Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette

Woman As Art

Well, 1 March 2013 will soon be here.  The first day of the new month is also a Friday which means the Old Soldier will have money in the bank which means he will be back at Del’s Bar and Italian Restaurant in Bloomfield in Pittsburgh’s “Little Italy” for karaoke.

I hope to publish another installment of “Karaoke As Performance Art” in the next few days.

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The following old story of mine depicts a time, maybe as much as ten to fifteen years ago, when I was hanging out a lot in the college bars around the University of Pittsburgh.  At the time I was going nowhere in life.

It was a time before I decided to go back to school.  I went on to get my BA and MFA at Pitt.

Meet Scott Delaney, my alter ego.

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The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is a blog for writers.  This is the Old Soldier reporting from Pittsburgh.

Alumni Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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The Sanctuary

Scott Delaney and Dave Bowman sat on high stools and drank mugs of beer at the bar in The Sanctuary which was near the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh.  This was before The Sanctuary went out of business.  It was Thursday afternoon.  Scattered among the stools and tables were several customers drinking, laughing and talking.  Some were eating.  One read The Pittsburgh Press.  Another did homework.  Over the sound system came music from a radio station that specialized in rock from the sixties and seventies.  That night was beer blast night at The Sanctuary which meant two skins at the door and two bits for each small plastic cup of beer there after.  Scott was going to return later that night.  He always enjoyed beer blast night.  He was thirty-five and had just found a new job.  It wasn’t much of a job but it was a job.  He started Monday.

“They’re two totally different crowds,” his friend Dave Bowman was saying.  Anyone could see the friend lifted weights.  “Here I never knew what to expect.  You get a really mixed crowd here.  I’d walk up to someone and tell him he had to leave.”

“‘Who the hell are you?’ he’d say.”

“I’m the bouncer.”

“‘Oh, yeah.’”  Dave grabbed his crotch.  “‘Well bounced this!’”

20071023 – Danzig – 141-4107 – Glen, Carolyn, Clint, Dave (bg) (Photo credit: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL))

“Across the street,” Dave went on, “it’s kiddie land.  Mommy and Daddy foot all the bills and gave them a new car for high school graduation.  I doubt if half of them have ever even seen a fight let alone been in one.  So, one night I’m off duty drinking at the bar.  You should’ve been there.  Four paddy wagons took a shit load of them out for underage drinking.  All false IDs.  No way for the doorman to tell.  They have them printed up professionally.”  Dave swiveled slowly on his stool away from the bar and looked around.  He said, “Man, you don’t know how much I miss this place.”

The End  

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• Karaoke As Performance Art: You Have To Take Chances (pittsburghflashfictiongazette.com)

Filed under: The Sunday Flash Fiction Story | Tagged: 24 February 2013, Alumni Hall, blog for writers, Bloomfield, Del's Bar and Italian Restaurant, Karaoke, Little Italy, Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette, The Sunday Flash Fiction Story, University of Pittsburgh | Leave a Comment »