The Side Effects of Endorphins

I spent five years of my life in Williamsburg, Virginia. I really liked it there. There was a restaurant outside of town in the middle of nowhere. It was called Captain Bill’s seafood. I have not been vegan my entire life. It had relatively inexpensive seafood in a relaxed atmosphere. I seem to remember it was in a house converted into a restaurant.

Myself and three to four other friends were the last ones at the restaurant on this particular night. We were in no particular hurry, but we had respect for the crew that was working.

The owner walked over to our table and bid us good night. We knew him a little bit and we had a nickname for him. We called him Pittsburgh. He told the other person working to just clean up this table and go home for the night. I remember this man who was working that night. He was an honorable man who Williamsburg locals called Hugh Boy. In retrospect, it was used in a nice way, but I was new the traditions of the south. I would not use that term today.

We casually talked to Hugh Boy. for a good half hour after the owner (Pittsburgh) left. Hugh boy made up words often. We talked about the Kepone disaster which was a major environmental crisis in the mid-1970s, focused on the James River.

He told us a story how he ate striped bass from The James River and he was fine. He added that the fish was bolicious. We knew what the made up word meant and we knew what he was talking about. Still, it was funny.

He told us good night and he said he would be heading home after cleaning up our table. As we were walking out the door, we heard him open up the window. He picked up all the dishes on our table using all four corners of the table cover.

And Crash

He threw the whole damn mess out the window and went home for the night. I still remember the sound of that breaking glass..