Friday, January 19, 2007

...And all around mad eyes are rolling

I just keep flashing back to my trip back to the home town. I think i'm suffering from culture shock. The people, the decay, the gray. The unfriendly eyes wondering who i was and what was I doing in "their" bar or on "their" streets. They used to be my streets, and i guess in some strange way, i hoped that people would remember me in some small way.

I mean, most of the 35+ crowd would have remembered partys at my house for my HS thru college years and my sister carried the torch for a few years after that. Even if they didn't attend them, they were on the recieving end of hear-say about the activities that went on and if the police showed up. They were famous years, good years, blurry drunken years.

Maybe that's the issue. It has been a good 15 years since the last party and if observation serves me right, people haven't stopped getting blurry. Just judging from who i saw out on the town last Saturday and even last November when i was home for my cousin's wedding. Take Dwyer's Irish Pub. Formally a bit of a hole in the wall, now a larger hole in the wall that from the outside looked reformed and, dare i say it, urban metro. They must have some serious brawls on the weekend judging from the bouncer to patron ratio. 2 at the door and i think i counted 3 roamers. People must really get it on and get roudy after a week of the grind. Here in Colorado, a bar of equal stature on a Saturday night would register 1 skinny bloke at the door checking IDs and 2-3 bartenders dealing the local fare. That in itself is a selling point for the west. Come experience the mellow blurriness in reletive safety.

N. Tonawanda is home to a good class of blue collar worker and educator. It always reminds me of the Prancing Pony scene in LOTR. People getting blurry. People trying to forget. People trying to get out but having tights bonds to their family and not being able to get away.

I know a few who've succeeded and those who get out but get sucked back in like a dull addiction. Nothing like shooting a needle full of hopelessness and gray into your vein every now and again. Don't get me wrong, I like to go home and see the relatives that grew up in a town that was triving in the 60's and early 70's, but they have a tempered depression about them if you bring up the town. They are all retiring and moving to the country to spend their days in isolation, perhaps remembering when they too were known throughout the county for whatever they were known for.

I need a drink.


Wednesday, January 17, 2007

My Balony Has A First Name...

I have returned successfully from Buffalo NY and have renewed ties with family that i've lost and/or neglected. We also hit a couple of bars and renewed reasons why I left the greater Buffalo area for the, while extemely cold and upleasant right now, sun and mentally sound Metro Denver Area. We drank in excess and played dominoes until the witching hour. We payed tribute to the passing of my grandmother and linked up with a couple of good friends.
We ate venison and cheese sausage for god's sake.

A few months ago, some of our friends relocated to the UK (North London area) for work and were given a disclaimer that needed to be read and signed regarding the culture and climate of the area they were headed to. It included a little statute about the weather bringing on depression and if they were prone to this mental weakness, it was probably not the place to go.
My dear readers, i place before you the main reason you should not go to buffalo for and extended stay. Gray, gray, gray and the people mirror the weather. More meatheads than a big 10 football school and attitude to match.

The Hot Toddy and I are rather happy-go-lucky drunkards and when placed in social situations will make at least 2-3 friends durring the occasion. On Saturday night, we did just that and almost got beat up by some irrate young lady who was, no doubt, regretting not leaving the cozy hamlet of North Tonawanda upon completion of her primary education. she didn't want to be Hot Toddy's sister.............she didn't like it that i was laughing upon exiting the bathroom.......she didn't want to give up her 80's wardrobe. What gives? We met a trio of very nice folks at the corner bar at the top of my mom's street and i believe it stopped there. Like vampires, they didn't want their pictures taken and they were suspicious of our duo. We could have been DEA or FBI collecting information on how folks in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls suburbs spend their off hours. And at $1.25 for an 8oz Yengling why wouldn't you spend your time like this.