The weather today again was sunny with spurts of black clouds full of rain and
gusts of wind. But the rainy weather didn’t stop me from being excited. I was
totally enthralled with the idea of staging the concert at UCSD, for I now believed I
finally had the means to do it. So I phoned my parents in Seattle to let them know
of my dream and my new career as a concert promoter.
I began the conversation by explaining to them that my dead brother Michael, the
one who always made us kids endlessly await his arrival on Christmas morning
before we could open our gifts, was attempting to keep me from completing my
travels around the world. He wanted to sing which he would do through me. I
believed he was the one who planted this dream in my head to have a concert at
UCSD in June.
"Furthermore," I explained to my parents, "my childhood neighbor and my
mother's good friend, Annette, who died of cancer a few years back, was fighting
with Michael because she wished for me to travel." Annette was the one who
planted the travel seed in me a few years back. When she was dying of cancer
she told me she was glad she had completed all of her traveling when she was
young, for now she had no regrets about being incapable of traveling. She told
me that if I wished to travel I should do it while I was young and free. Listening to
her wisdom, that was exactly what I had decided to do and was now doing.
Such talk worried my parents. I informed them that I was only speaking
figuratively. I had not actually seen Michael or Annette in any sense of reality and
that they shouldn't be worried about me. I was fine. In fact I felt great. I finished
talking with them by asking them to try and get the phone numbers of Marti, the
Sci-Fi artist from high school and Dana, my friend with the Seattle rock band.
After phoning my parents I began to work on my number one priority... finding a
bike for traveling around Jamaica. So, I phoned the seller of the bike I found
advertised in the Saturday newspaper. He planned to be home all day, so after
showering and eating a light breakfast with René, I hopped on a city bus which
took me within a few blocks of the bike seller's house.
On my walk from the bus stop to the seller's house I passed a young child sitting
in the morning sun in the front yard of his old house. He was rocking away happy
and content in an old rocking chair. I wanted to stop and take his picture but the
fear of embarrassment forced me to moved on.
I arrived at the house of the man selling the mountain bike and to my surprise, the
bike, a 21 speed Giant Iguana, appeared brand new. He in fact had told me he'd
only ridden the bike once. It sure looked it. After inspecting and test riding the
bike I bought it for only $250. He even had the receipt for the bike and it was only
a couple of months old. Coincidentally, he had purchased the bike from
International Bikes, the bike shop I went to on Friday night to price mountain
bikes. The seller also gave me his unused coupon for a free tune-up. So, the
first thing I planned to do with the bike was ride it over to International Bikes for
the free tune-up. I gathered my belongings and rode out on my new bike.
My mind was still thinking about the great photo opportunity I had passed up on
my way over. Overcoming my fear of embarrassment I rode on back to the house
where the young boy was rockin’ away. The boy was still there but no longer
rocking. He had moved the rocking chair and he was sitting in a different chair.
No matter, I offered him a dollar anyway if he would let me take his picture sitting
in the chair. He gladly accepted the honor (see picture). As I was readying to
leave he ran excitedly into his house waving his newly earned dollar in the air at hi
mom. As I rode away he and his mother waived good-bye from their front porch.
I waived good-bye back and headed off to the bike shop.
I arrived at the shop expecting only to get the free tune-up. As you will see I got
much more than that. The same young man Carlos, who showed me the bikes the
other night, greeted me upon my arrival. I showed him my new bike and I
explained that I purchased it from a fellow who had bought it from his shop only
two months ago. I asked if it would be a problem for me to get the free tune-up
that was coming.
He says, "Not a problem. In fact, I'll even give you the 10% discount on
accessories I promised you the other day."
So, while I waited for the tune-up, I was busy choosing all of the accessories I
needed in Jamaica. Occasionally I would ask Carlos for his assistance but I would
need to wait for his free moments between selling bikes to other customers.
