I was talking to Donnie earlier, and it turns out that he missed our escapades at the grocery store, but we came and got him and reported in after we were done. No big deal… here’s one my old friend WAS there for.
We are crazy people. Always have been, always will be. Well, cue one late Saturday night in January of 1990 or so, Lew, Donnie, myself, Jimmy, Mikey, Davey and probably many others were sitting around the bonfire at The Pit, wrapped in warming garments, as this was the coldest day of Winter that Tampa had seen in quite some time. Yeah, yeah, Yankees… we know it doesn’t get as cold here as it does there… but no one cares. We were chilly.
I’m not sure WHO came up with the idea, but in our collective, once a concept has been pronounced, it simply must be done. That was our one and only rule that we’d actually enforce. So, someone said “Hey… I’m freezing! Let’s break into the Shadow Oaks pool and go swim with all of our clothes on!”
Whoever the genius WAS who introduced this idea will be lost to time… but NOT lost to time was the fact that none of us present felt that this was a bad idea… so onward our motley group marched at 2 in the morning through the hole in the fence, into the apartment complex, over the fence that closed off the pool for residents only… and took a dip.
We spent about an hour or two just cavorting about and telling each other how crazy we were, while walking around fully clothed in a pool of water when the temperature outside was around 32 degrees or so. We did this same thing during hurricanes, so seasonally, this was nicer… no flying cows to hit us.
However, all good things must come to an end… if you are sane. We were decidedly not. I believe it was Davey that suggested that at 4am or so when we all finally had gotten done jumping the fence, freezing and drenched… that Burger King was probably just opening up. The thought of hot coffee and not being covered in soaked garments appealed to the collective, so we proceeded to march a mile or so to the illustrious King of Burgers… who probably would have waited to open if they had expected us… but no one expects The Pit. We just happen.
Surely enough, The King was open for business, and we gathered there. Half of the crew took over the restroom, utilizing the hand dryers to make our wet clothing less… wet. Thankfully, there were few patrons in there, but the few who WERE there were met with fine conversation from our group of idiots. Someone in the group drank all of their creamer… I’m not sure why I remember that, but it seemed important at the time. The coffees were good.
We were kind to the other guests, we were probably rather uncomfortable to be around for the Burger Peasants serving their Overlord, but we did pay for what we received. Like I’ve said many times about these tales… we are honorable lunatics. That never changes.
Mikey in fact had a lovely conversation with some random Burger Purchaser in the restroom as he was standing there in his boxers, drying his pants under the hand dryer. Communication was important to our band.
So, that’s the end of that tale. We went to our respective homes and never, that I’ll admit anyway, did that again. Did we learn anything? Yes… that Burger King is open at 4:30am on weekends. At least, they were. I think they may have adjusted their schedule after that incident. 🙂
