 
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 98
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 7:37 pm: |    |
should've posted this earlier. now I cannot find the thread. a letter of sorts I wrote a friend. forgive my misspellings {I've little regard for King's English}. Also, I am not affiliated with ANY political party, unless "stone free" happens to be one. Enjoy this tale of woe and kookery!
“Hey, Before I finish this last cup of coffee and hit the shower, I wanna tell you the story of the St. Pat's Parade. I meant to write last night, I was so excited, but I was also sort of distracted and a bit drunk. Not hammered by any stretch, but not feeling much pain. Fist of all, yesterday was nearly a total bust, weather-wise. I mean, I was actually getting pretty pissed off at all the weather forecaster's who said "nothing but sun, sun, sun today!" Yeah right. It was overcast, slightly windy, and slightly chilly all day long, until about sunset. I wasn't even planning on going, and if I had planned on going, I would've taken the kids so that they could see something different and cool. As it turns out, I went over to Kelly's to drop off an old CD that was among my bits and pieces of things that aren't really mine, and gave it to her. Her and John was going down to the parade, and so was I. I tried fending off the wicked beast, but in the end, capitulated, figured 'what the hell', and told them I would accompany. Now, the little trick that I played on myself to ensure that I wouldn't go on a tear was that I would get a transfer bus ticket. Transfers are good for 3 hours, so I could see the parade, have a couple beers, and then have a very good excuse to split and get back homewards. The Michigan Ave. 200 line is diverted just the western side of the freeway down there, so it's a bit tricky to catch the #200 during parade day. Kelly was already hammered. I mean really. Anyways, we catch the bus and get off just the other side of Corktown, and beat feet through the streets to old Tiger Stadium and watched the parade for about an hour and a half. Here's an interesting observation. Many Detroit High Schools and such were part of the parade. Kinda funny to see a bunch of black kids marching in the St. Patricks parade, but as I heard someone nearby comment, it's a Detroit thing. And yes, it is. Anyways, you should have seen the Cooley High band. Man were they friggin' good. Really. Their costumes were outstanding, shiny blue sequins, cut in mischievous ways about the legs and thighs. The cymbal players weren't just clanging the brass things together in beat. No, they were doing this jazzy sort of high-hat shimmy, syncopated and everything. Man were they good. Well, we all began to get cold. My ire had built and I pretty much gave up on the "nothing but sun" forecast. I demanded, or rather insisted, that we go to Lager House, to the howling and drunken slurring of Kelly's protesting because she wanted to go to the bar where "the bag-pipers go to". I don't know what the hell she was talking about, her sense of directions was all messed up. This is when I told to John, "Hey man, she's all yours. I'm lookin' out for number one." Well, I went to the Lager House, bought a can of Bud, and just kinda hung out and mingled a bit. John came up to me with a message - "Kelly is demanding that you come with us, or she aint going." I says, "Look. I'm staying here. You better keep and eye on her and watch out for her." See, John doesn’t drink, and he's about six foot eight. I stayed in the safe and familiar place of Lager House and had a second can of Bud. Eventually I asked somebody could they tell me the time. It was 4:40. Uh-oh. My transfer expires at 5:20. I better beat it. It's not that I was broke, I could afford a new bus ticket, but I definitely had to get back here to call my bro from the gas station pay phone. I'd be a real piece of crap if I called him up late at night in a stupor, ya know. I was motivated. So I hit the crowded sidewalks of Michigan Avenue. People were all over the place. Cans, trash, brick dust, and dirt filled the curbsides and every step I took found my foot kicking a can, or kicking up some dirt, or a potato chip bag. I seen this one family, they were packing up all their stuff, and the guy was picking up their trash. I stopped and said to him that that was pretty nice for him to pick up his own crap, and thanked him. The lines just to get into the Gaelic League, Nemo's, and all the other places were rediculuos. Must've been at least a hundred people in line at each. Little party’s were going on all over the place. All the Detroit Police were out also. They, of all people, they were super-cool, they wasn't bothering anybody except to occasionally blare a siren and tell people to "get back to the curb". I don't think there were any problems. Well, I'm usual to stop at random places to strike up a conversation with someone, but not today because I know that the farther I walk, and the more the crowd dissipates, I may just find myself in more hostile surroundings. So I got on my game face. Black shoes, black jeans, black winter coat, my camouflage hunter's hat. Walkin' slow, walkin' cool, face forward, undistracted. Mind is thinking...... ... . .. Two