Now, normally I might get upset having to wait. But not this day, not at this shop. I
don’t know if the shop was normally the way I saw it but this day it was a riot. So I
waited happily, even getting in on the fun Carlos was having with his customers.
For instance, one group of customers consisted of an excellent, model-like looking
long-legged, blonde-headed Caribbean airline flight attendant, her buffed out
fiancé and her father. The engaged couple was looking for a pair of bikes with
the father’s help and Carlos was giving the sales pitch.
Apparently, the girl and her fiancé had come into the shop a couple of days
earlier and looked at bikes for her. Carlos helped them on that day also but they
left without buying a bike because her fiancé got mad at her for talking too much
with Carlos. He was upset enough that he even left without her. As she left she
let Carlos know she would be in later to buy a bike from him just to spite her fiancé.
This day she brought her father to help her decide on a bike. Her fiancé stood
anxiously near the front door of the bike shop while Carlos showed her and her
father the bikes. She made her selection with her father's help and they
continued to talk with Carlos while the bike was being serviced. The girl's father
started joking within earshot of the fiancé that he wished for his daughter to marry
Carlos. The fiancé stormed out the door of the shop and the jokes begin to fly
freely after that. I had the chance to get my two cents in too. Before they left,
Carlos had sold a second expensive fully equipped bike, this one to the girl's
father. At least two out of the three of them were happy customers that day.
I continued my search for accessories, finding all of the items I would need in
Jamaica. My bike was tuned-up and I was ready to go. Several hours had passed
and I didn’t even notice. Having worked up a thirst I asked Carlos where I could
buy something to drink. He sent me to a convenience store across the street
where I bought a new Strawberry-Kiwi drink called ‘Snapple’ for him and myself.
I returned to the shop and gave Carlos his drink. Since he seemed like a nice, fun
guy and René and I had plans to head to Key West on Tuesday, I asked him if he
would like to go to Key West with us. He wished to go but he’d rather go
tomorrow. He explained that on Wednesday morning he was flying home to
Puerto Rico to visit his family. So I told him I would go back to the hostel and ask
René if he would rather go to the Keys tomorrow instead. I promised to call Carlos
back with the answer.
Then out of the blue Carlos asks me if I wished to go to Puerto Rico this
Wednesday with him for a week. He invited me to stay with him at his family's
house and all it would cost me is the $150 airfare.
I was a bit surprised at the invitation. I told him that I really wished to head to
Jamaica, since in my own mind I was already late in getting there. I had originally
planned to spend six months in Jamaica. If I went to Puerto Rico for a week, my
time in Jamaica would now be less than four months. So I told him I would call him
back about Key West and I would also let him know whether I would go to Puerto
Rico with him or not.
I arrived back at the hostel, and found René. The first words out of René’s mouth
were that he no longer wanted to go to Key West on Tuesday. He said that
Florida was too rainy for him so he was going to head to California earlier than he
had planned. So, Key West was out of the picture for him. And for me, that
opened the door to Puerto Rico.
I sat and thought about whether I should go to Puerto Rico or not. I came to the
conclusion, "What's one more week off of my stay in Jamaica and hey, it's another
place I can get under my belt and I just have to pay my air fare." So, I decided to
go to Puerto Rico with Carlos as long as I could fly for the same price he was
flying. I phoned him to let him know that I would go to Puerto Rico. Since René
wasn't going to Key West anymore, Carlos and I decided to go some other day. I
asked him if he had plans for this evening, St. Patrick's Day. He did, so I told him I
would see him tomorrow morning to get his flight information so I could purchase
the same ticket.
The day was now coming to a close and the evening was coming into view.
Tonight was St. Patrick's Day night. And this week was Spring Break in Ft.
Lauderdale. The combination of the two tonight could be explosive. I never
intended to be in Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break, it just happened. But here I
was and spring break it was. I began making my plans for a night out by the
beach.
