I went on a week long vacation to Freeport in the Bahamas on Lucaya Beach in the early 1980's. I was there on a package tour from TNT vacations that included air and hotel.
The manager of the hotel hosted a cocktail party for our tour in the hotel ballroom with complimentary rum punch and assorted snacks. For entertainment they had a game of musical chairs set up and asked for about twenty volunteers to participate in the game with the prize for the winner being a bottle of champagne.
Musical chairs involves walking as a group single file around and around a line of chairs while they have music playing and then sitting in one of the available chairs when the music stops. There is always one more person than the amount of chairs so that the person who doesn't have a chair to sit in is eliminated from the game and then the game continues with one less chair and so on until you are left with one chair and two people and the winner is the person who is sitting in the final chair.
I entered the musical chair festivities. They started playing some calypso music and then of course stopped the music and we were on our way through the elimination process. I used to be a drummer so I started to pick up a pattern of how long each music session was before the break to scramble for a seat as they played the music for approximately the same amount of time before each pause. Most people during the contest would move forward towards the first available empty chair they found.
The game continued and a couple of times I pulled out the "reverse pivot" move which is when you pivot and sit in the chair in back of you instead of going for the chair in front. I ended up being the "last man sitting" and won the bottle of champagne. That was fun and I always get a kick out of champagne.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
"TIME OUT"
Back in 1972 & 1973 when I was attending Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio my friend Jim Byrne and I used to walk down to downtown Marietta for "happy hour" at the Time Out Tavern on Friday afternoons before dinner.
The "Time Out" was located off of one of Marietta's brick paved streets and was located below street level. There was a sign in front of the "Time Out" of a zebra striped referee signaling time out. After climbing down the stairs you entered a dimly lit bar with tables. Each table had a bowl of salted peanuts in the shell. I remember wearing an army jacket to the bar and filling my pockets with the salted peanuts for dormitory snacks later in the week. The beer of choice at the "Time Out" was Stroh's beer which is "America's only fire brewed beer". Stroh's beer jingo was "from one beer lover to another Stroh's beer." The Stroh's beers were called 3.2 beers as the alcohol percentage in Ohio for 18 year old students like ourselves was less than a "typical" beer which has around 6 percent alcohol. I can remember going back to Connecticut for the holidays and drinking a "regular" beer and being amazed at how powerful a regular beer was in comparison to the 3.2 beers.
The "Time Out" was generally not too crowded when Jim and I started going there. We spread the word about the wonders of the "Time Out" and over time we were able to increase the number of students who went there for "happy hour."
One afternoon they had a beer drinking contest at the "Time Out" hosted by one of the Stroh's beer representatives. I entered the contest (a chugging contest) at the bar which consisted of standing in front of a full glass of beer and then after the signal to start, raising the glass up to your lips, drinking the beer as fast as you could, then flipping the empty glass over onto the bar.
I won this contest as I analyzed that the quickest way to finish was to bend your knees while drinking the beer during the contest to reduce the distance that the glass had to travel when you flipped over the glass. The contest was close and sounded like pop,pop,pop,pop,pop,pop,pop,pop as people finished their beer. As mentioned, I was the first "pop" and won a beer mug in addition to the free beer in the contest.
Yes, the "Time Out" was a good timeout from the rigorous academic schedule we students faced during each week of studying and learning.
The "Time Out" was located off of one of Marietta's brick paved streets and was located below street level. There was a sign in front of the "Time Out" of a zebra striped referee signaling time out. After climbing down the stairs you entered a dimly lit bar with tables. Each table had a bowl of salted peanuts in the shell. I remember wearing an army jacket to the bar and filling my pockets with the salted peanuts for dormitory snacks later in the week. The beer of choice at the "Time Out" was Stroh's beer which is "America's only fire brewed beer". Stroh's beer jingo was "from one beer lover to another Stroh's beer." The Stroh's beers were called 3.2 beers as the alcohol percentage in Ohio for 18 year old students like ourselves was less than a "typical" beer which has around 6 percent alcohol. I can remember going back to Connecticut for the holidays and drinking a "regular" beer and being amazed at how powerful a regular beer was in comparison to the 3.2 beers.
The "Time Out" was generally not too crowded when Jim and I started going there. We spread the word about the wonders of the "Time Out" and over time we were able to increase the number of students who went there for "happy hour."
One afternoon they had a beer drinking contest at the "Time Out" hosted by one of the Stroh's beer representatives. I entered the contest (a chugging contest) at the bar which consisted of standing in front of a full glass of beer and then after the signal to start, raising the glass up to your lips, drinking the beer as fast as you could, then flipping the empty glass over onto the bar.
I won this contest as I analyzed that the quickest way to finish was to bend your knees while drinking the beer during the contest to reduce the distance that the glass had to travel when you flipped over the glass. The contest was close and sounded like pop,pop,pop,pop,pop,pop,pop,pop as people finished their beer. As mentioned, I was the first "pop" and won a beer mug in addition to the free beer in the contest.
Yes, the "Time Out" was a good timeout from the rigorous academic schedule we students faced during each week of studying and learning.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
YouTube - Crowd Rain Chant Woodstock 1969
YouTube - Crowd Rain Chant Woodstock 1969 I see you Rick O'Brien
OUT STANDING
In 1969 I was a freshman at Simsbury High School in Connecticut. One of my friends and classmates was Rick O'Brien. Rick was immortalized in the movie Woodstock as he attended this legendary concert event held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre farm in Bethel, New York from August 15-18, 1969 along with over half a million people during the "summer of love". Rick attended this event with his two older brothers.
Rick was captured in the movie when this camera was panning through the muddy crowd where people were shown running and then sliding through the mud. He was dressed in shorts with a rain hat on and his hands in his pockets as the camera went by his location in this muddy field.
When the movie came out a group of my friends went to the local movie theatre and we all said,"Hey, there's Rick O'Brien."
Rick did well in school and had a 4.00 average in the high school honors program. He later attended Harvard. I'm sure to this day he is outstanding in his field just as he was out standing in the muddy Woodstock field in the summer of '69.
Rick was captured in the movie when this camera was panning through the muddy crowd where people were shown running and then sliding through the mud. He was dressed in shorts with a rain hat on and his hands in his pockets as the camera went by his location in this muddy field.
When the movie came out a group of my friends went to the local movie theatre and we all said,"Hey, there's Rick O'Brien."
Rick did well in school and had a 4.00 average in the high school honors program. He later attended Harvard. I'm sure to this day he is outstanding in his field just as he was out standing in the muddy Woodstock field in the summer of '69.
Friday, February 6, 2009
WINTER AT THE BEACH
Winter at the beach in Dennis Port on Cape Cod, Mass.No one swimming today for some reason.
A LITTLE "QUIZIE"
I was over my friend Bill DeMallie's house one day back in 1971 when I was a junior at Simsbury High School. Bill's older brother Jay who was attending the University of New Hampshire was home on a break and told us the following:
Jay was in his biology class and the professor said, "OK class, today we are going to have a little "quizie" to see how well you are understanding this material." The quiz was previously unannounced (a pop quiz) and apparently fairly difficult.
After the "quizie" was over; one of the college girls in the class said, "If that is one of your little "quizies" I'd like to see one of your little "testies".
Jay was in his biology class and the professor said, "OK class, today we are going to have a little "quizie" to see how well you are understanding this material." The quiz was previously unannounced (a pop quiz) and apparently fairly difficult.
After the "quizie" was over; one of the college girls in the class said, "If that is one of your little "quizies" I'd like to see one of your little "testies".
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