RANDOM PHOTO

Ole intenseguy hooked me up with another little chore. I have to pick out a random picture from my computer and talk about it...so here goes.

http://intenseguy.blogspot.com/

This is a picture of me during .....the summer of my 24Th year. I was working in Portland, Oregon at the 101 Club. I think that was the name of it. It was right on the corner.Doors opened into the bar just like the old swinging doors on saloons in the West. It was I think 2 doors down from the Seaman/Longshoreman's Union Office. Where the sailors and longshoreman(I'm not sure if it was both of them...it's been a long time folks.) would go to pick up their checks..Which meant if they took a right and went down 2 doors there I was..If they took a left and went down about 6 doors there was a bar ran by a Greek family. Let me tell ya...that Jackie was a whole lot prettier than those Greek guys. So we got all the drunk sailors.

I had a swamper(he's the guy that cleans the toilets, floors, tables etc.)named Boston Blackie. He was about 5 feet tall, had a thick accent. I never could figure out where he was from. Some days he sounded like he was from Ireland, some days he sounded like he was from Baaaaston. But considering he drank 2-3 bottles of Muscatel a day I was always happy just to be able to understand him at all. He was also trusted to get me change and put change in the parking meter for my car. I could give him $100 to go get change and he'd be right back with the change. But we had to lock the cabinets to the booze every night or he'd drink it all. It wasn't locked up like a wooden covered cabinet, it was a gated cabinet with a lock..wasn't wide enough for you to put a hand through...but it was wide enough for Boston Blackie to hook up enough straws together and stick them down the pour spouts of the booze to drink enough to get stoned drunk. I came to work one morning and the doors were wide open..I was afraid someone had broken in the bar and hurt Blackie. I rushed in and there was the tin garbage can and the only thing I could see was two size 10 black high top tennie shoes sticking out. He'd passed out and fell asleep in the garbage can.The sad thing is, the only holes big enough for him to stick the straws in were the liquor's. So he drank all the Japanese Plum Brandy, Kahlua, Triple Sec, Galliano, White and Green Creme De Cocoa, and half a bottle of tequila mix, before he figured out it wasn't booze. He was sicker than anyone I have ever seen be sick before in my life. There were puddles of barf all over the place. The men's and women's bathroom both, behind the bar, on tables, all over his clothes. Oh you can't believe the smell. I wanted to jerk his skinny little ass out of that garbage can and make him start cleaning the mess up, but I felt so sorry for him I just made coffee and tried to make him better. He kept saying :"I'm so sorry Miss Jackie, I just couldn't resist all them lovely bottles."...or at least I think that's what he said. I know he drank 2 full pots of coffee before he could keep down one cup. I loved working at that place. Every day was an adventure. It was 2 blocks from skid row. There were wino's(Boston Blackie being one) every where. Some were just on the street every day begging for change for booze. Some like Blackie worked and had a place to live. We didn't have a kitchen there but I would make big pots of stew, chili and make lasagna etc. and bring it down for me and everyone. I worked from 8am to 5pm and I'm searching my memory and I don't think there was place to eat around there. But I was also cheap and the idea of buying lunch didn't sit with me. So I probably brought food because I didn't want to spend the money. The first thing Lu Ann(the night bartender) and I did was make friends with the beat cops. We depended on them to come haul out drunk sailors if they got to rowdy for us to handle. I think I only had to call them once..everyone seemed to know I was young, dumb and a tad naive. One time Lu Ann came in drunk. I thought oh shit, she's never going to be able to go to work at 5 if she's drunk at 1pm. So I figured if she was going to be drunk, so was I so I started drinking, and making her more drinks. By 5pm she and I were both drunk. No one knew how to get in touch with our boss and we were to drunk to give a fuck. We were drunk and working...I still don't know how we managed to finish out the shift. I think we fell asleep on the bar after we closed it down at midnight. Once they were pouring concrete out front for a new side walk, and we wrote out names on the side walk. The beat cops came by and said what we did was a crime and put us in handcuffs and put us in the paddy wagon and took our asses to jail.(We were drunk) the bar was wide open, and people were making their own drinks and putting money on the back bar for their drinks. After about an hour they brought us back. We thought that was so much fun. Our boss was so pissed I thought he was going to fire us both. But the customers raised so much hell he couldn't.

We had some 'ladies' that came in a lot.
They were very entertaining. Most of them were in their 50-60's, but they weren't adverse to a little sex among sailors for $20. There was a residential Hotel around the corner and they would run up there for a quickie and come back and spend the money on drinks and tip us girls. So..that's the story or at least part of the story around that picture. The day that picture was taken was when Lu Ann and I got hand cuffed and tossed into the paddy wagon. Ah, the good ole days.