figures I spot about half a click in front of me. They are carrying six large kitchen trash bags of aluminum cans to return to a store. They are struggling. They have stopped walking for a moment to reposition. I think real quick, do a really super-quick dress-down of these two, as best I could, and made my snap decision. "Hey!", I shout, "Gimme a bag, I'll help ya out." They were slightly shady, one a hispanic and the other a lanky white boy. They don't know me, I don't know them. But at least I'm not walking alone. All the crowds are gone now. Not a party in sight. No people crowding the street. I turn around and look back to the other side of the freeway overpass and see the old Ren Cen stretching up into the, ahem, CLOUDY sky. We walk. Man, my back probably weighed fifteen or twenty pounds. I make some conversation with the hispanic. The white kid wasn't too talkative, but he was quick to laugh at little jokes and stuff that I'd say. We continue to walk. And walk. And walk. "Where the hell you taking these?" I ask. The guy says, "first store we see." Heh. The first store we seen was a good mile and a half from where I intercepted them. We walk up to the store front and drop all our bags on the sidewalk. "Well boys, I'm gonna buy a pack of smokes and then I gotta split and catch my bus." The party store offered these guys a dollar for all their cans. So they picked their bags back up and carried on their way, but they rested about five minutes, so I was well ahead of them and would see them again in about 20 minutes. Funny thing, I hadn't noticed a Smart bus going in either direction. Hmm. I walk. And walk. Finally, up in the distance I see something orange hanging from a post. My eyes are kinda bad. Could it be? Yes! It is! It's the Smart sign. Yee ha! I just might make my transfer after all. So I stand and waited. And waited. And waited. I see my former compadres cross Michigan Avenue to the other side of the street. They have found a shopping cart. I chided them a little bit previously by telling them that the next time they undertake such a task, they should obtain a cart or something. Boy did they agree with THAT! And they continued on their way. I assumed they was going to the mexican shopping market about a quarter mile up the street. I wait. And wait. "WTF?", I begin to wonder. Then my bladder needed relieved. Wow, this is getting pretty interesting. I take one last glance back towards downtown to make sure that a bus isn't coming and dart into this mom and pop restaurant. Oh boy, I am now one of THEM. "Excuse me. Do you guys have a restroom I can use?" I was totally surprised when I was pointed in the direction of the restroom. Back out on the street. Man. I hate waiting too long for a bus. I know that the stops are every 1/8 mile. I risk being passed by the bus as I'm walking to the next stop. This is a difficult decision. But ya know what? I just had to at least keep moving in the direction I wanted to go, so I hit it. I learned something. The Smart bus stops towards the downtown area are spaced about quarter mile apart. I really begin to get concerned. For sure my transfer has expired by now. I'm starting to get a bit wore out to boot. I finally see another orange Smart sign, just up the street from Junction. I imagine my friends to have successfully cashed in their cans and purchased a twelve pack of beer. That's what they were working so hard for. Too funny! At the bus stop is an older black man and we chat a bit, both of us wondering where in hell the bus is. Neither one of us had seen one going in either direction. I know that the Sunday/Holiday bus schedule runs them about once an hour, and I am certain that I've been on the street for more than an hour. Maybe they are doing some kind of shift change that disrupts the schedule. I don't know. We are both quite glad when we see the barracuda headlights of a bus coming our way. "Is that the Smart or the D Dot?", I ask. Well, it really wouldn't matter either way because all the Michigan Ave. buses go to Fairlane. Well, it was a Smart, so now I won't have to do another transfer at Fairlane to get back home. I ask the bus driver "is it past 5:30?" He kinda chuckles and says, "man, it's quarter past six." So there's this huge conversation going on at the front of the bus. I'm giving a speech about money, and streetlights that are turned off, and of whole familie's living in abandoned homes with no electricity or running water, and then when you ask why they don't have a job, they say because they don't want to pay taxes and 300 bucks a year for bulk trash pickup, and then where is all that money going, and where is all that money SUPPOSED to be going? And I really want them to figure out who had the hit put on that stripper." Earlier at the parade a guy walks up to me with a clipboard. I usually tun away from such people. I forget his exact name, Ed something.... Ed Grug or something like that. He says, "Are any of you registered to vote in any of these districts?" He shows a map with colored districts. "I am", I says. "Well, my name is such-and-such and I an trying get enough signatures so that I can run for Congress for the 108th District. Would you sign my petition?" I thought for a second, and finally decided