|
Date with fate post 49 - Knife on the family jewels
This entry was posted on 8/24/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
Rule number...., what the hell is the number of that rule?
Whatever the number, the content of the rule is, "Never fuck with an old salty bastard in a bar."
Back in 1983ish, Heide and I made a quick trip up from Dallas to see family and friends in Wisconsin. We still had our first jointly owned car, the Datsun 210 Hatchback. Those were the days I did not have any aversions to driving 1000 straight miles without sleep. Nowadays, I either just don't do it or it is a four-day ordeal if I do drive that far.
We blew into town and visited my parents on the farm out Whitewater way - the last time I would see the place as we owned it. Sandy the dog had died of old age; Uncle Art was in a nursing home..., his old house trailer dragged off to the junk yard. We then spun off to Heide's parents in Lake Geneva and I remember her Mom doting over our every need. Then it was off to visit one of Heide's bridesmaids Vickie and her boyfriend Rob who was a dog handler in the Army in Germany at the same time I was in the Army Engineers in Germany.
It was a whirlwind journey, but for two young adults in their mid 20s, it was right up our alley. I look back at those times with fondness now, even though at the time it was a harried era for us.
Then, it was time to make one last stop at the very place Heide and I met. The old bowling alley basement bar and nightclub/disco. All the usually suspects were there. Alcohol flowed and stories abounded. The Saturday night crowd bulged as the night lingered past midnight.
A bunch of former and current bouncers, and former and current bartenders were gaggled in a circle by the end of the bar. The old hallway to the bathrooms was adjacent to that area. Many a debauchery had incubated right in that very spot in my days as a bouncer and bartender.
People shuffled past us to the rest rooms. After a while an old salty gray-haired dude totally dressed in different era jeans and denim threads past us by to get to the rest room. He had a scruffy gray beard and he was shorter than all of us; maybe he was 40ish. Just as he passed, someone in our group finished a joke and as he staggered by me we all laughed at the punch line. I laughed a louder raucous laugh. The guy gave me an irritated bloodshot glance.
When old dude came back out of the bathroom hallway, he stopped in front of me and said, "You think laughing at old fuckers is funny...., Punk!" I felt a disturbance by my groin. When I looked down a dandy long shiny switch-blade was pressed against my family jewels.
Regardless of the aforementioned rule, the other important rule in life is, "If you pull a weapon, be sure and use it." Said perp hesitated. Wrong actions to take in a circle of lit up bouncers. Said old dude was expeditiously dragged feet first, up the back stairs with head banging on the steps the whole way.
But, a lesson was logged in my pea head that night...., by me. "Be careful what is around you when you act like a loud mouth."
.....the family jewels may be at stake.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Reserve Corporal Justin David Ross, 22, Green Bay, Wisconsin, died Saturday, March 26, 2011, in Sablughay, Kandahar province, Afghanistan. He was killed when his unit was attacked by small arms fire. He was assigned to the 428th Engineer Company, 863rd Engineer Battalion, 372nd Engineer Brigade, out of Wausau, Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said that Justin graduated from Bay Port High School in 2007. He was the son of a Green Bay pastor. Ross' Reserve Unit was deployed in August of 2010.
The Web site for WLUK-TV station channel 11 says Ross actually lived in the Village of Howard, Wisconsin which is in the southern part of the Green Bay metropolitan area.
The Green Bay Press Gazette notes that Corporal Ross' Engineer unit specializes in "route clearance." Combat Engineers are often the first soldiers to enter an area to clear land mines and booby-traps before other units move in.
The Web site legacy.com notes Ross was a Green Bay native. He had joined Army Reserves in 2006, a year before graduating from high school. He graduated from Universal Technical Institute in 2009. Ross was posthumously promoted to corporal.
The Web site gorapidsobituaries.com mentions Justin was born on September 14, 1988, in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. At the time of his death Army Reserve Corporal Justin Ross was survived by his parents Reverend Ronald and Debbie Ross; brother and sister-in-law Nathaniel and Kristi Ross; brother Collin Ross; nephew Joshua Ross; paternal grandparents the Reverend Robert and Roberta Ross; maternal grandparents David and Ruth Freeberg; and girlfriend Caitlyn Lewerenz.
Army Reserve Corporal Justin D. Ross was laid to rest which full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington Virginia. Army Reserve Corporal Justin Ross is the 29th Wisconsin military service person killed in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
102,174 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,478 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1745 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
939 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,172 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin Service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
13,316 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin Service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin Service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
34 Wisconsin Service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin Service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
149 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
