WOODY

I take photographs from the internet and then write short stories about them!
By Paul Pakler (Actor, Writer)

(Photograph from ????)

        Friday is payday.  The White Horse cashes your check - no waiting!: six bits on the dollar, and you get a free beer.

        Some workers drink their wages away.  Other workers have some sense and go home with some cents.

 

        Saturday, the workers who can't work don't.  Too old, too sick, too dumb, or too smart - they go to The White Horse.  You get a free corned beef sandwich.

 

        And that's how it goes.

 

        One time, there was this guy comes in.  Dressed like a longshoreman but with a guitar.  He orders a beer and a sandwich.  Ernie, the bartender, snorts and says it's on-the-house if the guy plays us a good song.

 

        The guy grins and thinks for a second.  He plays "Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy," and we laugh and laugh.

 

        The guy tells us about this time when he was riding the rails, and he had a dog named Petey.  And one time, this railroad bull started hassling him and Petey, and Petey bit the bull's ass!  I never seen Stan laugh that hard in my life.

 

        The guy asks us if there's any songs we want to hear.  Everybody shouts out a song, and, one after another, the guy plays them all.  Stan named about a dozen songs, and the guy played them all.

        Ernie says, "You drink for free, friend," and the guy says, "Well, all these fellers are singin' with me, so can my band drink for free?"  And that's how we all got free drinks on that Saturday.

 

        As it was getting dark, the guy says he has to keep movin' along.  Everyone stood up to shake his hand.  And, with a big grin, he shook everybody's hand.  Stan and George and Frank and Lou and Ernie and me.

        I hope he'll come back.

 

PAUL PAKLER is an actor and writer living in New York City.
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