René had made plans already to go out with Misha, Carlos had plans with another
friend, and I was left to fend for myself. It was still early evening so I was hanging
out at the youth hostel watching the news in the television room. I was sure glad
to be in Florida because the weather everywhere else in the country looked cold
and snowy. Even in the mountains of San Diego, California, only fifty miles from
my displaced home in Oceanside, it was snowing with blizzard conditions.
I was sitting next to two young fellows who had been hanging around the television
room most of the evening. I recognized the language they were speaking, so I
broke conversation with them by saying, “Gutten abend. Wie sind Sie”. They
were speaking German and indeed they were from Germany. Their names were
Nurettin and Robert. Nurettin was a dark-haired and outgoing young fellow who
spoke English well and Robert was a toe-headed quiet guy. We talked for a while
mixing English with German. In the course of the conversation I found out from
Nurettin that they were planning to ride bikes along the coast down to the Keys for
a week and camp out on the beach. In fact, out of a need to save money they
wished to camp out here in Ft. Lauderdale but they couldn’t find any
campgrounds. So, they were illegally camping out tonight behind the hostel
without paying for a nights stay.
Next, I found out that they also did not have bikes. They needed to rent a couple
of bikes and they asked me if I knew where they might be able to do that. Being
the nice person that I sometimes am, I instantly came up with an idea to help them
out. I brought them to my hostel room and showed them my new bike. I offered
Nurettin use of my bike free for a week. Nurettin was confused so I had to explain
my generous offer to him again. I explained that since I wouldn't be needing my
bike for a week while I was in Puerto Rico, he could ride the bike to Key West.
Robert would still need to rent a bike and I told them I believed Carlos’ shop
rented bikes.
We got out my map of Southern Florida and worked the plan out in detail. They
would start their trip on Wednesday the 20th of March, the same day I would fly to
Puerto Rico. Carlos and I would return on the 27th, the following Wednesday.
We would rent a car at the airport and drive to Key West where we would meet
Nurettin and Robert at the Bed and Breakfast belonging to the brother of my
coworker and friend Jess. We all four would return that night in the rental car.
After agreeing on this plan, we went back to the television room and made plans
to go out together tonight to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
I wanted to go to some kind of dance club and so did they. I could obviously see
they were not yet 21, so there was only one place I knew of that we could all
legally go. We readied ourselves and headed out at about 9 p.m. to the Candy
Store night club, the place René detested. We walk along the beach front shops
in the warm but blustery, big drops rainy weather. We arrive in front of the Candy
Store and Nurettin and Robert stand and look at the club for a while to check it
out. They decide they want to see if there is another club that will accept minors. I
knew of no others, so we continued walking south toward Miami.
We find another 18 and older club. Robert enters first. He pays the doorman and
walks into the club. I take my wallet out to show my identification and pay the
doorman. I walk into the club, stand next to Robert and we wait for Nurettin who
for some reason is just hanging around outside. Robert says a few things to
Nurettin in German as we stand waiting for Nurettin to come in. Nurettin walks up
to the doorman, pays his cover, and begins to enter. The doorman however
stops him and asks to see his identification. Nurettin tells him he doesn't have it.
So the doorman flat out refuses entrance to Nurettin.
Robert and I get our money back and head outside. We begin to walk back
toward the hostel to get Nurettin's identification. A short way from the club
Nurettin tells me he does have his identification after all. The problem he says is
that he isn't 18 years old yet and neither is Robert. They both are only 17.
So I explain to them a way they might be able to get in without a problem. I tell
them we all just need to have our money and ID's ready and they should walk into
the club as if they have done it many times before (and actually, I know they have
since in Germany the age for drinking is even younger than eighteen).
We arrive at the Candy Store, money and identification in hand. Nurettin goes in
first. He pays his money and the bouncer looks at his ID very closely. He gets in
but only because the bouncer reads his ID incorrectly. His German ID shows his
birthday as 03-08-73, which in Germany would mean the third day of August 1973
but in America means the eighth of March 1973.
