the ghosts of me and you (addendum)

per Eped's request:

please elaborate on the following:
your conversation with The Dude.
that time w/ the supermarket nazis.

The Dude at the Belge. There's a fishtank up by the front and I was waiting to pay and a guy came up and was really interested in the fishtank. He had long dirty wavey hair and a goatee, looked to be in his early forties, and was wearing a silky bowling-style shirt. He looked exactly like the Dude.



He was tapping on the glass and said to me "I just got one of these today." I thought he was talking about one of the fish so I said "Oh, what is it?" and he said "a big piece of coral."

Seems The Dude's friend (maybe Walter?) had gotten him a big piece of coral for his birthday, which was that day. Then he continued tapping on the tank as though he was looking at newborns in a nursery. Also he smelled good.


Nazis! The year was 1997. It was a Saturday night and I was with two of my friends. I don't remember exactly what we were doing but we were probably on our way to some party with lots of hot girls. I was wearing my Ska jacket because I wasn't to content to just wear it to shows, I wore it about town. It was a good conversation starter. Anyway, we go to Albertson's and there's these two skinheads hanging out by the entrance.

I can't tell if they're the racist kind of skinhead or not so I kind of look at them and they say something to me, but I'm not sure what.

For the uninitiated, I should point out that a lot of the bands represented on my jacket were known for their anti-racist activism.

So I stop and one of them says "White Power" and I'm like "Wha? No..."

My two friends disappear inside of the store. One of the guys pulls up his sleave to show off his third reich eagle and swastika tattoo while the other guy just keeps saying "White power!" Tattoo guy doesn't say anything ever but sig-heils to punctuate the other guy's sentences.

I don't even remember what I say back to them, but then the big guy threatens to squash me and everyone like me "We'll squash you! White Power!"

Later I realized that I should have said "Just like you squashed Jesse Owens in '36?" but you know how you always think of those witty rejoinders when it's too late.

Their words get much more threatening so I do what any man would have done: I walk into the store.

I hung out in there for a long time until I was sure they were gone. I spent the rest of the weekend looking over my shoulder.