my lungs last year. Going take a CT test tomorrow and see a doctor if I don't see Sally first to see if they are all being have and I don't have any new ones.

Somebody said that getting old isn't for sissies. They were right!


Hu

I used to live near an asbestos plant in St Louis. All of the men who worked there and their wives died from mesothelioma.

Problem is when they were working there nobody told them asbestos would do that to their lungs. Sounds like body shops are similar.
 
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