It was a cool, pre-Halloween evening as we gathered outside the Clark Street Station, and everyone seemed to be muttering the same statement, said with a certain dread in their voice: Dave Long-I hope to hell it isn't. Of course, waiting in the haunting shadows of the ever-dying St. George Hotel two weeks prior to Halloween, added to the fact that Dave Long looks a bit like Nosferatu (and does, in fact, admit to being the Grim Reaper), didn't make any of us feel any better. We all agreed that he must have brought Lesley along for window dressing, hoping he would have a less ghoulish image alongside her Scottish sensibilities.
Much to the surprise of the thirteen of us who ran, the trail was both well-marked and a reasonable length, though as Janet commented later, it seemed as if we were out longer than we actually were. That was probably because we made numerous sloped circles, starting a the Promenade, down through DUMBO, encircling the bases of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges as if we were a homeless family looking for a place to land for the night. (Or the Grim Reaper looking for dinner.) We eventually came back out to Court Street, across Atlantic Avenue, and on to - Sparky's again? No - surprise - to Cody's!
At the On-In, Janet informed me that she and Jean Minnie Brew, her new On-Sec sister, had a miscommunication, and still had not produced a writeup of the AGM run. I told her I ultimately take responsibility for such matters, as the Hash Officer lives that presently plague their existence were all ultimately my creations, like Lestat created Louis and Claudia and company in Anne Rice's novels. It was Jer who ultimately created John, Janet, Jean, and Paul's cursed lives of Brooklyn hash royalty, just as Keith created mine. (That would make Keith the equivalent of Lestat's creator, Magnus, an ancient, mad alchemist of the Middle Ages who allowed himself to be bitten by the vampire curse and willingly give up his human soul in order to gain great power and wealth while living in a world with no sun. Wait a minute, how much do we really know about Keith's background, and did anyone really ever see him in the sunlight? That would also explain creating the Rumson Hash. Of course, Janet did have the previous Brooklyn writeup, so all was well.
Down-downs were done for the hares and three Brooklyn virgins, Debbie and John, and Cree. Cree later discussed life in the publishing business with Janet, who informed him such experiences would be helpful on a return trip to Brooklyn, at which point he could be a guest scribe. Being new to hashing, Cree has obviously been influenced by his experiences on the city hash, and doesn't realize that in most hashes discussing your occupation is generally considered taboo. The only old-time hasher I ever remember openly discussing his occupation was, ironically, Elephant Dick from Rumson, who happens to be in charge of a large New Jersey wildlife waterfront area where people are know to walk around unclothed. And, being able to find Elephant Dick at work would be important for any hasher, if they felt a sudden need for advice on doing a butt-crack down-down from their own ass.
I actually had two separate occasions where female hashers from Pittsburgh asked me my occupation, but that was undoubtedly because we were deep in the dark woods at the time, and since they knew I was from Brooklyn, they were afraid I did something sick (for a living) like being a porn producer, a drug peddler, or a corporate attorney. I should mention Arianne also did a down-down for being so angry at her boss that when she sublimated her frustration into running the trail, she broke the Brooklyn BH3 speed barrier, almost running down Hardy. If I were her boss I would check my candy apples and popcorn balls at Halloween.
Later in the evening we found out Dave Long had stayed until the 15th inning at the previous night's NYC On-In in the Bronx, and had originally planned a run into Red Hook. He and Lesley and Peter appeared to be settled in for another long night when the rest of us left. Though Joint Master John O'Connor was MIA for the evening (I guess one of those Halloween spooks got the best of him), I knew he would be grinning when I told him how Lesley handed me a $10 bill for hash cash at the end of the evening - a first for an On-In at Cody's that included food. (Note to Arianne: next hare to have an On-In at Cody's has to see if they can also get French Fries!) Trick or Treat time was getting near, but this time the Grim Reaper just grinned and gave us all a treat in run number 181.
| www.hashhouseharriers.com | aol alternate site | e mail to webdom@hashnyc.com |
|---|