On Saturday night, Bill and Cicely and Beth and Jeff and Cindy and Kate and I drove down from Seminole along Gulf Boulevard until we got to Sunset Beach, to a bar and restaurant on the beach called "Caddies". The place was wide open, with a dude playing guitar and covering as many Classic Rock Hits as he could before the place closed down. Most of the inhabitants were late teens and twenties, with a few thirtys, fortys and fifties sprinkled in amongst the wild and crazies. It looked like Spring Break or a replay of one of those Frankie and Annette Beach movies from the early Sixties. The only real difference was the number of tatoos on the denizens as compared to the 60's and the vintage of the music. Indoors, the television sets were set to the Tampa Bay Rays and waitresses flitted amongst the crowd, trying to keep their orders in line and not lose a tray of drinks to the weaving customers.
I couldn't help but ogle a few of the ladies in their relative states of disarray, as I dodged the people trying to make it back to and from the bar to reload. Well, actually, quite a lot of the ladies. It didn't take me long to realize that I was probably old enough to be most of their fathers. And my wife and daughter were nearby, which was good, I suppose.
There were quite a few young girls who looked like they were trying to hold their first good drunk, while allowing their boyfriends carte blanche with their lips. At one point, Cindy entered the furnace which was the area where the restrooms were located, and listened as two young girls shared a stall and one girl tried to commiserate with the other because she had been carded and unable to purchase another beer for her lack of falsified identification. The other girl assured her that they would find another fake id. Such drama laying itself out in the crowded ladie's powder room.
Meanwhile, the bikers and the cowboys were running hither and yon among the crowd, chasing after their girlfriends or just available girls. Next to our table was a group of Eastern Carolina students, comprised of six guys and one very drunk coed. I know they were Eastern Carolina students because several of them had ECU hats on their heads. They all seemed to be having a good time, even the coed, as they took turns trying to dance with their one female partner. They did not succeed very well.
At other tables were groups of families, with everything from grandmothers to little boys running from beach to table and little girls doing cartwheels on the sand. The adults were more tied to the tables, as we were, drinking and conversing in the growing darkness.
Later on in the evening, the place cleared a bit and most of the younger drinkers moved on to other bars. Even we moved down the beach to Woodies, which turned out to be an even older crowd. They might have been our age, but we assigned them an age which was older than us. The bar was running a special on draft beer which appealed to me, until I took a sip of my beer and it tasted skunky. After getting our waiter to replace my beer, and finding the second one skunky as well, I finished up the night by scarfing down about half of a bowl of french fries that Cindy had ordered.
The evening ended with fireworks from Treasure Island, to the north, and we stood and watched the powder go off in the Spring night. It was a return to earlier days for us and a nice night to share with family and friends.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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