It’s hard to come up with an image that says “a celebration of Americana on the Fourth of July” better than this one does.
A food buffet on the back of a pickup truck in a parking lot in South Main. About a dozen of us gathered along with our four-legged friends Rufus and Bella. Rufus let us borrow his toy tennis ball and we played beer-can bowling. There was delicious food including bacon-wrapped venison filets, two types of potato salad, squash casserole, banana pudding made with Pepperidge Farm chess cookies, and pink lemonade pie. However, the star of the show on the back of the truck was Mexican corn.
The corn was brushed with mayonnaise and a three-cheese blend, then put on the grill. Easily the best ear of corn I have eaten in my life.
After taking shelter as heavy rain moved through, I caught a ride to Max’s Sports Bar. Michele immediately handed me a blue Buzztime game box and told me, “You’re Magic.” It was the weekly poker tournament, and whoever was playing under the handle “Magic” had left but still had chips in the game, heads-up against my friend Mikey. So we went back and forth for about 25 minutes and Mikey finally won. It is always a treat to play at Max’s, whose poker tournament I consider to have the best format Downtown. You start with 200 big blinds, you can’t rebuy, and you can’t show up late.
After poker ended I went out on the back deck, where Roser from the Chris Vernon Show called me “the ultimate bro.” Not sure how I feel about that but he meant it as a huge compliment.
I checked my phone and discovered that the Blind Bear was celebrating July 4 with dollar PBR. After sending out a “VERY IMPORTANT PBR NEWS” tweet, I tabbed out at Max’s and walked north. The fireworks were happening as I walked. A few PBRs at the Bear and I wrapped up a very good Thursday.
(Edit: I forgot to add that Air Traffic Mike and I led the crowd at the Bear in singing “God Bless America.”)
It wasn’t a good Thursday for everyone though. There were reports of shootings at Riverside and Beale, Wagner and Beale, and Wagner and Vance as crowds gathered to watch the fireworks. It seems like every July 4, large groups of teens roam Downtown harassing people and it’s the wild wild West. MPD should know this is going to happen, because it happens every year. The good news is, this only happens once a year; back in 2006, it seems like it happened every weekend.
That’ll do it for now. I’ll be out at the bars about 5:30.