End Of An Era Saturday, October 18th. Of course I am spending the entire day with mixed emotions, sad about it being the last night there, excited about what might happen after hours, anxious that there might be random assholes breaking things and stealing shit because they think they can. I make a t-shirt for the evening, it says "to think of all that time I wasted when I could've been drinking at Fulton street" with a little drawing of mine on it of a dude chugging a beer. Ottie and I go and have a nice dinner, because its sort of a special occasion, and then I get to the bar at around 8 or so. Roy allowed Casey to set up the bar upstairs, and both have distributed ashtrays around. People are smoking up a storm, like the old days. There were only maybe ten people there at that time, but there was something heavy in the air that reeked of more than just cigarettes...there was a distinct feeling of anxiousness, as if even the air inside the bar was aware of the oncoming chaos, perhaps like how soldiers feel when preparing for battle, knowing that there will be a lot of fucked up shit that is going to happen, but not able to tell when or where or how it will blow up. Rene shows up, and starts preparing well 2 downstairs. Genea arrives, looking all hot and tarty as usual. Fawn swaggers in, looking impish and eager. Tarick sits down in his usual spot in the captains chair at the door, I take John with me upstairs and sit him on a stool right next to the bar flap so he will be within earshot of me and still be able to see the whole bar. Casey and I do the switch-off, he shows me what we have started to run out of and then. You ever have work dreams? The kind of dreams where you are running out of stuff, people are yelling at you for drinks, you cant get to them fast enough, they try to come behind your bar, they climb up on top of the bar to get your attention, they are like a sea of people, a massive tidal wave of waving arms and fistfuls of cash and pissed of because you cant get to them fast enough or don't have what they want. And that was only 10 o'clock. I took a step back, looked at all my taps that I had just blown, and removed the pulls from, so I had a very clear view of the ravenous, thirsty, sweaty crowd of people that I had no chance of serving fast enough. I grabbed the bottle of Jameson, turned off the music and screamed "I'm out of what you want so your gonna get what I give you!" and sucked on that pour spout like a little piglet attached to a swollen teat. At one point, I popped all the tops off my bottles of beer and started holding them up, and whoever held out their hands fast enough were the ones who got them. Three cases in less that 5 minutes. Somebody asked me for lemon drops. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I said. fuck them, what are they gonna do, never come back to Fulton? Another request for a martini. "no!" I saw Jessica and Justin off to the side, holding some money and sheepishly trying to get my attention. I grabbed her arm and said, "go ahead and grab whatever you want for yourself." she was thrilled to be behind the bar. Jimbo and Mia and Jonny from toronado, Andy and a whole boatload of people were right behind Jess and Justin. I grabbed Jimbo and told him "go ahead and grab whatever you want.". "It feels like home.", he said. The fucker still tipped me, even though I didn't serve him! Joe Lee said he was sitting at the end of my bar for forty five minutes, middle finger in the air, and I looked right through him about five times. I felt like a dick. somebody asked for two pacificos, and all I had left were pilsners or taddy porters or some shit, whatever I could get from downstairs. "This is what yer drinkin!" and I slammed the beers down. Monkey was right there and started laughing hysterically. It got to the point where I had "beer" or "booze", and that was it. And that was 11 o clock. I finally had to take a step back amidst all the insanity, and say to myself, "fuck it, there is nothing I can do, I cant serve these people fast enough, or give them what they want, or...you know what? FUCK THEM!!!" and I grabbed the Jameson bottle again and sucked on that fucker like a ho trying to get every last penny out of her rich john. I turned the music off again and screamed "if you want a fucking drink, bring me glassware!" Matt, a regular, brought up a bunch of glasses and said "I should get a free drink for that!", I said "you have to suck my dick for a free drink!" That's when I heard Ottie's voice. See, I didn't think she was going to show up. She hated Fulton street, and was leaving the next day to Seattle. So when I heard her yell "I think your girlfriend would have a problem with that!" was Probably one of the most embarrassing moments that I had. Even more so than when she caught me on top of a table at crowbar screaming at the top of my lungs "born with a tail" with Ken next to me at Bill's going away party. And that was midnight. She hopped behind the bar and started pouring drinks for me, washing glasses, she's a real angel. so I grabbed the bottle of Jameson again and, well, you know how I must have sucked on that fucker with Ottie next to me.... Then it was one o'clock. Between one and two it was a bit hazy, if you could only imagine. Then it was about three o'clock. There are about fifty people in the bar, most of them I don't know, all of them downstairs. I am sitting in the dark in a booth against the windows. John is sitting at my bar, with whatever beer I had left at that point, making sure that no one came upstairs and got in front of the windows because of all the cops outside. Then it was about four o'clock. I finally went downstairs. madness. mayhem. people I don't know behind the bar down there. I go downstairs and recognize about 8 of the fifty people still running around, and decide to call a cab, and get the fuck out while the getting the fuck out was good. Hugged a bunch a people, shook a bunch of hands, and slipped out quietly. That was about 5:30 in the morning. From what I hear, the people from Albertsons on their lunch breaks
saw people stumble out of Fulton street, but that is unconfirmed.
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