I am next to go and I get in with no problem (I'm 31 so I hope there is no problem).
Robert enters behind Nurettin and me. He pays his money and shows his ID.
Unfortunately, the bouncer looks closely at Robert's ID and more unfortunate is
the fact that Robert was not born in the first twelve days of the month. His ID read
17-06-73. The bouncer decides Robert is not old enough and so he doesn't let
him in the club. We all get our money back and we head back out to the
sidewalk.
Trying hard to think of away around this obstacle, I offered this solution to their
obvious dilemma. Robert could go dance at the other club and Nurettin could
dance at this club. They didn't like that solution. Instead, they decided to give up
on the dance clubs. Now they just wanted to go to a store, buy a few beers, and
head back to the hostel.
On our walk to the convenience store we literally ran into a very nice looking and
well-endowed young lady named Dee. We ran into her because she was currently
seized by a violent attack of hiccups which were causing her to walk aimlessly
about the sidewalk. What caused her hiccups we weren't quite sure but it
probably had nothing to do with the fact that she had been drinking since early
morning. Seeing that her blouse was hanging pretty loose and that she was in the
position to be easily taken advantage of by the wrong person, I decided she
needed some attention.
I asked her if she needed some help and she replied, "Oh no, I'm O.K. I always
get the hiccups when I've been drinking too much."
I asked, "Is there anything I can get you to help them go away? Some water
maybe?"
She said, "No, water never helps me. The only thing that gets rid of my hiccups is
some chocolate. You wouldn't have any chocolate would you?"
With a puzzled look on my face wondering how chocolate could possibly help
anyone with hiccups, I thought for a moment and then to my own surprise I
realized that indeed I did have some chocolate with me. I was carrying my
backpack with the video camera in it and I had some miniature chocolate bars my
second cousin Carolyn had given me in Washington, D.C. I gave a couple of the
bars to Dee, which she popped into her mouth and allowed to melt slowly down
her mouth and sure enough, her hiccups ceased in seconds. I was amazed. I’d
never seen such violent hiccups go away so quickly and easily.
I asked her if she wanted us to escort her back to her hotel room. She said that
would be nice and that her hotel was only a couple of blocks away. She pointed in
the direction we were headed.
We dropped her off and found our way to the convenience store. When I asked
Robert and Nurettin what kind of beer they wanted I couldn't believe my ears.
They wanted American beer. Two guys from Germany, a country where the beer
is superior to all other beers in the world and what do they want? Awful American
soda pop beer. I warned them. I warned them that it wouldn't taste very good but
still they wanted to try it anyway. So I picked out sixteen ouncers of Budweiser,
Coors, Schlitz, and Colt 45 and we headed back to the hostel.
Once at the hostel we headed out back where they prepared their sleeping bags
for the night (see photo below). We sat around drinking the beers, with them
tasting each one. I was totally amazed at how well the beers tasted. I told them
that something was definitely wrong with these beers. These beers for some odd
reason were very sweet and tasty whereas they normally would taste very bitter
and bad. I explained to them that bottling plants must be right here in Florida
since these are so fresh compared to the beer I get in California.
While we sipped on the beers Robert and Nurettin viewed the scenes of my trip
thus far through the eyepiece of my video camera. Nurettin fell in love with
Margarita, Teryl and Greg's Amazon parrot. He loved her even more after I
plugged a pair of headphones into the camera so he could hear her talking and
whistling.
After we finished the beers I headed off to bed at about 12:30 a.m. I was amazed
at how well I was feeling. It seemed my health was the best ever. My usually
froggy voice seemed suddenly clear, as if readying for the coming concert
performance I had planned. I chalked the change up to the moist, warm Florida
air, the same air that made the tropical trees so lush and healthy and green.
