Crazy Bill

I met Bill in 1999. My wife went to a conference in Chicago for the weekend and I was supposed to go visit a friend in Pittsburg. At the last minute my friend cancelled so I now had no weekend plans. I decided to visit this bar that was in the area of town that I refer to as the "North Hood". Essentially, in Columbus you have the ghetto (run-down or boarded up houses, mostly black people, drug-addicted prostitutes, nobody works, everyone just hangs out on the sidewalks, etc.). Just north of that is the "Hood", which is basically like the ghetto but predominently white people. A little nicer neighborhood. Not nearly as many run-down or boarded up houses. Then just north of that is a neighborhood that 20 years ago was a really nice and affluent neighborhood. But since then, the Hood creeped northward and enveloped it. So you have a mixture of decent homes, but also you got the drug dealers, and pimps, and all else that you get from the Hood. This is the "North Hood".

I first went to this bar when I was new to Columbus and my wife was away for the weekend. So I decided to be adventuresome and check out a few different parts of town. The bar was called "Dreamer's Lounge", and Dreamer used to be my nickname. (Hence the blog name.) There's some more 'colorful' patrons there, and usually some very 'interesting' people to talk to. I had a tendency to drop in there maybe every three or four moths. Anyway, seeing my Pittsburg plans got cancelled and my wife was out of town I decided to drop in there.

Bill came in a little after me and sat next to me at the bar. We started talking. Apparently he had just spent nearly a year in the hospital and got out just a few days earlier. He was in the hospital for being shot at point blank range seven times in the chest and stomach by his girlfreind's ex-boyfriend. He showed me the scars. It was quite the mess. We talked and drank and had a good time visiting. We decided to meet up again tomorrow evening and go out again. We ended up drinking and partying and shooting pool all evening, and all night, and up until around 5:00p Sunday. He knew of some after-hours bars in that area that were open 24 hours. I went home and my wife got back from Chicago later that evening. I did tell her about Bill and my weekend. I always told her everything that I did.

After that, I would meet up with Bill for drinks once every three to six months (usually at Dreamer's Lounge) as Bill lived just down the road from there. Bill was the type of guy that on occassion would call me up at 3:00am on a weeknight, all drunk, and asking if I wanted to come out drinking. Back then I still lived a very staid and corporate lifestyle and was in bed by around midnight so I could be to work in the morning. I remember finding it so bizarre that some people lived that lifestyle where they wouldn't think it inappropriate to call someone in the middle of the night on a weekday. I would have to tell him, "Bill I work in the morning. Call me on Friday, and maybe we can meet up sometime this weekend."

Anyway, once my life fell apart and my wife had left me to go live with her sister in Winnipeg, I began to hang out with Bill every night. Like I mentioned in a prior post, there was no way that I could come home to my empty house after work. Bill was the only 'non-professional' that I knew, and the only person that would go out and drink every night of the week. He was also tons of fun and lots of laughs. Exactly what I was looking for at that point in my life.

The bar we mostly hung out at was called Rosey's. It was further north than the "North Hood" and had a mixture of patrons from both the North Hood and also from the 'nicer neighborhoods' in that area. From there we would also do a lot of bar hopping in the nicer bars in that area. Eventually we started hanging out at a bar called the VIP. They had really cool and hot bartenders working there who also liked to hang out there when not working. Not to mention a pitcher of beer that filled seven mugs was only $5. This was also important because Bill drank like a fish and always ran out of money before the night was over. Then I would buy the last two or three pitchers myself. We started hanging out at the VIP more and more. Eventually that replaced Rosey's as our main hangout. Seeing me and Bill were always laughing and having a good time (regardless of whether the bar was empty or full) all the patrons (and bartenders) liked hanging out with us. What we quickly noticed is that every Wednesday and Saturday night karaoke broke out around us while we were busy having a good time. The thing is the bar was PACKED on those nights, especially on Wednesdays. And it was packed with FUN people, and TONS of HOT young chicks! The singing was even good too. It was a HUGE party. EVERYONE had a BLAST! Every other night of the week, the bar was pretty quiet. Still fun, but not too busy.

We had also noticed that there was a bar down the road that advertised the same karaoke show on Thursdays and Sundays. We started going there for those karaoke shows and sure enough the bar was PACKED full of the same fun people and lots of fun HOT chicks! Cool, fun bartenders too (but not hot chick bartenders). Plenty of fun hot patrons though. So that became our Thursday and Sunday night spot. (Though we would have to run down the road at 1:45a for last call at the VIP. Thursday night was when 'My Girl' worked. (We had a nickname for each of the four bartenders. Each one of them was cool, 20-something, and HOT!) We couldn't go a Thursday night without at least saying 'hello'. There was no rush, she would serve us until 2:30a anyway.

Basically, this karaoke show was running in a bar in this area seven nights a week. Given how fun and packed it always was with this karaoke (regardless of night) we started following the karaoke show. Low and behold, so were all the other fun people. Every night of the week, no matter which night, or which bar it was always fun and packed, with tons of hot young chicks. Hot chicks in their 30-s and early 40-s as well. There was a really good variety.

Seeing a lot of these karaoke 'regulars' also shot pool, me and Bill got to know a whole lot of them. Plus we would see them every night because they were following the same 'karaoke circuit' as we were. Just like us, the ones we got to know were also young, fun, and outgoing. Good mix of men and women too. All the guys ranged in age from 26 to 33. The girls that hung out with our crowd ranged from 21 to 27 (and two 19 year old's - but they will get their own post). Once we all started hanging out together we were all one big 'party cloud' that everyone wanted to be around. We blew into a room, partied it up, then blew out of there. And most nights we ended up with a bunch of hot naked young chicks in my hottub. BUT, actually this was not quite yet. I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here's the problem. Bill is from the North Hood. That's where he was born and raised. He's got that 'hood boy, mentality. Once he got drunk, he got very obnoxious. He would break into his 'hood talk' and start talking about fighting, and would grab the asses of girls around us including the ones that now hung out in our new crowd. It was all very good when it was just me and Bill. It was also fine when we were hanging out at the Hood bars, or even Rosey's. But Bill just didn't fit in with this new environment. What would happen, is that once Bill started to get really drunk and obnoxious, usually around midnight, I would have to get him out of there and take him to bars in the North Hood (where his actions and mentality fit right in). This was fine, and fun, but the problem was that I wanted to stay with the fun people and the hot chicks.

This eventually worked itself out a month or so later as Bill had to spend 30 days in jail due to something that he got himself into prior to being hospitalized. Now that he was healthy again, he had to do his time.

I'll have to continue this thought at a later post. There's more to tell about me and Bill prior to when we started hanging out with the karaoke crowd.