Friends

    Friends

    Keith

    On occasion my friend Keith and I would ride our bicycles down to Blackie's early on Friday afternoons when Blackie's opened. You had to get there early to get good seats at The Window. The Window that faced the Newport Pier and boardwalk. We would park ourselves on our favorite bar stools with schooners of beer and number cards in hand. When a particularly attractive woman would walk by, we would hold up the appropriate number card reflecting the 1 to 10 scale of attractiveness. We weren't totally stupid and in Newport there was never, and I mean Never, a girl / young woman / older woman rating in at less than an 8 so we really, only ever had three cards in hand 8, 9, 10. This was a popular 'sport' on the boardwalk. Lots of the Summer Rental Party Folk / Kids would do the same. Typically, this was met with good humor and appreciation. On this afternoon, however as very attractive young woman walked by the front window and we held up our number cards reflecting a rating of a strong 9. As it happened, she was walking some three feet in front of her BIG Bruiser Boyfriend. We held up our numbers just in time for her boyfriend to see. He was outraged and stormed in to Blackie's ostensibly to unscrew our heads from our bodies. He was not at all happy with the two of us. He was getting all bowed up ready to... when Keith asked if he thought our rating of his girlfriend was inaccurate. As I said before we had rated her at a strong 9. He was sort of at a loss for words to answer that. So, he Huffed, and he Puffed and turned and walked out. Keith was always so very smooth. I was as close to pissing myself as I have ever been, I think. Although that was a time in my life when I was terrified out of my mind on a regular basis.