Once again I listened to the music from my CD player to fall to sleep. And once
again I dreamed.
gusts of wind. But the rainy weather didn’t stop me from being excited. I was
totally enthralled with the idea of staging the concert at UCSD, for I now believed I
finally had the means to do it. So I phoned my parents in Seattle to let them know
of my dream and my new career as a concert promoter.
I began the conversation by explaining to them that my dead brother Michael, the
one who always made us kids endlessly await his arrival on Christmas morning
before we could open our gifts, was attempting to keep me from completing my
travels around the world. He wanted to sing which he would do through me. I
believed he was the one who planted this dream in my head to have a concert at
UCSD in June.
"Furthermore," I explained to my parents, "my childhood neighbor and my
mother's good friend, Annette, who died of cancer a few years back, was fighting
with Michael because she wished for me to travel." Annette was the one who
planted the travel seed in me a few years back. When she was dying of cancer
she told me she was glad she had completed all of her traveling when she was
young, for now she had no regrets about being incapable of traveling. She told
me that if I wished to travel I should do it while I was young and free. Listening to
her wisdom, that was exactly what I had decided to do and was now doing.
Such talk worried my parents. I informed them that I was only speaking
figuratively. I had not actually seen Michael or Annette in any sense of reality and
that they shouldn't be worried about me. I was fine. In fact I felt great. I finished
talking with them by asking them to try and get the phone numbers of Marti, the
Sci-Fi artist from high school and Dana, my friend with the Seattle rock band.
After phoning my parents I began to work on my number one priority... finding a
bike for traveling around Jamaica. So, I phoned the seller of the bike I found
advertised in the Saturday newspaper. He planned to be home all day, so after
showering and eating a light breakfast with René, I hopped on a city bus which
took me within a few blocks of the bike seller's house.
On my walk from the bus stop to the seller's house I passed a young child sitting
in the morning sun in the front yard of his old house. He was rocking away happy
and content in an old rocking chair. I wanted to stop and take his picture but the
fear of embarrassment forced me to moved on.
I arrived at the house of the man selling the mountain bike and to my surprise, the
bike, a 21 speed Giant Iguana, appeared brand new. He in fact had told me he'd
only ridden the bike once. It sure looked it. After inspecting and test riding the
bike I bought it for only $250. He even had the receipt for the bike and it was only
a couple of months old. Coincidentally, he had purchased the bike from
International Bikes, the bike shop I went to on Friday night to price mountain
bikes. The seller also gave me his unused coupon for a free tune-up. So, the
first thing I planned to do with the bike was ride it over to International Bikes for
the free tune-up. I gathered my belongings and rode out on my new bike.
My mind was still thinking about the great photo opportunity I had passed up on
my way over. Overcoming my fear of embarrassment I rode on back to the house
where the young boy was rockin’ away. The boy was still there but no longer
rocking. He had moved the rocking chair and he was sitting in a different chair.
No matter, I offered him a dollar anyway if he would let me take his picture sitting
in the chair. He gladly accepted the honor (see picture). As I was readying to
leave he ran excitedly into his house waving his newly earned dollar in the air at hi
mom. As I rode away he and his mother waived good-bye from their front porch.
I waived good-bye back and headed off to the bike shop.
I arrived at the shop expecting only to get the free tune-up. As you will see I got
much more than that. The same young man Carlos, who showed me the bikes the
other night, greeted me upon my arrival. I showed him my new bike and I
explained that I purchased it from a fellow who had bought it from his shop only
two months ago. I asked if it would be a problem for me to get the free tune-up
that was coming.
He says, "Not a problem. In fact, I'll even give you the 10% discount on
accessories I promised you the other day."
So, while I waited for the tune-up, I was busy choosing all of the accessories I
needed in Jamaica. Occasionally I would ask Carlos for his assistance but I would
need to wait for his free moments between selling bikes to other customers.
Now, normally I might get upset having to wait. But not this day, not at this shop. I
don’t know if the shop was normally the way I saw it but this day it was a riot. So I
waited happily, even getting in on the fun Carlos was having with his customers.
