Fayetteville, North Carolina

Now that I started this blog I have been having moments where I get a flood of memories that likely will make for good story fodder.  This weekend, my memories were triggered as I caught up with an old friend.  I shall refer to him as Jefe.

Jefe and I went to medical school together.  We have stayed in touch and thankfully our paths cross somewhat frequently.  Such was the case this weekend when we were able to share a few beers with another friend and reminisce.

Jefe and I did some medical student rotations together.  One fine institution we had the pleasure of rotating through was Fort Bragg Army Medical Center located in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  Now you may be asking yourself why you have not heard of Fayetteville and that may be because you do not often frequent strip clubs or pawn shops which comprise about 80% of the local business.

There are not too many places to go for entertainment in Fayetteville, but Jefe and I managed to find a couple of the local watering holes.  In one such establishment they had a pool table in the back room.  We may have been slightly inebriated when we decided it was a good idea to take the 2x4 being used to prop open the back door to use as a pool cue, but it certainly seemed like a good idea at the time.

About half way through our game a local puts his quarters down on the table to claim next game.  I proceed to beat Jefe (he may have a different recollection).  The local racks the balls and I proceed to break when he cries foul.  See, he did not appreciate that I was still using a 2x4.  We were quick to point out that we 'owned' the table.  Anyhow, I made the mistake of beating him with the 2x4 (I think he decided to use a true cue) and we were quickly encouraged to leave the bar by the management.

FAYETTEVILLE BONUS STORIES

Two favorite memories of Fayetteville.

1) The car we kept seeing around town that had big white lettering in back window saying "Unforgiven: The Streets of Fayetteville"
2) The dude at the hospital that absolutely loved Antonio Banderas (he was in a couple of movies in theaters at the time).  He said in a latin accent "Antonio Banderas, he's so hot" constantly and thus Jefe and I did as well.

ANOTHER JEFE STORY

As we were driving along the Chesapeake, literally in the middle of nowhere, we had but a couple of radio stations to listen to in the car.  All of a sudden we see a huge radio tower adjacent to a small single story home.  We decide to turn around and go to this house.  We end up sitting with the local disc jockey, had a brief on air conversation, and were able to dedicate a song to our wives.  Of course, they never heard the dedication as they were hundreds of miles away.