Saturday, May 7, 2011

Portland Sidebar 1

The stories of Sven and Ollie:  "I yam Sven and he ish Olliee" My Buddy Rich and I dressed upa s Sven and Ollie for Halloween and made our way around some of the Portland haunts that we often visited.  Sven and Ollie are cooks, short overweight midget cooks, except that we are both about 6 feet tall.  THe cotume has a hula hoop about knee height with stuffed pants and an extra long shirt stuffed as well going all the way down tied to the pants.  Our belt was complete with spatulas, whisks and other much needed culianry equipment.  We talked in bad Scandinavian accents and visited each table harassing the various patrons of Portland's nite life.  We started at the Leaky Roof and moved on from there.  We did our best to get the other inebriated patrons to partake in the chicky chicky beat and continued to drink beer nad martinis until we ended up at Hung Far Low's.

The Leaky Roof: Was a small pub in Goose Hollow owned by Mike and Kathy.  Rich had taken a night job there as a cook and bartender.  They served burgers and fries along with local beers and a high end well for cocktails.  Many of the culinry students as well as a whole slew of Goose Hollow residents made "The Roof" their hang-out. 

The Fire: Rich and Helen lived across from the LEaky Roof in a three story brick apartment complex with an oldworld feel.  We often hung out on the steps drinking and talking into the night.  One night after Kareoke and many martini's I ended up crashing on the couch ad Rich's.  He woke me up with a strled yell to get up and out.  We dressed as quick as possible, but not completely.  The building was on fire.  The firetrucks were outside and the firemen were setting up the hoses.  Everyone was running out of the building bundled in blankets and bathrobes.  It had rained that night and the ground was cold and wet.  It was 3 or 4 in the morning.  We stood and watched with the other tenents as the building burned.  Not sure what the outcome would be.  The Red Cross showed up with coffee and clothes and blamkets.  We watched the events unfold until the sun rose. then we went off to school.  Rich was excused for the day, I on the other hand was just tired and fully distraught at my friend's predictament.  My glasses were lost in the fire and I had to go about 2 years until I got new ones.

The Chicky Chicky Beat: A little ditty that Rich taught me and that we embraced to the fullest.  It is complete with a mini dance routine as well.
"Hey there _(Fill in name here) you're a real cool cat, you got a lot of this and a lot of that.  We all think that you're real neat, so come on down and do the chicky chicky beat...  Annnnnd   Up chicky chicky, chicky chicky and DOWN chicky chicky chicky chicky, TURN AROUND chicky chicky, chicky chicky."..That person comes over and joins in and you summon another person from the audience and do it all again...

Hung Far Lo: A once fabled location in Portland's China town that up 100 stair steps, it seemed at the time like a 1000 but we usually ascended and descended these steps after many martini's.  I have heard that it has since moved to a new location.  Those stairs will be missed.  There was also a great Dim Sum place across the street.

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