For instance, one group of customers consisted of an excellent, model-like looking
long-legged, blonde-headed Caribbean airline flight attendant, her buffed out
fiancé and her father. The engaged couple was looking for a pair of bikes with
the father’s help and Carlos was giving the sales pitch.
Apparently, the girl and her fiancé had come into the shop a couple of days
earlier and looked at bikes for her. Carlos helped them on that day also but they
left without buying a bike because her fiancé got mad at her for talking too much
with Carlos. He was upset enough that he even left without her. As she left she
let Carlos know she would be in later to buy a bike from him just to spite her fiancé.
This day she brought her father to help her decide on a bike. Her fiancé stood
anxiously near the front door of the bike shop while Carlos showed her and her
father the bikes. She made her selection with her father's help and they
continued to talk with Carlos while the bike was being serviced. The girl's father
started joking within earshot of the fiancé that he wished for his daughter to marry
Carlos. The fiancé stormed out the door of the shop and the jokes begin to fly
freely after that. I had the chance to get my two cents in too. Before they left,
Carlos had sold a second expensive fully equipped bike, this one to the girl's
father. At least two out of the three of them were happy customers that day.
I continued my search for accessories, finding all of the items I would need in
Jamaica. My bike was tuned-up and I was ready to go. Several hours had passed
and I didn’t even notice. Having worked up a thirst I asked Carlos where I could
buy something to drink. He sent me to a convenience store across the street
where I bought a new Strawberry-Kiwi drink called ‘Snapple’ for him and myself.
I returned to the shop and gave Carlos his drink. Since he seemed like a nice, fun
guy and René and I had plans to head to Key West on Tuesday, I asked him if he
would like to go to Key West with us. He wished to go but he’d rather go
tomorrow. He explained that on Wednesday morning he was flying home to
Puerto Rico to visit his family. So I told him I would go back to the hostel and ask
René if he would rather go to the Keys tomorrow instead. I promised to call Carlos
back with the answer.
Then out of the blue Carlos asks me if I wished to go to Puerto Rico this
Wednesday with him for a week. He invited me to stay with him at his family's
house and all it would cost me is the $150 airfare.
I was a bit surprised at the invitation. I told him that I really wished to head to
Jamaica, since in my own mind I was already late in getting there. I had originally
planned to spend six months in Jamaica. If I went to Puerto Rico for a week, my
time in Jamaica would now be less than four months. So I told him I would call him
back about Key West and I would also let him know whether I would go to Puerto
Rico with him or not.
I arrived back at the hostel, and found René. The first words out of René’s mouth
were that he no longer wanted to go to Key West on Tuesday. He said that
Florida was too rainy for him so he was going to head to California earlier than he
had planned. So, Key West was out of the picture for him. And for me, that
opened the door to Puerto Rico.
I sat and thought about whether I should go to Puerto Rico or not. I came to the
conclusion, "What's one more week off of my stay in Jamaica and hey, it's another
place I can get under my belt and I just have to pay my air fare." So, I decided to
go to Puerto Rico with Carlos as long as I could fly for the same price he was
flying. I phoned him to let him know that I would go to Puerto Rico. Since René
wasn't going to Key West anymore, Carlos and I decided to go some other day. I
asked him if he had plans for this evening, St. Patrick's Day. He did, so I told him I
would see him tomorrow morning to get his flight information so I could purchase
the same ticket.
The day was now coming to a close and the evening was coming into view.
Tonight was St. Patrick's Day night. And this week was Spring Break in Ft.
Lauderdale. The combination of the two tonight could be explosive. I never
intended to be in Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break, it just happened. But here I
was and spring break it was. I began making my plans for a night out by the
beach.
René had made plans already to go out with Misha, Carlos had plans with another
friend, and I was left to fend for myself. It was still early evening so I was hanging
out at the youth hostel watching the news in the television room. I was sure glad
to be in Florida because the weather everywhere else in the country looked cold
and snowy. Even in the mountains of San Diego, California, only fifty miles from
my displaced home in Oceanside, it was snowing with blizzard conditions.