that, what the hell? Anybody trying to get into the Congress to try and help something, I'll at least give them a shot. So I signed. He goes on - "I am a Republican." This made me smile. I said, "right on." We talked a bit. When I was finished giving my little two cents, you know what he said to me? He says, "YOU the one should be running for Congress." Ha ha. Well.... I know that I am in a sort of minority and Kelly went bonkers. "You're a fucking republican!? I can't believe it! You ASS hole!" On like that. There was even a lady who had the audacity to go up to Kelly and give her a high five for berating me like that. Made me feel like a real gem. Some time passed. A young lady and her little boy took a seat on the curb near us. Kelly was still kinda going apeshit on me "I can't believe it! All this time, and your a fucking republican!" Well, this young lady who'd just sat down with her kid taps me on the leg and says to me "good for you." Now it was me who was getting high-fived. "These liberals are really very mean people at heart", I says. Well, we all laughed. I says to Kelly, "Look Kelly, we're good friends and we've been good friends because we don't discuss politics, in case you haven't noticed, so let's simply not talk politics, okay?" She agreed. Well, I was relieved to get off at SPOT X and SPOT Y. A guy got off with me and as we was beating feet down the street he asks if I got a smoke. I throw him a Marlboro. Walking right next to old Tiger Stadium was pretty cool. I must say, Del Ray, I think, has some of the most beautiful homes I've ever seen. I gotta get. Have a nice day. GG." |
Track75
Member
Username: Track75
Post Number: 2725
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 9:29 pm: | |
Moderator, please cross post to the "Solid Block of Text" thread. |
Bigb23
Member
Username: Bigb23
Post Number: 1809
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 9:44 pm: | |
Okay - now what? Oh - and what does ectasty go for now? |
Skylark
Member
Username: Skylark
Post Number: 53
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 9:54 pm: | |
Too many words! |
Sean_of_detroit
Member
Username: Sean_of_detroit
Post Number: 585
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:01 pm: | |
Ggores,
What I think everyone means is; please break your post down into easy to digest paragraphs. That is, if it's not to much to ask.
Thanks! |
Lilpup
Member
Username: Lilpup
Post Number: 4406
Registered: 06-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:06 pm: | |
perhaps it's part of Ggores' artistic style - conveying stream of consciousness
just highlight as you read lines if you're having trouble |
Rustic
Member
Username: Rustic
Post Number: 3252
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:19 pm: | |
track75 ... wrong website .... |
Irish_mafia
Member
Username: Irish_mafia
Post Number: 1295
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:33 pm: | |
Lilpup..does that mean you spent the time to read it?
What did he say? |
Track75
Member
Username: Track75
Post Number: 2726
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:40 pm: | |
Any port in a storm, rustic... |
Bigglenlake
Member
Username: Bigglenlake
Post Number: 14
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 10:41 pm: | |
Translation= I have too much time on my hands |
Ggores
Member
Username: Ggores
Post Number: 99
Registered: 10-2007
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 11:37 pm: | |
oy, I suppose a weblink is more ... accessible. fantastic. |
Lilpup
Member
Username: Lilpup
Post Number: 4410
Registered: 06-2004
| | Posted on Friday, May 30, 2008 - 11:51 pm: | |
He said his bus transfer expired and he came out to his friend Kelly as a Republican. |
Kid_dynamite
Member
Username: Kid_dynamite
Post Number: 555
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 11:20 am: | |
I think Tpontem's drunkard nephew is trying to make a name for himself. |
Bigglenlake
Member
Username: Bigglenlake
Post Number: 20
Registered: 05-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 11:30 am: | |
Holy sh-t K_D. You just made my day. |
Sean_of_detroit
Member
Username: Sean_of_detroit
Post Number: 597
Registered: 03-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 12:04 pm: | |
So.... that guy was mean to you because you were a Republican?
I had a young teenage neighbor who smashed my car up because I had a democrat sticker on it. She was really an odd person. The car was used, bumper sticker was on it when I got it.
So.... yeah.... that stinks Ggorges. |
Paulmcall
Member
Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 1086
Registered: 05-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 2:28 pm: | |
Gosh nice novel. |
Detroitrise
Member
Username: Detroitrise
Post Number: 2249
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 2:36 pm: | |
"Too many words!"
Agreed. 
"He said his bus transfer expired and he came out to his friend Kelly as a Republican."
So many words for such a simple story...
(Message edited by DetroitRise on May 31, 2008) |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 1369
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 7:48 pm: | |
Ggores, lay off the meth, please. |
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