BootsnAll Travel Community

so the other week i came down with a bad head cold, missed all my classes that week and got all bummed and frustrated so i just packed my car and started driving.

ended up back in my little hometown near pittsburgh, pa. petted my dog, went to the bookstore like i always do to overload my mind with literature and ideas and watch people. when i got home a buddy of mine from high school was happening by and we got to talking.

we had chatted several times this past year, although for years we had lost touch. it ended up his car had gotten the royal treatment from the flooding caused by the hurricane a few weeks ago, so he was restless and going out of his mind in our little sleepy town, sans wheels.

the next day we decided to get out and do something. we spent some time walking around the same roads that we had biked on together ten years ago. roads that looked incredibly different on foot as opposed to flying down them on my car. the grocery store was totally foreign. my travels around the US have taught me about Albertson's and Ingle's and Hannaford's and Kroger's and a bunch of other regional grocery chains, but this small Giant Eagle seemed like a tiny little farmers market, filled with people i most likely used to know but long forgot.

that night we decided to go out and shoot some pool and hit up some bars. i never knew there was a poolhall in one of the PGH suburbs, although i past it every time i went to the aforementioned bookstore. we shot 8-ball for an hour or two as i casually smoked american spirits and watched the young couples and high schoolers who couldn't get into bars shoot the balls around the tables. the jukebox was kicking out led zeppelin and the doors and i was totally digging on the music and reveling in satori every time i made a challenging side pocket shot.

so we left the poolhall and drove up to a bar i never knew existed although i had driven past it many times before. a pearl jam cover band was playing, and the music and atmosphere was great. i darted back and forth, listening to the band, talking to my buddy and some friends who went to my high school but who i couldn't remember at first, and flirting with the cute waitress handing out free bacardi shots. just the conversations that were had at the table between my buddy and our friends were more than could fit in a post. the place was packed and high energy, but soon our funds ran low. we decided to leave before we spent it all.

i suppose it was around 1am when we ended up in a tiny little beer-and-a-shot bar in our town. there were maybe 8 people in all in the bar, it was karaoke night after all. my buddy and i shot another round of pool and i watched the people who had drank far too much. a fight nearly broke out. and a bit later a BIG biker-looking guy was threatening sodomy on some poor drunk kid. an older gentleman with gray hair walked in shortly before closing time ordered a can of beer and a glass of whiskey. they were all regulars. i'm sure roughly the same thing happened every friday night, only i was there to witness the maddness that took place 3 blocks from my childhood home.

last call came at two a.m. arrangements were made to drive the inebriated back to their dwellings. the last cigarettes were smoked. i got in my car alone and drove it 3 blocks home.

seeing the strange in the familiar. i could've just experienced a foreign country and never known the difference. i suppose it's all in your perspective of life.

~P :-)

enjoyed the story! I have nothing like that so far to contribute, but nonetheless I enjoyed yours!