I was sitting next to two young fellows who had been hanging around the television
room most of the evening. I recognized the language they were speaking, so I
broke conversation with them by saying, “Gutten abend. Wie sind Sie”. They
were speaking German and indeed they were from Germany. Their names were
Nurettin and Robert. Nurettin was a dark-haired and outgoing young fellow who
spoke English well and Robert was a toe-headed quiet guy. We talked for a while
mixing English with German. In the course of the conversation I found out from
Nurettin that they were planning to ride bikes along the coast down to the Keys for
a week and camp out on the beach. In fact, out of a need to save money they
wished to camp out here in Ft. Lauderdale but they couldn’t find any
campgrounds. So, they were illegally camping out tonight behind the hostel
without paying for a nights stay.
Next, I found out that they also did not have bikes. They needed to rent a couple
of bikes and they asked me if I knew where they might be able to do that. Being
the nice person that I sometimes am, I instantly came up with an idea to help them
out. I brought them to my hostel room and showed them my new bike. I offered
Nurettin use of my bike free for a week. Nurettin was confused so I had to explain
my generous offer to him again. I explained that since I wouldn't be needing my
bike for a week while I was in Puerto Rico, he could ride the bike to Key West.
Robert would still need to rent a bike and I told them I believed Carlos’ shop
rented bikes.
We got out my map of Southern Florida and worked the plan out in detail. They
would start their trip on Wednesday the 20th of March, the same day I would fly to
Puerto Rico. Carlos and I would return on the 27th, the following Wednesday.
We would rent a car at the airport and drive to Key West where we would meet
Nurettin and Robert at the Bed and Breakfast belonging to the brother of my
coworker and friend Jess. We all four would return that night in the rental car.
After agreeing on this plan, we went back to the television room and made plans
to go out together tonight to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
I wanted to go to some kind of dance club and so did they. I could obviously see
they were not yet 21, so there was only one place I knew of that we could all
legally go. We readied ourselves and headed out at about 9 p.m. to the Candy
Store night club, the place René detested. We walk along the beach front shops
in the warm but blustery, big drops rainy weather. We arrive in front of the Candy
Store and Nurettin and Robert stand and look at the club for a while to check it
out. They decide they want to see if there is another club that will accept minors. I
knew of no others, so we continued walking south toward Miami.
We find another 18 and older club. Robert enters first. He pays the doorman and
walks into the club. I take my wallet out to show my identification and pay the
doorman. I walk into the club, stand next to Robert and we wait for Nurettin who
for some reason is just hanging around outside. Robert says a few things to
Nurettin in German as we stand waiting for Nurettin to come in. Nurettin walks up
to the doorman, pays his cover, and begins to enter. The doorman however
stops him and asks to see his identification. Nurettin tells him he doesn't have it.
So the doorman flat out refuses entrance to Nurettin.
Robert and I get our money back and head outside. We begin to walk back
toward the hostel to get Nurettin's identification. A short way from the club
Nurettin tells me he does have his identification after all. The problem he says is
that he isn't 18 years old yet and neither is Robert. They both are only 17.
So I explain to them a way they might be able to get in without a problem. I tell
them we all just need to have our money and ID's ready and they should walk into
the club as if they have done it many times before (and actually, I know they have
since in Germany the age for drinking is even younger than eighteen).
We arrive at the Candy Store, money and identification in hand. Nurettin goes in
first. He pays his money and the bouncer looks at his ID very closely. He gets in
but only because the bouncer reads his ID incorrectly. His German ID shows his
birthday as 03-08-73, which in Germany would mean the third day of August 1973
but in America means the eighth of March 1973.
I am next to go and I get in with no problem (I'm 31 so I hope there is no problem).
Robert enters behind Nurettin and me. He pays his money and shows his ID.
Unfortunately, the bouncer looks closely at Robert's ID and more unfortunate is
the fact that Robert was not born in the first twelve days of the month. His ID read
17-06-73. The bouncer decides Robert is not old enough and so he doesn't let
him in the club. We all get our money back and we head back out to the
sidewalk.
Trying hard to think of away around this obstacle, I offered this solution to their
obvious dilemma. Robert could go dance at the other club and Nurettin could
dance at this club. They didn't like that solution. Instead, they decided to give up
on the dance clubs. Now they just wanted to go to a store, buy a few beers, and
head back to the hostel.
On our walk to the convenience store we literally ran into a very nice looking and
well-endowed young lady named Dee. We ran into her because she was currently
seized by a violent attack of hiccups which were causing her to walk aimlessly
about the sidewalk. What caused her hiccups we weren't quite sure but it
probably had nothing to do with the fact that she had been drinking since early
morning. Seeing that her blouse was hanging pretty loose and that she was in the
position to be easily taken advantage of by the wrong person, I decided she
needed some attention.
I asked her if she needed some help and she replied, "Oh no, I'm O.K. I always
get the hiccups when I've been drinking too much."
I asked, "Is there anything I can get you to help them go away? Some water
maybe?"
She said, "No, water never helps me. The only thing that gets rid of my hiccups is
some chocolate. You wouldn't have any chocolate would you?"
With a puzzled look on my face wondering how chocolate could possibly help
anyone with hiccups, I thought for a moment and then to my own surprise I
realized that indeed I did have some chocolate with me. I was carrying my
backpack with the video camera in it and I had some miniature chocolate bars my
second cousin Carolyn had given me in Washington, D.C. I gave a couple of the
bars to Dee, which she popped into her mouth and allowed to melt slowly down
her mouth and sure enough, her hiccups ceased in seconds. I was amazed. I’d
never seen such violent hiccups go away so quickly and easily.
I asked her if she wanted us to escort her back to her hotel room. She said that
would be nice and that her hotel was only a couple of blocks away. She pointed in
the direction we were headed.
We dropped her off and found our way to the convenience store. When I asked
Robert and Nurettin what kind of beer they wanted I couldn't believe my ears.
They wanted American beer. Two guys from Germany, a country where the beer
is superior to all other beers in the world and what do they want? Awful American
soda pop beer. I warned them. I warned them that it wouldn't taste very good but
still they wanted to try it anyway. So I picked out sixteen ouncers of Budweiser,
Coors, Schlitz, and Colt 45 and we headed back to the hostel.
Once at the hostel we headed out back where they prepared their sleeping bags
for the night (see photo below). We sat around drinking the beers, with them
tasting each one. I was totally amazed at how well the beers tasted. I told them
that something was definitely wrong with these beers. These beers for some odd
reason were very sweet and tasty whereas they normally would taste very bitter
and bad. I explained to them that bottling plants must be right here in Florida
since these are so fresh compared to the beer I get in California.
While we sipped on the beers Robert and Nurettin viewed the scenes of my trip
thus far through the eyepiece of my video camera. Nurettin fell in love with
Margarita, Teryl and Greg's Amazon parrot. He loved her even more after I
plugged a pair of headphones into the camera so he could hear her talking and
whistling.
After we finished the beers I headed off to bed at about 12:30 a.m. I was amazed
at how well I was feeling. It seemed my health was the best ever. My usually
froggy voice seemed suddenly clear, as if readying for the coming concert
performance I had planned. I chalked the change up to the moist, warm Florida
air, the same air that made the tropical trees so lush and healthy and green.
Once again I listened to the music from my CD player to fall to sleep. And once
again I dreamed.
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| 2.4-1 The Second Dream Day Sunday Morning until Sunday Night March 17th, 1991 |
World Turned Upside Down
Music - One
Electric Light
Orchestra
Electric Light
Orchestra